Restoring the Collective Rights to the City Through Social Agency

[restoring

the

collective

rights

to

the

city

through

This Final Project is presented to The Faculty of the School of Architecture by Rodney Alan Bell In partial fulďŹ llment of the requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Architecture Southern Polytechnic State University Marietta, Georgia

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[1]

social

agency]

Bachelor of Architecture Thesis 2011 Department of Architecture, School of ACC Southern Polytechnic State University

Request for Approval of Thesis Project Book

Student’s Full Name:

Student Signature

Thesis Title:

Date

Abstract: This investigation seeks to problematize the relationship between the contemporary subject and his or her physical, social, and architectural environment. As the globally homogenized spaces of flow and consumption proliferate throughout the world, spatial meaning and use is increasingly imposed upon the subject, eliminating any social agency outside of the armatures of neoliberalization. Utilizing the airport program—arguably the most blatant spatial manifestation of these issues—I will investigate and test architectural solutions and responses that subvert and provide moments of dislocation in which the aforementioned subject is critically engaged with his or her environment. By instilling subjective agency outside of external hegemonic control, architecture presents the potential of restoring the collective rights to the city which have been eroded throughout modern history. The investigation is structured as such: (1) understanding perception and action as related to the subject in space, (2) understanding how this subjective production of space has been problematized by the evolution of colonialism, industrialization, capitalism, and neo-liberalism, (3) investigating new and more radical ways of seeing and using space, (4) developing a design methodology that supports these concepts, (5) testing this methodology both empirically and against case studies, (6) examining the site context and its many ambiguous layers, (7) testing these concepts in response to site conditions, (8) refining the results into a coherent architectural argument and solution to the issues raised. It is the hope that a questioning of current architectural development and practice will yield emergent ways of conceiving architecture and urbanism that are more dynamically responsive to contemporary issues.

Approved:

movement + perception

Primary Advisor Signature

First and Last Name

Thesis Co-Coordinator Signature

Professor Anthony Rizzuto , Ph.D. First and Last Name

Secondary Advisor Signature

First and Last Name

Thesis Co- Coordinator Signature

Professor Ermal Shpuza, Ph.D. First and Last Name

External Advisor Signature [Optional]

First and Last Name

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[2]

I would like to dedicate this investigation and subsequent work to my grandmother, ‘D’, and to my father, Andrew Bell. Their unwavering support provided inspiration and motivation throughout my education at Southern Polytechnic State University.

movement + perception [acknowledgements]

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[3]

I would like to thank my advisors, Manole Voroneanu and Ermal Shpuza for constantly challenging the way I design and conceive architecture. Finally, I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to study under Hazem Ziada, an unmatched educator within the profession. Without his constant criticality, open-ended sense of possibility, and dedication to his students, my architectural convictions would have never reached their full potential.

[table

of

contents] Chapter 1

Theoretical Framework

5-10 [T H E S I S C O N C E P T ]

Rethinking Perception and Action Acquiring Meaning Through Social Interaction Societal Implications Problematizing Interaction within the Spaces of Consumption The Spatiality of High Capitalism Altering How We See and Use Space Action and Possibility as an Architectural Event

Chapter 2

Developing a Design Methodology Radical Modularity vs. Hegemonic Arterial Transgressing Consumptive Functionalism Designing for Possibility Trialectics of Local

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Global and Local Interface

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[intersubjectivity]

bell

[4]

12 12 13 13

Social Context Examined

19-26

The Barrios of Bogota Emergent Cities A Case for Transgression

Program Synopsis

32-37

Chapter 7

Initial Responses

38-49

Scheme One Scheme Two Scheme Three

Chapter 8

20 20 21 21 22 22 22 23 26

27-30 28 29 30

ReďŹ nement Planimetric Development Section Development Component Axon Renderings

14-18 14 15 16 16 17 18 18

Case Study: Transient Spatialities

Chapter 6

11-13

Syntax Analysis Airport Program Study Natural Movement Dynamic Irregularity Spatial Analysis Integrating into the System Returning to the Architectural Scale

Housing Analysis General Demographic Analysis Early Historical Overview World War I World War II and Beyond The Rise of Industry Immigration Cultural Mutations Existing Site Overview

Chapter 5

6 7 7 8 9 9 10

31

Chapter 9

Chapter 10 Bibliography

Interface

39 43 46

50-60 51 56 58 59

61-73

Interface Renderings/Colages

62

Section Perspective Studies

66

Conclusions

81

Final Presentation Boards

75-81 82

The underpinnings of a discussion on the relationship between a subject and his or her external condition—or, environment—will be centered on the phenomenological discourses asserted by Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the linguistic discourses of Jacques Derrida. Their findings describe a certain relationship between subject + environment and subject + subject. Once understood, these discourses will be placed in the context of architecture and elaborated in terms of their contribution to the understanding of how the contemporary subject apprehends his or her environment within the non-place. An emerging trend in these findings reveal a disjunction in the way that the subject can understand his environment physically, socially, historically, et cetera. There seems to be, since the intellectual over-rationality of the Enlightenment and economic over-rationality of the emerging global economies, an erosion of the individual’s ability to critically engage his social and physical environment. This of course, as demonstrated by Derrida, Merleau-Ponty, and other contemporary scholars such as Bernard Tschumi and Peter Eisenman, has dire political and social implications.

The structure of the argument at present will be organized as such: we begin first with a discussion of how the individual processes neurologically his relationship to his perceived environment—both social and physical—as framed by Derrida and Merleau-Ponty; next, a discussion emerges centered upon how this relationship is problematized within the contemporary non-place; finally, the political and social implications of these new structures of perception will be discussed. And in closing, the issues will be placed within an appropriately architectural context.

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

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[5]

PROBLEMATIZING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUBJECT AND ENVIRONMENT WITHIN THE NONPLACE

“although self-propelled, the locomotives path is determined within strict boundaries...the subjects freedom of movement is restricted by the instrumentalized image of the city propogated under the reign of capital.”

[theoretical framework] c h a p t e r

1

[rethinking perception + To begin to understand this subject/environment relationship that Merleau-Ponty and Derrida describe within their discourse, action] perhaps one should begin with the notions that they oppose.

Within philosophical discourses, an opposition has emerged predominantly within the empiricists that frame the world as a series of objects that, at times, interact with each other.

The individual, or subject, is merely understood as an object among objects. Therefore, we see a distinct opposition of subject/object whereby interaction between the two is purely reactionary. Neurological discourse operates predominantly within this understanding whereby the senses are reactionary. Examples of this can be understood diagrammatically as: seeing a color/registering that color within the brain/and apprehending the color; or, hearing the voice/apprehending its meaning/and formulating an opinion or response to said meaning. This structure of perception, however does not account for the actual way by which the individual perceives his environment—through social or physical interaction. Merleau-Ponty argues that the relationship of subject/ environment is more topological than oppositional. His understanding places the subject, or individual, within the milieu of objects constantly negotiating his relationship to them, rather than only reacting to them. He understands the body as “part of the perceived world” (171). Within his relationship, the interaction becomes fluid and inherently topological whereby the senses synthesize the subject into his or her environment. He asserts, further, that the “body generates space through action” indicating a critical relationship to the environment [figure 1]. Merleau-Ponty refutes reactionary discourses on movement and action through the study of perceptive anomalies observed in neurological study.

For example, the commonly observed condition of anasognosio, whereby a subject refuses to accept the loss of an extremity indicates that the subject negotiates a body schema that extends into his or her environment and operates perceptually regardless of its physical condition. Furthermore, through the study of concrete movement (“the body projecting towards an object”) and abstract movement (movement initiated out of context), he has demonstrated that movement and perception are not necessarily reactionary. Perhaps a more abstracted explanation can be perception through movement. Merleau-Ponty observed subjects who could easily perform concrete movements such as reaching out to grab a pen but when asked to perform abstract movements such as touching one’s own nose, the subjects performed with great difficulty. [figure 2]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[6]

This exposes, he asserts, synthetic nature of perception and action such that if we merely contemplated an action and then performed it as such, the subjects would not demonstrate such difficulty in performing actions out of context. Furthermore, this perceptual field, a synthesis of our perceptive sensibility, is centered upon the body. It is the body that Merleau-Ponty invests much importance in that it anchors the subject in his environment rather than placing it in opposition to it (and we should remember that the term environment implies social and physical relationships). Therefore, physically, when we see a distant landmark that appears to be at a height of mere inches, [figure 2] we do not have to contemplate its distance and perform a mental trigonomic calculation of its actual height. We synthetically comprehend perspective and can negotiate a fairly active perception of its actual height [figure 3].

Merleau-Ponty’s formulated these ideas based upon the discourses of Bergson, Marcel, and perhaps most importantly to this discussion, Sartre, who’s ontological dimension of the body describes most efficiently the individuals social, or subject-subject relationships. Sartre describes three ontological dimensions of the body that negotiates within its environment: 1. The Lived Body-whereby the subject exists in his or her body rendering the world [figure 3] an object; 2. The Body for Others-whereby the subject grasps others as objects constituting one’s own subjectivity; and finally, Alienation-whereby the gaze of the other constitutes one’s own objectivity in relation said other. The synthesis of this understanding describes a topological relationship of subjectivity. However, for Merleau-Ponty, this describes further a topological relationship of intersubjectivity, or, an intermingling of subject/object. These discussions of perception and action basically formulate the idea of a subject synthetically integrated into his or her physical and social environment instead of being empirically opposed to it [figure 4]. Therefore, he is constantly engaging it as such and, in the process, creating space out of these perceptual conceptions. In this structural framework, however, we must understand the body as the original source of meaning, an understanding that will be scaffolded by Derrida’s discussion of language and its evolution. Furthermore, the erosion of these perceptive faculties within the non-places (of consumption) and their social and political implications will be elaborated.

perception and action

[figure 1]

[figure 4]

[acquiring mean- Jaques Derrida, within the discourses highlighted in Of Graming through so- matology, discusses how through the evolution and rationalcial interaction] ization of language in the written and spoken form, the ability to formulate and comprehend meaning and passion has been eroded, crippling, to an extent our ability to communicate which is further problematized in the technological advancements that further separate the signifier from the meaning that it signifies. Derrida identifies the voice, at the origin of language as the purest signifier of expression and passion.

Therefore, the spoken word signifies not only the meaning intended but the emotional context in which the meaning is intended as well. Furthermore, the ontological state of meaning within a word is in a constant state of becoming.

However, as societies form and advance, expanding spatially, a supplement was required to foster communication and the temporal storage of knowledge. This necessitated the formulation of written language (the aforementioned supplement). Previously within communication language created a direct relationship as such: spoken word/meaning. Early written languages of the Chinese, Arabic, and Egyptians detailed a somewhat direct connection of character/meaning. However the emergent phonetic languages of the colonizing West, eager to formulate a supplement that can be widely applicable to its expanding global markets (Derrida’s assertion) further distanced the signifier from the signified as such: written word(signifier)/phonetic sound(signifier)/word(signified)/meaning. This rationalization of the supplement had reciprocal effects on the spoken languages of Western countries whereby Derrida mentions several times in Of Grammatology the French language, and presumably others, struggle to relate the emotion of pure spoken language through the extensive use of accents; however, over time syllables and sounds begin to be left out or slurred through such that the original passion and emotion of the pure vocal is lost [figure 5]. Society is left with the monotonous and a-communicational spoken language that is the result of its amendment to the phonetic written language that marks the bulk of communication. _social implications This hyper-rationalization of language has fairly obvious metaphorical parallels to the evolution of how we perceive space during these epochal transitions. However, to continue our discussion of perception and intersubjectivity above, let us contemplate what this means to the individual’s ability to communicate meaning.

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[7]

Inter-subjective communication relies on the intricacies of bodily movement, gesture, and expressions (as posited

by Merleau-Ponty) and even further by facial expression and the expressed passion and emotion in the spoken language. Derrida asserts that ‘southern’ languages exhibit the fluid and passionate expression more closely than the rational languages of the North (which rationalized according to necessity due to climate changes—this, an assertion based on observations and conclusions drawn by Rousseau’s texts). If the ability to effectively communicate even our spoken language is eroded due to its over-rationalization, meaningful communication is even more problematized in the digital age of emails and instant messaging whereby the signifier is even more separated and convoluted. For example, Derrida, asserting the morepure language of infant children, states that babies first cry to express pain but later learn to simply voice the words “’I hurt.’” (248). One means of communication emphasizes a communication of passion and emotion while the other is purely rational and an economically simple means to express the meaning of the situation. Expressed in this problematic are emerging social issues that come with this erosion in the communicative abilities of the subject. These erosions carry inherent spatial dimensions when considering how space and time have been altered from the Industrial Revolution to today’s non-places of consumption.

Merleau-Ponty’s political philosophies no-doubt were a response to the alienation inherent in the Industrial Revolution that came with the division of labor and the social stratification of populations [figure 6]. Opposing vertical relationships of Man-Universe which designate a manunto-himself attitude, Merleau-Ponty asserted a horizontal political philosophy which asserts a Man-Society relationship whereby man is accountable to others (as the subject is intertwined in his social and physical environment) [figure 7 + 8]. Aligning with Marxist theory, he viewed the alienation of man from man as a form of social violence as it disconnected this relationship. Furthermore, he viewed revolutionary action to this hegemonial system not as disrupting the institution; he rather proposed that one should assess his situation and environment critically and in the words of Georg Luckacs, “men must interrogate objects in order to understand themselves” (111). This critical attitude combats the passivity imposed by modernity and hypermodernity whereby the individual’s environment and inter-subjective interaction are ‘dumbed-down’ in order to promote the reigning consumptive tendencies.

body as expression of meaning

[figure 5]

[figure 6]

[figure 7]

[figure 8]

_societal tions

implica- Only through the individual taking a critical and active at[continued] titude toward his physical and social environment may he or she regain that inherent interconnectivity that is eroded by the banal and purely functionally consumeristic space.

Along these same lines, Derrida claims in Of Grammatology that society has “assumed [its] final form: no longer is anything changed except by arms and cash. And since there is nothing to say to people besides give money, it is said with placards on street corners or by soldiers in their home” (233).

