ABSTRACT
Elysium, the first stereotype I identify in the iconic architecture industry, captures those urban architectural visions soaked in fake digital greenery depicting a deathly paradise, like the Elysian Fields in Greek mythology. Its exemplars are MVRDV’s Gwanggyo Green Power Centre, Wangjing SOHO in Beijing by Zaha Hadid Architects, Vincent Callebaut’s Farmscraper master plan for Shenzhen and Bjarke Ingels Group’s 8 House in Ørestad, Copenhagen. Elysium is ultimately a form of historical sublimation. It re-enacts a reality sponsored by modern architecture that never happened: there never was an idyllic city of pristine green hills, a utopian afterlife promised by capitalism.
