The megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure renewal. by Oscar Berbel Pereira

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure renewal

MBArch DUAL MASTER’S DEGREE IN ADVANCED STUDIES IN ARCHITECTURE-BARCELONA Author: Óscar Berbel Pereira Director: PhD Alberto Peñin October 2019

The megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

MBArch: Contemporary project. Dual master’s degree

Master thesis by: Óscar Berbel Pereira Thesis advisor Barcelona School of Architecture: Alberto Peñín Thesis advisor Tongji University: Wang Zhendong

Barcelona, October, 2019

Acknowledgements I would like to thank a few people who guided and helped me through the development of the present work and, in general, during my experience in Shanghai at Tongji University. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to professor Wang Zhendong, my supervisor in the conception of this research. His expertise, patience and constant involvement in my research have been essential to achieving a satisfactory outcome. The present thesis wouldn't have been possible without his guide, his wide knowledge and shared wisdom. Then, I would like to express my gratitude to professor Tian Weijia from Tongji University and professors Carles Crosas and Héctor Mendoza, coordinators of the double degree exchange programme, whose availability and efforts have made the joint collaboration of these two universities possible. Thanks also to my professor supervisor in Barcelona, Enric LLorach who helped me from the beginning of this research work. Also, thanks to all the professors of the Cotemporary project master program, Xavi Llobet, Eduard Bru, Aquiles González and Alberto Peñin. On the other hand, I would like to thank all the friends who helped, encouraged and supported me through the last months, especially Alicia Pons and Raquel Sogas with whom I have a long and strong friendship. Also, I would like to thank the Chinese friends I’ve made in China whose help from the beginning of this life experience has been essential to get used to a new country and culture. But most of all I would like to dedicate this thesis to my parents and family, for always giving me the chance and every kind of support to pursue my dreams and follow my own criteria and instinct in the attempt to find the way to achieve my personal growth and professional development. To you go my most heartfelt thanks.

Óscar Berbel Pereira Barcelona October 2019

Abstract Nowadays many metropolitan areas around the world, more specifically in Asia and China, are suffering an urban spatial constraint due to the pressure of the population high density moving towards the urban centres and the lack of the land for the cities new extensions. A mixture of functions, transportation flows, urban situations, public spaces with different features and user experiences unavoidably must to coexist and be integrated. The role of the infrastructure inside the city, usually seen as a border and a source of problematics related with the integration of the mass transportation systems inside the urban weft, is called to be transformed and mutate in a new artefact to in order to become a part of the solution.

This research aims to unveil the potential of the infrastructure renewal whereby it could foster an urban regeneration. Some cities have faced the challenges involved in the infrastructure transformation to provide the metropolis with new artefact capable to have influence over the urban environment. Nevertheless, the demands from the metropolis are going to overcome the solutions provided by the traditional architecture and urbanism approach. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the reason why this research is going to be focused on the investigation about new concepts and strategies that could be suitable and useful for the infrastructure renewal concerning the city physical and sociological requirements. Looking back forward, those concepts which could take into account are coming from the Megastructure theoretical and practical approach, which had its peak several decades ago, a time when society was undergoing a deep change.

This paper is going to categorise and analyse the transcendence and impact of the main principles coming from the Megastructure ideology to develop project strategies. These principles are going to be exemplified throughout theoretical and built examples that were developed along the last fifty years, taking into consideration their context and

potential to tackle challenges with a different perspective. This deep and thorough analysis which has been carried out will enable to decode and reveal the importance of these main concepts for the development of new architectural strategies to face the urban and social demands. The conclusion of this main point would be exemplified by a project which summarises many of the ideas coming from the Megastructural approach.

