The totalizing visions of architecture dressed in the experimental drag
THE EXPERIMENTAL (SCIENCE)CITIES
Manifesto ABPL90117_2020_SM2 17th November 2020 Word count: 2021
Katarzyna Dabrowska 1218578 Figure 1.
Tutor: Andrew Hruszowski
‘Everything will be as it is now, just a little different’ Walter Benjamin
With the prediction of a rise to 70% of world’s population being located in urban areas by 2050, the impacts on societies include a massive shift where an increasing number of people will be living on less land, consuming more energy and hence generating more CO2 emissions. Experimentation begins to pivot its key basis towards approaches in which cities overcome their urban-scale challenges and issues.1 What shapes the very challenge of developing new spatial ideas is the fast-phase revolution of users’ needs and even faster development and use of technology which assists and multiples those needs. How can new architectural models accommodate and adapt these socio-economical, environmental and technological experimentation within the urban laboratories for further re-imagining of our approach towards 21st-century architecture? And further, how can we, as architects and designers response to this soon-to-unfold global urban crisis? This manifesto divides itself into manual, creating a breakdown of a conceptual framework of principles: Urban Experimentation for Responsive Cities. The aim of it is directed towards architects and designers who seek to create spatial investigations for the futures of experimental architecture and urban environments.
1.Evans, J. and Karvonen, A. (2011). Living laboratories for sustainability: exploring the politics and epistemology of urban adaptation. In Bulkeley, H., Castán Broto, V., Hodson, M
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DEFINITIONS
experiment
- A course of action tentatively adopted without being sure of the outcome.
- Urban Dictionary
experimental city
– centralised system of urban experimentation, allowing the ever-progressing application of technological, environmental and socio-political behaviours. Another approach of constructing future Architecture. - K.Dabrowska
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MANUAL for URBAN EXPERIMENTATION - THE DESIGN FRAMEWORK BY KATARZYNA DABROWSKA Figure 2. Graphics by Katarzya Dabrowska, 2020.
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Scalability of designs
This multi-layering and scaling designs in and out to realise its challenges and limitations between granular and grand infrastructure.
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Contextual awareness
avoiding geographical isolation that generate unrealistic set of control points, experimental labs stuck nowhere and with no prospect to be recreated elsewhere when needed.
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Continue assessment
re-adjustment and re-application of experimental approaches through the use of close-loop feedback system of all the parties that create the science(city). Failed attempts does not uniform failed experimentation (as a whole).
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Appropriate focus on challenges
Spatial investigations to be responsive towards its existing environment through a centralised system of experimentation that asks the right questions to create answers for set urban experiments.
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Shifts away from utopian ideals.
Focus on design responsive to ever-changing needs of users.
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Fight the tyrant of urgent response.
Choose the appropriate experimental approach to respond to pressing urban issues.
Why should architecture and its designers be responsibility for tackling experimentatoin? 1.Scalability of designs. This multi-layering and scaling designs in and out to realise its challenges and limitations between granular and grand infrastructure.
Grand not granular Firstly, it is crucial to re-think the challenge that sits within recognising the elements that are dominant in forming this transformation. The combination of fast approaching climate change, urban growth and distribution, users’ needs and actions, disruptive technologies and forms and material innovation are only some of the causes of this deeply complex issue.1 Even though there is now a widespread recognition of the present, wide-ranging and rapidly evolving advancement in the digital and production automation, there is more potential for development within the more granular building scale; it has not yet been pushed and realised in comparison to the great scale of urban innovation. Therefore it has now become essential for architects to utilise newer research, experimental technologies and knowledge and apply this to the concept of experimental environments. Moreover, there is a need to alter methodology towards adopting and being driven by cross-disciplinary approaches, which embraces the ever-progressing technological advancements and introduces them as a collaborative tool to address new spatial needs as opportunities.
2.Raven, Rob. The Experimental City. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2016.
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Past Visions - Present Practices Architecture has always been the drive for experimentation and change, hence these ideas of urban experimentation driven by architects, are not so new of a manifestation. The early visions and retrospectives of experimental urban investigations can be traced back to the concept of Metabolism1 - a movement born from the perspectives of architects. A concept which embodied layered and multi-dimensional, interlaced infrastructural systems, with fixed volumes within the pre-determined grid, formed in its bases. This visionary movement was first triggered and recognised by a group of Japanese architects (Maki Fumihiko, Kurokawa Kisho, Kikutake Kiyonori and many others), who in the 1960s initiated a movement with the core strategy of creating a future experimental metropolis, which was soon to affect the whole world. Taking the concept of experimentation further, how can all these approaches intertwine between past and present realities to form tomorrow’s visions? To develop this, I aim to look at currently existing examples of experimental cities.
