PartiPris. atelier of architecture and urban design
All images and texts Š 2009-2014 Gianmaria Socci & Andrijana Sekulic.
PartiPris
Gianmaria Socci & Andrijana Sekulic Atelier of Architecture and Urban Design
Registered Office, via Dei Tornei 13, 60020, Offagna (AN), Italy info@partipris.eu www.partipris.eu (+39) 335 6915714 (+382) 69 693517
PRACTICE We provide architectural services for both private and institutional clients, for any scale and budget. We invest considerable effort in every project, with professional attitude and passionate dedication. Our practice counts on a flexible organization with experts in every relevant field freely adjoining according to specific needs. We are thus able to fulfill the most difficult tasks and challenges, using advanced tools and a critical knowledge. Our core expertise is Strategic Planning and Urban Design in complex scenarios, although we can count on a wide range of consultancies within our practice, covering Urban Economy, Administrative Management, Social and Digital Innovation, Landscape Design, Transport Planning, Energetic Sustainability and Architectural Design.
MINDSET We believe in the ability of Architecture to make changes. We believe that cities are the material manifestation of a specific attitude towards the world and the society. On the other hand we are aware of operating within a cultural heritage and we respect it, as well as its tradition and its aesthetic language. We believe in Beauty, as outdated as it might sound, and we understand that it only arises from answering the right questions. We are skeptical about reductionism while we do believe in complexity. We like stratifications, contaminations and translations and we are accostumed to efficiently operate within them. We aim for our projects to live their own lives.
PARK OF FRIENDSHIP Client: Rotary Club of Montenegro Bar (MNE) 2014
Regarding the evocation and revaluation of the green areas in the city center, the Antivari or Old town of Bar has a great influence. Here natural green invasion of climbers, low vegetation, olive trees along with stone construction creates an image of reciprocal respect between nature and man. This phenomena will be revived in new park of the city of Bar. The future park will be also an important knot of cultural manifestations (summer scene, workshops, children recreation) and participation. The theme “friendship� has been declined into five programmatic points. Friendship between nature and construction- architecture and nature formally collaborate whereas they differ for materiality which makes their own identity to arise. This way the two forms coexists and respect each other. Friendship between modernity and tradition- Inspired
by the fortification of old Bar, using the traditional stone construction , we want through a new vision of architecture to revive tradition. Friendship between technology and manufacturingWe want craftsmanship to regain the great cultural value it used to have in the past. New global technologies in collaboration with local manufacture, can raise the value of the place and create a strong identity. Friendship between light and shadows- Plays of light and shadows are always presented in the park. It creates a dynamic atmosphere where activities adapt to temperature and light. Friendship between play and relax- The park should be the collective place where people meet, chat, share ideas and opinions. But the park is also the place to be alone with nature, enjoy your privacy and express individualism.
East Waterfront
West Waterfront
THOROUGHLY GABICCE. New waterfront and general urban strategy for a small touristic city Gabicce Mare (IT) 2013. Competition Finalist. Area: ca 60 ha. Status: Ongoing final competition stage. Client: Gabicce Mare municipality. In collaboration with: Marchingegno, ComeOnArchitects.
Gabicce Mare is a small coastal city on the Adriatic sea that relies completely on the tourists influx during the summer season. During the roaring years of great touristic development, specially in the ‘70s, the settlement has grown unplanned and chaotic according to the individual longing of the local owners, who, out of the blue, found themselves Hotel managers. This resulted in an extremely dense fabric and in an objective difficulty to feel the sea from within the city. On the other hand the locality is placed in an exceptional spot along the Adriatic coast, as the San Bartolo hill, a natural reservoir, breaks the monotonous, flat, sandy landscape of the well known beaches of the Emilia Romagna region. Given the beautiful natural setting and the numerous touristic facilities, the proposal focused on restoring the lost balance between nature and urbanity in order to achieve a
coherent ecosystem that, while preserving the existing assets, will successfully compete with the glittering, all aperitif and disco, neighbouring cities. The urban strategy focuses on a suturing approach. Five trasversal squares are identified and enhanced in the existing fabric: trough small demolitions, surface treatements and levels adjustemnt these places creates iconic voids amid the too dense buildings and reconnect the rear city to the sea, both visually and physically. The squares are perpendicularly tied by the new waterfront. This promenade extends the mediterranean landscape of San Bortolo right trough the city, and gently creates an hybrid space of transition between the tall hotels and the soft beach. The swimming facilities as well as bars and restaurant become integral part of the system as they facilitate the access to the beach and merge into the natural environment.