Inter-subjective communication within the high-capitalistic space of consumption has become highly regulated, programmed, and mediated through various means and mutations such that the subject remains a passive spectator in his environment, only interacting with it and others through the mediated means of consumption: shopping malls, Facebook, instant-messaging, et cetera. Through the careful rearticulation of space, can architecture re-negotiate the possibilities of inter-subject and environmental action such that we become active and critical within our social and physical environment? And can a public environment expand within today’s virtually de-regulated and privatized cities.

Of course, this seems a very lofty goal but groups such as the Situationists International and thinkers such as Bernard Tschumi have produced insightful discourses on the subject and should be reviewed in light of these discussions. Architecture’s ability to provide the grounds for physical and social interaction has been proven valid (as well its grounds for blocking such interaction). Avoiding behaviorism within this discourse is crucial here as it has long since been disproved that space and form can make an individual act a certain way. But it can provide the means to many possibilities and this should be exploited in restoring meaningful interaction among individuals and their environment.

Guy Debord famously stated that “all that was once directly lived has now become mere representation” (107).

Within the structure of high-consumerism, Debord’s spectacle mediates interactions and experiences as means to its own end. Daily life has become an expression of production and consumption (although within the contemporary developed nations, consumption has become the dominant). Within the discourse of the Situationists one can discern tangential arguments to those proposed

by Merleau-Ponty. Debord proposed a new critical attitude between the individual and his or her environs.

[problematizing interaction within spaces of consumption]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[8]

He and others achieved these new ways of inhabiting space through derivé(movement patterns that transcended the functional) and detournemant (subversive uses of urban space). Both of these methods operated outside of consumeristic space and use, even subversively. Within the Situationist notion of unitary urbanism is the belief in the effectiveness of “action in the environment” and “exploring and challenging” of it as a means to regain a meaningful connection. The creation of these situations and others was explicitly meant to engage passive spectators into action. The Spectacle that Debord and others oppose mediates the passive individuals’ actions and pre-determines them, to an extent such that the patterns of daily life are means to its end of accumulating capital. Only through the subversive situations did they believe the individual can expel his- or her-self from such stupefying passivity. And these views are corroborated by Derrida and Merleau-Ponty as well. Derrida, in a rare political aside to his argument of the increasing separation of signified and signifier (representer and represented, in this case) states that “political liberty is full only at the moment when the power of the representer is suspended and given to the represented” (297). What he is driving towards here is that the increasing distance between the signifier and signified, evident more and more within consumerist practice, suspends and convolutes meaning. Meaning becomes increasingly other and dislocated from the subject.

Within these non-places, meaning is always externally-referential—the airport, specifically refers to all other places but not entirely to its own surroundings or context. Furthermore, the codification and rationalization of language phonetically dissolves the inherent logic of the spoken word that is specific to place. Therefore, the non-place disconnects the individual from the present (in Derridian terms) and places him in a space of a constantly other-referentiality that is hardly discernable. This other-referentiality, in Situationists terms is that of consumption and pacifies the individual such that he remains dis-connected from his immediate environment both socially and physically.

problematizing interaction

_the spatial- Without recapitulating previous explanations of passivity, I ity of high capitalism would like to now add to those discussions in order to begin a framing of solutions. Furthermore, by high capitalism, I understand a highly-refined and hyper-rationalized form of capitalism that relegates productive capacities to an always other-ed referentiality (othered locationally, culturally, economically, et cetera). Also, high-capitalism functions to rationally refine the act of consumption to hyper-programmed movement and lifestyle patterns that are reinforced within an economic and marketing framework. And these issues manifest themselves in most cases spatially. Debord likens this restrictive framework metaphorically to a locomotive schema, stating that “although self propelled, the locomotive’s path is determined within strict boundaries, just as, for the situationists, the subject’s freedom of movement is restricted by the instrumentalized image of the city propagated under the reign of capital.” (243)

Wolf D. Prix elaborates, evoking another purely functional mode of transportation, asserting that “[i]n a beautiful submarine, one loses interest in the surroundings” (35). This concept is embodied in the image taken from an intersection near the site on Chamblee-Tucker Road and New Peachtree Road [figure 9]. The barren concrete landscape with only meager provisions for pedestrian movement and fences everywhere imply the omnipresence of the reign of capital. Signifying private property and vehicular movement—both signifiers of class position—the other-referentiality experienced by the pedestrian constantly alludes to his or her position in capitalistic space. Only the unshaded and sensually-sanitized sidewalks remain to quickly move the underclass of walkers—signifying those that cannot consume enough to contribute—through the space. Movement within capitalistic space is programmed according to its contribution to the economic framework. Such hyper-rationality of space and movement leaves little room for interpretation, play, or un-programmed action. Derrida’s assertion of ontologicalbecoming is exercised with much difficulty in such environments because of the implied movement patterns: the lack of shade requires quick movement in order to avoid stagnancy or contemplation; fences on one side imply a legal imperative to stay on the sidewalk; and cars speeding by restrict any free movement in that direction. But the implication of this signified movement does not carry an absolute meaning. As Tschumi reminds us in Architecture and Disjunction, meaning is always “socially produced” and is thus derived from use. This implies that a shift in the way we see and use space can radically alter this space.

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

The way that we move through space—primarily through vehicular movement—radically alters the way we perceive it. Tschumi states that speed “negates the notion of physical dimension” (216). The richness of experience that I felt walking the mile of Chamblee-Tucker Boulevard extended this activity nearly two hours [figure 10]. The same experience via automobile—leaving the site—lasted roughly four minutes. Because of the pre-eminence of the automobile, we are inhabiting a “fractured space, made of accidents, where figures are disintegrated, disintegrated” (Tschumi 216). What is alluded to is the nature of social and environmental interaction. Whether experiencing the homogenized movement of pedestrianality or the publicly-alienated vehicular experience, the modern subject has become disjointed from his environment through this hegemonic over-rationality of movement and privatized space. Disjointed and stupefied, the modern subject does not feel the effects of what Wold D. Prix describes as the “perils of political complacency” which can trace their lineage—in part, at least—to architecture and urban planning (14). This distancing of mind and body, Prix goes on to explain, is due to a de-emphasis of the “tangible, three-dimensional corpus of architecture” and the ensuing passivity that arises from rationalized movement (64). At the root of planning lies a “contradiction” to free and critical movement through social and physical space; Prix explains that there is a “[c]ontradiction between liveliness and planning; between chance and calculation, between error and correctness, between difference and uniformity” (71). The latter of each example represents rational logic while the former(s) represent critical movement. Thus, the very foundations of what is referred to here as high-capitalism—both an economic and social schema—provides the very contradictions to critical movement through physical and social space. _altering how we see and use space This discussion almost inherently begins with the writings of the Situationists Internationale because of the firm belief in the power of subversion—particularly of capitalistic hegemonies. They envisioned “forms of life radically beyond the capitalistic work ethic” (215). This even extended into the media through which they viewed the city—not from the detached and oppressive eye of the aerial photo but seeing, or rather, sensing, the city through movement or “spatializing actions” (246) [figure 11 + 14]. This inventive way of cognizing the city operated outside of rationale as it held itself amendable only to the senses and perceptions.

[figure 9]

_perceptual

[figure 10 ]

[b]

[ s u b v e r t i n g ] the spatiality of high capitalism “Political liberty is full only at the moment when the power of the representer is suspended and given to the represented”

bell

[9]

-Derrida, Of Grammatology

[a]

[figure 11 ]

map

of

the

site

_altering how And Tschumi speaks more abstractly about changing the way we see and use we view space as it relates us within a social milieu. Tschumi space [continuted] concedes that space has the ability of mutating “the relation-

ship between the individual and society”—presumably for better or worse. And the level of freedom, or possibility, to use Prix’s terms, rests on the way that we, as a society view space. And this radical shift can be catalyzed by the way that we, as architects, shape space. Meaning within these hyper-rationalized spaces is clearly instituted into absolutes: constant movements, consumption, and situational passivity. However, Tschumi questions this in his implementations of folies—whereby the architecture, or space, actively receives meaning from the user. The success of these folies can be debated however the discourse evoked can be construed in this argument as positive. Space and usage, in this case is “not repressively administered,” as Wolf D. Prix, describes but is actively and critically assigned, a subject unto itself in this social and physical neurological milieu (49).

_action and possibility as an architectural event [continuted]

The discourses of Guy Debord, Bernard Tschumi, and Wolf D. Prix all allude to similar notions of subjective action and an architecture that fosters it—an architecture of possibility. As Tschumi famously quotes, “there is no architecture without… action” (3). The situationists envisioned this freedom to act as denoting political dimensions (citing such examples as graffiti). The will and freedom to act has inherently political dimensions as it relinquishes the rights to space and expression to the public away from market forces. With this new freedom of movement and play, the situationists, in a MerleauPontian rhetoric, proclaim that “the city and its quarters are no longer conceived of as ‘spontaneously visible objects’ but are positied as social constructions through which derive negotiates while simultaneously fragmenting and disrupting them” (257). And this disruption evokes another sense of pleasure for the subject, “constructing new social relations” and new physical relations through movement and action.

And these revitalized social relations and the freedom to shape public space can and have been a “trigger for social and political change” and upheaval as demonstrated particularly by the events in Paris of 1968 (6). Tschumi, quoting Franz Fanon, but seemingly alluding to MerleauPonty reaffirms that the subject utilizes “action in order to become conscious of onne’s existence” (10). Action, both physical and social, exposes both physical and social relationships and creates new ones—thereby radically altering those hyper-rationalized within a capitalistic framework.

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[10]

Tschumi goes so far as describing the meeting of bodies on such “mutually exclusive terms” could even “dislocate the most conservative elements in society” (16).

This subversion unpacks its own pleasures for the subject(s).

The term subversion is very crucial and should be unpacked to ascertain its relative weight to the argument, particularly in terms of Tschumi’s notion of transgression. The subversive tendencies of this new framework of subjective action are not intended to overthrow or abolish capitalistic or conservative hegemonies (if such an effect was even possible).

Rather, it subverts, or even transgresses them. The meaning of this implies that the original system and its limits are “maintain[ed] just the same;” however, these progressive acts “negate the form society expects of it” without “destroying it” (65,78,65)[figure 12]. Providing such functionally “useless” space is radical in and of itself (86). Pleasure arrives because of the idea imbedded in uselessness; and this idea is what Wolf D. Prix terms possibility and self-determination—both obviously opposed to rational functionalism. It is innately human nature to “indulge destruction” and subversion lies at the heart of this act. In fact most forms of expression—physical, social, or artistic—involve normative destruction of the conservative. Therefore, it is subversion and transgression, of societal norms, for which architecture must provide in order for the modern subject to gain a sense of social and physical (co)awareness.

”—and that these acts are emanicpatory in that they al-_patrons repurposing fountain for low for the “[recognition of] social relationship” and the seating at martin luther king day parade_2009 “shaping [of] society through participation, [and the] contributing to changing its structure.” Although these goals are lofty, they are necessary in informing design decisions. Therefore, it is with the intentions alluded to that I plan on executing further thesis work. Utilizing these spatially abstract notions of use and possibility, it is the hopes that the airport typology at the focus of this investigation can relinquish at least part of its autonomy and functional rationality in lieu of a more socially responsible and engaging spatiality. [figure 12 ] _building foundation repurposed as _student riots_paris_1968 skate park_inman park, atlanta, ga

[figure 13 ]

And through what means can we speculate achieving such ends? Wolf D. Prix of Coop Himmelb[l]au calls for a free and open architecture that exists in the same ephemorality of the clouds—pulsating and constantly a product of their environment. He calls for a return to the “emotional act of using” and the ensuing “wildness” of such use (37)[figure 13]. This alludes to the previous discourses on the latent power of the individual to engage his or her environment and what this implies. Speaking of their own work, Prix asserts an architecture that is open to interpretation by the users, oftentimes refusing to assign spatial usage but leaving them open (Open Architecture). His justification for such ambiguity arises from the refusal of “rationalizing…needs into spatially functioned rooms” negating further this emotional act of use (115). He even goes so far to say that the users “should and must” participate in this critical activity (125). Prix explains the “awareness” gained through such activities—asserting that “the human is not a solitary creature, but instead, is intent on community”—

[ r a d i c a l l y ] seeing

and

using

s p a c e [figure 14 ]

Tschumi goes so far as describing the meeting of bodies on such “mutually exclusive terms” could even “dislocate the most conservative elements in society” (16).

[a]

[b]

_psychogeographical map of vine city_r. bell + e. gray_focus studio [fall 2010]

Accepting the above argument(s) and assertion(s) that critical movement generates inter-subjective interaction—between subject and subject, environment, history, et cetera— this investigation must now move forward into understanding how such spaces of interaction can be generated. If the proposal adheres to the notion of possibility as outlined before, we cannot simply plan out a completely structured system as a means to this end. The idea of planning for possibility seems incongruent and paradoxical at best.

GENERATING AWARENESS

SPACE THROUGH

AND COMOVEMENT

If one imagines moving through a crowd that occupies a relatively open space, a richness of experience is implied: eye contact, the brushing of shoulders, bumping into another person, avoiding this tent or that tree, moving to avoid running into a person, et cetera. It is this rich experience that I wish to extrapolate into a shift in the way through which we generate experience through movement. The simple example above delineates a critical and unmediated movement pattern. Moreover, if this experience can unpack historical, informational, and societal information outside of the highly mediated movement patterns of the contemporary consumerist spaces of high capitalism, then the experience offers the potential for a social paradigm shift.

This proposal has explored the spatiality that fosters such generative movement and use in the works and writings of Tschumi, Wolf D. Prix, and Guy Debord. But what kind of processes generates such spatialities? For example, the Coop Himmelb[l]au team utilize a Derridean notion of the blank mental space teeming with potentiality and therefore, generate quick bursts of design gestures that exploit this anti-a-priori psychological phenomena. It then requires a highly critical occupant to use and move through the spaces generated through these means. And furthermore, what kind of interfaces emerge between the dominant system and this emergently exceptional heterotopia? Should these interfaces be completely open such as Eisenman’s Jewish Memorial in Berlin or should they utilize controlled entrances such as Tschumi’s Parc de la Villete outside of Paris? Both interfacial strategies have various strengths. A completely open interface takes on a more civic presence to those that use the space; however Foucaultian heterotopias have controlled access to those that use the space and therefore there is a certain permeability that is maintained in order to delineate this heterotopic relationship.