Figure 3. Visualising concept of Metabolism by Kikutake – experimental city plug in, Marina City.
3.Lin, Zhongjie. Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan. N.p.: Taylor & Francis, 2010.
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‘If you thought the last Renaissance was good, just wait till we create the next one.’
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I seek to evaluate three case studies, through which I aim to examine the opportunities and limitations of each urban experimentation. I believe that these will form the very basis of how we can adopt & adapt them into the future of experimental labs, whether it being partially or as system in its entirety.
Biosphere 2 - Based in Oracle, Arizona follows the notion of an experimental architectural system which merges the ecological, technological as well as social investigation, which all form to be this enclosed and isolated ‘ever-progressing’ experimental lab. This case study seeks to attain the ‘control point’ image for experimental cities. It somewhat exists in the purest form of urban exploration due to its self-restrained enclosed urban environment lab.1 Arcosanti - The emerging model which combines provocative ideas of architectural futures with utopian analogies was designed by Paolo Soleri and is also located in Arizona, Phoenix. Since 1950’s, the experimental lab with the name of Arcosanti, has been shifting the norms and reframing conventional urban ideas.2 This case study seeks to present itself as a neutral, most common form of urban experimentation based on its holistic experimental approach. Masdar City - The largest and most recently formed experimental lab is the city of Masdar, designed by Fosters & Partners in the Abu Dhabi desert. The environmentally conscious experimentation seeks to reduce the use of natural world’s sources and act to break new ground for technology, renewable energy and future co-living and co-existence. I seek to explore this case study in the light of a seemingly unfulfilled and unsuccessful experimental city and use it a springboard to learn from. This is shown and compared through it gravitating away from principles introduced in this manual.
3. Quate - author uknown. 4.Nelson, Mark. Pushing Our Limits: Insights from Biosphere 2. United States: University of Arizona Press, 2018. 5. Azar, Elie. Smart Cities in the Gulf: Current State, Opportunities, and Challenges. Germany: Springer Singapore, 2018.
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2.Continue assessment, re-adjustment and re-application of experimental approaches through the use of close-loop feedback system of all the parties that create the science(city). Failed attempts do not uniform failed experimentation (as a whole).
The very reasons that birthed the idea and continual development of experimental citylabs are crises, whether they be environmental, political or socio-economic. It is essential to pin point the experimental labs with regards to their unique standing in an urban context. All three case studies/ interventions carry the notion of experimental cities, instead of being experiments ‘in’ the cities, which alters the meaning entirely. Working as an experimental city refers to the entire model operating as one investigation or experiment. Ignoring its context, it can exist and function independently. 1 When attempting to break down the urban experiment, it can be divided into 3 elements. In the: • internal core - meaning inside the lab – at limitations and boundary of technological innovation tests • external core – around the lab – to study users and socio-ecological complexity-to focus on, as well as, • outer skin – the effect on holistic, contextual level.
Figure 4. Section cut through Masdar City, exposing its experimental layers. 1Armstrong, Rachel. Experimental Architecture: Designing the Unknown. United States: Taylor & Francis, 2019.
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This breakdown of elements was initially applied in the Masdar city, however it can serve as a way to evaluate any of the other case studies and future studies due to its generic categorisation. This notion of experimentation is an after-effect of ‘actors’ who chase after the profound urban transformation. Through implementing this approach, both the authors of the experimental labs and the society testing it, can create a close-loop evaluation system, generating and being able to provide constant improvement on failed attempts of experimentation. It is only when we can expand on the constant growth and re-evaluation of investigation that we will be able to create and obtain a successful result
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‘(...) we shall move towards designing the cities of tomorrow, instead of re-considering and re-designing the cities of today.’ 2.
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3. Appropriate focus on challenges. Spatial investigations to be responsive towards its existing environment through a centralised system of experimentation that asks the right questions to create answers for set urban experiments.
Figure 5. Deserted streets of Masdar City
How are the experimental focuses chosen when creating the artificial cities and why do they seem to often contradict with how they develop over time? How do we define which experiment is successful? For instance, in all the case studies, the initial agenda for the experimental cities includes inhabiting an unrealistically large number of residents, causing the cities to be deserted.1 The issue here becomes – urban scale to resident ratio. Instead, like most built environments, the urban lab should grow progressively and naturally (for as much of it as is possible) - from being a small village to becoming a large metropolis. The scientific experiments are usually evaluated through or against a fixed constant. Thus, where does the constant sit within the urban experimentation? The set challenges should be a balance between pushing the limits and trying to achieve real results and potential answers.
1. Armstrong, Rachel. Experimental Architecture: Designing the Unknown. United States: Taylor & Francis, 2019. 2. Quate from this Manifesto - Katarzyna Dabrowska, 2020.
