DRAFT_INFORMAL by Isaac Tejeira

IN FORMAL a recipe for an urban condenser

Bachelor of Architecture May 2019

IN FORMAL a recipe for an urban condenser

Bachelor of Architecture May 2019 1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis would have not been possible without the help of a few important people. Special thank you to Professor Henry Richardson and Professor Aleksandr Mergold for your fantastic advice and support throughout my Cornell years. Thanks to my parents for the unconditional love that you have given me in happy and sad times. This one goes for you two, because I will always do my best to make you two proud! Thank you Erin for being such a great support throughout these years, could not have done it without you. Many thanks to my thesis helpers Jeniffer Carmona and Jully Chen for all of your great work and having patience with me at crucial times.

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT

LIMA URBAN ACUPUNCTURE GAMARRA VILLA EL SALVADOR FRAMEWORK AND MUTATION

ABSTRACT

IN-FORMAL FOCUSES ON EXPLORING THE RE-URBANIZATION OF VILLA EL SALVADOR IN LIMA PERU, AS A CASE STUDY OF AN EXTREME URBAN FRAME IN LATIN AMERICA. RATHER THAN ERASING OPERATIONAL ORGANISMS, IT UTILIZES THE UNUSED SPACES AND VOIDS PROVIDED BY THESE “SOCIAL MACHINES” AND TO HYPOTHESIZE ARCHITECTURAL OPPORTUNITIES AND POSSIBILITIES THAT WILL MORPH INTO A COMMERCIAL HUB, ULTIMATELY ADAPTING TO DAILY DESIRES AND POTENTIAL ECONOMIC GROWTH. IN-FORMAL CONSIDERS HOW PLANNED URBANISM RESPONDS TO CHANGES IN ITS CULTURE, CITIZEN ADAPTABILITY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS, AIMING TO ADDRESS NEW WAYS OF RE-URBANIZATION IN THE FORM OF INTRODUCING FRAMEWORKS THAT CHALLENGE THE ROLES OF ARCHITECTS AND DEVELOPERS, TO PROVIDE NEW DENSIFIED COMMERCE IN THE AREA. THE FRAMEWORK OFFERS RIGOROUS SETS OF ITERATIONS BY BRINGING LINEAR TYPOLOGIES AS INFRASTRUCTURES FOR THE FUTURE CITIZENS OCCUPYING THE POTENTIAL MINI-CITIES. THE PROPOSAL IS SPECULATIVE, AS THE CITIZENS MAY MODIFY, INFILL AND INVENT A VIBRANT CENTER ACCORDING TO THE CITY’S NEEDS, ULTIMATELY MUTATING THE PROPOSED FRAMEWORKS. THESE CULTURAL ASPECTS AND LOCAL TRADITIONS AS EXTREME MICROCOSMS THAT HAVE DEVELOPED FROM THE INHABITANTS’ OWN UNIQUE GEOGRAPHIES, EXTREME LIVING CONDITIONS, AND EXTREME TASTE PALETTES. WITHIN THE CITY OF LIMA, I AIM TO INTENSIFY THE CULTURAL WEALTH EVEN MORE, AND PROPOSE A PLATFORM THAT WILL ALLOW US TO CONDENSE THE ALREADY CONDENSED CITY, FORMING A THEMED “STRIP” OF CO-INHABITING CULTURAL MICROCOSMS WHERE EACH INHABITANT BRINGS PART OF THEIR OWN CULTURE, AESTHETICS, SOCIETAL VIEWS, POLITICS, AND ECONOMICS. THE PROPOSAL BECOMES A PARAGON FOR THE REGION AND ITS FLEXIBILITY ALLOWS IT TO BE ADAPTED INTO DIFFERENT CULTURES THAT DEAL WITH THESE SIMILAR ISSUES OF INEQUITY AND UNPLANNED GROWTH. 8