After the theoretical dissertation about the different theories and concepts behind the Megastructural movement, the research presents a series of contemporary case studies grouped in different families based on the main strategies used for their development. Each one of these contemporary examples presents in their nature some of the features coming from the past megastructural movement. Nevertheless, they offer a package of new intriguing and interesting suggestions. The methods used by these projects, the same as the concepts deduced by the megastructure approach, are going to be taken into consideration to define the research conclusion and further to give the lead off to a design proposal. Through the design proposal, it is going to put the achieved theoretical instruments into test by their implementation in a real case study in my home town in Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hospitalet del Llobregat. The aim of this proposal, with a ground breaking point of view, is to unfold the potential which underlies in the analysed principles, which would foster the regeneration and change over the urban environment and the citizenry.

Key Words: megastructure, infrastructure, flexibility, connection, integration, synergy, intensity.

Index of contents Index of contents ..........................................................................................................4 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................6 1.1 Problem Statement ............................................................................................ 6 1.2 Research goals .................................................................................................. 8 1.3 Research questions ............................................................................................ 9 1.4 Definition of research technical route ............................................................. 10 1.5 Synthesis diagram of research contents .......................................................... 11 1.6 Projects and references timeline ..................................................................... 12 2. The Megastructure’s purpose approach ..............................................................13 2.1 Terminology’s definition and contextualization ............................................. 14 2.2 The Megastructure’s objective and strategy.................................................... 17 2.3 The potentiality ............................................................................................... 23 2.4 Introduction to the design proposal................................................................. 25 2.4 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 29 3. Historical and theoretical background ................................................................ 30 3.1 Historical background ..................................................................................... 31 3.1.1 Urban precedents and futurism ........................................................... 31 3.1.2 Modern movement approach. ............................................................. 34 3.1.3 Mixture between architecture and infrastructure ................................ 38 3.2 Megastructure’s principles .............................................................................. 43 3.2.1 Temporary events and flexibility ........................................................ 43 3.2.2 Linkage, continuity and intensity........................................................ 50 3.2.3 Movement dynamics, change and indeterminacy ............................... 57 3.2.4 Permanent and transient cycles. .......................................................... 64 3.3 Potential challenges and problems of the Megastructure ............................... 69 3.4 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 72 4. New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility ...........................................81 4.1 The Megastructure as a framework for public space. ..................................... 81 4.2 Case studies and strategies for public urban space regeneration. ................... 82 4

4.2.1 Urban topography. Slopes and platforms ............................................ 82 4.2.2 Urban elevated systems. Overlapping the city levels. ........................ 85 4.2.3 Urban spatial structures. Avoiding the ground level contact .............. 91 4.3 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 96 5. Research conclusions .............................................................................................99 6 Design Proposal.....................................................................................................102 6.1 Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history ........................................................................................ 102 6.2 Current situation of Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;hospitalet del Llobregat ................................... 104 6.3 Requirements for the new proposal design .......................................... 107 6.4 Project design strategies and outcomes................................................ 108 Bibliograpy ............................................................................................................... 114 List of pictures ......................................................................................................... 116 Annexes

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

1. Introduction 1.1 Problem Statement In the last decades in Asia and more specifically China has been experienced an exponential growth both economically and socially. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expected that 50% of the population of China will reside within urban areas, and the statistics suggest that this number will rise to 75% in 2050. China is consolidating its fast transformation from an agricultural country a few decades ago to an industrial and technological advance one. In accordance with the increasing demand for the urbanization and the need to hold all people in urban and suburban areas, it is clear that the traditional and conventional approach which has been carrying out until now is not going to be suitable for the new reality the society is living nowadays. The architecture and the urbanism simultaneously will have to figure out the unprecedented changes in the way people are living and interacting with their urban context. In the case of China, the lack of developable and arable land has become the major constraining factor in urban development. Consequently, the high-density and high rise construction typologies are filling the urban frame in such a proportion that is collapsing the city becoming a not sustainable strategy for not much longer.