OBSTACLE fragments of natural and urban public space are parallel to the sea but have no relation with it.
MOVEMENT The new viability diverts the traffic out of the central area. A new roundabout evenly distributes fluxus and serves the new underground parking.
CROSSING Proposed public spaces open up direct accesses to the beach with visual corridors. The squares are joints between the fragments.
UNITY In between the crossing, new parallel landscaped promenades arise. The new waterfront ties the punctual interventions in a territorial unity.
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West Waterfront
1.Dock square 2.Palm square 3.Mississipi square 4.Town Hall square 5.Piazza Giardini d’Italia 6.Extreme Sport square
East Waterfront
West Waterfront
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DOCK SQUARE The existing dock, deprived of its funcional role, doesn’t integrate in the experience of the city despite the sublime views it offers. The proposal make it inhabitable with minimum interventions that add the necessary comfort without negating its rough character.
PALMS SQUARE Taking advantage of the only enlargement along the old waterfront, a urban living room is placed here in order to let people relax and enjoy the breeze. The square, defined by a palm forest arranged in regular grid, acts as a pause along the night and day promenade.
MISSISSIPI SQUARE Aiming to reconquest the seaside, this square starts from a quiet shaded place to reach, trough a long catwalk, the abandoned “Mississipi� building on the water. The latter is renewed to host a beach club able to attract people even in the winter months.
TOWNHOUSE SQUARE Laying at the core of the settlement, this plaza connects the three promenades with the main access to the city. Its institutional role is underlined by the enlargement, suitable for shows and gatherings, and by the direct view of the beach trough a great staircase.
GIARDINI D’ITALIA SQUARE The square is a pivotal joint in the proposal, as it manages to climb with a gentle plane the great hight difference between the higher city areas and the beach. A hidden elevator grants access for all.
EXTREME SPORTS SQUARE As counterpoint to the more urbanized plazas, this place stands as the outpost to the discovery of San Bartolo natural reservoir. Here the aquatic sports find their facilities and old styled caravels bring the tourists to inaccessible beaches at the foot of the hill.
East Waterfront
West Waterfront
SOCIAL MARKET. Urban reactivation and mixed used development for a former industrial area. Milan (IT) 2013. Competition 1st prize. Area: 110 ha. Status: Stakeholders negotiation. Client: Confcooperative Lombardia
The city is like a huge market: a place where knowledge, experience and ideas are endlessly exchanged thanks to an ever deeper analogical and digital infrastructure. This is the background within which Rogoredo -a growing suburb of Milan- is likely to develop into an attractive creative and productive centre. A strong perimeter infrastructure allows for new connections to regenerate the existing fabric while on the other hand it defines a border, a new strong identity for the entire neighbourhood. The open space becomes the opportunity for new hybrid social practices to emerge. The public/private relation is shaped by a gradient of privacy levels, thanks to diverse floor treatments and height levels. A paved plane extends in between the building blocks to serve the commercial areas. The array of small shops, the big market hall, bars and restaurants, the Guest House, the Agora, the Play House, the Wellness House, the Ideas Workshop, shapes a complex and rich urban environment.