progressive commerce

LIMA

the urban sprawl

the beginning of a city

the city occupies the rivers

the city occupies the countryside

the sprawl of the city like an oil stain

the tentacular metropolis

centralization of lima

jobs

LIMA

MIRAFLORES

BELLAVISTA

LA PUNTA

LA VICTORIA

BARRANCO

SAN ISIDRO

SURCO

JESUS MARIA

PUEBLO LIBRE

ATE

SURQUILLO

BARRANCO

INDEPENDENCIA

BRENA

LINCE

LIMA DISTRICT

LA VICTORIA BRENA

BELLAVISTA

PUEBLO LIBRE

MIRAFLORES

BARRANCO

VILLA EL SALVADOR

institutions

LIMA

BRENA

LA PUNTA

INDEPENDENCIA

BELLAVISTA

BARRANCO

PUEBLO LIBRE LINCE JESUS MARIA

SAN MIGUEL

VILLA MARIA DEL TRIUNFO VILLA EL SALVADOR ATE LURIGANCHO

LIMA DISTRICT

INDEPENDENCIA JESUS MARIA BRENA LINCE BELLAVISTA LA PUNTA

BARRANCO PUEBLO LIBRE

VILLA EL SALVADOR

residents

LINCE DISTRICT

RIMAC DISTRICT

VILLA EL SALVADOR

SURCO

SURQUILLO DISTRICT

CARMEN DE LA LEGUA

ATE

LURIGANCHO

LA PERLA DISTRICT

INDEPENDENCIA

VILLA MARIA DEL TRIUNFO

CHORRILLOS

LA VICTORIA DISTRICT BRENA DISTRICT

LOS OLIVOS

RIMAC

INDEPENDENCIA LA VICTORIA

LINCE LA PERLA

VILLA EL SALVADOR

INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE SITUATION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT ARE A GOOD EXAMPLE OF URBAN CHAOS THAT IS THE MAIN ISSUE IN LIMA TODAY. IN THE 1980’, THERE WAS MORE INVESTMENT PUT INTO TRANSPORT BY THE NEWLY ELECTED MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES TRYING TO EASE THE CHAOTIC TRAFFIC, AND 100 KM OF ROADS WERE REPAVED. THESE PAVED ROADS WERE ABLE TO CONNECT THE CENTER OF LIMA TO ITS ‘YOUNG TOWNS.’ THE MAIN ISSUE WAS HOW TO SOLVE THE TRAFFIC CONGESTION WITHOUT CONGESTING THE MAIN ARTERIES OF THE CITY. UNFORTUNATELY, THE MUNICIPALITY WAS NEVER ABLE TO SUCCEED AT HAVING SMOOTH TRAFFIC PATTERNS DUE TO INSUFFICIENT FUNDS TO BUILD ROADS AND BUY TRAFFIC SIGNAGE. SINCE THE 1970’S, PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION HAS BEEN DECLINING. AS A TYPICAL ACTION TO WHAT EVERY NEW GOVERNMENT IN PERU DOES THEY TRY TO IMPOSE THEIR NEW PROJECTS AND TERMINATE THE ONGOING PROJECTS BY THE PAST GOVERNMENT, EVEN IF THEY ARE AS IMPORTANT AS TO REORGANIZE MASS TRANSPORT. IN THE LATE 1980’S THE NEW PROPOSITION OF MAKING THE ELECTRIC TRAIN WAS BROUGHT TO THE TABLE. BEING THE MAIN SOURCE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT BUS ROUTES HAVE BEEN ALSO POORLY PLANNED AND HAVE GROWN IMMENSELY DUE TO THE NECESSITY OF COMMUTING. DURING THE 1990’S EFFORTS HAVE BEEN MADE BY THE GOVERNMENT TO CREATE IMPORTANT ECONOMIC CHANGES THAT WILL HELP TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS SUCH AS LOW TAXES FOR THE IMPORT VEHICLES AND THEREFORE MODERNIZE THE FLEET. THE DOWNSIDE OF ALL OF THIS IS THAT USED AND VERY CHEAP VEHICLES WERE ABLE TO BE IMPORTED AS WELL. INSTEAD OF PROJECTED PLAN OF FACILITATING VEHICULAR CIRCULATION BY USING BIG AND NEW CARS THE RESULT WAS THAT USED AND SMALL VEHICLES STARTED APPEARING IN THE ROADS. THIS BROUGHT A SECOND BIG PROBLEM, A LARGE NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS HAVE SET UP IN BUSINESS DRIVING THE USED, SMALL, AND CHEAPLY MADE TAXIS AND ‘COMBIS.’ MANY OF THESE DRIVERS HAVE NOT BEEN PROPERLY TRAINED WHICH MEANS THAT TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS HAVE SKYROCKETED EXPONENTIALLY SINCE. LIMA’S CURRENT PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS A COMPLETE CHAOS BECAUSE THE AUTHORITIES NO LONGER HAVE THE MANPOWER TO REINFORCE THE LAWS. LIMA APPEARS TO HAVE BECOME UNGOVERNABLE THROUGH THE LENS OF PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT. YET, FROM AN ECONOMIC LENS ,OUT OF ALL OF THIS TRANSPORT CHAOS OF WHAT LIMA HAS TURNED OUT TO BE, ONE CAN SURELY HIGHLIGHT THAT THE ONLY TWO OPERATING TRAIN LINES HAVE GIVEN A BIG PUSH TO URBAN CONNECTIVITY, AND STRENGTHEN COMMERCIAL HUBS IN THE PERIPHERIES OF THE CITY. MANY IMPORTANT FACTORIES AND MALLS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED ALONG EXISTING OPERATING TRAIN LINES. 34

4 6

1 5

young towns

commercial nodes

informal hubs

LURIGANCHO

GAMARRA POLVOS AZULES

LA VICTORIA

VILLA EL SALVADOR

ACUPUNCTURE

cerro san cosme

villa maria del triunfo

cerro san cristobal

los olivos

previ

villa el salvador

GAMARRA

GAMARRA LOCATED IN THE CENTER OF LIMA, IS THE LARGEST CONGLOMERATION OF TEXTILE AND GARMENT MANUFACTURERS IN LATIN AMERICA, EXTENDING APPROXIMATELY 25 BLOCKS, CONTAINING MORE THAN 200 GALLERIES WITH 30 THOUSAND COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS, AND WITH MORE 60 THOUSAND EMPLOYEES; AND VISITED BY INHABITANTS FROM EVERY PART OF PERU DAILY BY ABOUT 150 THOUSANDS. GAMARRA IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE STRENGTH OF ITS WORKFORCE; MANY OF ITS ENTREPRENEURS BEING FROM THE PROVINCES OF PERU IN SEARCH A DREAM. HOWEVER, GAMARRA IS THE PRODUCT OF AN INFORMAL GROWTH OF 50 YEARS THAN BROUGHT SERIOUS PROBLEMS SUCH AS POLLUTION, INSECURITY, LACK OF PUBLIC SPACE, AND GREAT STREET CONGESTION. THIS CASE STUDY IS KEY TO THE RESEARCH THAT HAS BEEN COLLECTED THROUGOUT THE SEMESTER SINCE GAMARRA HAS A DIRECT CONNECTION TO VILLA EL SALVADOR THROUGH THE METRO LINE 1. GAMARRA IS EXEMPLARY FOR HOW INFORMAL AND FORMAL COMMERCE WORK TOGETHER TOWARD MAKING ONE OF THE BIGGEST COMMERCIAL HUBS IN PERU. IT ALL BEGAN BY THE TRADE OF GARMENTS AND TEXTILES THROUGH CASH EXCHANGE AND AS THE DISTRICT OF LA VICTORIA, WHERE GAMARRA IS LOCATED, AGED THE SMALL COMMERCES THAT WERE ONCE SMALL KIOSKS AND BOOTHS BECAME FORMAL BUSINESSES WITH TALL HIGH-RISES. INFORMAL AND FORMAL ECONOMY STILL NEED EACHOTHER IN GAMARRA. STREET ARTERIES ARE THE MAIN AREAS TO GAIN PROFIT AND THE PRIVATE BUILDINGS ARE THE PROVIDERS OF GOODS AND TEXTILES THAT ARE SOLD IN THE STREETS. ACORDING TO ARCHITECT AND PROFESSOR FROM RICARDO PALMA’S UNIVERSITY, WHO HAS DEDICATED HER ENTIRE LIFE RESEARCHING PROGRESSIVE HOUSING AND INFORMAL CITIES IN PERU, SAYS THAT THE MAIN REVENUE COLLECTIONS BY BIG TEXTILES COMPANIES IS FROM ITS STREET VENDORS AND NOT ITS STREET LEVEL STORES. “EVERY SQUARE METER IN THE STREET IS OWNED BY THE BIG COMPANIES THAT OWN ALL OF THE HIGH-RISES SURROUNDING YOU. A STREET VENDOR COULD EASILY MAKE 200,000 USD ANNUALLY BY SELLING GARMENTS IN THE STREETS. THEN AGAIN, THE HIGH-RISES SURROUNDING US IS THE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT FEEDS ALL OF THIS COMMERCE, THEY ARE THE MAIN PROVIDERS AND WHERE PEOPLE CAN GO PICK UP THEIR PRODUCTS IN GREATER QUANTITIES. THE INFORMAL AND THE EPHEMERAL CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT THE PERMANENT AND THE FORMAL, AND VICE VERSA.” 60