This issue of interface will be a key facet of this proposal and should therefore be explored in order to arrive at a congruent solution.

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[11]

[d e v e l o p i n g a d e s i g n m e t h o d o l o g y] c h a p t e r

2

_radical modularity vs. In order to imagine how a system becomes latent to possibility hegemonic arterial or hegemony, let us explore the notion of modular verses hierarchical spaces. It is not very difficult to describe the differences between the spatiality of Manhattan, New York and Kennesaw, Georgia. Both systems of spatial generation yield very polarizing results by comparison. And this vastly different experience is a fundamental difference in their structure of ordering.

Suburban Kennesaw’s ordering system has several key traits that generate its peculiar spatiality[figure 15]. Firstly, it is highly hierarchical. Movement patterns, uses, and spaces are all situated about a central spine (Barrett Parkway). As one moves away from this spine, urban morphologies become less dense and less public. Furthermore, these hierarchical armatures are scaled to the movement and speed of an automobile.

And thus experience is inherently alienated. Therefore, the simple act of driving five minutes yields a widely different result than the same time of walking. As such even uses that are closely associated are often a half-mile to one mile apart.

Within this system, meaning is highly imposed through the accessibility, scale, and movement through this spatiality.

Manhattan, New York, however, is not necessarily operated on a spine system (although there are certain roads that take on more important meaning). It operates on a simple module (the Manhattan Grid) which is extrapolated out across the surface of the island[figure 16]. The extrapolation of a module inherently distributes meaning and implies at least a hint of possibility. There are multiple routes between two points and because of the scale of this module, it implies pedestrian movement which brings the occupant outside of the automotive alienation of suburbia and into the public realm—a milieu of inter-subjective stimuli. There is, within this system, a space of possibility (the un-hierarchical street grid) with points-of-interest scattered evenly throughout.

Given the above dichotomy, how does the Manhattan grid become radical and the Kennesaw spine become hegemonic. The difference lies solely in the movement patterns and the inter-subjectivity—or lack thereof— that is generated from these movement patterns. The spaces of movement in along the Kennesaw spine are pre-determined. One has very few alternatives to move from Point A to Point B. Furthermore, one will assuredly be alienated from others in her automobile taking this same route as the distance is too extended to walk

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Also, movement exists essentially from one consumptive unit—Wal-Mart, Applebees, shopping malls, et cetera— to the other. As such movement is generated and mediated within the armatures of consumption. However, movement through the Manhattan grid offers numerous possibility for movement along the crowded public streets.

Interaction—physical, social, historical, et cetera—operates on the human scale. And these public corridors of movement do not exist purely for means of consumption.

Movement is initiated and executed simply through the necessity of getting from Point A to Point B. And the people that use the streets, as evidenced by street performers, vendors, et cetera exploit this radical uselessness of the street. There exists a certain empowerment to this openness of meaning and use whereby people are, to a certain extent, able to take charge of their environment and how it is experienced and used. This, I believe, articulates how this system of modularity becomes inherently radical. _transgressing consumptive functionalism If this argument assumes a consumptive functionalist system as structures of movement that operate between consumptive units, how does the new spatiality implied here comply with the need of these functions. To be pragmatic, it is not the consumptive units that constitute the larger problem being explored here; moreover, it is the spaces of movement between these units—the rigidly hegemonic spaces the define a certain type of movement to be executed at a certain scale and speed. Therefore, if we take the consumptive units as a given—for the arguments sake—and focus on the articulation of the interstitial between them, we can begin addressing this issue of mediated movement.

The current spatiality of functions along a programmed path of movement (Barrett Parkway, ‘public’ shopping malls, strip malls, et cetera) offers little or no possibility of experience and is therefore un-generative of meaning[figure 17]. But what if this interstitial between the functions becomes a plane of possibility offering a generative experience as one moves between units of function/consumption[figure 18].

This becomes even more pertinent when this system is mapped onto an airport typology. Because airport functions and flows are a given, these relationships cannot for various pragmatic reasons be pulled apart or manipulated. We can, however, operate on the interstitial movement spaces to create an interstitial that allows for generative movement.

modularity as a generator

[figure 15 ]

[figure 16 ]

[figure 17 ]

[figure 18 ]

_transgressing con- Extrapolating a unit that is scaled to a particular experience sumptive function- to create this plane will inherently provide for a generative alism [continued] experience. The further articulation, adaptability, and mutative ability of this unit will describe further its level of intersubjective generation. As it is extrapolated and manipulated, a topography of possibility is created that allows for multi-dimensional inter-subjectivity as opposed to that single dimension of the Manhattan grid[figure 19]. And this multi-dimensionality only enriches the possibility provided for in this system. _designing for possibility

_trialectics

of

local

Assuming that the described properties above produce the potential for an inter-subjective interaction that transcends the mediation of high-consumerism, one is still left with the paradox of planning for possibility. How can one make design decisions and impose a system that allows for exceptions? Does the very idea and act of organizing a structure imply a rigid and rationalized logic? Conversely, is entropy amenable to this argument considering its infinite variability and reluctance to any notion of design—our primary duty as architects? Perhaps taking a step outside of this seemingly dead-ended argument into psychological objectivity, one may see the issue more clearly. The over-riding concern within the present dilemma presents its own meta-dilemma, if you will. Do such arguments of logic versus entropy imply a certain dialectical absolutism? If so, would not an absolutist stance negate or contradict this notion of possibility[figure 19]? Therefore, any system of making design decisions must operate outside of this dialectical scale in order to provide for a more resonant system of possibility.

The idea of designing a system that can be mutated and house exceptions to its own operation seems paradoxical at first glance. This illogicality emerges from the dialectical way in which the argument has been structured—operating on a scale of logic/entropy. However, if we introduce a trialectic that operates in opposition to both original dialectics, the notion of possibility becomes more radical. The trialectic envisioned here is that of the local[figure 20]. As designers for this new paradigm, we can design a structure (based on the extrapolated module above) that is capable of local mutations. These local mutations will, hence, alter the nature of the structure on the global level. This provides for the topography of choice that resonates local mutations to the global structure. The example that comes immediately to mind is M.C. Escher’s Print Gallery where he drew a picture, imposed a grid, manipulated the grid, and then re-transposed the picture onto the manipulated grid.

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This produced a global mutation based on the locally modular permutations. This system of design decisions provides a logical structure that subjects may act upon and alter its ontology through movement and use. Examples that come to mind of this operation are transient street markets in less developed countries where the public seizes a street (a global infra-structure) for use for a period of time mutating the operation of the system and one’s experience on a daily basis. The nature of these street markets changes from day to day[images below], generating new experiences and requiring a constantly critical attitude towards one’s environment.

Therefore the design of a globally structured system that mediates the site for functionality but allows for local variation will be based upon the modular unit. This modular unit must be scaled to inter-subjective interaction and receive permutations by its users. Through these means, a new spatiality emerges that is resistant to the single-use consumptive spaces of high-capitalism. It does not adhere to rational function because it accepts infinite possibilities of use. And this versatile unit—when extrapolated out over space— creates a topography of interaction, which provides for the generative movement required in this investigation.

[figure 19 ]

[figure 19 ]

[trialectics] d e s i g n

f o r

p o s s i b i l i t y [figure 20]

The design process begins with two sets of givens: local schemas and global schemas. These global schemas operate independently of the local interstitia; however, they interface (dynamic irregularity, discussed later). The two global structures that operate within this investigation are (1)the urban system and (2)the airport program. Neither of these schemas can or necessarily should be redesigned or manipulated within this investigation. The urban system represents a syntactically continuous topology to which the design intervention must interface and improve. The airport program, due to functional demands, is very rigid and highly efficient. Therefore, there is no need here to reinvent the wheel. Because these two global structures are syntactically rigid, it will be the interface that becomes so important in future design solutions.

The airport program was developed utilizing standard airport flow diagrams of arriving and departing passengers. This program, though highly typical, is efficient for the safe and regulated movement of passengers through the air-traffic system. Through various iterations, an efficient scheme was developed to be globally adapted to the urban system and locally adapted to the site configuration[figure(s) 21-23].

The interface of movement structures on site to the global system and local configuration is important to the extent that the design does not recreate the prevailing disurban conditions that currently plague the site. Assuming an urban system as a topography of choice, the movement structures implemented should seamlessly integrate into the global system and should furthermore improve the efficiency of this system. Therefore, space syntax analysis shall be used to (1) analyse the state of the existing urban system and (2)inform the design of site movement structures. This analysis will ensure that the stated goals are achieved on the global scale. [syntax analysis] The implementation of the above method involves a clear understanding of the given urban system such that the local structure of movement (to be locally-mutated) critically engages the global structure of the urban system that shall be its context. A review of spatial syntax theory and a subsequent spatial syntax analysis of Chamblee, Georgia will lend a structurally global understanding to the proposed site and its relationship to its context. This understanding and analysis will provide the empirical data required to accurately situate and synthesize the movement structure (discussed above) into its context such that it meaningfully and effectively integrates into the global structure.

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TESTING

THE

DESIGN

METHOD

[ a g l o b a l + a n d l o c a l i n t e r f a c e] c h a p t e r

3

_airport program study The syntax of the airport program is rather rigid due to the reasons stated above. The crux of its strict functionality revolves around two primary issues: (1) security; and (2) circulation.

Because of these two crucial factors in airport programming, the syntactical relationships for this typology are rather ‘triedand-true.’ Primarily for this reason, I have, through an iterative process, developed a working program that will be interfaced to the local structure. In this way, the airport program will be though of as a global structure to which the local mutations interface creating the primary impetus that launches our passive subject out of his or her cognitive passivity.

The primary circulation patterns to be dealt with in this programmatic study are arrival sequences and departure sequences. These systems of mass movement must occupy, in most cases, the same spaces but remain distinct for both security and pragmatic reasons. Within these two sequences are many different sub-sequences such as customs, duty-free shopping, security checkpoints, baggage claim, et cetera. Choreographing these many different paths of passenger experience can become rather tedious and any disjunctions or anamolies to these sequences can spell great illegibility for pedestrian/passenger movement.

And spatial legibility is a key factor to airport design. It is for this reason that this typology in-and-of-itself is so hyperrationalized. Furthermore, it is for this reason that the most successful airports represent intuitive spatio-programmatic planning.

[figure 24]

I synthesized arrival and departure diagrams from Brian Edwards’ The Modern Airport Terminal (2005)[figure 24], into a working airport plan. It should be emphasized that this is simply a programmatic diagram and only relates spaces.

The actual architecture will determine how this programmatic sheme interfaces to the site and the topology of choice discussed in the previous section.

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[figure 22]

[figure 21]

a i r p o r t

p r o g r a m

s t u d y

[figure 23]

_natural

movement A review of Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson’s theory of natural movement provides the basis for an understanding of the importance of this method of analysis to this thesis proposal.

Hillier and Hanson seek to find an alternative understanding of movement through urban systems. The prevailing logic is that attractors determine movement; for example, a given subject will move from one attractor to another. These attractors are local properties of an urban system and do—on a local level—affect urban movement patterns. However, Hillier and Hanson posit that global configurational qualities affect more systematically urban movement patterns. This hypothesis was tested utilizing spatial syntax analysis software to reveal numerical values of integration, connectivity, and mean depth.

The results of this analysis revealed that global configuration remains dominant over local attractor movement because it can affect but cannot be affected by movement patterns.

Therefore, it was revealed that structural configuration generates movement possibilities more systematically than the varying local conditions of movement. Hillier and Hanson described this movement generated by structural configuration as natural movement. This natural movement that operates independently of attractors (commercial venues, daily tasks, recreation) renders an urban configuration into a “probabilistic field of potential encounter and avoidance.” [figure 25] Therefore, assuming a careful integration of the local structure to be implemented on the site in a global structure allows for this topography of possibility to extend into the city rather than conform simply to the site’s boundaries.

Natural movement assumes a certain degree of continuity to any urban system that can be exploited to create free movement. However, because of neo-liberal practice in contemporary development practices, there exist certain discontinuities to many western urban configurations. These disurban qualities, described by Hillier and Hanson in Cities as Movement Economies (1996) reveal a disruption of relationships between: buildings and public space, scales of movement, and inhabitant and stranger.

They are typified on the given site for this proposal. The global qualities empirically studied here reveal anti-social behaviours and spatial vacuums[figure 26]. These discontinuities revealed through this analysis and studied by Tschumi (et al) relate back to the shaping of the neo-liberal city to better serve the needs of consumption.

Therefore, not only do isolated problems to an urban system contribute to an overall problematic; moreover, it is these global qualities that provide a basis for local issues.

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[figure 26]

_dynamic irregularities The developing goal here is not to create a pristine urban grid (a la Manhattan). Quite the contrary, irregularities have been shown to increase legibility and dispersed use in an urban system (Brettal). Citing Tversky, Alexandra Brettal describes the minds ability to “construct narratives from what would otherwise be chaos.” It can be safely assumed that chaos as an urban concept does not entirely function. The entropic levels of the given area of study reveal an evenly entropic system created by disparate urban development fragmented by immense automotive movement infrastructures. However, a system that is infused with irregularities provides for a more critical cognition of urban space. Hillier and Hanson assert that there is a static order to an urban system and an experienced structure, which represents a field of possibilities.

The subject therefore formulates order through experiencing structure. [figure(s) 25/27/28]Or put more clearly and into the context of this argument, humans move in order to cognize rather that cognizing to move (Gibson). Therefore, through movement, one synthesizes her self into a cognitive understanding of the space and formulates a mental order to the system. Brettal goes on to stress the way in which the mind cognizes space through movement. She describes the homogenization of urban space into a rhythm of qualities (solids and voids, light and dark, et cetera). This seems to corroborate the assumption presented in this argument that the individual passively moves through space only recognizing qualities of permeability. But what if these rhythms could be more than abstract qualities; perhaps these rhythms evoke sensual stimuli and agency to cognize one’s environment.

