“... how should we think, plan, build,
in a world which is
daily becoming more tattered?”
in a world which is
daily becoming more tattered?”
[coop himmelb[l]au, 1989]
i enjoy wandering through speculative future cities. so let's see where my adventures have taken me.
in 1929, le corbusier proposed ‘a contemporary city of three million inhabitants’. instead of spreading the population across the urban area, le corbusier concentrated the population by housing inhabitants into high-rise apartments [an idea that, when applied to modern cities, largely failed socially - think public housing]. in the 1930s, he reformulated and expanded his ideas on urbanism, publishing them in the radiant city in 1935.
in the 1960s and 70s, futurist cities were considered. in a combination of technological belief, architectural extremity, love of pop-inspired culture and vision of a technocratic future and desire for social change, archigram dominated the architectural avant-garde during these decades. two futurist proposals developed by archigram that stand out for me are ron herron’s walking city [1964] and peter cook’s plug-in-city [1964], both of which i explored in a history + theory paper at uni.
developed from a perceived future ruined in the aftermath of a nuclear war, walking city consisted of independent, yet parasitic, pods that could plug-in to replenish resources. intelligent buildings that were in the form of giant, self-contained living pods that could roam the cities constituted the project.
plug-in-city proposed a mega-structure with no ‘buildings’; rather, a framework into which dwellings could be slotted was considered. people were processed as raw material as the machine had taken over.
more recent future city proposals have been considered in response to unsustainable population growth and a drastic shortage of resources required to sustain this unprecedented growth. in 2000, i was introduced metacity/datatown by a friend, which was an experimental theory-based exhibition by mvrdv in 1999. [in 2007, i used the project as a catalyst for a speculative design project, titled DATAskin.]
more recent future city proposals have been considered in response to unsustainable population growth and a drastic shortage of resources required to sustain this unprecedented growth. in 2000, i was introduced metacity/datatown by a friend, which was an experimental theory-based exhibition by mvrdv in 1999. [in 2007, i used the project as a catalyst for a speculative design project, titled DATAskin.]
the exhibition proposed a speculative future for the netherlands and developed two aligned proposals. metacity explored the endgame of the current trend toward urban expansion, while the datatown installation presented the results of a thought-experiment, with the goal of designing a self-sufficient settlement that balances the relatively high population density of the netherlands, with the food, power and waste disposal needs of the populace.
i wonder what would happen, though, if we stepped back for a moment and slowed the future down. what would the city look like if we were to base our built environment within the context of the slow movement? i explored this notion in a design project at uni, and the ideas have been germinating in my mind since. we must design for the future with sustainability in mind. a building that gives back to its environment is a subject that people have debated for many years. enter the notion of urban ecology. design buildings as a nutrient that feeds the city.
i wonder what would happen, though, if we stepped back for a moment and slowed the future down. what would the city look like if we were to base our built environment within the context of the slow movement? i explored this notion in a design project at uni, and the ideas have been germinating in my mind since. we must design for the future with sustainability in mind. a building that gives back to its environment is a subject that people have debated for many years. enter the notion of urban ecology. design buildings as a nutrient that feeds the city.
[montage by author]
as part of an ongoing commitment to socially and environmentally responsive cities, there needs to be extensive, evolving conversations that explore the complex interrelationships between ‘natural’ and social contexts within the city, while sustaining the natural and urban environments in which we dwell.
a city environment [urban ecology] is constructed of a series of four systems, or primary nutrients: political, environmental, social and cultural. it is the layering and integration of these systems that forms the contemporary city. essentially, it is the political system that informs the environment, culture and social. therefore we must design so that aims will change and evolve, accordingly, over time.
nutrients improve place; they create a stronger, healthier environment through knowledge and information. additionally, these nutrients are supported by six secondary nutrients: education, performance, diversity, layers, sensing architecture, and experiencing the everyday.
we should design buildings that will feed the city as a nutrient, by creating a gathering point that promotes diversity and encourages social interaction and discourse. we should design buildings that seek to sustain the natural environment in which we dwell, and inject transforming and powerful architectural gestures into the urban environment, to act as a medium for discourse and social interaction.
a city environment [urban ecology] is constructed of a series of four systems, or primary nutrients: political, environmental, social and cultural. it is the layering and integration of these systems that forms the contemporary city. essentially, it is the political system that informs the environment, culture and social. therefore we must design so that aims will change and evolve, accordingly, over time.
nutrients improve place; they create a stronger, healthier environment through knowledge and information. additionally, these nutrients are supported by six secondary nutrients: education, performance, diversity, layers, sensing architecture, and experiencing the everyday.
[montage by author]
architecture that openly engages and promotes a self-sustaining, on-site ecology through practical environmental methods is essential. the integration of contemporary technological knowledge, societal dynamics and values inherent to a city will reinforce a building’s theoretical grounding.
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