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ARCOSANTI
DESERT BOUNDARY
INNER CITY’S BOUNDARY
CITY’S TESTING HUB
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4.Contextual awareness, avoiding geographical isolation that generate unrealistic set of control points, experimental labs are left stuck in the middle of nowhere and with no actual prospect to be recreated elsewhere when needed.
One of the key constants that is affecting the course of these experiments is its relation to context. In all the case studies, the extreme approaches to urban experiments eventually manifest as a reality that prevents rather than achieves the desired result, as the cities are alienated through isolated systems to the existing context they live and develop within.1 This results in the formation of something that can’t be adopted nor adapted further by future experimental labs.
Figure 6. Isolated Arcosanti City, in the middle of Arizona dessert. 1. Evans, J. and Karvonen, A. (2011). Living laboratories for sustainability: exploring the politics and epistemology of urban adaptation. In Bulkeley, H., CastĂĄn Broto, V., Hodson, M
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MASDAR CITY
CITY’S TESTING HUB
INNER CITY’S BOUNDARY
DESERT BOUNDARY
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The contextual and geographical separation forms a shift that lead these cities towards being rooted nowhere therefore pushing towards their forlorn failing. Fast forward around 40 years, Masdar City is already viewed through the lens of having incorporating some of the errors that were manifested in Arcosanti.1 This perhaps, might lead the future of Masdar to becoming the failed urban experiment of our present architectural era. So how could this be avoided, where can we reach for new form of ‘preserving’ these experimental labs?
Figure 7. Isolated Masdar City, in the middle of Abu Dhabi dessert. 1Evans, J. and Karvonen, A. (2011). Living laboratories for sustainability: exploring the politics and epistemology of urban adaptation. In Bulkeley, H., CastĂĄn Broto, V., Hodson, M
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5. Shifts away from utopian ideals. Focus on design responsive to ever-changing needs of users.
Figure 8. Big Brother style Masdar City experimentation analysis.
‘’Utopian urbanism’’ has had a largely unsuccessful record of acting within city scale change in terms of its working mechanism and the values it attempts to translate, especially around the subject of sustainability. The ‘’eco-utopia’’ sets unrealistic environmental objectives without the consideration of the stakeholders and who within cities would actually be responsible for and affected by it. 1Through gravitating away from keeping their ‘’users’’ (residents of the city) in the centre of the urban experimentation, the sprawling metropolis lose the opportunity to fully be successful. Masdar city, formed what seems to be a ‘Big-Brother’ style of users functioning in the city, where the residents are experiment’s testing elements, instead to being the core aspect around which this experimental city and its ideals are born. By pushing the avant-garde ideas of active design instead, the experimental cities would be able to form transformative environments with transient and ever-progressing responses to users’ desires.2 These ideas, on more of a micro-scale, can be seen through ideas like Fun Palace by Cedric Price or even Pompidou Centre by Richard Rogers.3 Now, how can we re-adapt and utilise these visions on urban scales, in a successful manner?
1Lin, Zhongjie. Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan. N.p.: Taylor & Francis, 2010. 2Israel as a Modern Architectural Experimental Lab, 19481978. United Kingdom: Intellect Books Limited, 2019. 3Price, Cedric., Mathews, Stanley. From agit-prop to free space : the architecture of Cedric Price. London: Black Dog Pub. Limited, 2007.
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Figure 9. Big brother monitoring inside Masdar City hub.
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6. Fight the tyrant of urgent response. Choose the appropriate experimental approach to respond to pressing urban issues. As new-urban models always appear after an impactful moments of crisis, perhaps the nation-wide pandemic of Covid-19 is the event that re-awakens the idea of another experimental lab. As we sit back to drawings boards, we shall move towards designing the cities of tomorrow, instead of re-considering and re-designing the cities of today. Fast phase changes however, does not always allow us to start from scratch. Perhaps the future could not only be progressed by cities started from anew but rather by the concept ‘’city-within-a-city’’; an expansion upon what designers have been working for centuries.1 The scale already seems to be much more approachable to work and experiment with.
Figure 10. Inside Biosphere 2.
1Raven, Rob. The Experimental City. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2016.
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This however, still shall follow the same approach of creating experimental cities. Otherwise, the true meaning of built environment progression will be abandoned. Projects like Forest City located in Malaysia or Google parent Alphabet urban project outside Toronto, showcase how architect’s ambitions can be lost in translation. To keep the balance between instant response and successful experimentation, designers can begin to explore the idea of extending boundaries of existing cities and with this create an urban ‘backyard’ for emergency architectural response, testing on a smaller (urban) scale within an existing and realistic context.
