In the 21st century, economic and architectural Tower of Babel-aspirations have taken on new forms by necessity. Even the higher authority of construction with its punishing of builders could perhaps be found today in the global financial system rather than in the celestial realm. Construction and crisis have mutual influence on one another, and not only at the headspring of the bank crisis in the US. Even – and perhaps especially – in the European Mediterranean region, too many buildings were constructed without secured financing. Surrounded by water on all sides, an island nation such as Cyprus is peripherally located, both economically and in terms of transport. The global economic market, however, primarily trades the immaterial and therefore knows no periphery. When Cypriotic banks collapse due to excessive construction elsewhere, there s no capital left in all of Cyprus for the temple of culture: The Cyprus Cultural Centre, a concert venue and opera house in Nicosia, has been planned since 2005, but won‘t be built any time soon. The placard with the building design is already yellowed, but it will have to conceal the wasteland behind it for a few more years.