My Struggle As An Architect

Okay, so once again you're thinking, "Man, what kind of crime did those poor bastards behind bars DO that they've gotta keep them so securely away from us decent folk?"  Probably you're hiding the valuables under the mattress at this very moment, right?

But no!  It's not merely to keep them locked up like a whole bunch of Counts of Monte Cristo (plural), like Colonel Dreyfuss, the traitor (oops!  sorry!  our bad!  never mind! deso-fuckin'-lee!), it's also about keeping the riff-raff out!  But surely you knew that?  Surely you already knew that Architects are mainly visionaries, to the wee tiny degree that they're visionaries at all, of social control.

Because this charming new prison site is set sternly at the very gateway of Chateau Rouge, and as any Parisian (most of whom would never go anywhere near there) could tell you, that basically means "Little Africa."  It's the greatest ethnic concentration in all of France.  It's the first step, fresh off the boat, into Paris, the city where most of the African music in the world gets recorded, and where African hair gets plaited, and where Best Africa sells absurdly large plates of absurdly fragant and absurdly tasty food for five euros and where everybody meets up at L'Omadis, and where there are waxcloth tailoring joints and African bookstores and herbshops and couscous et tangine restaurants where the Senegalese neighbors simply step behind the bar and pour themselves a glass of water and . . . well, here, 

http://vibesdafrique.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=4&action=display&thread=1315

here's a little list of African record stores in Paris, and after halfway down, it's all within a rock-throw of this particular brand new architectural wonder penal institution.

But see, that's the other reason for the bars.  What do we learn about our pal, The Architect?  

Gee, let's get his name, and his phone number, and we'll call him up and let him represent himself.  We'll let him explain those prison bars, and the Correctional Institution Aesthetic.  We'll let him discuss what he's learned from his struggle — "Mein Kampf" is how that translates into German — at The Drancy School of Architecture.