The good people of Nagold (in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany) had turned the centre of their benign town into a vast, empty expense, interspersed with attractions like a celtic gravesite, a playground, some nondescript public art and colorful cabins of undetectable purpose.

There was such a post-post-modern vagueness about the whole place. People hadn’t taken to it yet, they just didn’t know how to use it, and quite a few of them seemed just as befuddled by some of its features as we were.

You weren’t pleased. You said: “This is more like your kind of place”, and I laughed, because you were so right. In a way, this kind of nonsense makes me happy. I love it when urban planning is so obviously clueless. I love imagining the speeches at the opening ceremonies for places like this.

It will change over time. Ten to twenty years from now people will know exactly what to make of it. But what should it be called right now? You might think “Limbo” would be a good name, but somehow I disagree. Because there is room for improvement everywhere, I would like to see this poor cabin called “The Improvement Room”, in a pars pro toto fashion.