Therefore, can a stable structure of movement accommodate an interstitial of possibility that operates independently of it? In this way, movement through the site maintains global legibility while providing a topography of possibility within its interstitial that has the ability to locally transform conditions and create irregularities that fragment the static nature of the movement structures. As such, far from a homogenized rhythm described by Brettal above, a sensorial and experiential rhythm emerges and transforms on a daily basis to actively engage the subject into this topography and dislodge him or her from her passivity. With these unstable rhythms along movement structures that transform, the subject must actively cognize the local condition while still being able to legibly cognize the global condition.

framework] s

p

a

c

e

s

y

n

t

a

[ d i s - u r b a n i s m ] -breaking of relationships between: -buildings and public space -scales of movement -inhabitant and stranger

“urban grids channel movement into a probabilistic field of potential encounter and avoidance.”

(Hillier + Hanson)

[figure 25]

[figure 27]

structure-

[figure 28]

order- actual static configuration of system

accumulation

of

possibility

x

_dynamic larities

_spatial

irregu- This new dynamic way of cognizing the city challenges the [continued] normative methods of Kevin Lynch (et al) whereby the subject utilizes ontologically secure landmarks and irregularities in the urban system to create a cognitive narrative[figure 29]. The issue with this normative cognition is that these irregularities are other to the subject and not open to interpretation, use, or action. Dynamic irregularities require cognitive agency, are constantly in a state of ontological becoming, and accommodate subjective agency. It is precisely these irregularities that provide grounds for interface between the rigid movement structures and the local field of possibility. Therefore, it is the interface between the static global movement structure (urban system and airport program) and the local intervention (sensorial landscape of agency) that allows for the implementation of the dynamic irregularity[figure 30]. analysis

The area of analysis was chosen to provide the most accurate results possible and to reduce the ‘edge-effect’ of spatial syntax analysis whereby edge conditions are determined to be syntactically deep[figure 31a]. Therefore, situating the site near the center of the analysis and stretching boundaries north to just beyond Interstate-285 East, east to beyond Interstate-85 and Spaghetti Junction, and south to Highway-78-Stone-Mountain Freeway. The western condition is suburban neighborhoods that extend a considerable distance. Therefore, the western boundary extends for nearly four miles west of the airport to encompass this condition a necessary distance away from the site. Only public roads were denoted. Private apartment community roads were not shown because they are not continuous to the urban system because they are typically gated and not publicly accessible[figure 31b].

The existing condition reveal through the analysis is typical of a suburban sprawl condition: highly integrated interstate roads and parkways cutting through a sprawling field of extremely deep and dis-integrated neighborhoods that show little local or global relationships[figure(s) 32/33].

The conditions around the site are among the most integrated and connected parts of the system. The integration values for the streets around the site range from 0.55 (North Peachtree Street) to 0.68 (Burford Highway) compared to the average integration exhibited in the model of 0.43. These values describe the global relationship of the site to the given structure studied. Local connectivity is even more impressive near the site where values range from 2.0 (Catalina Drive) to 17.0 (Chamblee-Tucker Road) compared to the average value of the system (2.29).

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The depths demonstrate considerably lower values than the average (from 15.43 to 18.58, compared to the average value of 24.26). It should be noted that high integration and connectivity values are tied back to longer lines, which relate to the extended distances of these types of roads.

These values, put in context, demonstrate a strong possibility for the site to be integrated into the larger global structure. Providing a density of activity to this empirical potential could provide a basis for the interaction and inter-subjectivity desired by this investigation.

_normative irregularities street/edge/landmark ontologically secure othered to the subject [figure 31]

[a]

[b]

[figure 29] _dynamic irregularities cognitive agency in constant state of becoming accommodates subjective agency [figure 30]

s p a c e

s y n t a x

a n a l y s i s

[figure 32_local connectivity]

[figure 33_global integration hh]

buford highway_10 n. peachtree_3 chamblee-tucker_17 chamblee dunw o o d y _ 8

buford highway_0.68 chamblee-tucker_0.66 chamblee dunw o o d y _ 0 . 5 8

AV E R A G E _ 2 . 2 9

AV E R A G E _ 0 . 4 3

[returning to chitectural

the arscale]

With the above data collected, it is now time to return to the architectural scale. Utilizing the previous methods of rendering the site as sensorial landscape, I revisited the site and refined this filter of analysis. While walking the site and its surroundings again, I mapped this sensorial landscape by recording my stream of consciousness into my sketchbook and taking pictures of outstanding sensorial qualities. I further synthesized this sensorial landscape into the model. This artifact perceptually renders the path shown below. The red paths on the model represent my stream of perception from sight to sound to smell and to touch. The findings of this investigation reveal that when the path moves away from the street onto the site where all normative movement assumptions are suspended, the sensual engagement increases substantially. It can be assumed based on the theoretical framework listed in the previous chapters that because the site is isolated from the prevailing neo-liberal suburban space of fences, police surveillance, and normative pedestrian movement, the subject is free to cognize his environment free of any given assumptions or impositions.

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[

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buford

(+/-

integration

(+

[figure 34]

buford highway_0.76 chamblee-tucker_0.73 chamblee dunwoody_0.65

A V E R A G E _ 2 . 3 2

A V E R A G E _ 0 . 4 9

i n t e r f a c e

s]

highway

connectivity

buford highway_10 chamblee-tucker_18 chamblee dunwoody_8

s y n t a c t i c a l

[conclusion

[intersubjectivity]

[figure 37]

[figure 35]

It is important to prevent the overinvestment of importance to numbers; however, the overall benefit of this analysis is proving that the system properties can be improved by miniscule changes to local conditions. Additionally, this analysis provides a means to meaningfully integrate site structures of movement into a global structure of movement such that unwanted discontinuities are avoided. This will surely benefit the local design of conditions such that they remain congruent with the overall goals.

Utilizing these local and global investigations, a highly schematic proposal is depicted in the second artifact whereby this sensorial landscape is rendered interfacing with this rigid movement structure developed through spatial syntax software. The airport program is superimposed here but not interfaced. The way in which the sensorial landscape intervenes produces these dynamic irregularities. Therefore, this dynamic irregularity interface will be other to both the rigid movement structure (global) and the sensorial landscape (local). In this way, it provides an active way of cognizing the global system and ones local—both his or her physical, social, historical et cetera—environment.

[figure 36]

_ i n t e g r a t i n g Careful integration into this system can exploit the potential into the system of this site into the structure in such a way that movement becomes generative of inter-subjectivity. Therefore, the first iteration exhibited in the analysis diagrams demonstrates integrating the site into the surrounding residential neighborhoods, connecting with the MARTA thoroughfare, and connecting from Chamblee-Dunwoody Road to Chamblee Tucker Road—two major connections to Buford Highway.

These changes to the system--rendered in yellow--yielded minute but notable changes to both the local and global properties of the system[figure 34]. Local connectivity values rose to a range of 4.0 to 18 and raising the average from 2.29 to 3.32[figure 35]. Furthermore, global integration properties rose to a range of 0.61 to 0.76 and increasing the average integration from 0.42 to 0.49[figure 36]. Overall mean depth values of the system lowered from 24.26 to 21.54.

] [

chamblee-tucker

0%) connectivity 10%) integration

(+ (+

]

5%) 13%)

mean depth (- 10%) mean depth (- 10%)

[chamble-dunwoody] [

average

values

]

connectivity (+/- 0%) connectivity

(+

1.30%)

integration

(+

12%)

(+

11%) integration

mean depth (- 9%) mean

depth

(-

11%)

[figure 38]

The issues that underscore this entire investigation are centered upon the problematic of negotiating a subjective social milieu within neo-liberal urban space. The investigation, to this point, has taken a philosophical and theoretical tone in the sense that it has addressed larger societal issues. However, it is necessary to link larger issues to the actual social context that exists on the site—and for which this investigation shall address.

Several methods of analysis are deployed in order to develop a comprehensive, yet insightful, understanding of this social context. The analysis will begin with a more zoomed-out look at demographics and the existing built environment. Utilizing PolicyMap—a search engine that maps U.S. Census data onto a GoogleMaps-type interface—I was able to ascertain a relatively current synopsis of social demographics and the conditions in which said demographics live. I focused particularly on ethnicities, income, unemployment, poverty, and crime; additionally, in order to understand the living conditions, I focused on median year of construction, home values, rental rates, and population density.

After understanding the broad social context and its implications, I delved into the more finite and complex social context of the site. This social context is, of course, a product of its own historical development. Therefore, considerable research at the Dekalb County Historical Society yielded a more clear understanding of how this site evolved to its current condition. And finally, a clear historical framework will facilitate an understanding of the cultural milieu that so defines this heterogeneous area.

Such an understanding of a socio-historical and cultural context will inform future design decisions such that they remain subjective and non-empirical. In this way, social narratives can be weaved into the built construct of the investigation such that the subjective experience remains a central component.

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[social context examined] c h a p t e r

4

Before diving into the historical development of the area, I decided to first understand its current social condition. In this way, I can better filter the very heterogeneous and intricate historical threads that weave this site’s social context. I utilized the PolicyMap websites search engine which presents United States Census data. Most of the data is very current although some listings date to the year 2000 census. This type of analysis does give a somewhat detached understanding of social conditions. However, it does lend a general understanding of the condition to which historical threads can be compared.

_housing

analysis

The analysis focused on housing conditions around the site [figure 39]. Because the site is so densely populated by low- and fixed-income families, housing is such an important issue to be addressed by any large-scale development. Later investigations reveal how housing has been constructed, demolished, and condemned, greatly influencing the quality of life for the working-citizens that populate this area.

The second component of the analysis was a general investigation of demographic information in order to ascertain a cross-sectional view of the people and their social characteristics.

Utilizing such general qualities such as ethnicity, income, crime, et cetera, I was able to gain an understanding of the social conditions within which the local population live.

The real-estate analysis was consistent with the general appearance of the neighborhoods surrounding the site. Although densely populated, the available housing is outdated and not maintained, in most cases, to normative standards of living. Moreover, most of this housing is privately-owned and operated; as such, no regulations govern the quality of life presented to their residents. Adjacent to and around the site rental rates are as low as 300 dollars per month in a significant percentage of units, indicating the severity of this housing market. Home ownership sits at nearly 45% which demonstrates the financial situation faced by many of these home-renters. And furthermore, home values are consistently below $60,000 even pre-financial-meltdown.

These empirical figures accurately reflect the poverty found in this neighborhood by simply walking Chamblee-Dunwoody road. These

movement + perception [

residents, with low- and fixed-incomes working for unregulated wages are economically forced to live in such neighborhoods which do not necessarily provide for basic human needs. _general demographic analysis

[housing_median year built] 1963-1973

[population density] 1,908+ [home ownership] 45(-) %

[rental units less than 300 dollars per month] 30.82+ %

[home values] less than $60K

This study shown in [figure 40] presents a general cross section of the population inhabiting the housing around the site. As a broad indicator, unemployment percentages even pre-recession were at 9.6 which is consistent with this densely populated and under-educated population. Although this neighborhood falls within the ‘Chinatown’ area’s loose boundaries, it is constituted primarily by 20% hispanics and 4% Chinese. The rate of poverty in this area stands at 21% and grossincomes are below 16,000 per year. As stated, the nature of [un]employment for this population and the density witnessed and recorded inevitably leads to situations of extreme poverty.

site

However, to understand how this area arrived at these dismal statistics, one must understand this site’s erratic and inconsistent history. These anamolies constitute themselves throughout the site and its history and draw a clear line to its current condition.

d e m o g r a p h i c

[figure 39]

[rates of poverty] 21.64+ % [unemployment] 9.6 %

[rates of poverty] 16,323(-)/year

[chinese population] 4.45+ %

[hispanic population] 21.38+ %

site

[burgulary statistics] 4,190.78/1000 ppl

a n a l y s i s ]

[intersubjectivity]

[figure 40]

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_early historical overview The lands that preceded the Chamblee area

were inhabited by Creek and Cherokee Indians at the time that settlers arrived from North and South Carolina. The government had allotted 202.5 acres for the largely English, Irish, and Scottish Protestant settlers. Tensions arose often between the settlers and the local Native Americans and were a common occurrence into the mid-Nineteenth Century. 1845 marked a transformative change for this and many other areas in northern Georgia. In this year, the Southern Railroad [A] laid its line running from Atlanta to Washington D.C. and passing through Chamblee. Residents often took the train to Roswell, Georgia for the day, leading to its early moniker, Roswell Junction.

Chamblee sits at a prominent junction between the Southern Railway and the Buck Line, which connected the city of Toccoa to Atlanta. During the Civil War, General Sherman seized several houses in Chamblee in order to stage his famous March to the Sea. The early Twentieth Century for Chamblee marked an expansion of its farming and light industrial economy. H.P. Tilly Plantation, an operation that included cotton gins and a sawmill, played a prominent economic role for the area. However, as is symptomatic of Southern economically conservative business, labor issues led to relocation to Turner County.

The land that comprised most of Chamblee was then sold to the famous Coca-Cola mogul, Asa Candler. Candler later sold much of this land to the United States government, ushering in a new era for the municipality. In order to ease this nominal confusion, the name Chamblee—taken from a prominent African-American railway worker—was officially adopted with the city’s incorporation on April 17, 1908.

_world

war

i

Nine years later, with conflicts in Europe and the world on the brink of war, the U.S. government approached Dekalb County in search of a suitable site for the expansion of its military bases. The government demanded the readiness of a “million” troops to be sent to the French “Firing Line” (Pease).

A detailed report filed by J.H. Pease, Construction Quartermaster of what would become known as Camp Gordon [B] explains rather candidly the intricacies, conflicts, and issues that surrounded the selection, construction, and use of Camp Gordon. The name for the military base honors General John B. Gordon, a confederate soldier, U.S. Sena-

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tor, and Governor of Georgia from 1886-1890.

The location was selected by the Quartermasters’ Office in Washington, D.C., for several reasons. Although the land was formerly woods, cotton, corn and vegetable fields, its rolling topography was likened to that of the European theatre, in which troops were to be stationed.

And because of this rolling topography and the nearby Peachtree Creek [C], natural drainage and water stagnation was virtually a non-issue.