ACTIVE BOUNDARY
Complimentarily, vast green surfaces seeps into the urban courtyards and link the interior with the exterior of the blocks. As the mobility hubs are located along the reinforced perimeter, a dense fabric of paths constitutes a whole car free core within the area. The residential blocks enhance the traditional Milanese courtyard: a sequence of “gates� growing in privacy, from the public courtyard, trough community’s amenities on the staircase, trough the distributing galleries to individual entrances, grants an appropriate mediation to the intimacy of actual flats. The intervention is conceived as a complex social organism where shared amenities enrich the private modular dwellings Alongside with the physical intervention, a collaborative digital platform is implemented at the inhabitants disposal: the Digital Market, App and social network, works as a sharing management system to maximize the efficiency of collaborative social behaviours among the inhabitants.
NEIGHBOURHOOD GATES
1. Rogoredo tower 2. Ideas workshop 3. Start up house 4. Flexible dwellings 5. Active market 6. Rogoredo hotel 7. Medical device 8. Rebuscin house 9. Rogoredo 2.0 10. Eco island 11. Rogoredo sport club 12. Trapezoid park 13. Santa Giulia library 14. Cars hub
MOBILITY HUBS
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COMMON FACILITIES 1. Kitchen 2. Laundry 3. Meeting 4. Office 5. Gym
FLEXIBLE APARTMENTS
module
90m2
150m2
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30m2 3
120m
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social galleries
flexible dwellings
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active faรงade 1
Cooperative services scheme
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RETHINK ATHENS. Reconstruction of the main boulevard and of three major squares in the center of Athens. Athens (GR) 2013. Competition, Special Mention (3rd Prize ex-aequo). Area: ca 13 ha Client: Athens municipality, Onassis foundation. In collaboration with: AlsoKnownAs Architects
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awaken hibernating potential for activities to shape the surrounding territory that will be unburdened of the existing restrictions to constitute a field enriched with traces of the city’s memories. Technology carries along great potential for re-establishing the bond of citizens with the city; by grafting the infrastructure, which is an effective, costly and permanent intervention, the city will be provided with a framework for spontaneous appropriation. Along with the tramline an infrastructural spine is created for small-scale elements to be plugged-in and serve people’s contemporary daily needs as expressed and modified in terms of locality and weather conditions. The mild Mediterranean climate expressed in a virtual nine-month summer instilled an innate gregariousness thereby affecting the character of their activities and the way they are spatially manifested. Kitchens, tables, lounge chairs, workstations, bathrooms, ponds, projectors, power sockets and Wi-Fi, water fountains, herb gardens, bike repairing stations, gyms create a habitable environment. A phased construction approach allows the proposal’s basic tenets to adapt to any concurrent social, economic and political changes without interrupting the fluidity of experiencing the urban reality. The expected appropriation will trigger people’s creativity, stimulate small-scale productions and revive arts and crafts for an alternative lifestyle. It will create the premises for a new practice of democracy, one interwoven with everyday life.
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The city is the spatial manifestation of the relationship between people and power and results as the stratification of consecutive political visions. Democracy has nowadays lost its connection with the urban daily life and it is mostly sustained without people’s involvement; consequently, public space is perceived as the manifestation of decision-makers and people find it hard to claim their right to it. The recent riots in Greece show how citizenship is now expressed through frustration and friction, as a reaction to topdown decisions, without being constructive. Historically public space was more important than private space; in the Agora, Stoa was the place for discussion and exchange, surrounded by daily activities that constituted the core of the society. The direct democracy of ancient Greece could be the reference for a contemporary urban model which includes members of all age and social groups, in which stoa as its spatial consequence inspires a new approach to public space. Big urban gestures express a top-down set of mind and tend to neglect the existing layering of the urban realm. The latter resembles a palimpsest that includes successive materialization of the social economical and political conditions that prevailed from ancient Greece to the modern era. However the current economic and social situation asks for flexible and cost-effective solutions that rely on people’s contribution. The crisis should be dealt with as an opportunity to introduce an additive approach that would lead to a greater benefit out of the minimum intervention. The proposal provides an intense linear space that will
Meeting point
Linear spine
Punctual intervention
Diffuse equipment
Activity nurseries
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Masterplan 1.Korai square 2.Dikaiosynis square 3.Omonia square
OMONOIA SQUARE The flux of people, on the square’s ground level was until now limited to the perimeter, whereas the real hustle and bustle was taking place in the underground centre of the station. To bring this activity to light, a crater is formed by lifting the square roof- lid off the ground, thus imbuing Omonoia Square with a long lost centripetal dynamic. Part of this dynamic is the transition from the Panepistimiou “forest” area to a clearing where the outlook of the cascading ponds merges with the reflecting pool in the centre of the square’s plateau to create a unifying horizon. The simple and explicit design gesture strengthens its function and character as an urban plaza.
