Story of the Tower of Babel

Adapted Metaphor for design synthesis...

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech… And they said, Go to, let us build us… a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad… And the Lord came down to see… And the Lord said, “Behold, the people [are] one, and they have all one language; and this they [have begun] now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

-Genesis 11:1-6

If the story were reversed, could peoples of many languages come together in the founding of a shared space?

The Tower of Babel or Bentham’s Panopticon demonstrate possibility for power over within architecture. Altering the objective of each structure (the tower away from heaven, and the Panopticon outwards) ultimately changes the nature of its potential power structure – it potential comes from its association with its surroundings.