The Aircraft Carrier

Javier Cardiel

The reference I use as main device, for generating a high density city, is the Santa Monica Pier. I understood the project as not only pursuing the acceleration of high-densification, but also extending the city. Being an extension of the city is the main feature of a pier, a way of creating artificial-land!

The aim was to use real buildings and architectural objects to design a “new” city based on existing references . This is why the secondary device used is Aircraft Carriers. An aircraft carrier is an independent artifact that represents a strong relationship among “city”, “density” and “artificial-land”. By accelerating my main device (creation of artificial–land, like a pier) and using aircraft carriers generated a mega-artificial-island that has life both in exterior and interior.

In order to make the project real and plausible, I adapted the city to Aircraft Carrier’s deck organization and subdivisions by using its actual layout and applying the urban regulation with respect to the carrier’s original layout. Every deck deals with property in a different way.

From an urban fabric like New York City or Los Angeles in which there is a grid division of land between public and private space, between street and housing; hallway and rooms. Other case is the central piazza or big open public space as Central Park in New York City, the public space is delimited by private portions of land; this sample has a different nuance in the carrier’s case because there is a straight relationship between open public space and private, there is no such existence of streets. Last situation is a special case of communal houses; public space is shared by a certain number of houses or private spaces, middle areas are owned by different people, which means there is a free movement through shared pieces of ground.

In my opinion, density looks like multiple cities. From my understanding through the analysis done along the project, density is diversity. Within the city, “density” does not mean only compact, lots of buildings, dwellings, windows, citizens… but, in a sense, it means anyone can live in the way they want to live. Density should look like multiple cities inside a bigger one.