Thursday, January 1, 2015

"Disorienting Layout at [European Parliament] Makes Politicians Late, Near Tears; Floor 5½"

WSJ:
“I was about to start crying, because you have a hundred appointments,” says Mr. De Masi, recalling how he had to call his assistants and describe the color of the walls and shape of the corridors in the hope that they could figure out where he was.

“It was like I was five and got lost at the swimming pool,” says the 34-year-old, admitting that he still isn’t sure whether his Strasbourg office is on the third or the fifth floor.

Conceived by French architecture firm Architecture-Studio and completed in 1999, the building features overlaying hanging bridges and two spiral staircases wrapped into each other.

The disorienting effect probably wasn’t an accident.