And finally, the sites proximity to the Southern Railroad was a prominent deciding factor as supplies could be transported relatively easily to the site for construction and operations.

[figure 43]

[figure 44]

[figure 45]

[figure 46]

The plan of the base—drawn by Lockwood, Green, and Company—was highly typical for its time.

However, because of the erratic topography, sixty percent of the 300 drawings, prepared by a team of over 113, had to be redrawn completely.

To say that construction of Camp Gordon was a major endeavor would be an understatement. The construction contract was awarded June 12, 1917 and major operations and training officially began a few months later. Almost immediately, temporary barracks [figure 41] and a 500-bed hospital were erected to house and maintain the 9,265 workers that aided in its construction.

And because of the erratic topography, “every available truck in Atlanta” was deployed to transport materials from the train station to the site. Materials were drawn from Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, nearly seizing local resources for the duration of construction.

The town of Atlanta directed its full efforts to the completion of this base. According to Pease, “Georgia was never a union state”; therefore, any “troublemakers” who incited talks of unionization amongst the workers were “silenced” by the Secret Service. Fully constructed, the base was to house and train 41,000 soldiers [figure 42] (tripling Dekalb-County’s population) in 1300 buildings.

Additionally, the construction of the Lawson Veterans’ hospital [figure 44] served as an ampuatational and neurological treatment facility for both Allied troops and German and Italian prisoners-of-war returning from the front lines. This 2,000 bed facility, seen on the historical maps just north of Carroll Avenue and the main Barracks, provided comprehensive healthcare for thousands of military personnel.

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_world war ii and beyond After World War I, the land was leased back to

Dekalb County and later purchased by T.R. Sawtell, who then parceled it out for farmland. However, the new Atlanta Aero Club, seizing on the opportune site, asked the city to retain 200 acres for airport services. With the help of the federal Works Progress Administration funding, Dekalb County built the airport on this property. For several years, the Atlanta Aero Club prospered there carrying out recreational and civilian aviation operations.

However, after the attacks by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor in 1945, the U.S. Navy recommissioned the land as a Naval Air Station to train aviators that fought in all theatres of World War II [figures 47-50]. The Navy leased all 333 acres of the surrounding site from Dekalb County for $18,000 per year for its flight training and operations. However, after the war ended and with the implementation of larger jet fighters, N.A.S. Atlanta was relocated to Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Georgia to utilize its much longer runways. By 1959, through a gradual change of ownership, Dekalb County owned much of the land again for civilian use. Within a year of returning to normal operations, air traffic had increased substantially to the point that the Federal Aviation Administration implemented its own control tower and personnel to handle the influx. In 1968, the newer and longer 5,000foot runway was completed allowing for more versatility and aircraft equipment. Today the airport continues to grow and serve the general aviation community although it has been the cause of tension between its upper-middle class neighbors because of the noise. As such, arrival and departure procedures are performed almost exclusively over the lower-class neighborhoods north of the site (go figure). Today, it is consistently the second busiest airport by traffic volume (topped only by HartsfieldJackson International). Because of its access to downtown via Interstate 85, it is the home to many corporate air operations. Self-classified as a “general aviation reliever airport,” PDK already provides air traffic release to an already congested airspace. Providing “$14 million in visitor spending” and supplying over 4,000 jobs to the area, the airport has a strong economic impact to the area. However, living conditions around the airport remain at or below the poverty level despite its economic benefit.

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_the rise of industry In the 1960s after the decline of military presence in the area, Chamblee began accepting industry, the scars of which can be seen today around the city. Utilizing tax incentives notorious to this state, industries and corporations such as the Minnisota Mining and Manufactoring Company [figure 52]Boyd Midway, Inc, Write-Rite, Albert Pottery, John Deere, and General Motors located factories in Chamblee. In these prosperous years, the municipal tax base became dependent upon this income. From a contemporary aerial photograph of Chamblee, the industrial landscape seems to define the city and its urban space with pockets of low-income residential scattered into this area. However, customary to neo-liberal economic practice, in its efforts to consume new markets and resources, much of the industry relocated overseas or to cheaper markets, leaving the Chamblee tax base dry. It was during this transitional period that marked new demographic and social shifts for the area that forever changed its social and economic composition.

[figure 49]

[figure 50]

[figure 51]

[figure 52]

_immigration For various reasons during this transitional period, Atlanta was named in the top ten cities for refugee resettlement and relocation. Because of its connectivity to local and regional public transit (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority—MARTA), availability of service and low-wage labor industry jobs, and affordable housing due to its industrial neighbors, Chamblee soon became a destination for immigrants arriving from all parts of the third world from Vietnam, Korea, Eastern Europe, India, Mexico, Central America, et cetera. Census information from the 1980s indicates that 60% of the population was Hispanic and that other minorities were growing exponentially (population increase of: Hispanics 1337-4657; Asian 1388-2912; and African American 1641-8718).

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_immigration [continued] This sudden and heterogeneous influx of immi-

grants into an industrial and sub-urban structure came with much friction—sometimes playful (as in the Vietnamese man reprimanded by local police for skinning a goat in his garage) but mostly serious. Most newspaper stories coming out of Chamblee at this period alluded to various criminal activities that ran rampant in these developing slums. At least two stories blamed the cul-de-sac and its associated alienation for creating these pockets of crime in the Chamblee area. Mentioned several times are the Pearl Lane apartments in Chamblee, Georgia—not far from the proposed site. Within this housing complex, some residents were backlogged for rent payments and others simply squatted on the property. Drug-related activities, prostitution, and shootouts were a common occurrence to the extent that residents would sit on their balconies in the afternoon and watch these events occur for entertainment. Because so many different groups moved into this area and remained alienated from each other—because of the nature of this urban system—crime multiplied over this initial period. And as this community of immigrant workers, necessary for the regional economy as marginalized to this industrial enclave, their problems remained other-ed to the greater Atlanta population simply perpetuating the problems. Although Dekalb is listed as one of the 13th richest counties in the state, the poverty witnessed in this enclave is saddening. Hard-working immigrant residents of Chamblee were still squatting in vacant building, deprived of food and healthcare.

Associated with the influx of crime and the reigning conservatism of Georgia’s outlying areas, was a considerable public and institutional backlash. Because the influx of immigrants and new business was positive for the regional and local economy but politically negative for the “relentless[ly] homogen[eous]” Dekalb County residents, this was a very delicate issue for local municipalities. Initial responses by local law enforcement were both saddening and completely expected. Police arrested residents for “every possible infraction, including minor traffic violations.” In response to the Pearl Lane [figure 53] apartments, authorities arrested 135 residents. And to add more insult, prostitutes of the arrest were denied bail, an obvious abode to the deep-rooted

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protestant heritage of the region. Authorities even resorted to alternative means of subjugating this immigrant population. Building inspectors took matters into their own hands by going into these unkempt structures and condemning them in order to displace residents out of the area. By law, when a building is condemned it can be boarded up, demolished, or brought to code. Because the latter two options require significant investment, often, the property managers simply boarded up the properties and closed them off. Not only did institutional discrimination occur but also the general public’s response to the incoming wave of immigrants was also highly expected of the conservative residents of Chamblee. During the initial wave of immigration, the city of Chamblee lost 13,000 of its Caucasian residents, many of who moved to neighboring counties. Even the mayor of Chamblee conceded in a public statement that he “shares…preference for Fulton or Forsyth” counties, in response to the immigration, going on to say that “its not like what [it] used to be” (Scroggins). These deeply-rooted sentiments reflect hidden prejudices that still exist today largely because of the segregated nature of the neo-liberal city. As populations and people alienate themselves, ambiguities arise between them, causing friction and apprehension.

These problems, however, were abated with municipal consideration for these communities.

Realizing the mistakes of such an absolutist and empiricist (?) approach to solving crime, local authorities took a more grassroots (or phenomenological?) approach to dealing with crime.

Local police precincts first hired para-lingual personel in order to help communicate and forge relationships with these local communities, educating them on reporting crime and criminal activity such that actual crime can be dealt with without the use of blanket enforcements.

Furthermore, authorities utilized, at the time, a more laisse-faire approach to the gathering of day laborers. Local residents have been slow to embrace such activities but even local business owner, John Marshall, allows day laborers to gather during off hours at his business (Sager).

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_immigration [continued] Beyond the tensions from this social and demo-

graphic shift within Chamblee, significant cultural ambiguities have arisen. Superficially, these social paradoxes are perhaps perplexing, unsettling, and critically de-centeriing. However, once experienced, they lend for a rather promising set of social conditions within which to design. It can be assumed that the natural solution within an empiricist system of logic would be to organize and rationalize these ambiguities—or, put into context, to create a New York City or San Francisco Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Italy, et cetera. However, perhaps the ambiguous nature of Atlanta’s Chinatown should be exploited, particularly to this investigation. In searching for a dynamic irregularity to mutate this global hierarchical system, perhaps one may need to look no further than the existing characteristics of this pseudo-heterotopia, teeming within the industrial remnants and bounded by questionably permeable highways on all sides.

These ambiguities exist in many different ways.

The site occupied by Taiwan’s Coordination Council of North American Affairs—a commerce embassy of sorts [figure 54]. In order to avoid tensions with the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan established these commerce embassies throughout the United States, which perform much of the same functions of any embassy but under the title of trade. As such, the People’s Republic of China views this one-acre plot as its sovereign territory. Therefore, when the city of Chamblee mailed the Taiwanese facility its property tax statement, the organization promptly returned the statement and refused to pay. Other ambiguities arise from the immigrant populations blending with American cultures and sensibilities. For instance, The Orient, a new community planned and marketed to Chinese residents features feng-shui treatments and community facilities for traditional practices. However, the community is planned utilizing suburban morphology. Moreover, on the actual site, an International Village was planned to improve the community through revitalizing some of the properties [figure 56]. Unfortunately this revitalization was to destroy significant amounts of housing. This 360-acre community provided a center for public use, mixed-use office, residential, and park space, and a golf course. Modeled after similar communities

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developed near Chicago airports, the developer aimed to capitalize on the international flavor of the area while ridding it of its unsightly social woes.

A proto-typical Atlanta development, this type of gentrification development pattern provides revenue-generating properties while eliminating much needed housing for the lower-income families. And to add to this debacle, the International Village was to be partially funded by the Federal Housing and Urban Development Authority (HUD), which has notoriously led the vanguard to destroy and disperse Atlanta’s social housing residents in the last decade. Financial problems and a local minority zoning board, plagued the development. On August 5, 2008, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and halted all site work.

Although developers plan to resume construction, visits to the site in both August and December of 2010 reveal no progress. Furthermore, the company’s website has relinquished its domain name and numerous tax notices are posted adjacent to the property warning of public seizure.

Perhaps they should have declared themselves a sovereign territory? Other ambiguities exist simply on the streets and in the market adjacent to the site. Immigrants of all origins can be seen shopping and dining in the Chinese Dinho Market— where all menus, prices, and labels read only in Chinese. These vastly differing cultures collapsed, collaged, and colliding onto each other with no boundary or separation. It is so a-typical of Atlanta’s sub-urban spatiality that, if extrapolated into an urban and subjective experience, could be revolutionary. A simple drive down Buford Highway reveals the truly heterogeneous nature of these disparate commercial properties. A Korean soup house sits next to a Mexican night club, right down the street from a Taiwanese café.

These ambiguities are what defines Atlanta’s cultural melting pot [figure 56]. The way in which the neo-liberal city perpetually reinvents its identity, if exploited within a a framework that operates outside of profit-oriented development, can be extrapolated into an experience. This idea of true heterogeneity can be translated into a design concept and implemented as dynamic irregularities that allow for shifts not at the chronological scale of the market forces, but from day to day, allowing for a more generative experience and allowing for more inter-subjective relationships to emerge between subject and her social milieu.

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Several themes emerge from the historical analysis. Perhaps the most prominent of these are the cultural mutations observed throughout the sites varied history. These cultural mutations represent a certain ambiguity that lingers over the site and its environs. These ambiguities take the form of an erratic ground plane that required the redrawing of nearly all construction documents for the construction of Fort Gordon; the varying property changes over the years from forests to farms to military base, to hospital, to civilian airport, to naval air station , to industrial area, and ďŹ nally to residential; the ambiguity of said residential remnents infused with residential properties and supporting commercial entities; the hetero-culturality of the area; and the ambiguous property issues with local embassies. These ambiguities oppose normative cultural enclaves such as Little Italy or Chinatown in New York City and San Francisco, respectively. These ambiguities, within a neo-liberal urban system, operate in a hyperindividualistic way. This entropic development pattern develops properties unto themselves. As such, ontologies are from the secured enclaves of New York City.

These ontologies become disposable at exponential turnover rates.

But the over-structured and rational urban model is not necessarily suitable to Atlanta’s Chinatown because of its own ontological issues. As such, perhaps an acceptance and embrace of the ambiguities can be a possible solution. If these ambiguities were concentrated into a logical, yet unhierarchial, structure, the resultant concentration could render them as dynamic irregularities, constituting a generative apprehension of the urban environment by the subject.

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_trivialized _highly-regulated _ontologically secure

decontextualized_

structured ambiguity/dynamic irregularity

neo-liberalized_ disposable ontology_

_all rules/no exception

all exceptions/no rule_

_irregularity eliminated

system of irregularity_

_overly-concentrated

highly fragmented_

This diagram expresses the truly disurban and neo-liberalized charactaristics of the area. Large sections of roads and properties fractures and atomizes the disparate entities that comprise Atlanta’s ‘Chinatown.’ As such, these entities are not readily experienced to the pedestrians that actually live in the area but are catered, rather, to the regional residents that travel here from various reaches of the Atlanta metro area. Notions of private development have rendered the area completely ambiguous on an entropic level whereby property owners have developed according to economic potential rather than community need.

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If concentrated non-hierarchically, however, these ambiguous and ever-changing entities can create a generative environement with which a subject can engage himself and others.

At this point in the investigation, there exists a need to identify a concrete idea of the spatiality engenered by (a) the theoretical framework and (b) the spatial explorations. The studies executed thus far exhibit a contradiction between the two spatialities at play here. There exists a more rigid framework of movement and program that comprises the airport functions.

