“In harmony with its residential location,” we read in a paper called “Radio Relay and Other Special Buildings,” originally published in the Spring 1950 issue of Bell Telephone Magazine, “this building serves nevertheless as a voice-frequency repeater and coaxial main station.” An empty suburban house, inhabited only by machines and spectral voices.
(Earlier on BLDGBLOG: Transformer Houses.)
This reminds me of the disguised electrical transformer stations in Toronto:
https://weburbanist.com/2012/02/05/power-houses-toronto-hydros-camouflaged-substations/
Yes, some of those are featured in the link at the bottom of the post. Very cool.
But which ones are Galactic Way Stations as per Clifford Simak’s novel?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_Station_(novel)
this ties into the Lebbeus Woods’ city you described here (and elsewhere) https://bldgblog.com/2020/01/instrumental-revelation-and-the-architecture-of-abandoned-physics-experiments/
But while all inhabitants are in on the experiment(s) and measurements, these disguised control stations are unknown even to them–because what the townsfolk don’t know is that they too are being tested…
Yes—what the townsfolk don’t know is that their everyday lives are also part of the experiment…
You’ll have seen it by now, but:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/paris-lockdown-leaves-streets-stuck-1942-abandoned-film-set
“Residents confined to their homes in a corner of northern Paris have been plunged back to one of the darkest moments of the city’s past.
Two streets – Rue Berthe and Rue Androuet – in Montmartre in the shadow of the Sacré-Coeur basilica have been left in a timewarp of the Nazi occupation after they were returned to 1942 for a film set.”
That’s the next level of simulation: a period film set during a real pandemic. if it’s a monitoring device, right about now it’s monitoring silence.
But it’s also interesting for future archaeologists: if all humans disappeared now, what would they make of that corner of the city? A monument? A strange Western version of a cargo cult? A 1:1 scale reconstruction, perhaps abandoned when it was just getting started?
Federico, thanks for this—sorry for the late reply. The idea of a permanent abandoned film set being absorbed into everyday life—let alone one depicting occupied France—has interesting ideological implications all over it.
Hope you’re staying safe and sane in lockdown!