CASINO

RESTAURANTS

HOTEL

CHURCH

SCHOOL

CLINICS

STREET CONGESTION

LIBRARY

RETAIL

NONE

61 100%

infrastructure as commercial influencer

VILLA EL SALVADOR

GAMARRA

VILLA EL SALVADOR

ON MAY 1, 1971, 20,000 FAMILIES FROM THE PERUVIAN ANDES ILLEGALLY APPROPRIATED VACANT LAND ALONG THE SOUTH PANAMERICAN HIGHWAY IN LIMA, WHICH WAS OWNED BY THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT. A COUPLE OF WEEKS LATER, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS INTERVENED TO EXPEL AND KILLED ONE: EDILBERTO RAMOS QUISPE, WHILE THE MILITARY REGIME IMPRISONED ONE OF THE PRIESTS OF THE “YOUNG TOWNS” WHO WAS ALLOWED TO DEFEND THEM. DAYS LATER AFTER THESE TRAGEDIES, MOST OF THE SETTLERS WERE DISPLACED BY THE ARMY, IN A DESERT ZONE TO THIRTY KILOMETERS OF THE CENTER OF LIMA, THAT YIELDED TO THEM THE MILITARY “AGRARIAN REFORM” GOVERNMENT OF JUAN VELASCO ALVARADO (1968-1975). JUAN VELASCO ALVARADO PERSONALLY DECIDES TO WORK WITH THE SETTLERS IN ORDER FOR THEM TO OBTAIN A RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP IN THE NEW COLONY, WHICH WOULD BECOME THE SHOWCASE CITY OF THE “REVOLUTION” VELASCO. AFTER THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, IT WILL BE THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES FROM THE ANDES OF PERU WHO WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION, WILL SETTLE THERE UNTIL THEY HAVE ENTITLEMENT OF OWNERSHIP. STATE OFFICIALS AND SETTLERS WHO CAME FROM THE ANDES WILL HAVE THE TASK OF TRANSFORMING THIS INVASION INTO A FIRST PLANNED URBAN FRAMEWORK THAT WILL BE A SLUM IN PERU. PROPERTIES BORDERS WERE DELINEATED BY DRAWING WITH CHALK ON THE GROUND. A MODEL PROMOTED BY THE VELASCO’S REGIME, WHICH MUST CONTRIBUTE TO DEVELOPING COMMUNITY INITIATIVES, POPULAR ENGAGEMENT, A DYNAMIC NETWORK OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS AND A SELF-SUFFICIENT ECONOMY. FOR THIS WILL BE CREATED IN JULY 1973, A CENTRAL BODY OF SELF-MANAGED MANAGEMENT: THE COMUNIDAD URBANA AUTOGESTIONARIA OF VILLA EL SALVADOR TO OVERSEE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMUNITY AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AREA. 66

ARCHITECT’S INTERVENTIONS IN SLUMS LIKE VILLA EL SALVADOR HAVE FOCUSED ALMOST ENTIRELY ON INCREMENTAL HOUSING AND DESIGNING PROPER HOUSING IN ORDER TO IMPROVE THE LIFESTYLE OF THE DENIZEN. HOWEVER, THESE SMALL INTERVENTIONS ARE ONLY A SMALL PUSH TO A LARGER MONSTER OF PROBLEMS SUCH AS ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL THAT HAVE NOT BEEN PROPERLY ADDRESSED. BY PROPOSING A COMMERCIAL NUCLEUS IN VILLA EL SALVADOR IT WILL ENCOURAGE THIS SO CALLED DORMITORY CITY TO BE INVESTED IN ITS OWN NEIGHBORHOOD’S FUTURE. IT WILL TACKLE DOWN MAIN ISSUES SUCH AS LONG COMMUTES TO THE CENTER OF LIMA, FORMALIZE SPECIALTY COMMERCE OF FURNITURE AND IT WILL HAVE SPACE TO RELOCATE UNWANTED STREET VENDORS AND ENTREPRENEURS FROM AN ALREADY CHAOTIC GAMARRA. DENIZENS WILL HAVE MORE FOCUS ON VILLA’S SANITATION, ACTIVATING COURTYARDS AS PUBLIC SPACES, BUSINESSES, AND SECURITY. THROUGHOUT ITS 40+ YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT, VILLA EL SALVADOR HAS HAD MANY INFRASTRUCTUREAL IMPROVEMENTS LIKE HAVING ELECTRICITY AND WATER; HOWEVER; THE SLUM STILL FACES SEVERAL CHALLENGES LIKE THE LACK OF GOVERMENTAL FACILITIES, PUBLIC SPACES, PAVED ROADS. THESE PROBLEMS HAVE ALREADY BEEN DETECTED BY MANY ARCHITECTS BEFORE BUT A FEW HAVE REALLY PROPOSED A BIG SCALE PROJECT WITHING THE SITE. VILLA WOULD BENEFIT FROM DEVELOPING AN URBAN CATALYST FOR COMMERCE, PUBLIC SPACES, INDUSTRIAL ZONES, AND INCREMENTAL HOUSING. AN ARCHITECTURAL FRAMEWORK WILL CREATE INFILL OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL ECONOMIES THAT CAN WORK TOGETHER WITHIN ONE MAIN COMPLEX AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. FEEDING OFF THE INDUSTRIAL ZONE AND PROVID68 ING GOODS IN STREET LEVEL FROM STREET VENDORS AND SHOPS.

