The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

Part II: Filtering Tactics
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Steve Pile
ness. Perhaps, then, “the essence of the scheme” says something about the
essence of the secret service. Of course, monuments (even light ones) are associated
with power. Certainly, for Lefebvre, the monument is one technique
through which space is produced by power relations. 22 For him,
monuments not only materialize power relations into space, but they also
make that space mean something. In this way, those with power attempt to
both localize and dramatize the meaning of space, partly by giving it an
identity (perhaps in opposition to anarchy).
From this perspective, lightness and monumentality say something
significant about the spatiality of power relations. We can infer that
the power relations embodied at Vauxhall Cross are simultaneously “solid”
and “void,” both monumental and light. Thus, bland descriptions of the
building, strangely, become sinister: “Superficially . . . the image of the
building is one of strength: a portal guarding the way across the bridge. It
provides an anchor, a point of identity in the midst of visual anarchy.” 23 Architectural
space is (hardly) a “superficial” representation of the strength
and authority of both MI6 and secrecy in British society, yet the character
and significance of this secrecy are quite unknown; this secret security seems
to be very fragile, requiring a guard(ship). MI6 functions, almost, like a
social unconscious: secretly making connections that cannot be explicitly
examined, erupting into public life in unexpected ways—perhaps even
organizing a “dirty tricks” campaign against Harold Wilson. Or, maybe,
MI6 performs the role of a social superego, constantly vigilant of transgression
against the state of affairs, a moral watchdog with deadly teeth. Either
way, the building acts as a point of identity within anarchy. But it is designed
on principles which suggest that identity is something that has to be
constantly achieved in the face of oppositional tensions: between open and
closed, between solid and void, between uncovered and covered-up, between
life and death. If Vauxhall Cross conveys a sense of place, then this
sense could be that this most visible of monuments renders space unknown,
or it could be that we do not know what happens behind closed doors . . . or
that we should be worried by the unknown effects of fixing identity through
strength and authority.
We are still no nearer understanding the central paradox of secrecy/visibility
embodied in the building. On the one hand, is unlikely to
be a surprise to the world of spies that MI6 exists and therefore is hardly a
threat to national security that this unknown organization should house itself
in a spectacular monument (to the cold war?); on the other hand, inconsistencies
still hang over the building, and I would like to finish with
one more. When Farrell’s designs for the building were originally valued,
the cost was put at around £54 million. After discussions with the PSA, the