The

increase of population and the urban high densities in many Asian cities are causing, by one side, a shortage of land resources and on the other side, a higher number of social and environmental problems like the air pollution and the greenhouse effect. Therefore it is unquestionably true that new methods and design principles must be applied to face successfully the difficulties revealed by the fastest and largest process of urbanization of human history. Nevertheless, the problems to deal with land resources and the ecological urban development also affect many cities in Europe with an old background after centuries of progressive transformations and expansion. The factors involved in these cities havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the same scale of magnitude as the Asian cities partially due to the overpopulation and the growth rate. Despite these differences between both realities, there is a common fact all cities around the world 6

Chapter 1 - Introduction

have to deal with, the mass transportation and the infrastructures to carry out this task. From the beginning of the Industrial age, the city infrastructure has been revealed as a decisive element with which the urban landscape has to be integrated. The transportation infrastructure together with the carpet of dwellings are the most significant characteristic elements in any city. Furthermore, is important to highlight that both require a considerable surface of the land, in the case of the infrastructure its space is going to be committed with its use for a long period of time.

In many

cases the city’s infrastructures, even if the urban frame is well planned, supposes a border and a wound which leads the city towards the fragmentation and the disconnection. It’s difficult to see in our contemporary cities infrastructures properly integrated with the urban elements, establishing connections and interaction with them instead of being some sort of not desirable space whose surroundings remain out of life and activity. Taking into account this fact and the role that the infrastructures should truly have in the contemporary cities, some complementary strategies should be applied to its basic morphology for its renewal.

After mentioning two of the biggest current problems in our cities, and how these two issues are constraining the urban development, the high densities, and the infrastructure underuse, I firmly believe ( according to the recent urban studies and professional practices) that the solution is pointing clearly to the use of Megastructures. The outcome of this research work attempt to get back the history’s biggest dream for its real implementation, the “ Megastructure “, as an archetype which could deal with city’s challenges, establishing a new paradigm for the architecture and the urbanism in a near future. This paradigm is based in the idea of understanding how, through the use of the megastructure principles, the obsolete and underuse infrastructures in our cities can be renewed, changing completely their significance and improving their functionality in the urban context. Finally, this research will try to justify the use of the megastructure archetype in 7

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

order to give an optimized answer to the drastic urbanization problems that Asian cities are undergoing. On the other hand, It aims to suggest how and under which contemporary principles the megastructures, for the 21st century, should be developed and integrated into the cities as a device for the infrastructure renewal.

1.2 Research goals This research has the purpose to prove the insufficient resources that the traditional architecture scope has to deal with the problems mentioned before and suggest an alternative introducing a new methodology to face with the difficulties our cities are experimenting. The city infrastructure renewal is going to be taken as a case study to justify and exemplify the use of the Megastructure for its revival under new principles for this era of mass-density urbanization. The aim is to achieve a better understanding of the Megastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s archetype considering its application in a real case study site and how could really improve the urban environment and life quality for its inhabitants. The background which underlies in the Megastructure meaning addresses us to a utopic dream which was fashionable a few decades ago. Today however, new circumstances are taking place for the revival of this paradigm. The value of the research lies in the potential assortment of possibilities the Megastructure as an archetype offers. In addition the Megastructure is convenient as a device for the infrastructural renewal and its capacity to solve the problematics related with the high-density urbanization. The implementation of this strategy to deal with the present issues as well as for the transformation of the big citiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; areas in combination with the infrastructure is going to open a completely new paradigm for the architecture and the urbanism in the next decades. The analysis which is going to carry out in combination with the design proposal will make understandable the megastructure as an efficient artefact to sew the fragmentation that the infrastructure entails in the metropolis. Moreover, the capacity of Megastructure principles combined with the infrastructure to improve the urban

Chapter 1 - Introduction

atmosphere providing new scenarios for the population life experience. An optimistic path towards the eutopia, a better place.

1.3 Research questions - Could the concept of the Megastructure archetype have sense nowadays to face the new citiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; challenges and become a reality to achieve an improvement in population lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience? - Are the principles which were guiding the unrealized past Megastructure projects for the new circumstances and their capability to transform the infrastructure in a public urban element suitable? - Which new principles and resources are been applied to the public urban space in order to be successful in its purpose for the infrastructures and urban regeneration? - What could be the consequences in the user living experience in relation to the new artificial environment deployed by these new urban artefacts?

