A Layer Beyond

Year:2021

Competition/Group Project

Members:Ali Nazari, Maryam Baharvandi, Mohammad Saleh Sorkhei, Shaghayegh Bayat, Maryam Azizi

My Role: Conceptual development, 2D Drawings

After the years of both conscious or unconscious mechanization of the human mind as well as environmental colonialism, we now have every motivation to recover the forgotten nature, abandoned justice, and equity in overpopulated and dominant cities. Contemporary cities reflect such weaknesses and the frailties of ourselves. A layer beyond is a proposal based on a critical re-evaluation of nature capacities, regardless of the built environment. The examination of the relationship between the city and the natural environment is embedded within a secondary type of relation between the city and daily life.

“...ifthedesignismerelyaninducementtoconsume,thenwemustrejectdesign;ifarchitecture ismerelythecodifyingofabourgeoismodelofownershipandsociety,thenwemustreject architecture;ifarchitectureandtownplanningismerelytheformalizationofpresentunjust socialdivisions,thenwemustrejecttownplanninganditscities...untilalldesignactivities areaimedtowardsmeetingprimaryneeds.Untilthen,thedesignmustdisappear.Wecanlive withoutarchitecture…”

Superstudio,1971

Non-Plan

Non-planning provides an assumption for communities to criticize preconditioned urban programs and introduces a new way of human coexistence with nature. This, in turn, attempts to bring human beings back to the possibility of benefiting from the natural environment irrespective of city infrastructure. This is directly rooted in the realm of human existence and social freedom. A layer beyond then tries to criticize this urbanization and totalitarianism. Dismantling planning, ignoring urban structures, and terminating material possession are intimately connected to the natural environment.