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Conclusion Despite the fact that the above discussed urban labs have not achieved their ultimate goals, as the experimentation is still seen to be open-ended, they definitely do contribute to the evolution of progressive and modern approaches of operating and designing an experimental city. This can also mean that their failures can be learnt from and hence allows the future of experimental cities to ‘leapfrog’ through certain stages of development. Although the notion of experimental cities provokes more questions and still lacks fully evaluated answers, it is in fact an attempt brought into the light of realistic future developments that offers new modes of engagement towards challenges in architecture, society and its environment. In fact, one could say that one aspect within architecture that will always remain ‘not 100% solved’ are experimental cities. Why? The fundamental idea that they are founded to be experimental reveals that there will never be a whole answer but a whole lot of failures. But that is precisely why they exist.
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Bibliography Raven, Rob. The Experimental City. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2016. Evans, J. and Karvonen, A. (2011). Living laboratories for sustainability: exploring the politics and epistemology of urban adaptation. In Bulkeley, H., Castán Broto, V., Hodson, M Azar, Elie. Smart Cities in the Gulf: Current State, Opportunities, and Challenges. Germany: Springer Singapore, 2018. Lin, Zhongjie. Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan. N.p.: Taylor & Francis, 2010. Soleri, Paolo., Wilson, Marie. Arcosanti Archetype: The Rebirth of Cities by Renaissance Thinker Paolo Soleri. United States: Freedom Editions, 1999. Price, Cedric., Mathews, Stanley. From agit-prop to free space : the architecture of Cedric Price. London: Black Dog Pub. Limited, 2007. Israel as a Modern Architectural Experimental Lab, 19481978. United Kingdom: Intellect Books Limited, 2019. Armstrong, Rachel. Experimental Architecture: Designing the Unknown. United States: Taylor & Francis, 2019. Nelson, Mark. Pushing Our Limits: Insights from Biosphere 2. United States: University of Arizona Press, 2018. Future City Architecture for Optimal Living. Germany: Springer International Publishing, 2015.
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Visuals Figure 1. Front page skyline background - source: I.Powell, 2012, ‘The city in the clouds - Dubai’, image dowloaded from http://arvindpariti.blogspot.com/2012/04/city-in-clouds-dubai.html ,on 12.11.2020. Figure 2. Manual graphics: Katarzyna Dabrowska, 2020. Figure 3. Visualising concept of Metabolism by Kikutake – experimental city plug in, Marina City.source: Z.Everson,1964, ‘Marina City’, image dowloaded from https://www.archdaily.com/photographer/flickr-user-traffik-us?ad_name=project-specs&ad_medium=single , on 12.11.2020. Figure 4. Section cut through Masdar City, exposing its experimental layers - source: graphics: Katarzyna Dabrowska, 2020, base image by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, image dowloaded from http://www. carboun.com/sustainable-design/masdar-headquarters-the-first-positive-energy-building-in-the-middle-east/ on 13.11.2020 Figure 5. Deserted streets of Masdar City - source: E. Malapert, 2016, image dowloaded from https:// www.businessinsider.com/masdar-city-photos-of-abu-dhabis-green-city-in-the-arabian-desert-20167?r=AU&IR=T on 14.11.2020 Figure 6.Isolated Arcosanti City, in the middle of Arizona dessert - source:graphics: Katarzyna Dabrowska, 2020, base image by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images, 2011, image dowloaded from https://www.sciencealert.com/an-architect-s-weird-dream-in-arizona-s-desert-was-meant-to-be-acity-of-the-future on 14.11.2020. Figure 7. Isolated Masdar City, in the middle of Abu Dhabi dessert - source:graphics: Katarzyna Dabrowska, 2020, bade image by Foster + Partners, 2010, image dowloaded from https://pro.grohe.com/ ie/5014/references/residential/masdar-city/ on 14.11.2020. Figure 8. Big Brother style Masdar City experimentation analysis. Graphics: Katarzyna Dabrowska 2020. Figure 9. Big brother monitoring - source: E. Malapert, 2016, image dowloaded from https://www. businessinsider.com/masdar-city-photos-of-abu-dhabis-green-city-in-the-arabian-desert-20167?r=AU&IR=T on 14.11.2020 Figure 10. Biosphere 2 - source: S. Meckler, 2013, image dowloaded from https://www.leonarddavid. com/biosphere-2-receives-multi-million-dollar-gift/ on 12.11.2020 Figure 11. Cover end page skyline background - source: I.Powell, 2012, ‘The city in the clouds - Dubai’, image dowloaded from http://arvindpariti.blogspot.com/2012/04/city-in-clouds-dubai.html ,on 12.11.2020.
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THE EXPERIMENTAL (SCIENCE)CITIES
The University of Melbourne Katarzyna Dabrowska 1218578 Figure 11.