KORAI SQUARE Korai due to its psition between two major city nodes, is bound to play a pivotal role. By introducing a linking element in the form of a light metal passageway housing a bike parking, Korai emerges as a piece of connective tissue between two main urban organs enabling them to act in unison. The increasing use of the bicycle as transport mean reinforces the hub like character of this walkway.
DYKAIOSSINIS SQUARE A place formerly perceived as bland and dispersed where nobody would enter, is being walled to trigger people’s curiosity. Once inside, the wall contains facilities for small art and craft workshops, that provide an outlet for creative ventures. Anew kind of active appropriation of urban space it thus enabled, with a moltitude of craftmanship items created, reinserting the small scale manifacture in the inhabitants experience.
Having lunch after a Mass, outside Agios Dionysios Catholic church on Panepistimiou Street
Enjoying a dusky outlook on a sea of green from a wooden terrace
Arts and crafts explored in the cool shade of Dikaiosynis workshop courtyard on a hot summer noon
Recreation time under the green shading “forest” canopy near Panepistimiou’s intersection with Omonoia Square
Book lockers and reading desks sprawling around a book nursery form the backbone of the “Book Crossing” exchange movement
A cool breeze emanating from Omonoia’s Metro station water curtain, offers relief to the crossing of the square’s plateau
NEW INTERFACES IN CIDADE DE DEUS. Social Housing upgrading and public space making with community involvement. Rio de Janeiro (BRA) 2012. ETH Urban Design Research, Zürich. Area: 120.58 ha Status: the project was embraced within the municipality’s guidelines for informal settlement upgrading.
Established in the 1960’s with a modernistic masterplan, the popular neighbourhood of Cidade de Deus in Rio de Janeiro failed to accommodate the population needs both functionally and socially. The double slab buildings set in place were mono functional residential units lacking any connection to the urban life. The space between them, an empty field. During the years the inhabitants struggled to make this space suitable for they lives, extending their houses to accommodate growing families, attacking the empty space with illegal shops, workshops, verandas, tavernas and garages and lodgings. Reading the evolutionary process, we recognized the paradigm of the defective design in the sharp separation of private from public, built from void, defined from undefined.
1960 The original set up repeats the same typology without any care about the open air spaces.
We translate the informal pattern of add-ons into a different scale, building a medievally formal framework that undoes the modernistic master plan and admits informal appropriation. The ultimate goal is to thicken the “boundary line”, to turn it from separation into a seamless transition from public to private and from outdoor to indoor. The new elements acting between the urban and domestic realm, affect both of them reshuffling the apartments from the inside and giving a new public face to the outside, and eventually creating a new urban space. Clusters of buildings surround the newly shaped plazas and the relative residents constitute social cooperatives to run specific activities in each place, ultimately building up an autonomous system of urban facilities.
2012 The informal buildings extend from the slabs or occupy empty spots, giving character to the voids, turning them into public places.
Cidade de Deus in 2012: the informal additions are unnoticeable from the original buildings.
SHELVES
A non-invasive framework is set in place to stress and encourage the on-going process.
INFORMAL PLAZAS
The spontaneous informalization attacks the empty space and expands the interiors. At the same time, the in-between open areas gain a public face.