MEETING WITH

ACQUISITION OF RESEARCH RELATED

THESIS PROPOSAL PRESENTATION

FIRST STEP PARTIAL CONSIDERATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

ELABORATION OF ACQUIRED

INSTRUMENTS

REFERENCE

OBSERVATION

ON-SITE

SUPERVISOR

BIBLOGRAPHIC

SELECTION

OF THE TOPIC

SPECIFICATION OF

MID-TERM THESIS PRESENTATION

MIDTERM CONCLUSIONS

ELABORATION OF ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE

ACQUISITION OF FURHTER RESEARCH

OF RESEARCH FIELD

VISIT TO HONG KONG

VISIT TO BEIJING

ON-SITE OBSERVATIONS IN SHANGHAI

MEETINGS AND CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE

MEETING WITH SUPERVISOR

BIBLOGRAPHIC

THESIS BLIND REVIEW SUBMISSION

PRELIMINARY PLANNING OF DESIGN CONCEPT

ANALYSIS-BASED FINAL CONCLUSIONS

ADJUSTMENTS TO CASES OF STUDIES ANALYSIS

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH FIELD

ON-SITE OBSERVATIONS

MEETING WITH SUPERVISOR

REFERENCE

BIBLOGRAPHIC

FINAL THESIS SUBMISSION

CONCLUSIONS

ADJUSTMENTS TO CASES OF STUDIES ANALYSIS

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH FIELD

FINAL STEP AT HOME UNIVERSITY

ON-SITE OBSERVATIONS

MEETING WITH SUPERVISOR

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

1.4 Definition of research technical route

CONTENTS TIMELINE

DEFINITION OF RESEARCH PLAN

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

INTRODUCTION

RESEARCH GOALS

PROBLEM STATEMENT

CONCLUSIONS

MEGASTRUCTURE’S POTENTIALITY

THE MEGASTRUCTURE PURPOSE APPROACH

STRATEGY

OBJECTIVE AND

MEGASTRUCTURE’S

DEFINITION OF TERMINOLOGY & CONTEXTUALIZATION

CONCLUSIONS

ARCHITECTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

MODERN MOVEMENT APPROACH

UTOPIAS AND FUTURISM

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

LINKAGE, CONTINUITY AND INTENSITY

MOVEMENT DYNAMICS, CHANGE AND INDETERMINACY

AND INTENSITY

LINKAGE, CONTINUITY

AND FLEXIBILITY

TEMPORARY EVENTS

MEGASTUCTURE’S PRINCIPLES

TEAM X

JAPANESE METABOLISM

MEGAESTRUCTURAL MOVEMENT IN EUROPE AND USA

NEW PARADIGMS FOR THE

CONCLUSIONS

CASE STUDIES

MEGASTRUCTURE’S FEASIBILITY

LOGROÑO

BARCELONA

YOKOHAMA

SHENZHEN

SEUL

NEW YORK

CITY FRAGMENTATION

SOCIAL INTERACTIVITY

URBAN CONNECTIVITY

CITIZENRY LIVING EXPERIENCE

CONCLUSIONS

RESEARCH

NEW URBAN MORPHOSIS

LANDSCAPE AND IFRASTRUCTURE

HYBRIDITY: ARCHITECTURE,

URBAN ENVIRONMENT

CITY SUSTAINABLE GROWING

IMPROVEMENTS BY THE MEGASTRUCTURE CONCEPT AND NEW STRATEGIES

URBAN SPATIAL STRUCTURES AOVIDING THE GROUND LEVEL

URBAN ELEVATED SYSTEMS

URBAN TOPOGRAPHY SLOPES AND PLATFORMS

THE MEGASTRUCTE AS A FRAMEWORK FOR THE PUBLIC SPACE

STRATEGIES FOR URBAN SPACE REGENERATION

DIFFERENT MATRIX OF INFORMATION BETWEEN THE SYSTEMS

PROJECT DESIGN STRATEGIES AND OUTCOMES

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NEW PROPOSAL DESIGN

CURRENT SITUATION OF THE CITY

CITY’S HISTORY

L’HOSPITALET DEL LLOBREGAT PROJECT DESIGN CONTEXT

PROPOSAL

ELABORATION OF THE DESIGN

DESGIN PROPOSAL: L’HOSPITALET DEL LLOBREGAT PRODUCTIVE BELT

Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.5 Synthesis diagram of research contents