INFORMAL SETTLEMENT

URBAN FRAMEWORK

PARCELING

DIVIDING NEIGHBORHOODS

ADAPTING TO GRID

COURYARD AMENITIES

citizens

issues

activities

BEACH AREA

AGRICULTURAL AND RAW MATERIALS SITE

RECREATIONAL ZONE

RESIDENTIAL ZONE

SPORTS ZONE

VILLA MARIA DEL TRIUNFO

INDUSTRIAL ZONE

PHASE 7

PHASE 8

PHASE 5

PHASE 6

PHASE 3

PHASE 4

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

FRAMEWORK

PHASE A 112

113

114

115

OCCUPANCY

PHASE B 116

117

118

119

APPROPRIATION

PHASE C 120

121

122

123

infill of street vendors

PHASE D 124

125

126

127

informal & formal working together

PHASE E 128

129

130

131

132

133

DPEC - Education Center and Disaster Pre. By: Super Union Architects Linear Plugs On a site almost without context because of its vast scale and open development plans, the Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Centre (DPEC) represents a new beginning for the Expo area adjacent to the Atatürk International Airport. Today, the area is a typical example of a generic, market driven development without a common goal. It consists of tall isolated buildings trying to express their individuality rather than performing as a coherent whole. The site is situated in a void between city and airport, where public space is nonexistent, isolated buildings are surrounded by their own private sea of parking.

Precedent Study SchematicDesign Thesis 2019 Isaac Tejeira

Cordoba Congress Centre By: OMA Linear Plugs In 2002 OMA won the competition to design a new congress center located on the Miraflores Peninsula, facing the historic city center of Cordoba, Spain. Wishing to improve on the possibilities of the original building site, OMA proposed a new and unexpected location on the peninsula. Taking full advantage of the potential site, the project transforms the East-West strip across the Miraflores peninsula into a linear volume that acts as promenade, mall, and mixing chamber - a takeoff point for the Cordoba Experience. First, the site is thickened into a long block that marks the threshold of the Miraflores neighborhood and defines a southern edge for the planned fluvial park. A horizontal slice through the slab allows the necessary activities - congress center, auditorium, retail, hotel - to be contained along a continuous trajectory running the full length of the building. The transparency of this middle zone establishes the building as a linear viewing platform, looking out over the park, the river and the historic center beyond. Functioning as a programmatic sandwich, the upper lower layers fold or converge to respond to different interior/exterior pressures along its length: separating to accommodate the conference hall and auditorium; converging to define the hotel lobby; lifting to allow Miraflores Park and the street to continue through to the specified site. To the south, the main volumes of conference center and auditorium project from the slab; a ramp between the two marks the formal entrance to the complex. The 360-meter length of the building is conceived as a promenade, a coherent sequence of programs and views. Bridging the east and west banks of the river along its length, the project spans the new site to become a route, the crucial link is the trajectory that moves visitors in and out of the historic center. A series of ramps channel the public seamlessly through the building, absorbing all circulation into a sequence of visitor’s center, auditorium, conference hall, retail and hotel. A roof terrace accommodates additional leisure activities: mini golf, outdoor cinema, and lookout. Taking its place within the urban fabric of the city, the siting of the CCC organizes the now disparate elements of Miraflores, river and historic center into a coherent urban grouping that extends the benefits of Cordoba’s tourist industry to the rest of the city.

11th Street Bridge Park By: OMA Linear Park Our design for the 11th Street Bridge Park – the Anacostia Crossing – is a place of exchange. The park at Anacostia Crossing will connect two historically disparate sides of the river with a series of outdoor programmed spaces and active zones that will provide an engaging place hovering above, yet anchored in, the Anacostia River. To create this place – more destination than elevated thoroughfare – we have designed the bridge park as a clear moment of intersection where two sides of the river converge and coexist. Anacostia Crossing will offer layered programs, presenting a new neighborhood park, an after-hours destination for the nearby workforce, a retreat for residents and a territory for tourists to explore. Paths from each side of the river operate as springboards – sloped ramps that elevate visitors to maximized look out points to landmarks in either direction. Extending over the river, the Anacostia paths join to form a loop, embracing the path from the Navy Yard side and linking the opposing banks in a single gesture. The resulting form of the bridge creates an iconic encounter, an “X” instantly recognizable as a new image for the river. While the bridge is a unique and iconic structure, its character and essence are rooted in making this river landscape accessible to the community. Through programmed activities the bridge will showcase the region’s unique cultural and natural history. To encourage visitors to spend time on the bridge and neighboring communities throughout the year, amenities for comfort and refreshment (restrooms and food), mitigation of climate extremes (shade and warmth), and opportunities for seasonal programming are provided along the entire length of the bridge. The bridge provides a gateway to events with strong roots in the adjacent communities. The intersection point of the two paths shapes the central meeting point of the bridge-an open plaza that provides a flexible venue for markets, festivals, and theatrical performances held throughout the year. The paths that frame this plaza further enhance the bridge as a hub of activity, providing a sequence of zones designated for play, relaxation, learning and gathering. The paths also form elevated platforms on a 5% slope with views to the Anacostia River, the activities on the bridge, and prominent landmarks within Washington DC and Anacostia. These platforms simultaneously provide shade and shelter for the café on the southeast side and the performance space and hammock grove on the northwest side. At each side, a waterfall marks their terminus and reconnects them to the river below. On the east side, this waterfall is linked to an active filtration system that-together with new wetland areas adjacent to the bridge piers-works to actively clean the river around the Anacostia Crossing.