MODERNISTIC Public and private are separated by a sharp boundary.
EXTENSIONS CATALOGUE Facade extension
Apartments shift
LONG F ACADE EXTENSIONS
DOUBLE SLAB APARTMENT REDEFINED
Ground floor extension
LONG F ACADE EXTENSIONS
Green shelter
FREE STANDING
LONG F ACADE GREEN FACE
URBAN ROOMS
Freestanding building
Urban room
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BLIND FACADE
Blind facade EXTENSIONS extension
DOUBLE SLAB REPROGRAMMED
Slab Reprogramming
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URBAN ROOF
PLAN ADAPTABILITY
Boundary adaptability
Urban roof
NEIGHBOURHOOD ACCESSIBILITY
Local connections Access for cars/fire brigades/trucks Alleyway width 4m Pedestrian commercial streets width 6m Cooperative squares Garbage collection
COOPERATIVE SYSTEM
Masterplan axonometry
TYPOLOGY CROSS SECTION. The existing double-slab building is radically updated by the addition of an external, self-supporting shelf structure. The main structural system, including staircases, is preserved, but the added surface opens possibilities for a reshuffle of the internal organization. Keeping the position of the piping, an infrastructural ring of fixture runs trough the building, allowing flexibility, encouraging a wide variety of apartment types.
Model (in brown are the existing slabs)
Typical floor plan (preserved in black)
COMPLEX CITY. Analysis and design proposals for a multifunctional centrality in Ilford, London. London (UK) 2012. FAF Urban Design Research. Area: ca 4,3 ha.
In our complex Century we are speaking about global cities where the impact of the social processes deeply influences the urban development. It’s a Century where the network is the basic premise for an ongoing radical transformation. The issues of local urbanism -immigration, employment, social marginality, sustainability- nowadays have a large scale influence and need to be studied by looking at Global Cities as complementary knots of a wider network. The networks tend to be physically separated but functionally connected: as a consequence they can make stronger connections between different Global Cities than within the territory to which they belong. This case study focuses on the relations between the network of visibility (economic, society, governance) and the one of invisibility (territorial morphology and infrastructure), on their
mutual influence regardless of the scale. The purpose is to demonstrate how those complex networks can be read in the case study of London 2012, the first Global City in Europe. The analysis investigates the central structure of Ilford, its socioeconomic set-up as public facilities distribution and population diversity, in order to understand the intrinsic potentials of this new London hub. The relation between spatial components and functional needs is the starting point for a strategic intervention in the opportunity area, in sight of the upcoming high-speed rail station. Through the elaboration of typological “working class” block and spatial collective hybridization, the planning intervention aims to give birth to a new form of urban quality able to conjugate global corridors with local hierarchy in one complex urban catalyst.
POPULATION (in milions) 1 5 10
-0.1
st petersburg
+1
GROWTH (person per hour)
london
-1
0
beijing
-0.4 seul
+12
+9
+49
+2.4 dubai
+19
-0.3
cairo
havana
+10
+21
khartoum
+16
+40
bogotà
+10
+3
istanbul
new york city
mexico city
+20
kharkiv
berlin
dehli
+48
karachi
+44
+35
calcutta
+30
+25
+50
shanghai
dhaka
+43 +21
tokyo
+26
-1.2
bangkok
manila
mumbai
YEAR
nairobi
lagos
+22
das es salaam
+12
+12
1950
jakarta
lima
+11 +3.2
santiago
são paulo
+3
1990
johannesburg
+3
sydney
2025
FOREGIN INVESTMENTS (in millions of USD) 200 000 40 000 16 000 4 000 YEAR 1980 1988
EUROPEAN URBAN SYSYEM
NETWORK STRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT center
strong relation increasing relation selective relation supporting relation underlying relation potentional relation break
urban region
centrifugal model-rhine ruhr
centripetal model-london
break relevant integrated system consolidated system blue banana strategic node
incorporation model-rantad
EAST LONDON PLAN station crossrail line mainline railway central line distict line DLR major road motorway cycle way metropolitan centre major centre district centre local centre major watercourse green belt and metropolitan open land deprived area | brownfield existing community place
Ilford Local And Urban Services
Ilford Housing Fabric
olympics as a global catalyst
TEMPORARY PARASITE