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

1.6 Projects and references timeline

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Chapter 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The megastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purpose approach

2. The Megastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purpose approach The megastructure meaning usually is applied by many architects and urbanists to simplify with one term a considerable ensemble of tangible and intangible systems of elements. For this reason, it needs to decode the meaning which underlies in this word, commonly and wrongly used. Then, a necessary definition of the terminology to describe the issues, this research is going to address, has to be carried out to understand all the nuances that encompass the meaning. The different interpretations according to the time context are going to be provided to have an overview of this terminology. The next step which is going to present is the scenario is undergoing many metropolis in the world and the urban and social problems they are facing currently and the future challenges they will deal with. In fact, this is going to be the statement which would justify the whole research and which is going to be explained carefully in the following chapters. One of the main issues the city has to tackle is with the infrastructure. Therefore, applying the potentiality of the megastructure over this urban element the possibilities and advantages for the city expansion, the economy and the society would be immense, such as it is going to be pinpointed more specifically in the next section.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

2.1 Terminology’s definition and contextualization The term “Megastructure” is a concept commonly used to indicate buildings and constructions with extreme scale. One of the first definitions of the Megastructure was given by the Japanese Architect Fumihiko Maki in 1964 mentioned in his pamphlet about Investigations in Collective Form, where the “ megastructure “ was one of the three approaches establishes as a structural principle involved in making collective forms. As well as the aim of this research work, in ’60s Fumihiko Maki detected the need for the research of new formal concepts in relation to the magnitude of changes the cities were undergoing. From his point of view, the Megastructure was a strategic device to find master forms which satisfied the demands of the contemporary urban growth and change, such as it is pretending to justify with this research. According to Fumihiko Maki definition, it can be understood as a Megastructure:

“A large structure that contains all the functions of a city, housed mostly in transient short-term continents. The current technology has made it possible. In a way, it is an artificial feature of the landscape. It’s like a hill on where the Italian cities are built.1

Related with one of the most relevant figures in the metabolism movement, Kenzo Tangue, and his design proposals, Fumihiko Maki extended the definition. “A form in relation to the human mass scale, which includes a Mega-form and several modest units, quickly changeable, which fit inside a bigger structure.”

According to Maki own words, the “mega-form” in this context would be understood as a kind of master form which always can reach new balances situations, nevertheless, it has to maintain the visual coherence and a certain sense of continuous order in the long term.

Fumihiko Maki, “Investigations in Collective Form,” Number 2. The School of Architecture.

Washington University : St. Louis, 1964, 8 pag. 14

Chapter 2 – The megastructure’s purpose approach

On the other hand in 1968, when the megastructure movement was at its peak, Ralph Wilcoxon suggested a definition that encompasses more factors. “Not only a permanent and dominant large structure that contains subordinate and transitory accommodations ... also a structure that frequently: It’s constituted by modular units. It’s capable of a large and even unlimited expansion. It’s a structural framework where it can be built, plugged or attached smaller structural units after being prefabricated. It’s a structural framework which is supposed to have a useful lifespan much longer than the smaller units that it could support”.2

As it can be seen in this definition, the terminology focuses basically on the morphology and formal issues that define the visual concept of the megastructure archetype in contrast with the definition more poetic given by Fumihiko Maki. Despite all these definitions about the Megastructure it has to be considered that this terminology appeared almost half-century ago. Taking into account the scope of this research I consider that it could be suitable for its understanding a new kind of meaning when it’s making reference to the megastructure as a method to be applied over a pre-existent element. The implementation of the megastructure over the infrastructure introduces new systems to increase the potentiality of the whole artefact. This fact, not only involves the physical conditions of the element itself or even its image but also means the net of synergies which is capable to manage in its own structure and within the city. Thus, the meaning of this word should encompass a wider spectrum tanking into consideration its new role. The mixture between a consolidated infrastructure and its renewal by the megastructure strategy principles, could suggest the appearance of a new urban device, a kind of mix-used infrastructure.

