inhabiting the global anonymous
observations on urban evolution
What ISpassed Having a city? the Noglobal geographic/economic/population inflection point in the BIGGEST based definition human migration – a city in Earth’s is a political history, entity. Asia is leading But most ofthe us don’t urban experience shift from it W to asE. such, Megalopoli we carry are its exploding landscape inwithin, the developing intuitively world. taking Onlycues 1 of the 10 from its largest rich urban cities context. (NYC) will The be megalopolis in the West needs by 2015. to be examined not just as built form, but as an evolving culture that inhabits built form embedded in urban context, which is the base of all architectural exploration.
Cities as processes: interdependent networks that have surpassed a base level of efficiency and become generators of capital, with established cross fertilizing networks of goods, services, information that transcend their physical geographies - Constantly in flux‌grappling with simultaneous juxtaposition of multiple ambitions Graphic: Fractal City by Louis Edward
1 9 0 0
10%
of earth inhabited cities
1 9 0 0
2 0 1 0
10% + 50% of earth inhabited cities
of earth inhabits cities now
1 9 0 0
10% + 50% + 75% of earth inhabited cities
2 0 1 0
of earth inhabits cities now
2 0 5 0
of earth will inhabit cities
*Global Megalopoli [population > 10 million people] Having passed the global inflection point in the BIGGEST human migration in Earth’s history, Asia is leading the urban shift from W to E. Megalopoli are exploding in the developing world. Only 1 of the 10 largest cities (NYC) will be in the West by 2015. *Data from National Geographic Earth Pulse **Global Cities Study by Foreign Policy magazine
Where the action’s at - look how fat Asia is! 18,000 people move to cities every day. That’s 7500 people per hour, 125 people per MINUTE! Viewoftheworld.net; world Bank
Network of global air connections
Urbanization translates into globalization: cities across the world resemble each other more than their national rural counterparts. Advances in communication and transportation have created a rich, unprecedented mixing of cultures throughout the world, increased exposure/connectivity. The Endless City, Phaidon 2008
Photo via flickr
OK
Coca Cola
Slowly, the foreign become the familiar
Edo
Miniature model at Edo Tokyo Museum
Tokyo
Metropolitan anonymity/ what in the city’s DNA gives establishes locality/sense of place/essence?
In an increasingly homogenous urban landscape, architecture isn’t the main marker of place – will we preserve the essence of place in megalopoli to come?
Globalization is about integration. The architecture of cultural absorption is not clean� old is punctuated by new and vice-versa in a haphazard blend of urban nostalgia. a Shinto shrine in commercial Roppongi, Tokyo
Foreign forms & functions are inserted into historic fabrics that defy their original nature– happenstance, improvised growth that no master plan can control. McDonald’s at the Pantheon Photo via Schlijper.nl
Over time, these once schizophrenic insertions become seamlessly assimilated into the whole, softening boundaries b/w competing cultures- literally and figuratively Interstitial splicing – Shibuya, Tokyo
1920
2010
Asakusa, Tokyo- Scale and proportion are true to the old market street, but materials and methods have evolved and updated. The feel of the city is still intact here‌
1800s
2010
Tskuiji, Tokyo - Loss in scalar translation : re-describing density. Clarity of old expression lost in haphazard newness…assimilating change
Re-ordered space of street, Shinjuku, Tokyo - Gaming arcades, salary men, youth, old…simultaneously accommodating new aspirations in the old street structure.
Harajuku Tokyo [otherness - Reflections of foreign-ness in youth counterculture. Couples find respite in the street- ironically public spaces afford privacy & anonymity in a city that inhabits small, intimate, shared spaces in the every day
Shinjuku, Tokyo- All remnants of the past seem to have been erased here and the foreign has been seamlessly incorporated into it. The transformation is complete. So deeply re-imagined is this reality that parts of it may seem familiar from the filming of Bladerunner around the district. Photo via Flickr
Tokyo was the world’s 1st megalopolis & has cyclically evolved and experimented, but most large cities are still in flux & find common ground therein. The face of ongoing urbanization is more makeshift/informal than skyscraper districts. 1 billion in slums today, 2 billion by 2030. Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press
Rio
Sao Paulo
Mumbai
Caracas
Dependence on the automobile which has proliferated throughout the world is creating extreme inefficiencies. Cities demand strong transportation infrastructural overhauling- traffic jam in Bangkok, people wear diapers on their commutes.