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FOOTPRINT 2012
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mall as an opportunity
parking as a colonized space
STATUS: olympic influence, cross rail in progress STRATEGY: punctual intervention ACTION: colonization REACTION: temporary centrality
horizontally as local facilities
FOOTPRINT 2018 STATUS: post olympics, crossrail arrival STRATEGY: emptying intervention ACTION: reconnection REACTION: complex density
working class as a wide spread
COMPLEX DENSITY
verticality as a global service synergy as a polar intervention
HYBRID CLUSTER garden as a necessity
FOOTPRINT 2025 STATUS: crossrail effect, ilford gateway STRATEGY: disperse intervention ACTION: polarization REACTION: hybrid cluster
vertical living as a preference
urban space as a collector
transport as a magnet
Ground floor plan
Inner courtyard of the Hybrid Cluster
LINHA METROPOLITANA DE TIJUCA. Strategic Planning for a new city, negotiating between favelas and real estate developers. Rio de Janeiro (BRA) 2011. ETH Urban Design Research, Zürich. Area: ca 6,5 km2
How would you like to have a “favelado” as neighbour? What if the poor could afford a luxurious lifestyle? What if the rich could enjoy the favela street life? An empty space, claimed under the pressure of real estate developers of “Barra de Tijuca” on one side and by a growing popular city (Cidade de Deus) on the other, becomes the occasion to test a new hybrid city, negotiating the modern (and modernist) lifestyle of the “condominium feçado”
(gated high-rise) with the intense social life of the favela, and defining a strong physical border in order to preserve the existing void, considered an important asset in its own. Social behaviours are related to typologies, and the mix of types becomes mix of lifestyles as “islands” with peculiar characters interlock with each other. The informal modifications of formal buildings are used as a tool to develop usual types into a brand new urban fabric.
DENSITY COMPARISON. Taking position to preserve the huge existing void in the middle, while providing both developers and slum dweller with extra space, puts the issue of density at the core of the project. The proposal refuses the homogeneous, mid-sized, emptyoffices-filled fabric of contemporary real estate developments, and concentrate the construction along the existing infrastructure preserving the hollow centre. The linear structure of the new development literary connects the poor north with the rich south and allows for unpredictable hybrids to emerge.
Centro Metropolitano de Barra. FAR 1.2 Real Estate approved project.
Single Story Building. FAR 1 Covering the whole surface.
12x Burji Kalifa, Dubai. FAR 5.2 A 10km tall skyscraper.
12x Parliament Palace, Bucharest. FAR 5.3 World’s largest civilian building.
11.5x Plan Voisin. FAR 7.2 Le Corbu’s 60 stories skyscraper.
Linha Metropolitana de Barra. FAR 2.7 Counter Proposal.
popular neighbourhoods
Barra de Tijuca
The new dense city protects a virgin wetland
City of God
Hybrid City
Preserved Void
Barra de Tijuca Masterplan
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Typological layering
Urban villages
Infrastructural network
Punctual entities
1.preserved void 2.high density slab 3.medium density fabric 4.facilities 5 green belt 6 big boxes
1.downtown 2.suburbs 3.civic centre 4.condominiums 5.production
1.river 2.light rail,main axis 3.bike path 4.highway 5.regional road 6.city gate 7.civic boulevard 8.rural path
1.plaza and library 2.sport centre 3.market 4.stadium 5.mall 6.mountain 7.s.e.s.c. 8.arena 9.picnic area
Model
ELECTRICITY OF DETROIT. Territorial strategy for a new spatial and transportational organization of the shrinking city. Detroit (USA) 2010. FAF Ferrara Urban Design Research. Area: ca 1180 km2
Assumed that “The Infrastructure” is the power unit of the American city, the “sine-qua-non” condition, as one of the former leading city shrinks to a pre-urban state, the Project aims to maintain its main structure and to reshape it around the same structure. We stated to reveal the hidden meanings of the infratructure and to fiund new uses, by focusing our efforts on the service spaces, the left-overs, the scraps that the engineering work necessarily demands. Everything that sits inside the block (“isolato” in Italian, isolated in the litterary and metaphorical meaning of the word) will be shaped by uncontrollable, already on-going, processes (the return of “The Wild” somewhere, the birth
Vision 2050: The proposed strategy defines a new perimeter.