Ralph Wilcoxon, Council Planning. Librarians Exchange Bibliography, nº. 66, Monticello

( Illinois), 1968, pag 2 15

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

This term is coming from an article where the author (Marisa YIU, 2011) examines Hong Kong as a spatial laboratory for “Vertical Cities in Asia” and how its infrastructure-led development allows to sew together thriving urban communities.

“The relation between the mass transit development and the communities has created a diverse and demographic pluralism in Hong Kong’s population….The synergized generated by the infrastructural-led development forms a series of corporatized spaces that negotiate local identity, cultural sensibilities and economic ingenuity within the urban fabric and communities”

In a certain way, the new artefact will signify the infrastructure renewal, embracing all the aspects described above and open a new frame for the redevelopment of urban nonconsolidated areas. In the section that follows is going to explain deeper which sense and purpose could have the megastructure for the cities development and the challenges that they’re going to face in a closer future.

Everyone Needs Fresh Air : Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition &amp;

Symposium (Singapore : School of Design & Environment, National University of Singapore, 2011) pag 60-61. 16

Chapter 2 – The megastructure’s purpose approach

2.2 The Megastructure’s objective and strategy The concept of the Megastructure seems that is coming back in the urbanism and architectural research fields due to the need for new strategies to face the problematics of urban high densities and the lack of available resources. The Megastructure concept should be seen as a powerful tool to be applied for the new developments and urban regenerations which are going to be carried out around the world, especially cities in Asia and China. The reasons to take into account this statement as a feasible method for future urban extensions are several and diverse, they have been mentioned in the previous sections and are going to be referenced in the next paragraphs.

From my point of view, I firmly believe that this concept could be the key strategy to develop the urban infrastructures’ renewals. Through this research paper, it is going to show how the principles of the megastructure can be really useful in order to attempt to provide a solution for urban issues and more specifically tackling with the city infrastructure systems. It seems that the traditional strategies of urban planning and architectural design are obsoleted for the challenges the cities are going to deal with in the next years. Due to the increasing of the urban land value in metropolitan areas, the speculation with the dwellings prices, the migration of millions of people to the central areas and the lack of space cause the geography of the city emplacement, is a matter of urgency to find new architectural and urban strategies coming the implementation of the megastructure.

From the very beginning of the town planning, the infrastructure and the city architecture were segregated in different levels. The imposition of the functionality and the needs for transportation and connectivity between production and distribution centres have been the main principle for the urban design as well as a crucial factor for the urban frame shape. After decades since the industrialized period

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

the traces of that era, as well as the infrastructure for its development, still remain in the core of our cities with their old significance and unattractive interaction with the contemporary living conditions. It is undoubtedly true that the transportation and connection between productive centres and distribution areas, as well as for mass mobility, is crucial for cities development and growth. Nevertheless, till which point this fact is going to subjugate the possibility to achieve a non-fragmented city by the arteries which are giving it life?