Alcova Housing By: Brittany Utting Linear Intervention Because of Houston’s tactics of annexation and leap frogging developments, the outer loop is a patchwork of linear gaps and interstices, empty spaces between places, excluded as other and outer. These territories are buffers between suburban enclaves, belonging to neither and maintained by no one; ownership is both contested and blurred. We are proposing the wall as a typological solution for these linear domains and a space in which to restructure the project of domestic inhabitation. Opposed to the autonomous unit of the home, the linear archetype is instead a simple bar with an open and negotiable interior, a counter to the tradition of room-making within domestic space. The inhabited wall becomes a cabinet for the body, containing in its poche the spaces for reproduction and thus freeing the space of the home for living and working. The necessary infrastructure for living–bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, laundry, storage–are embedded within niches in the wall in measured intervals, allowing the possibility of a shared domestic infrastructure to diminish the financial burden of the single-family home. By compressing all of the functions of living into the wall, the resultant spaces are allowed to be empty, freed from domestic infrastructure. Grounded in self-determination and negotiation, this generic space of labor and cohabitation explicitly counters the suburban agenda to separate living and working. Complete privacy can only be claimed within the wall, while the open space is by necessity a zone of contestation and resolution. In this opposition between intimate space and shared space, the project allows for the entire spectrum of dwelling and cohabitation. There is both the potential for total seclusion and the freedom to live collectively. In collaboration with Daniel Jacobs.

134

TOWARDS EDUFACTORY: ARCHITECTURE AND THE PRODUCTION OF SUBJECTIVITY By: Charles Lai Linear Intervention Today knowledge and information are bought and sold as commodities, and universities are at the centre of the productive system. The vehicles for this exchange, however, are not simply the various academic departments, but rather the students themselves – subjects controlled through the manipulation of their desires, feelings, affections and perspectives. Unlike material production (for example, manufacturing), which results in objects that can be detached from the subject who produced them, it is not possible for knowledge production to detach from the commodity of life itself. Bios, dynamic and experience become both means and product. Rather than absorbing specific forms of knowledge, university students learn how to live, how to network, how to compete. In this way the university becomes an Edufactory empowered with the mass production of subjects ready to adapt to flexible conditions of work based on social interaction. Diploma 14 explored, questioned and reimagined this scenario. The projects developed in the studio defined new forms of welfare that counter the increasing precariousness of life and offer alternatives to neoliberal education policies. The unit focused on London as a case study and proposed interventions in the form of specific architectural projects centred around student housing and new kinds of learning centres. A critical link between form and subjectivity has been the testing ground for the development of the proposals, which tackle the condition of the student as paradigmatic case of the knowledge worker. Ultimately, the work of Diploma 14 tried to redefine this emerging subject by addressing its need for representation, while also exploring new typologies that open up the possibility of sharing space and facilities as a way to foster solidarity. In the development of the projects, the unit encouraged a radical approach in which drawing and writing are reclaimed as the most essential means to produce architecture.

Series| 11 weeks| Archizoom, 1971 By: MICHAEL HAYS SECONDARY COURTYARDS PLUGS And on the third day there were pictures, and they were good. Hays rewards those of us who survived the first 55 pages of capitalist and semiotic theory with four pages of drawings from Archizoom, printed in Domus in 1971 and accompanied by neither an introduction nor much text—only a small paragraph that is fucking awesome and hysterical, and that I have provided below. I’m going to attempt to break this one down a bit, only because it is so tight and amazing, but for the most part it is self-explanatory as either a social critique of consumerism or the graphic exploration of the city as homogenous capitalist system. “The carrying out of a social organization of labor by means of Planning eliminates the empty space in which Capital expanded during its growth period. In fact, no reality exists any longer outside the system itself: the whole visual relationshi p with reality loses importance as there ceases to be any distance between the subject and the phenomenon. The city no longer “represents” the system, but becomes the system itself, programmed and isotropic, and within it the various functions are contained homogeneously, without contradictions. Production and Consumption possess one and the same ideology, which is that of Programming. Both hypothesize a social and physical reality completely continuous and undifferentiated. No other realities exist. The factory and the supermarket become the specimen models of the future city: optimal urban structures, potentially limitless, where human functions are arranged spontaneously in a free field, made uniform by a system of micro-acclimatization and optimal circulation of information. The “natural and spontaneous” balance of light and air is superseded: the house becomes a well-equi pped parking lot. Inside it there exists no hierarchies nor spatial figurations of a conditioning nature.“ The carrying out of a social organization of labor by means of Planning eliminates the empty space in which Capital expanded during its growth period. Not super difficult, especially when restructured: Planning eliminates the infrastructural opportunities into which Capitalism drove the architectural-social project by socially organizing labor. This probably refers to Tafuri’s pre-war narrative of capital and the social issues brought on by labor and class in the emerging capitalist structure, the city.

