The new architectures of non-place consist of spatial flows, movement and transitional zones. Six glass towers mark the six million victims of the holocaust, a real urban place marker with a powerful identity. In contrast, the airport is the archetypal non-place, a transient nodal space on the global network. Outside, along the freeway, places become the readings of non-places and abstract direction signs. Los Angeles airport is completely surrounded by car parking, access roads and subways.
Spaces spill over from mall to mall, the large extensive spaces of supermodernity.
Global chains of 'marts' and hypermarkets are the places where everybody recognises and only buys the corporate brand logos. Perhaps the nearest that Los Angeles gets to a place is Malibu, an actual street where people hang out. It has a certain urban identity including pedestrian areas and places formed by the cultural identity of the people who use it, a real place of dropouts, drugs and drinkers. Once inside this exclusive world, place is defined by water and travertine marble, imported all the way from Classical antiquity, framing the distant views of Los Angeles. All round the tinted glass facades of the buildings are like faces with frosted surfaces.