Conversely, there exists a framework of movement and program that comprises the more generative and intersubjective lcoal movements. The two must interface to each other but cannot be represented within the same media or spatiality types because of their dichotomous relationship.

As such, a clear understanding of this generative framework must be exhibited such that its can adapt to local conditions while interfacing and maintaining a global logic. To this point, this generative topography of movement and use has been discussed rather generally without much detail given to its actual tactical qualities (or its global logic). This succinct case study of the spatiality envisioned or hinted out by this logic of intersubjectivity lends a more tangible understanding of what is meant here.

The transient spaces explored in this chapter exhibit certain qualities that operate outside of the hegemonic spatiality of the contemporary neo-liberal urban condition. These space s operate on a logic of social solidarity whereby the individual unit does not contain meaning in and of itself but contributes to a larger logic. Furthermore, these transient spaces evoke and are products of generative movement and use. Not built in any a priori fashion, they emerged out of a need--usually pressing. As heterotopic as they seem, however, they emerge out of, operate within, and on the terms of their neo-liberal urban contexts. As such, these spaces are typically the result of a crisis (social, economical, environmental, et cetera) and operate solely to deal with the societal dominant’s other.

But can we imagine such spaces detaching themselves completely from their socio-economic contexts, laying the ground for a new type of spatial use and movement? This investigation aims to explore the possibilities latent within these transient spatialities. Are there clues to be found here that could inform new societies that exist outside of the spectrum of capital and the the hegemonic and marginalizing processes of its generation and accumulation?

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[case study: transient spatiality] c h a p t e r

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The barrios in Bogota present an interesting spatial condition. Taking over this leftover and economically un-developable space in the city of Bogota, the poverty-stricken residents have created an urban landscape that operates on its own spatial logic. Developed ‘ad-hoc’ to accommodate current needs and constantly in flux, this urban condition is in no way amenable to its larger context. Circulation patterns, as exhibited to the right (diagram

by Lebbeus Woods) do not derive from a rational logic but emerge and decay from day-to-day use.

As such, negotiating this social mileu requires constant physical and mental cognition. Additionally, the individual unit, so cherished in the neo-liberal urban paradigm does not function autonomously here. the agglomeration of these units constitutes this system. Operating in dialogue with its topographical context and deriving its heterotopic strength from it, this system creates a new landscape through which the subject must negotiate.

[ photos, and sketches from lebbeus woods’ blog ]

Ever problematic with this spatiality is the fact that it operates as an exception but still to the rules of the dominant system. As such, it does not present an effective alternative to this system but merely houses its exception.

-------------------------------------------// “my idea of utopia, or, an ideal state of conditions for humans, is not based on a harmonious melding of conflicting conditions, but rather on a free ‘dialogue,’ or open interaction between them”

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[ b a r r i o s : b o g o t a]_a

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These observations and explorations explore the potential agency and solidarity imbued within a citizenry in times of crisis. The occurence of these social dereailments requires rapid agency and response. Lebbeus woods noted these urban shifts in two cases in Haiti after the devastating earthquakes of 2010.

Within days, new urban conditions emerged out of the need for housing for the thousands of recently homeless population.

These cities emerged with virtually no ofďŹ cial planning but were a product of social agency. As such, the movement structures and logic that emerged adapted to the conditions rather than an a priorii planning method. Citizens repurposed urban space and industrial space (leftover airplanes) and were forced to forge new relationships of possession whereby the utilized space was not owned by anyone living there but was appropriated in solidarity fot the current needs. Again, at issue here is that these spaces emerged out of trauma and were a response forged by a marginalized population.

The example below represents a society’s collective response to an ecological crisis that emerges over time rather than suddenly.

New social relations must be forged between varying demographics rather than a single marginalized population.

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[competition entry by Manole Voroneanu and Bogdana Frunza]

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The conclusions drawn from these case studies prove the po[ tential of social agency and solidarity. This, however, is merely potential and does not necessarily represent an ideal or typical situation. Furthermore, these conditions emerged out of trauma.

To expect this to occur simply out of societal empathy and solidarity may perhaps be too visionary--to take a misanthropic stance. However, these conditions emerge within dominant capital-driven systems. Therefore, to dislodging of a collective conscience from such a paradigm is often a violent act. To imagine these emergent cities as separate and opposite their contexts may offer new possibility to this investigation.

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factory 798_bernard tschumi_beijing, china

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In Architecture and Disjunction, Tschumi discusses the importance of transgression. It is not merely to destroy a reigning system or hegemony. Rather, transgression involves moving beyond said system while still preserving it as a juxtoposition.

As such, he problematizes the hurried development and destruction of low-class Beijing neighborhoods by progressing above and developing below, creating an instant dialogue between the two conditions.

As such this detachment lends possibility to this investigation whereby, the infrastructure (airport and community piers) operate seperately from the land which is otherwise developable.

detached infrastructure

future development

[transgression]a case for detachment

It can prove extremely difficult to make the case that a design intervention can absolutely resist future neo-liberal development.

However, through the detachment from this condition, conversely to Tschumi’s logic, the communinal and generative logic can remain in the face of possible future development. As such, the future of the development does not rely on pre-determinism or the threat of overtaking by the practic that it seeks to oppose.

The conclusions derived from the theoretical research and case study analysis yields several themes--all of which carry inherently architectural dimensions to which this thesis investigation addresses. The theoretical framework describe a process of imposed passivity and control by the armatures and processes of capital throughout history.

These processes slowly mediated more and more of the subjective environment such that in the current age of high capitalism, nearly all movement and interactionary processes operate within these controlled and passive constructs.

Methods of subversion must be both structured and accepting of change and irregularity which seems paradoxical in dialectical terms. As such a trialectic of local agency is the missing variable in the formula of a more generative social and urban environment. Creating first a democratically organized system--which is ontologically secured on its global scale--and secondly, locally mutatable conditions through which citizens may exercise agency and collective control over their public environment. These larger urban issues become architectural when one considers the designers role in establishing an environment that that operates on a scale between privatized and public. It is the designers responsibility to produce a system that can be negotiated and re-negotiated subjectively and collectively such that this problematized relationship established within the theoretical framework can be re-articulated.

David Harvey theorizes extensively on the nature of a collective and subjective ‘right to the city.’ His discourse parallels that presented within this investigation and accurately portrays the urgency to subvert and address the mass privatization of the urban environment. Utilizing Tschumi’s ‘transgression,’ new processes of urbanization movement + perception can realistically address these issues without the [intersubjectivity] changing the nature of reigning hegemonies of capitalistic practice.

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RIGHTS TO THE CITY | SOCIAL AGENCY

“The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources:

it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city.

It is, moreover, a common rather than individual right since this transformation inevitably depends on the exercise of collective power to reshape the process of urbanization”

[thesis concept] restoring collective rights to the city through social agency

The investigation, thus far, has addressed the airport programmatically through various explorations. This insular and autonomous programmatic typology typically remains inwardly focused, structurally autonomous, and inherently disurban with regards to its syntactical qualities. Through several key design moves, the airport program is deconstructed and renegotiated in response to local site conditions. This reconstitution of program does not, however, detract from its organizational and navigational logic. This logic is crucial to the safe and efficient operation and use. Thus, one cannot realistically redefine such a functionally defined program. However, if the reconstitution preserves global logic, this typology can effectively challenge its more disurban sensual charactaristics.

SUBVERTING

PROGRAMMATIC

AUTONOMY

The design moves are expressed utilizing the simple analogy of a coiled wire (insular and logically organized). As this medium is manipulated according to local site conditions, the program becomes more contextually responsive.

Pushing the idea further, this series goes on to describe the programmatic scheme’s relationship to larger issues: the transgression and subversion of neo-liberal development patterns.

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The program begins with a very Foster-esque airport program-extremely functional, extremely efficient, extremely autonomous, and extremely insular. This type of spatiality removes the airport users from place or context (and all issues embedded within these rather vague terms). Additionally, this program expresses a very clear structural logica and the implied movement is literally a diagram of efficiency. This diagram, interpreted from terminal design literature expresses the main components and their adjacencies that comprise any airport terminal design.

1

First, the program is pulled apart and aligned in a way that preserves logic of movement and adjaceny such that the efficiency of the program, something very crucial to any airport program, is not lost. The parking spaces are taken under the premise that only drop-offs and public transit arrivals will occur to preserve the scale and fluidity of local movement through and around the site.

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In order to take advantage of a rather busy intersection of local pedestrian trafďŹ c at the northwest end of the site, the conference center program (added later) aligns itself to the local Chinatown market parking lot such that events at the center do not remain insular but take advantage of the rich culture and dining here. The plaza from the conference center sets the stage for a public performance arena.

3

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Responding to the Chinatown market plaza and the proposed MARTA line, this directional change integrates the airport and ground scheme into the south plaza of Chinatown which includes the markets, restaurants, and the Taiway economic consulate. Furthermore, this allows the elevated MARTA train to move through the terminal, creating a community nexus of this part of the site and the adjacent plaza.

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The property maps from Dekalb County (previously illustrated) delineate a rather unconventional property line for the development plots. This line responds to the main runway at KPDK. Therefore, mid-rise structures such as the airport terminal must respect this line to create a safe area for departing and arriving , and navigation of the local air traffic. This and other mutations also stage the building ‘line’ rather than mass’.

5

Aligning the concourse space east to west provides ample lighting, views to the airport property, views downtown, and orientation to the airport. This is the most logical and spacious space on the relatively narrow site to park aircraft. Arriving passengers should, however make their way to public transit and automotive interfaces requiring the baggage claim to connect the concourse spaces to the arrival/departing spaces.

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To ease the noise strain of a tarmac directly adjacent to the rather small-scaled neighborhood to the west of the site. Rotating the terminal provides a 150-foot wide noise barrier between the neighborhood and the main ramp. Additionally, this provides four more gates to the terminal area bringing the total to nine. This area of the design intervention is highly problematic bc of the scalar juxtoposition.

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And ďŹ nally, in order to alleviate the 100-foot wall across the street from this neighborhood and to taper the terminal in response to the smaller gates and less trafďŹ c, the southern tip of the programmatic mass is pinched.

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This scheme reects a de-autonomized programmatic structure that remains functional while accepting and respondingn to its local conditions.

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The next step is to raise the entire scheme to open the ground plan for public use and public infrastructure. Accepting that the ground plane is given to market forces and development, this detachment seeks to transgress, rather than destroy this inevitable condition.

Additionally, raising this programmatic monster alleviates the disurban qualities of an airport, opening up the ground plane to through-movement.

9

In a ďŹ nal effort to combat future neo-liberal development, the groundplane is given over to public infrastructure such that future development would problematize a larger area. The public planes are rendered as piers, further detached and transgressed to these market forces. This working landscape handles onsite and runoff (from the north) by ďŹ ltering both and feeding them back into local stream and river systems.

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Having defined--diagrammatically--the structures and their ambiguous counterparts, this proposal now concerns itself with defining these components in architectural terms. The proposal has established as global structures a rigid airport program and ontologically stable movement structures. The interstitial of these will be this topography of generative experience: generative of use, interaction, intersubjectivity, intelligibility. This generation depends, however upon the interface of the globally secure structures and the unstable local structures. This interface will comprise the most crucial part of this investigation. Such a generative topography, if autonomous, operates only in a theoretical realm. This investigation aims to place this topography into the context of its counterpart and investigate the results of such a juxtaposition.

The investigation began with an initial and visceral response to all issues. After this initial starting point was established, the ground was set for future refinement and development.

An initial goal was to isolate the two components (secured and unstable) and negotiate their interface in order to press this typology well beyond its normative. These initial spatial responses aimed to establish the macro-pragmatics of these global structures in order to pull them from the realm of ideas into that of architectural physicality (operating on a finite scale and scope). After each iteration of macro-structural development, a complimentary study of local interfaces was executed such that the investigation remains centered on the perceptual qualities of inhabiting these spaces. Macro investigations are executed in the normative manner while micro-investigations are produced on a larger-scaled section model and accrue as relationships are forged, mutated, re-thought, and re-examined. This method of design ensures that no model remains stable in its usefulness to the investigation but is readily changeable or eliminated.

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[ i n i t i a l c h a p t e r

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[scheme 1] concepts

Preceding any architectural or gestural moves is the establishment of the overal ordering system for the global structures. Several factors determine these ordering systems. The airport program, set starkly above the site establishes its functionality while providing for interface opportunity. The form of this component is the result of several local site conditions. Reducing noise and activity impact, interfacing to local mass transit, and avoiding large areas of shade are some of the constraints that derived this form. The ‘road’ connections are derived from the syntax studies in order to better connect this intervention to global movement structures. And finally the topography is derived from the appropriately-sclaed and historically prolific Lawson Military Hospital, which no longer stands east of the site. The topography’s orientation is a response to regulated nobuild buffers extending from the ends of the main runway at PDK.

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movement structures

proposed international village

generative topography

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[property restraints]

[scheme 1] gestural response

Scheme One, displayed on top, represents a very visceral response to the issues discovered on the site. This gestural expression seeks to identify macro structures within the framework of the investigation. As such, the ďŹ rst iteration of the terminal responds to various site conditions discussed above.

This model establishes these macro conditions to which the local can be articulated according to the premises of the investigation.

[ g l o b a l s c h e m e 1]

Scheme Two is more reďŹ ned and more properly-scaled. The generative topography is represented here as an abstraction of this ambiguous ground plane. Further, the bends of this topography begin to accept program (airport functions/housing/market spaces/commercial properties, et cetera). The streets that cut through the site also cut through and pass under the topography at times.

Airport functions hover above movement + perception and sit below it. The ambiguity [intersubjectivity] of this generative topography operates under the intention of disrupting normative perceptive faculties within the airport typology. Moreover, this rigid circulation system interfaces to, passes through/under/above, and even shares space with the local conditions of the site.

bell

[40] -----------------------------------------//

[ g l o b a l s c h e m e 2]

[scheme 1]

sectional development

[sectional study] These sectional studies further reďŹ ned the ideas gleaned from the global scheme. Beyond reďŹ nement, these models allowed the investigation to address the local scale-more speciďŹ cally, how do these two opposing systems interface and mutate with each other. And what programs, activities, and relationships emerge from this interface? To what extent is subjectivity generated through these spatial adjacencies and juxtopositions?

consulate

concourse community use arrival court

tarmac street chambleetucker rd.

baggage claim

movement + perception

consulate

[intersubjectivity]

check-in marta > arrival court

bell

[41]

community use street

housing

[scheme 1] spatial reďŹ nement

[sectional study] This analysis develops further the relationshhip between the local condition (below) and the global structures (streets + airport). Connections between the airport program and the activity below are forged through circulation patterns and sensual connections. Also developed more here is the MARTA station and its connective potentialities for the scheme. Other issues to be condended with are program along the streets, daylighting within the terminal spaces, and structure.