In fact, no reality exists any longer outside the system itself: the whole visual relationshi p with reality loses importance as there ceases to be any distance between the subject and the phenomenon. This, I’m suspecting, has to do with the shock experience of an individual in the city and the artistic response to that, which I did not discuss in the Tafuri review but is in his essay. The city no longer “represents” the system, but becomes the system itself, programmed and isotropic, and within it the various functions are contained homogeneously, without contradictions. BAM—Tafuri the house down! Archizoom’s visions have integrated all systems and programs and infrastructure into a single system; “the city” need no longer be a reference to the system, it is the system. (In which light this is simply a reimaging of the Corbusian superblock.) And GOODBYE to those pesky Euro-city contradictions, they are resolved. Production and Consumption posses one and the same ideology, which is that of Programming. Both hypothesize a social and physical reality completely continuous and undifferentiated. No other realities exist. The Factory and the supermarket become the specimen models of the future city: optimal urban structures, potentially limitless…I love this part, though I admit it begins to take on the character of a William Blake poem—both prophetic and also slightly dystopian and scary. We see here the introduction of clear scientism that Hays notes in his intro to Baird’s essay. Also, that “potentially limitless” immediately brings to mind Super Studio. …where human functions are arranged spontaneously in a free field, made uniform by a system of micro-acclimatization and optimal circulation of information. The “natural and spontaneous” balance of light and air is superseded: the house becomes a well-equi pped parking lot. Inside it there exists no hierarchies nor spatial figurations of a conditioning nature. This again is scientism to a T, but we are now fully in a sci-fi dystopia. This isn’t weird I promise—it the natural conclusion of capitalist conditioning of the consumer/user. Presumably, the importance of this is the image-driven exploration of the capitalist/scientist thesis, as well as the extent to which architecture was believed capable of completely altering social conditions—to say nothing of the scale on which these visions were executed.

The Packard Belt By: JGCH Dealing with Courtyards

Lingotto Factory Competition By: Many Linear Intervention

The Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit, a once producer of luxury cars, was completed in 1911 and closed its doors in 1958, subsequently falling into ruin and becoming a symbol of the city’s downfall and financial crisis. The call for an International Competition titled Reanimate the Ruins, aiming to design, master plan and update the complex was immediately fascinating. This story of possible regeneration was moving to me since I was born in Havana, another city that has also become synonymous with ruins and destruction. The Packard Factory ruins are buildings in which cars were born. By thinking of this original situation, the history of the relationship between the car and the building became central to the project’s narrative. That relationship between the first generation of cars and the buildings with which they coexisted in the city was, from the very beginning, radically autonomous. The car was confined to the street while the building was to be located within the city block, becoming the realm of the people. The worlds of the machine and that of men were detached, and they rarely crisscrossed programmatically. Only until the opening of the Lingotto Building in Turin and others like it, the car became a contributor of building design but this progressive relationship was not carried on in future integrations. The condition of segregation and detachment between the car and building needs reevaluation in favor of a more inclusive and integrated system. The Packard Factory seemed the perfect opportunity to reignite this lost dialogue. At 3000 feet long, the building does not relate to the surrounding city blocks and will always be viewed as a barrier. By dividing the larger volume into smaller buildings, we not only reduce the scale to a contextually sensitive one but also enable porosity across the buildings and the possibility of cross-programmatic interaction. Despite the car’s role in creating sprawl and destroying Detroit’s city center, it was impossible to treat it as an irrelevant part of the architecture in this specific case. The created serpentine belt that folds and meanders through the existing structures is seen as a way to stitch together all the resulted smaller scale buildings. It creates the grander gesture needed for a cohesive master plan. The form was inspired by the regenerative power of the serpentine belt found in car engines, which provides and unifies different components into a holistic functioning system. The cultural belt in the project unites the many disparate programmatic elements as well as it generates the high social and cultural voltage for a successful community.

Parc de la Villette By: OMA Elements

Les Halles By: OMA Program Concept

The program by the city of Paris was too large for the site, leaving no space for a park. The proposed project is not for a definitive park, but for a method that - combining programmatic instability with architectural specificity - will eventually generate a park. The idea comprises 5 steps: 1. The major programmatic components are distributed in horizontal bands across the site, creating a continuous atmosphere in its length and perpendicular, rapid change in experience. 2. Some facilities - kiosks, playgrounds, barbecue spots are distributed mathematically according to different point grids. 3. The addition of a “round forest” as architectural elements. 4. Connections 5. Superimpositions

In Paris the destruction of Les Halles, a former market area, resulted in a complex attitude and even a neurosis with regard to this issue. After the centrally-located markets were torn down, people’s view toward modern city planning became complex, and we should point out that the only lasting attempts at creating a modern cityscape were the large and somewhat diluted projects of Mitterrand, that gave the impression that modern building projects could only be those on a grand scale, neutral, abstract and a little cold. This perhaps explains the current lack of a shared conviction on the status of modern architecture in the city. This evolution can even be seen in the fact the word “tower” has become a bad word in a city where the Eiffel Tower is its most identifying landmark!

In the second phase, the nature element was elaborated in the form of a series of “wings”, that created - as in a theater - the illusion of a park without consuming the territory that was needed for the overabundance of activities. Elegy for the Vacant Lot The permanence of even the most frivolous item of architecture and the instability of the metropolis are incompatible. In this conflict the metropolis is, by definition, the victor; in its pervasive architecture is reduced to the status of plaything, tolerated as décor for the illusions of history and memory. In Manhattan this paradox is resolved in a brilliant way: through the development of a mutant architecture that combines the aura of monumentality with the performance of instability. Its interiors accommodate compositions of program and activity that change constantly and independently of each other without affecting what is called, with accidental profundity, the envelope. The genius of Manhattan is the simplicity of this divorce between appearance and performance: it keeps the illusion of architecture intact, while surrendering wholeheartedly to the needs of the metropolis. This architecture relates to the forces of the Groszstadt like a surfer to the waves. In the seventies, architects wallowed, on the contrary, in fantasies of control. Looking back at history they rediscovered not only old forms, a new erudition arrested at the first page of the history book - the door, the column, the architrave, the keystone – but also the symptoms of a former power and status – the endless axes, the impressive symmetries, the vast compositions. Were they not the work of architects?

