The text "In the burrow of the Third Man, narratives and the problem of the functional habitation" is a comparative study of two projects. A film by Carol Reed on "The Third Man" and the novel of Franz Kafka "The Βurrow". In the first work the story unfolds in a post dismembered and ruined Vienna and ending in the sewers, which are the perfect backdrop for the entrapment of the main character. In the second work, Kafka, influenced by Nietzsche and creates a space closed, hard and nightmarish composed of arcades, galleries, walkways, a real maze. In this space, an indeterminate creature moves, with many contrasting aspects which fragment its identity and lead it to deadlock.
Then the individual parts of the burrow decoded and analyzed :
The ideological framework within the project is born.
The burrow - the tendency of the time to integrate the architecture into the idea of functionality (Functionalism).
The creator - owner. The selfpsychοanalysi and the criticism of his work.
The structure of the complex shelter, which can be compared to the unconscious, which functions as a "rental" of repressed desires and dreams.
The entrance to the burrow which is designed to mislead and torment the attacker, but in the same time the basic manufacturing fault of the burrow.
The passage, which undermines the sense of security
Surveillance - alert
The malfunction, which could be identified with the pathogenesis of everyday life
The disturbance of the house - personality disorder
The feelings of the creature in relation to the burrow (guilt and anxiety)
The body enclosure – the body burrow
Finally, the ending that leads the creature to a deadlock - the kafkaesque impasse - which Carol Reed knows and accepts.