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[42]

[scheme 2] concepts

In the next phase of schematic study, I enacted a more uid approach to articulating this generative perceptual topography that runs below but interfaces to the airport functions. Taking the same lines from the demolished Lawson Memorial Hospital, I began to manipulate them with more agency in order to achieve several goals. The primary goal is to connect certain prominent spots of activity on the site such as the east/west connections and certain local hot-spots.

The secondary intention was to alleviate the almost relentless linearity of these lines. In this way, connections are not imposed (in the way that the ‘streets’ of the previous iteration were) but implied and exist as a mere potentiality.

Eliminating the streets relieves the previous scheme of this theoretical contradiction of subjective/ imposed movement.

20 degrees

---------------------------------------------//

[scheme 2] gestural response

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[43]

Through several design moves, connections across the site and spatial relationships become generatively created resulting in a topography that yields and synthesizes program and movement as opposed to simply plugging it into the leftover spaces (previous scheme).

[scheme 2]

sectional development

spatial mutations

consulate

concourse

community space recreation ground crew

tarmac

arrival/checkin baggage claim

chambleetucker

consulate

community space

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

marta housing

arrival/checkin commercial

bell

[44]

[scheme 2] spatial reďŹ nement

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[45]

[scheme 3] concepts

This exploration continues themes presented in the case studies: emergent and transient urban development + physical and proprietal detachment from context.

This system allows for emergent urbanism to develop as needed while maintaining the necessary independence from the ground plane which will always be succeptible to neo-liberal reclaimation.

Additionally, freeing this new urban-landscape from its proprietal constraints allows a textured urbanism to emerge that is opposes the dominant contemporary urban systems.

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[46]

[

c

o

n

c

e

p

t

m

o

d

e

l

]

[scheme 3] sectional explorations

[urban structure] frac

tal

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[47]

[ s e c t i o n a l e x p l o r a t i o n ]

ic

in us

its

ho

g in us ho

im

pr ov

ise

un

d

al co

m

m

er ci

ture emerges. This texture hous-

es all functions of the community within the single units (21’ x 16’) or a combination thereof. As such, the ambiguity explored in previous schemes becomes structured but freely and generatively realizable. Furthermore, explored here is the ground plane and its subsequent infrastructural staging of use. The ambiguous topography that once plagued army engineers proves useful for remediative ecological foundation.

log

g

The sectional explorations exhibited here express a more detailed articulation of the concept model and sketch at the beginning of this scheme. By providing a permanant ‘super-structure’ into which varying units can be placed and removed according to the needs of the community, an urban tex-

r]rationality

economic [i

[scheme 3] planimetrics

1

1

[recreation fields]

This image was taken at a nearby abandoned lot that locals have repurposed as several soccer fields.

2 [conference center]

3

3

4

[bioswales]

A Georgia native species, indiangrass grows naturally with as little as two hours of sunlight per day and prevents site erosion.

After the water has been properly and naturally treated, resevoir storage makes it publicly accessilbe and safe for recreation, evidenced by this example in Boulder, Colorado.

4

5

[indiangrass]

[runoff reservoir]

[arrival/checkin]

5

2

These vegetative trenches direct and clean runoff water from the areas north of the site to prevent soil erosion and the percolation of runoff toxins into the soil and water table.

[constructed wetlands]

Artificial wetlands are an ecologically supportive waste management solution for both grayand black-water filtration from the airports’ discharge.

[baggage claim] [retail/food court] [security checkpoint]

[l

[concourse]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

At this point in the investiagion, planimetric investigations lend a more zoomed-out understanding of the extensive sectional development completed. The site plan and subsequent investigations [re]direct and re-inforce the sectional development such that those investigations remained structured within the constraints and goals of the larger investigation. The floorplan above ensures the functionality of this program such that its development does not fall by [48] the wayside of the larger investigation.

oc

al

cr

ee

ks

]

[peac

htree

creek

The surface condition is so crucial for several reasons. Staging this surface as infrastructure provides some resistent to future neoliberal development rendering it essentially public space. Additionally, orienting these systems into existing topographies (both physcial and ecological) ties the site into larger (sub)systems both on the site and beyond.

Essentially, the two artificial wetlands are located at the highpoint of the site and act as runoff basins for the rooftops. Water is then filtered through bioswales to public resevoirs that provide recreation spaces and clean irrigation/grey-water on site. These resevoirs feed back into a local creek which runs into Peachtree Creek to the southeast of the site.

]

to c hatt

aho

och

ee r iver

>

[scheme 3] model study

^view northeast [overview]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[49]

As the scheme approaches a more tangible and feasible stage of development, a process of refinement translates the abstract explorations into more measured and realizable solutions. This process involves adding detail and specifications to the more generic and gestural responses completed to this point in the exploration. Terms such as conference center, terminal, and concourse, take on spatial, dimensional, and scalar qualities. Additionally, circulations and flows of people, programs, baggage, et cetera become clearer in their functinoality. During this stage of the investigation, the more two-dimensional and ambiguously-scaled three dimensional investigations are put into spatial context and explored asinhabited through more exact two- and three- dimensional refinement.

The first stage involves developing the airport program as (1) a logical and functional system; and as (2) a system that accepts its context and the associated irregularities. Planimetrics define the more funtional qualities of the terminal space while the community piers defined above are more rigorously developed through three-dimensional modelling allowing the designer and viewer to understand the inhabitants perception of these spaces and the qualities and interactions that they generate.

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[50]

[

r

e

f

c h a p t e r

i

n 8

e

m

e

n

t

]

d] ro a re e ht [p ea c

[chamblee-dunwoody road]

d]

e

tre

a ro

riv

conference center plaza

[a ir

pe

po rt d

ew

[n

e]

h ac

[blackburn way]

ta ar

[m ow br n e

lin n]

io

ns

te

ex

riv

td

ke

ar

[m e]

[ground support]

[coronado place]

ground transportation arrival

[burke terrace]

[ann drive]

[dowdell drive]

concourse

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[chamblee-tucker road]

[51]

[proposed site plan]

[ground plan]

outdoor market + event space

waterside spaces

bus + car check-in area

escalators to terminal

in-ight cuisine facilities

baggage claim

escalators to concourse maintenance facility baggage processing maintenance ofďŹ ces

in-ight cuisine facilities

bus transfer for remote gates airline ground facilities

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[52]

[ground plan]

1200+ seat auditorium

public piers

conference center

marta station main terminal

concourse

security checkpoint

main ramp

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[53]

[main plan]

eh 5

checkin

plaza

checkin marta station checkin food court

amphitheatre

stage

auditorium

retail

lobby security ofďŹ ces

ticketing/theatre ofďŹ ces

security checkpoint

exhibit hall 1 dining/ retail/ ofďŹ ces

bus transfer g3

eh 2

g2

g1

g4 eh 3

movement + perception

g5

[intersubjectivity]

eh 4

g6

s1

s2

g7

eh 5

bell

[54]

[conference center]

[airport terminal]

consulate offices

consulate offices

consulate offices

upper exhibition spaces

airport administration upper seating

upper lobby

federal aviation administration

transportation security administration

consulate offices airport administration federal departments

supplemental offices

banquet space 1

bs 2

bs 3

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bs 4

bs 5

bell

[55]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[56]

[north-south section]

[ c o m p o n e n t

a x o n ]

[steel girder] [tube steel superstructure]

[exterior cladding]

[steel secondary structure]

[light gauge steel canopy]

[tube steel pier superstructure] [steel girder truss substructure]

[upper lobby]

[exhibition hall]

[conference center main hall]]

[exhibition hall]

[auditorium]

[box office]

[lobby]

[LiteSteel速 Technologies lightweight spans] [marta]

[mechanical]

[prefab wall systems]

[amphitheatre]

[wall section detail] d e t a i l

s t u d y ]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

[upper lobby]

[conference center main hall]]

[marta]

[exhibition hall]

[exhibition hall]

[box office]

[auditorium] [lobby]

[mechanical]

[arrival + drop-off area] [amphitheatre]

bell

[57]

[conference center section]

[exterior cladding + glazing]

[primary tube steeled box truss structure]

[conference center] [reversible theatre]

[conference center spaces]

[marta airport north station] [baggage claim]

[checkin spaces]

[office/commercial] [retail/dining/office]

[community piers]

[terminal spces] [security checkpoint]

[plaza] [amphitheatre] [rainwater direction] [bioswale filstration channels]

[sports fields]

[ground plane]

[ground support] [maintenance/offices] [baggage processing] [remote gate access]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

[resevoirs]

[tarmac] [airline offices]

[outdoor marketspace]

[ c o m [component p o n e n t axon] a x o bell

[58]

[steel girder]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[59]

[airport approach_view south]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[60]

[terminal approach_view north]

With the more pragmatics of the whole system more reďŹ ned, the investigation now turns to its primary issue. The interfaces that occur between the more generative community program and the more rigid airport program are essential to this investigation. As such, the following drawings and collages emphasize several ideas embedded in the thesis.

The rendering collages highlight certain points, or moments of dislodgement, whereby the passive subject is presented with a perceptually tangible opportunity to momentarily disengage the passive global spaces. These occur throughout the airport and even in the conference center where a reversible theatre allows these events to spill out onto the plaza. This plaza is accessible to Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, a popular street in this area for pedestrian trafďŹ c.

The perspective drawing collages show the more crucial colliding of these programs at two points within the terminal spaces (one before the security checkpoint and one beyond). While depicting this interface, these drawings also depict the local adaptability and constructability of this system within its superstructure. Utilizing light-steel technologies and short spans, this system is adaptable and mutatable at the local scale by skilled community members.

The overall goal in this portion of the investigation is to tie the orginal research back into an architectural solution. These studies exemplify social agency on the societal level allowing the community and airport patrons the possibility to actively and critically engage their environment.

a r c h i t e c t u r e movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[61]

o f

p o s s i b i l i t y

[

i

n

t

c h a p t e r

e 9

r

f

a

c

e

]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[62]

[check-in pavillion interface with market and community spaces]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[63]

[security check in_community farms + housing]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[64]

[conference center_reversible theatre and amphitheatre]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[65]

[community pier]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

[sectional perspective_checkin-area] bell

[66]

[initial construction]

[community spaces below] [+5 years]

[community spaces below] [+10 years]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[67]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

[sectional perspective_concourse] bell

[68]

[initial construction]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

[community spaces] bell

[69]

[+5 years]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

[community spaces] bell

[70]

[+10 years]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[71]

[exploring the interface]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

[community interface] bell

[72]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

This ďŹ nal image embodies the concepts introduced at the beginning of the investigation.

How can architecture both dislodge the passive hypermodern subject and provide for agency in his or her physical, social, and architectural environment. This view from the airport terminal exempliďŹ es but one possibility inherent to this carefully-articulated interface between the generative and ontologically unstable community spaces and the secure and ontologically stable airport environment. This simple interface, and the mutations of relationships that it engenders, alters both systems and sets of users. In a highly segregated and compartmentalized neo-liberal city such as Atlanta, the local issues and realities are imposed upon the globally-homogenous and sensually sanitized spaces of travel. Travellers are faced with these realities and given an opportunity to respond or ignore. But the [73] key to this spatial schema is that the possibility exists.

[terminal interface]

The interface described within the exploration below returns the investigation to its initial premises.

Within the neo-liberal spaces of consumption, the subject receives meaning and modes of use from those that control these armatures. The notion both absolute rationality and neo-liberal entropy both yield systems that mediate subjective agency requires a third system that transgresses the aforementioned dialectic. However, negotiating a third possibility--the trialectic of local mutations to a global rationale--emerges that allows for a structured ambiguity.

As such, both systems function independently on the global scale--the airport and city are not destroyed and replaced. Moreover, the community spaces transgress these neo-liberal armatures of control such that generative relationships emerge through the violent juxtaposition of two such opposing systems. Bernard Tschumi deďŹ nes architecture as “the pleasureable and sometimes violent confrontation of spaces and activities.â€? And it is precisely these spatially violent confrontations that are necessary in order to dislodge the passive movement + perception subject from his or her socio-spatial environmental disjunction. [intersubjectivity]

bell

[74]

[conclusions]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[75]

[final presentation boards] c h a p t e r

10

[ p r o c e s s

b o a r d s ] bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

restoring the rights to the city through collective agency

life.happens.[here.]

[

o

d

u

l

a

r

i

t

y

can architecture and urbanism problematize the lationship between the subject and his or her physical, social, and urban environment by enabling collective agency to indefinitely alter the city? and what physical, social, and psychological implications attend such radical methods of seeing and using urban space?

thesis proposal

b o d y

action]

a s

as a generator

]

dialectical g l o b a l [ d i s] o r d e r

it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city It is, moreover, a common rather than individul right since the transformation inevitably depends on the excercis of collectrive power to reshape the process of urbanization.”