The primary purpose of this project is to re-invent a modern cityscape for Paris that could to a certain degree rekindle this effort to define the co-existence between the traditional and the modern. One could almost say that it involves an environmentally-conscious cityscape, so long as “environmentally-conscious” is not used as an excuse to carpet everything over with grass; quite the opposite, this signifies a search for the means to critique the previous interpretation of modern cityscape, all while defining a new vision for it; and perhaps, more than anything, to break away from the idea of a unifying and definitive gesture on a grand scale that is supposed to resolve the issue. With Les Halles project, we have therefore decided to test the concept of a cumulative modern culture, to see if an accumulation of specific, precise, contextual and delicate interventions could together redefine a territory as large as that of Les Halles. The project consists therefore of a group of buildings that are in part structures that emerge from the underground and in part penetrations into the ground from the surface with the hope that this concept will once and for all do away with the schizophrenia that exists in Les Halles between the underground and the surface. We therefore need to find a building type suitable for connecting one to the other, wherever it is more efficient, more necessary, or more exciting. We want these small pavilions to have very different identities. Some of them will be for specific programs, and others will be more playful or lighter in nature. We have imagined the landscape of Les Halls as a field of circles, containing completely different plant species. It would be possible to go from a forest-like circle to a surface that could be used for a number of activities. This multitude of uses is the result of a desire for a variety of plant life, and at the same time an architectural variety over the entire site. This combination of architecture and artifact proposed in a global treatment makes them inseparable from each other and defines a possible way to discover a modern cityscape in France.

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Superstructures By: Yona Friedman

Pleyel Bridge By: OMA A to B

Superstructures superimposing Site Lateral Office, founded in 2003 by Mason White and Lola Sheppard, is an experimental design practice that operates at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. The studio describes its practice process as a commitment to “design as a research vehicle to pose and respond to complex, urgent questions in the built environment,” engaging in the “wider context and climate of a project: social, ecological, or political.” For their Runways to Greenways, an urban design proposal for the Vatnsmýri area of Reykjavík, the architects sought to simultaneously acknowledge the rich history of the site while looking forward to new economies and public realms. The project area, a significantly-sized defunct World War II runway, was slated for universities, bio-tech, housing and commercial development. This proposal, which used landscape and exterior program as a catalyst for urban development, identifies exterior space as equally charged with activity, use and event as built or interior spaces within the city. The figure of the runway is used to identify three primary axes, and each former runway is converted into a “greenway” that uses a quality of the city as its primary trait: namely, ecology, recreation, and production. Lateral Office join the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial alongside over 100 architects, artists, and designers from around the world.

More than a journey from A to B, the bridge becomes a place to be. In merging circulation space with programmed space, the bridge is akin to the typology of the concourse: a place to save time as well as to kill it, a space that can both be interpreted as a wide corridor and a narrow hall. Like the concourse, this bridge relies on ambiguity – at the same time station, park, sports facility and event space. Instead of creating an extension of the existing urban fabric, our approach inserts a new condition, one than complements rather than continues the local context. Neither city nor railway, but a third component: an oasis that acts as a deliberate relief from the uncompromising urban surroundings. Inside, the noisy railway tracks are no more than a backdrop. The analogy with 19th Century urban greenhouse may invoke a certain romanticism. But whatever associations this project inspires, they are a means to an end: staging an Arcadia in otherwise harsh conditions. In its extreme embrace of performance over form, this proposition, just as Les Halles Parisiens earlier, is undeniably modern.

Pleyel Bridge By: OMA A to B

Linear Building By: Daniel Libeskind A to B

a proposal by Rem Koolhaas’ firm OMA for a bridge that could accommodate different types of traffic as well as pedestrians and events has been selected by local authorities in Bordeaux, France, as one of two final competing designs.

The proposed design aims to “rethink the civic function and symbolism of a twenty-first century bridge” by creating a platform traversing the river Garonne that could be used by cars, trams, buses, bicycles and pedestrians.

A wide boulevard with a gentle gradient would make the bridge easy to walk across and allow it to be used to host events.

OMA project leader Clement Blanchet said the studio wanted to “provide the simplest expression – the least technical, least lyrical, an almost primitive structural solution. This simplicity allowed us to create a generous platform for pedestrians and public programs, as well as flexibility in accommodating the future needs of various types of traffic.”

EduFactory By: Sam Nelson Linear Intervention Today knowledge and information are bought and sold as commodities, and universities are at the centre of the productive system. The vehicles for this exchange, however, are not simply the various academic departments, but rather the students themselves – subjects controlled through the manipulation of their desires, feelings, affections and perspectives. Unlike material production (for example, manufacturing), which results in objects that can be detached from the subject who produced them, it is not possible for knowledge production to detach from the commodity of life itself. Bios and experience become both means and product. Rather than absorbing specific forms of knowledge, university students learn how to live, how to network and how to compete. In this way the university becomes an Edufactory empowered with the mass production not of objects, but of subjects ready to adapt to flexible conditions of work based on social interaction. ‘Edufactory Docklands’, a combination of housing, learning spaces and infrastructure, addresses the issue of how architecture can give representation to the collective subjectivity defined by the university of today. This subjectivity is based on a way of life that is up-rooted, mobile and which relies on constant communication in order to produce new forms of knowledge. In order to confront this issue, the project exposes the productive potential of the university by linking it with the economic capacity of the airport. In doing so a dialectic is established between the increasing intensity of social interaction in today’s global cities, and the generic architecture which is required to support it. Today the airport is integral to the project of the university, not only because it has become one of the most strategic pieces of a cities infrastructure, but also because it can be understood as paradigmatic of this existential condition. Located amongst the post industrial landscape of London’s Docklands this new productive paradigm is reinforced by the impossibility of establishing a conventional sense of place.