The rapidness of urbanization enlarge the holes in civic infrastructure megacities already struggle with. One sixth of humanity has no access to clean drinking water. You thought oil wars were bad‌ Photo via Flickr
Looking East and back - Aramya Samskriti: ancient Vedic dwelling philosophy- responsibility for the forest- balanced use of resources, inter-connection, interdependence, in sync w/ nature. Only take what can be regenerated. There are exactly enough resources to go around for everyone- the idea of enough- if you take more than you need, you are depriving someone of their share. The Dweller - Agra, India
Antilia – a 27 storey private residence in Mumbai. In schizophrenic juxtapositions like this, the East blindly looks Westwards – culturally orphaned contemporary architecture supersedes forms that evolved over thousands of years, no matter how out of place – symbolizing their “arrival” Photo via home-reviews.com
When this is the context, what can we glean from the happenstance city? upwardly mobile (education accessible, constant improvements in materiality), situational thinking, entrepreneurial- no one is unemployed (a luxury of the rich), no one is a specialist (build own house/MEP), Decentralized yet connected COLLABORATIVE community Photo via Flickr
No clean drinking water/sanitation but mobile phones flood the masses. Connectivity/voice = power. Conversely widespread virtual connectivity often robs physical public space. Developer driven commercially hyper programmed public spaces lack fluidity/kitschy diversity/essence of urban life Photo by Fredcan via Flickr
Architecture of obsolescence. Permanence vs. Throw Away Cities- building equivalent of the “disposable� diaper. Either you build to last, or need to dissolve the waste seamlessly. Photos via Flickr/ countrydrawers.com
Natural, self degrading materials – no reuse: hygienic; no recycle: saves energy – of the earth, to the earth. How an we architecturalize these waste-less methods of packaging? Photos by Silpam
Gleaning in the improvised city. Within seemingly cacophonous formations are some very interesting symbiotic, mutually reinforcing loops: there is no waste in the shadow city Photos via Flickr
Scenario planning for contingencies- how to fill urban voids in the wake of a collapsing economy? Stalled project due to insufficient funding, uptown Dallas, TX
Using residual spaces - High rise office turned habitation – Liberia (note the vegetable gardens)
Photo via Worldsupertravel.com
Symbiotic appropriation of every nook and cranny- Residual Pet Architecture: reworking local scales Tokyo
How are European cities like Paris, Florence, Prague etc. able to integrate modernity into their fabrics without building fake imitation historic facades and still preserve their sense of place?
The Sixth Floor Museum – JFK shooting. Minimalist, modern interventions in Dallas’ historic fabric
The Sixth Floor Museum – JFK shooting. Minimalist, modern interventions in Dallas’ historic fabric
Looking past bureaucracy- In places where homelessness abounds, why do we keep urban holes of abandoned or unused habitable space? Fenced off empty parking garages, park benches with spikes... The abandoned Statler Hilton, downtown Dallas TX
Revitalizing urban holes, establishing sense of space through minimal interventions
Planning for the potential laden future: battling the throwaway city
The idea of sustainability is more than lipstick on a pig syndrome‌it implies the element of time. It is about taking long-term responsibility for the well being of future generations.
As technology changes at a geometrically faster rate it becomes harder for us to look ahead to make decisions with a long-term perspective. We are not able to see what the future may be like in 100 years time, so we have to plan in flexibility and contingency.
“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.� - definition of sustainability by Brundtland Commission
“History is like Janus; it has two faces. Whether it looks at the past or at the present, it sees the same things.” Maxime Du Camp
“The ‘I’ is always in the field of the Other.” – Jacques Lacan
Now more than ever, we need to open discursive spaces for self reflection – labyrinthine search for the self…establishing identities in the melting pot of urbanism where races, classes, age, religions, cultures, belief systems and human geographies collide more frequently than ever
Detroit: Shrinking City- a post industrial remnant of obsolete boom, dissects its search for relevance in a dystopic peppered landscape.
In our era of “me generations,” self reflection is obsolete. There is a blind spot in the focus on the self- that from where it considers itself…CeSRON – Center for Self Reflection, Otherness & Narcissism: educational, interactive socio-cultural facility: machine to view fragmented self.
The gated community, high rise, single family housing, suburb-downtown model creates emotional & physical isolation/estrangement- we are hungry for connection, yet inhabit alienating constructs. We need a holistic, yogic, purnat - architectural awakening! http://jojostruys.com
Abandoned in old age
Abandoned in childhood
Symbiotic associations need to be made...what if orphanages and elder care facilities merged functions & spaces?
A future of wholesome inhabitation IS possible, beauty is everywhere...We just need to tactfully unearth it & holistically refine the human condition. Human needs are complex, we need to address their complexity without making the solutions complicated. Photo by Alex Masi for Time