ABSTRACT
Despite the recent interest in New Babylon within art and architectural discourse, one important aspect of the Constant's work and thinking remains almost entirely unacknowledged by historians. On the one hand, Constant's attraction to Roma and subsequent pursuit of them in New Babylon can largely be understood as a 'primitivist' reflex or desire. A 1966 interview published in the Dutch newspaper Haagse Post, ten years after Constant began working on New Babylon, confirms the central role this quote played within the project. From about 1960-66 Constant worked on a major book project. As the source for what would later become the motto of New Babylon, Rost's article clearly struck a chord with Constant, who was, if perhaps in less severe ways than Nico Rost and Ionel Rotaru, also scarred by the war and its aftermath.