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A bridge is a bridge is a bridge… Or, is it? Is there a fundamental difference between a bridge that crosses water – an enjoyable natural condition – and a bridge that crosses train tracks – a situation most would prefer to avoid? In proposing a building along most of the bridge’s length, the brief suggests a continuation of the urban fabric: a street, rather than a bridge. Our design takes that a step further, turning the bridge itself into a building – a semi-interiorized enclosure that offers temporary relief from prevailing conditions. One that shields, not exposes those who cross. Less windy, less noisy and less wet than the outside; in wintertime the inside will be warmer, in summertime cooler.

Concave Town By: Adrian Phiffer Linear Typology and Cluster of Program As the sun comes up, the city would light up, block by block. They start to work one after another, and go back to rest one after another as the sun sets, and yet the night life starts the other way, one block after another. When the sun reaches the top of the bank, it is time for lunch and when it reaches the edge of the school, its time to go home. When the moonlight falls over the big plaza it is time for bed and you can wake up when the sun reached your bedroom window. I would watch my house from work and my office from home; I would watch the people on the other side of the bay and on top of the mountains. I can watch the “life” through my concave town. Type: Klaksvik New Center, Urban Design International Competition Size: 21,000m2 Program: Library, Museum, School of Arts, Multihall, Offices, Commerce, Housing Date: 2012 Location: Klaksvik, Faroe Islands

Parc des Expositions By: OMA Linear Intervention The new Parc des Expositions (PEX), in the innovation zone of Toulouse, southern France, is a project that is not only about architecture, but infrastructure. PEX is designed to be a condenser for diversity, a machine that can produce an infinite amount of possibilities. The project is a compact mini-city - an antidote to the sprawl of a standard exposition park, and a means to preserve and guide the surrounding French countryside. PEX consists of three parallel bands: the multi-function Event Hall, with a massive doorway allowing performances to spread outdoors; a 45,000 m2 column-free Exhibition Hall; and, in the middle band, a parking silo for 3,000 cars. Instead of banishing parking underground or pushing it to the periphery of the site, parking are in the center and cover a spine where amenities and access to the hall are developed. PEX, both monumental in its horizontal scale and subtle in its overall impact, will be the new gateway to Toulouse… In collaboration with Daniel Jacobs.

TOWARDS EDUFACTORY: ARCHITECTURE AND THE PRODUCTION OF SUBJECTIVITY By: Charles Lai Linear Intervention Today knowledge and information are bought and sold as commodities, and universities are at the centre of the productive system. The vehicles for this exchange, however, are not simply the various academic departments, but rather the students themselves – subjects controlled through the mani pulation of their desires, feelings, affections and perspectives. Unlike material production (for example, manufacturing), which results in objects that can be detached from the subject who produced them, it is not possible for knowledge production to detach from the commodity of life itself. Bios, dynamic and experience become both means and product. Rather than absorbing specific forms of knowledge, university students learn how to live, how to network, how to compete. In this way the university becomes an Edufactory empowered with the mass production of subjects ready to adapt to flexible conditions of work based on social interaction. Di ploma 14 explored, questioned and reimagined this scenario. The projects developed in the studio defined new forms of welfare that counter the increasing precariousness of life and offer alternatives to neoliberal education policies. The unit focused on London as a case study and proposed interventions in the form of specific architectural projects centred around student housing and new kinds of learning centres. A critical link between form and subjectivity has been the testing ground for the development of the proposals, which tackle the condition of the student as paradigmatic case of the knowledge worker. Ultimately, the work of Di ploma 14 tried to redefine this emerging subject by addressing its need for representation, while also exploring new typologies that open up the possibility of sharing space and facilities as a way to foster solidarity. In the development of the projects, the unit encouraged a radical approach in which drawing and writing are reclaimed as the most essential means to produce architecture.

Runways to Greenways By: Lateral Office Linear Typology and Cluster of Program Lateral Office, founded in 2003 by Mason White and Lola Sheppard, is an experimental design practice that operates at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. The studio describes its practice process as a commitment to “design as a research vehicle to pose and respond to complex, urgent questions in the built environment,” engaging in the “wider context and climate of a project: social, ecological, or political.” For their Runways to Greenways, an urban design proposal for the Vatnsmýri area of Reykjavík, the architects sought to simultaneously acknowledge the rich history of the site while looking forward to new economies and public realms. The project area, a significantly-sized defunct World War II runway, was slated for universities, bio-tech, housing and commercial development. This proposal, which used landscape and exterior program as a catalyst for urban development, identifies exterior space as equally charged with activity, use and event as built or interior spaces within the city. The figure of the runway is used to identify three primary axes, and each former runway is converted into a “greenway” that uses a quality of the city as its primary trait: namely, ecology, recreation, and production. Lateral Office join the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial alongside over 100 architects, artists, and designers from around the world.

Megastructures By: Hans Hollein Megastructures superimposed on context This photomontage comes from Hollein’s series Transformations, created between 1963 and 1968. In the series, an agricultural or urban landscape, often barren, is the site for a monumental industrial object. Hollein used machine technology—sparkplug, boxcar, and, here, aircraft carrier—to create a pure, absolute architecture with no identifiable architectonic style. Hollein followed Aircraft Carrier City in Landscape with a group of site photographs in 1964, dispensing with buildings altogether and declaring the forms of the land itself to be architectural statements—proof of his statement that “everything is architecture.” Related to this ironic, politicized viewpoint, the aircraft carrier is for Hollein an iconoclastic relic of its former function; its use here confounds common understandings of what it means to build in the contemporary landscape.

Songdo Canal Walk By: KPF A to B

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REFERENCES Ciudad Disidente: Addressing Social and Infrastructural Deficiencies in Villa el Salvador. Victoria Brewster Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Improvised Cities. Helen Gyger. Lima: Mega-City and Mega-Problem. United Nations University The Other Path. Cristian Yarasca.

Villa El Salvador - Giacomo Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Orlando

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