simulation, (n.)​:

1. a situation in which a particular set of conditions is created artificially in order to study or experience something that could exist in reality

2. the act of pretending that something is real when it is not

ideal, (n.):

1. an idea or standard that seems perfect, and worth trying to achieve or obtain

Perhaps the box and the screen are our future. After all, the recently completed developments on Friedrichstrasse, that major commercial artery crossing Unter den Linden, look frighteningly similar to their former computer simulations, with one major difference: what appeared airy, sometimes even elegant, and generously spacious in the simulations now looks oppressively monumental, massive, and forbidding, especially when experienced under the leaden Berlin skies in midwinter. Call it the revenge of the real.

“We are creating the 7th phase of Friedrichstrasse by implementing a new ideal model. It consists of an implemented structure that encourages natural slowness. The street is no longer just a path to take you somewhere; it becomes a space to be, to pause, to stay.”