David Harvey

and

m

“although self-propelled, the locomotive’s path is deterdeter mined within strict boundaries...the subjects freedom of movement is restricted by the instrumentalized image of the city propagated under re-the reign ofGuy capital” Debord

“the right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources:

[perception

d e s i g n m e t h o d o l o g ymodularity

trialectics of local mutation

g e n e r a t o r [

h

i

e

r

a

r

c

h

y

] [

global

structure

+

local

mutations

]

[generating an interface]

[body as expression of meaning]

[global] e c o n o m i c

a i r p o r t

p r o g r a m ]

[global]

urban

structures

of

r a t i o n a l i z a t i o n d y n a m i c

movement]

[ n a t u r a l m o v e m e n t ] i r r e g u l a r i t i e s

_dynamic irregularities cognitive agency

a

l

i

e

n

a

t

i

o

in constant state of becoming

n

accommodates subsubjective agency

_normative irregularities street/edge/landmark ontologically secure

[radically seeing and using space] g e n r a t i v e

othered to the subject

a c t i o n

[ l o c a l ]

s y s t e m

i n t e r f a c e ]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

[connectivity]

buford highway_10 chamblee-tucker_18 chamblee dunwoody_8 A V E R A G E _ 2 . 3 2

psychogeographical map of vine city, atlanta ethan gray and rodney bell _ focus studio _ fall

[integration hh]

ga 2010

buford highway_0.76 chamblee-tucker_0.73 chamblee dunwoody_0.65 A V E R A G E _ 0 . 4 9

buford highway_10 n. peachtree_3 chamblee-tucker_17 chamblee dunw o o d y _ 8 AV E R A G E _ 2 . 2 9

bell

[76]

the meeting of bodies on such “mutually exclusive terms could even ”dislocate the most conservative elements in society” Bernard Tschumi

buford highway_0.68 chamblee-tucker_0.66 chamblee dunw o o d y _ 0 . 5 8 AV E R A G E _ 0 . 4 3

[site analysis / case studies] bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

c o n t e x t e x a m i n e dc u l t u r a l

[general

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

case studiest

mutations

conditions]

r a n s i e n t

s p a t i a l i t i e s

_economically irrational space _generateive spatial logic

[housing_median year built] 1963-1973

[population density] 1,908+ [home ownership] 45(-) %

[rental units less than 300 dollars per month] 30.82+ %

[home values] less than $60K site

_developed ‘ad-hoc’ to accommodate current needs _constant state of ontological becoming _irrational circulation _insignificance of single unit _dialogue with environmental surroundings _heterotopic exception to a dominant system

[rates of poverty] 21.64+ %

“my idea of utopia, or, an ideal state of conditions for humans, is not based on a harmonious melding of conflicting conditions, but rather on a free ‘dialogue,’ or open interaction between them” -Lebbeus Woods

[income] 16,323(-)/year

[unemployment] v9.6 % [chinese population] 4.45+ %

[hispanic population] 21.38+ %

site

[ p h o t o s

[burgulary statistics] 4,190.78/1000 ppl

f r o m

a

l e b b e u s w o o d s . w o r d p r e s s . c o m ]

n e w

l a n d s c a p e

u r b a n i s m ?

[ b a r r i o s | b o g o t a ]

_potential for social and human agency in times of crisis _quickly emergent _no official planning

[historical [ p r e - w a r

y e a r s ]

[ p o s t - w a r

y e a r s ]

context]

[ i n d u s t r i a l

g r o w t h ]

_repurposing of public spaces _forged new social relationships _new forms of possession

12 january 2010

_private property subsumed by community relations

[c. 1910]

[c. 1967]

[rising tides competition _ s a n f r a n c i s c o , c a ]

16 january 2010

16 january 2011

[competition entry by Manole Vo V roneanu and Bogdana Frunza]

[ p h o t o s

f r o m

l e b b e u s w o o d s . w o r d p r e s s . c o m ]

[ e m e r g e n t

_transgressing the dominant system, while preserving its operation

c i t i e s ]

_juxtoposition of two dialectical creates a diologue, exposing new relationships _problematizing beijing’s rapid development to its rich social history

movement + perception

[cultural mutations]

[intersubjectivity]

_lends possibility to this investigation through the opportunity afforded by preserving each system without hypothesizing either systems demise.

‘ p r o g r e s s ’ factory

798_bernard

tschumi_beijing

‘ h i s t o r y ’

_trivialized _highly-regulated _ontologically secure

bell

[77]

decontextualized_ neoliberalized_

_all rules/no exception

all exceptions/no rule_

_irregularity eliminated

system of irregularity_

_overly-concentrated

a

c

a

s

e

f

o

r

d

e

t

a

c

h

e

m

e

n

t

disposable ontology_

highly-fragmented_

[ t r a n s g r e s s i o n ]

[scheme(s) one + two] bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

design development

s c h e m e

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

design development

o n e

s c h e m e

t w o

This series involves the mapping of initial findings and responses onto the site in a purely gestural manner. Utilizing the sites restraint, the insularity of the airport program is manipulated such that it becomes woven into the site’s heterogeneity becoming multiple sites at multiple time frames. Taking the Lawson Memorial Hospital grid, none of which is still in existence-despite its historical and cultural siginificance--I developed a module that operates on a more tactile scale. I began also with the movement structures derived through the axial syntactic studies. Next, I began negotiating these relationships in section in order to merge these gestures in a more generative way. Finally, a sectional perspective study grounds this exploration to the human scale.

[insular airport p ro g r a m ]

20 degrees

[property restraints]

[grid

logic] This iteration responds to the rigidity and ambiguity with which each system (airport + community) is dealt in the design process.Rendering the strips as more mutatable allows more generative relationships to emerge.

This method of design allows for a more tactile response to site conditions.

airport program

spatial mutations

20 degrees

structures of movement

generative topography

existing surface

[proposed

[morphological components]

MARTA

line]

consulate

concourse

consulate space community use street

park spaces

ground support

ramp

drop-off/pick up baggage processing

baggage claim

concourse chambleetucker road

commerce

baggage claim

road

offices

chamblee chambleetucker road

main terminal

consulate

marta consulate

commerce terminal marta station community spaces offices

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[78]

commerce

community use spaces

street

community use spaces

street

housing

chamblee-dunwoody road

[scheme three + staging surface] bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

design development

s c h e m e

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

staging

t h r e e

1

the

1

3

neo-liberal

This image was taken at a nearby abandoned lot that locals have repurposed as several soccer fields.

3

5

[l

oc

al

cr

ee

ks

2

[indiangrass]

4

[bioswales]

A Georgia native species, indiangrass grows naturally with as little as two hours of sunlight per day and prevents site erosion.

[runoff reservoir]

After the water has been properly and naturally treated, resevoir storage makes it publicly accessilbe and safe for recreation, evidenced by this example in Boulder, Colorado.

4

5

development

[recreation fields]

2

This system responds to the notion of transgression. Accepting the economic volitility of the ground plane, perhaps a more effective strategy is to stage the ground plane as infrastructure while allowing a more generative urbanism to exist above. These structures articulated in this concept sketch provide for movement and program at the tangible level, constituting an environment that is more responsive and facilitative of social agency. The logic of this geometrical schema allows for fractally-expandable and contractible program to be added and taken away as needed. The superstructure, requiring considerable initial investment is programmatically elaborated upon at the operable scale of the community. Staging the ground surface and transgressing the development plane resists--rather than arguing against--future turnover to commercial development.

surface

resisting

These vegetative trenches direct and clean runoff water from the areas north of the site to prevent soil erosion and the percolation of runoff toxins into the soil and water table.

[constructed wetlands]

Artificial wetlands are an ecologically supportive waste management solution for both grayand black-water filtration from the airports’ discharge.

]

[peac

htree

creek

]

to c ha

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[79]

ttah

ooc

hee

rive

r >

[ p l a n s

+

bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

s e c t i o n s ]

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

k p d k

t e r m i n a l

p l a n ]

p r o p o s a l /

m a i n [ m a i n

p l a n s p l a n ]

[ u p p e r

p l a n ] ro

ad

]

[ g r o u n d

tre e

[chamblee-dunwoody road]

]

ch

ad

ort driv

e]

[sports fields] [plaza]

[p

[a

irp

[n

[exterior cladding + glazing]

ea

ro

pe

[blackburn way]

ee htr

ac

ew

[primary tube steeled box truss structure] [amphitheatre]

[chamblee-dunwoody road]

]

ad

ro

[conference center] [reversible theatre]

[a

pe

e]

ee htr

ac

ew

[n

ort driv

[conference center lobby] [stage area] [stage support]

irp

[conference center lobby]

[1200-seat auditorium]

[conference center spaces]

[theatre upper seating] [theatre lobby]

[theatre upper lobby]

[marta airport north station] [checkin spaces]

[baggage claim]

[ticketing/box office]

[office/commercial] [retail/dining/office] [exhibition 1]

[community piers]

[terminal spces] [exhibition space 6]

[information desk]

[security checkpoint]

[exhibition 2]

[blackburn way]

[exb 8]

[outdoor market space]

a

art

[m bro n

w

[exb 9]

[exhibition 3]

[plaza] [amphitheatre] [rainwater direction]

e

lin ex

[bioswale filstration channels]

te n]

io

ns

[exb10]

[m

[sports fields]

[exhibition 4]

[ground plane]

et

ark

[bus/transit drop-off]

dri

[exb11]

]

ve

[ground support] [maintenance/offices]

[information desk] [terminal plaza]

[coronado place]

[exhibition 5]

[baggage processing] [remote gate access]

[resevoirs]

[tarmac] [airline offices]

[outdoor marketspace]

[checkin]

[consulate space 1] [auto dropp-off]

[checkin]

[m

art

[baggage claim offices]

a

[burke terrace]

st

ati

[consulate space 2]

on

]

[ c o m p o n e n t

[rewards room]

a x o n ]

[checkin] [dining] [consulate space 3] [baggage claimv]

[ann drive]

[airport administration]

drive

]

[restaurant]

[steel girder] [tube steel superstructure]

[munday drive]

[exterior cladding]

[airp

ort

[business office]

[entrance]

[federal aviation administration]

[steel secondary structure] [dowdell drive]

[transportation security administration] [commercial]

[light gauge steel canopy]

[community alliance offices] [to concourse]

[offices]

[maintenance]

[tube steel pier superstructure]

[security offices] [retail]

[steel girder truss substructure]

[cafe] [security checkpoint]

[baggage processing] [offices] [remote gate access]

[airline maintenance offices]

[dispatch/crew rest areas]

[retail]

[concourse 2]

[chamblee-tucker road]

[LiteSteel速 Technologies lightweight spans] [tarmac]

[prefab wall systems]

[chamblee-tucker road]

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[80]

[ w a l l

d e t a i l

s t u d y ]

[s e c t i o n p e r s p e c t i v e s + s u m m a r y ] bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

bell | thesis | spring 2011 | advisors:

kpdk terminal

voroneanu + shpuza | southern polytechnic state university

proposal

c

architecture of possibility a r c h i t e c t u r e Thisoseries f attempts p oto investigate s s i bthe ipragmatic lity

o

n

c

l

u

s

i

o

exploring

n t h es

interface

unfolding of an architecture of possibility. Taking two prominent intersections within the airport and community piers, the investigation probes the idea of architecture responding day-to-day to the needs of the community while simultaneously intesecting with the global and passive space of the airport terminal. These systems maintain their own integrity and autonomy at times. However, at certain moments of intersection, access, and/or proximity, both systems mutate each other and engage in a dialogue, forcing the other to acknowledge--if not momentarily reconcile itself. It is these odd juxtopositions that create moments of dislocation for the passive airport subject such that he or she may temporarily inhabit or interact in a more intersubjective way with his environment, free from the non-place.

Furthermore, the investigations projects future possibilities of these community spaces evolving unto their own more generative logic within the superstructure. Notions of constructability and modularity are clarified here in order to understand how the community can operate, expand, and contract within this superstructure without the need of large construction equipment.

[ c o n c l u s i o n s ]

Finally, depicted here is the relationship of the piers with the landscape. As the landscape is staged as public infrastructure, it performs more utilitarian functions while also presenting a public park space for varying recreation uses.

neo-liberal armatures of control such that generative relationships emerge through the violent juxtaposition of two such opposing systems. Bernard Tschumi defines architecture as “the pleasureable and sometimes violent confrontation of spaces and that are necessary in order to dislodge the passive subject from his or her socio-spatial environmen-

[initial construction]

[+

five

years]

[operable gate]

[semi-transparent plexiglass]

[semi-transparent plexiglass]

[+

ten

years]

[upper lobby]

[conference center main hall]]

[marta]

[exhibition hall]

[exhibition hall]

[box office]

[auditorium] [lobby]

[mechanical]

[arrival + drop-off area] [amphitheatre]

[conference center section]

[dislodging the passive subject]

[dislodging the passive subject] [outdoor

movement + perception

[intersubjectivity]

bell

[81]

amphitheatre]

airport checkin-market access]

[airport security]

[community

spaces]

[community

interface]

[terminal

interface]

[ b i b l i o g r a p h y ]

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1992.

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Castells, Manuel. The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture, Vol. I. Wiley-Blackwell: West Sussex. 2000.

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Earl, Joe. “Garden Evokes a Faraway Homeland.” Atlanta Journal Constitution. 2001 Edwards, Brian. The Modern Airport Terminal: New Approaches to Airport Architecture. Second Edition. Span Press: New York. 2005.

[82]

“Recollections of Decatur and Dekalb from 1902-1962” The New Era & North Dekalb Record. 6 April 1967.

Sager, Brenda. “Chamblee Crime Shrinks as Immigrants Grow.” Atlanta Journal Constitution. 2001.

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McDonough, Tom. Guy Debord and the Situationists International: Texts and Documents. The MIT Press: Cambridge. 2004.

bell

Rabil, Albert. Merleau-Ponty: Existentialist of the Social World. Columbia University Press: New York. 1967.

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Macann, Christopher. ed. Four Phenomenological Philosophers: Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty. Routledge: London and New York. 1993.

[intersubjectivity]

Purvis, Dolly. “Plan is Moving Forward.” Decatur New Era. 1995.

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1973.

Hubbard, Tom. “Chamblee Enjoying Industrial Growth.” The Atlanta Times. 1964.

movement + perception

Prix, Wolf D. Kandeler-Fritsch, Martina, ed. Kramer, Thomas. Ed. Swiczinky, Helmut.

Ed. Get Off My Cloud: Coop Himmelb[l]lau Texts 1968-2005. Hetje Cantz Publishers: Ostfildern. 2006.

Pease, Major J. H. Fort Gordon: Construction Quartermasters Report.1917.

Vigle, Laurence. “Chamblee Launches Battle.” Atlanta Journal Constitution. 1992.

Woods, Lebbeus. “The Barrios of Bogota.” Lebbeus Woods. 8 February 2011. <http:// lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/the-barrios-of-bogota/>