05/27: Ruins

A few articles this week took note of the struggles to get potential host cities to commit to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The investment in infrastructure and event facilities often fall into disuse and disrepair soon after the games end. I visited Montreal a few years back and enjoyed the site of Buckminster Fuller’s dome surrounded by a foot of snow, like an idyllic post-apocalyptic EPCOT Center. These scenes are sometimes (crudely but accurately) called ruins porn, reflected a fascination with remembrances of lives past or with what might have been. Like the pyramidal hotel in Pyongyang, I saw a similarly abandoned structure this time last year in Oran, Algeria. It was eerie and captivating, and if I felt less wary of local police I would have tried to find a way up to the building itself. It reminded me a bit of Torre David in Caracas, before any squatters made it their home.