of artificial worlds somewhere else) . The Project’s ambition is to show the natural evolution of a system creating urbanity trough pure connection, a system which carefully avoids congestion but which gives an open support to unpredictable spaces. If the actual demographic decline keeps going, the next Detroit will be a smaller, but not less broad, city, with a new relation with nature, no more opposed to its network but mingled with it. Detroit will be a city anyway if it maintains its back-bone in which the real urban life takes place: a Perimeter of Urbanity will garrison a wild territory and the Infrastructure will turn into the object of the city itself instead of a mere service.
1’849’568
1’800’000
miles of built roads population
1’400’000 1’200’000 1’000’000
951’270
800’000 600’000 400’000 200’000
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285’704
0
180
0
185
0
190
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80%
of congested roads
20%
of congested roads
BOUNDARY A new infrastructure layout coagulates interest around a defined perimeter
HIERARCHY The inputs from analysis are taken as guide-lines to stimulate the on-going differentiation
CONGESTION Although the metropolis appears formless, the statistics revealed that a peculiar “field” of activity is clearly concentrated around a recognizable area. Traffic shows where Life is.
0
200
POTENTIAL
1’600’000
3’067 miles
THE INFRASTRUCTURAL NETWORK
We stated to focus our efforts on the infrastructure as we felt it to be the sole public field in a more and more private city; besides, as the graph shows above, while the population decreased, the miles of road kept growing leaving a potential, large public space in-between. The project aims to create a new Urban Perimeter which would give Identity to a new Metro-City by re-marking three existing roads. The Perimeter will become an axial attractor for the public facilities while acting as a boundary against the uncontrolled expansion of the city. His infrastructural nature will connect the existing realities among them and on a larger scale to the national high-speed rail network.
THE INHABITED TERRITORY
4’425’100 inhabitants
1’291’500 inhabitants
10’135 km2
630 km2
437 inh/km2
2015 2025 Grand Central Station, Key Infrastructural connecting the local and Knots the national system
Grand Central Station.
THE NEW METRO-CITY
2040 An Urban Perimeter
2050 inh/km2
2050 Three different linear cities, one transport system
PATTERNS
The Infrastructure seeps into the existing urban texture re-defining and consolidating its pattern according to the character deduced from the analysis: it results in a different relations road/block for each one of the main axis.
URBAN CENTERS Woodward Ave. RURAL PARKWAY Hall Road SUBURBAN LANDMARKS Gratiot Ave.
Mt Clemens
MIXED ELECTRIC TRANSPORT
Following Obama’s recent investments in electric vehicles development, the project tries to head the transport energies to a coherent urban organisation. Each “station” declines itself according to its surroundings, becoming, first, an aggregation point for an ever moving society.
New Urban Light Rail
Pontiac
Interstate 94 Montana-Canada Main urban Roadway Regional Commuter Rail Interstate high-speed Rail
OPPORTUNITIES
One of the project’s main challenge is to generate an urban transformation without modifying the urban texture itself. All the efforts are spent in the spaces in-between the proper living areas and the infrastructure, finally making them touch. This would eventually create a new network overlaying the old city’s fabric.
Schools and Universities Entertainment Industrial Fields Parks and Cemeteries Hospitals and Clinics Shopping Malls
Downtown Detroit
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