Ilvo An article by Diamanti, La Repubblica, January 23, 2009
From Caldogno - where I live and, occasionally, live - there will be 5 to Vicenza or 6 kilometers. And 9 or 10 roundabouts. In familiar language: round. Their number, however, varies. Depending on the chosen route. Over time, the last year they were raised at least 2. Or maybe three, I'm not sure.
E 'also varies their shape, their size. In some cases, reduced to small circular objects, plastic or concrete. Sometimes a circle drawn with the paint on the asphalt. Or pads are almost imperceptible. Much less obvious than a bump. So much so that we can pass on its wheels without the need to slow down. But the discussions are usually large and showy. Several meters in diameter. And you can not reach out with the wheels, because the edges of the perimeter are well raised above the road surface. In some
cases, finally, the roundabouts are artifacts of large and sometimes very large, monumental and picturesque appearance. Inside, in fact, there are lawns, gardens, tropical trees. Sculptures bold. Not missing, in some cases, the sponsor.
Roundabouts change appearance over time. Evolve like living organisms. When born are sketchy, a white sign hand-drawn sketch or a sort of puff of rigid plastic, anchored to the bottom of the road. Then they grow, they grow, take shape "round" and aestheticized. Roundabouts have been raised for reasonable reasons. Thin and regular traffic. Assign direct responsibility to drivers not to end up imprisoned themselves from the constraints imposed by the traffic lights that do not "see" patterns of movements in the streets that intersect. So certain times and certain times you find yourself stuck from red to await the passage of cars from other roads perpetually empty. As Lieutenant Dogo, in everlasting expectation of the Tartars, an attack that will never happen. While, at other times and other times, the arbitrary power traffic lights produce gridlock Bible.
E ', therefore, legitimate and understandable view that inspired the era of round. And the results meet expectations. In some cases. When the roundabout is, indeed, the traffic flow much more quickly traffic light in its place has arisen. The same thing happens - sometimes - at the crossroads with no traffic lights. Who proceeds from the streets where children are forced to take long pauses, waiting for a break in traffic on the highway.
The round : it can be useful. Can. Sometimes. Not always. Not anywhere. For some time however and wherever you are playing non-stop. No limits. It stands a few hundred yards each, and points in the most unexpected places. Round in the French, they call them, evoking an example "à la page". Improperly, because so many roundabouts in France so I've never seen. Nowhere, in any city in any department. In Italy, however, have proliferated everywhere. And they continue to reproduce. Autonomous bodies, out of control and every rule. Reflect, if we look similarities, the development of the urban phenomenon and real estate over the past fifteen to twenty years. He changed the landscape before our eyes in times such as these quickly and so deeply that there are not even notice. Or rather, before feeling the impact it had already become "common sense". A reality taken for granted. Of which it is useless to complain, though, of course, makes them uncomfortable. A little 'as the weather. The heat is always too hot or cold weather still too cold.
Thus, despite the crisis, have arisen and continue to rise to new clusters Estate anonymous, as their names: Northeast Village, District Miramonti, Résidence Marguerite ... Not to mention the handicraft and industrial areas. This phenomenon has been extended to whatever the market demands and social pressure. As the demographic stagnation for decades and in recent years, the economy is not running too well. Roundabouts "follow" the same dynamic. Indeed, the announcement and "anticipate." When you meet a roundabout, apparently without meaning, which proceeds along a straight road without intersections in urban void there is a sign that something is going to happen. E 'likely - indeed: of course - that will be built around a new early district, a new residential area.
Roundabouts, like the new intrusions real estate, changing the landscape. Redraw the geography and maps of daily circulation. For this re-orientation but at the same time dis-oriented. Change not only the roads, but the very way of dealing with and look at the area. Months ago, after a brief absence (two weeks), just outside Caldogno I've met (I met with) a new roundabout, finally over, after months of work that slow traffic (up to that point, however, the completely normal). After having embarked, I found elsewhere. In the middle of fields. But I stopped right away - just ahead - in front a fence. Beyond, and fallow land - for now - empty. On which, however, will rise soon - let us say - something. The same is true elsewhere. I think Tavullia. I pass by every week to go to Urbino. And I lose myself, sometimes taking the wrong exit of a double roundabout - a kind of roller coaster - up the hill, before entering the country. But it is home to Valentino Rossi, a land of experienced pilots. While I - many think - have a "blocked". Although car travel at least 50 thousand miles per year. But I admit it: I am a "geek." "I do not fit" the aesthetics of the new time, property age, and who drowned in a sea of \u200b\u200bconcrete. I do not orient in the midst of neighborhoods Miramonti Margaret and villages.
And I get lost in the dark shores, dotted with warehouses (often abandoned), street crossings from crossing via Craft Industry and the course of mechanics. Nor me suitable for this round of iperfetazione. Unreasonable for the quantity, quality and location. However, few objects are able to depict the social mechanics of the round just as effectively. Where pedestrians have no right to citizenship. Where cyclists are allowed to move at their own risk and peril. Because the rule of roundabouts is that elapses before one enters first. However, often before they pass the second and the third. Moreover, it is not always easy figure out who came first. It, however, quickly turns out that the roundabout is like life: you have to get brave and go into the vortex. Take risks. Scoured and pads, if necessary.
the roundabout. The roundabout. hard to find a better metaphor to represent a company that assists, without reacting to the disappearance of "his" territory, and together, relationships between people. Also because the spaces are disappearing to talk and even walk. So to communicate using phones. Of course, without hands-free headsets and more. One hand on wheel and in the other laptop. With contempt of danger. For themselves and, above all, others. A society where the rules are interpreted at will, to their advantage. Where people if they are ever alone or in small groups of family and friends, enclosed in niches, such as automobiles, which distance them from others and make them more aggressive. (I'm a monster when I drive).
liquid the company is not mentioned by Bauman. This is the "round company." Or maybe: the roundabout.
(photos by Olivo Barbieri, site-specific, Monza 2008)
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