It is possible to rethink the role and the significance of cities infrastructures in a different way from the simple and conventional point of view of transportation mobility and strictly functionality. In the last years, many design projects reveal how the transformation and renewal of the old infrastructures with new strategies have been successful to recover the physical and social connection in cities fragmented areas. Additionally, another reason for the renewal of the old infrastructures with the megastructure principles is based in the consideration of the total amount of available space that is occupied by the infrastructures and just focused in its functionality. A mix of different programs and a variety of activities along a considerable piece of the urban frame is a requirement for maintaining the urban development alive. It would be useful to combine these infrastructures with different amenities and residential new developments to take profit of their strategic situation as well as their importance to reconnect cities areas. Related with the multifunctional uses combination and its interaction, another important reason for the implementation of the megastructure would be the economy suitability and financial revenues that the society could get from it. The public financial resources for the construction and maintenance of the infrastructures are quite high and in many countries, the government needs the private sector support in order to accomplish these huge projects. Nevertheless, if the infrastructure renewal is combined with different private and public programs, as well as public space, it could become a sort of artefact self-financial supported. The financial resources for 18

Chapter 2 – The megastructure’s purpose approach

its realization and operative maintenance would be sustained by the incomes coming for its own development in the different phases of its life cycle. Therefore a sort of net is created between the present status of the infrastructure and its surroundings that could be improved considerably due to the infrastructure renewal and the future programs the megastructure is going to locate. The net of synergies created between the functions of the present and future status will increase the potential of each program and activity causing a general improvement in the financial functioning of this mix-used infrastructure. Moreover, the infrastructure itself contains a base component all the megastructures should contain, a higher shape that preserves its visual and order sense for a long period (a sort of mega form) however, the infrastructure itself is too rigid to deal with the new balance conditions the city sustains. According to Kenzo Tangue, one of the most important figures of metabolism movement in Japan:

“The ideal physical structure system the megastructure should have, It should move at the same rhythm that the new conditions or requirements the city always experiments.”4

That’s the reason why the megastructural strategy is perfectly suitable for the infrastructure renewal, cause in its nature contains one of the main principles to be successful. Furthermore, the infrastructure, whose lifespan is interdepend with city’s lifespan as well, belongs to a category of urban elements that are included in the long cycles’ systems. The megastructure has to be justified on one hand because its presence is going to be permanent in a long period of time as well as its capacity to be combined with shorts cycles, “ both necessaries for the modern life and the mankind itself “, in words of Kenzo Tange. A mega-form could become quickly obsolete if it doesn’t allow the combination of both cycles, the longest and the shortest. That’s another 4

Reyner Banham, Megaestructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past. (Barcelona : Gustavo Gili,

1978) pag 219. 19

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

reason why in this research is going to be justified the infrastructure renewal as a started point from which the Megastructure could be developed and extended without the risk of becoming a big failure over the city’s shoulders. In addition, it’s important to remark that on account of the last decades of intense urbanization, many cities have experienced a complete image transformation and in some cases a loss of their identity. The strategy of the tabula rasa and the breakdown with the past which inspired some plans for the cities renewals of the last century, like the Plan Voisin for Paris (1925) or the proposal for a massive superstructure of Fort l’Empereur, Argel (1931), both designed by Le Corbusier, are not suitable according with their rigid and extremely introspective approach. In somehow, the introduction of the megastructure as a device for the infrastructure renewal is an act of sustainability in tandem with the dialect established within the past and future, a collage for a complex artefact’s presence in the city. In the words of Colin Rowe this collage procedure is:

“…an

attitude that encourages the compound; exploitation and recycling of meaning

...; of a dialectic between past and future, an enrichment of the iconographic content, of a temporal collision in tandem with space, summarising an earlier statement, it could proceed to define an ideal city. “

Through the collage strategy, the utopic dreams of the Megastructure recover sense in combination with the infrastructure. Metaphorically, the past infrastructure would be like a museum exhibition whereas the megastructure is the scaffolding accepting the uncertainty as an urban fact, waiting for unexpected programs and activities. Nevertheless, there are some detractors against the revival of the megastructures as a new architectural and urbanism resource, one of them, Reem Koolhaas who have been developing “hyper architecture” as he defines these new artefacts which are called to change the urban and architecture paradigm based in the concept of the

Colin. Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collage City (Barcelona : Gustavo Gili, 1998) pag 136. 20

Chapter 2 – The megastructure’s purpose approach

“Greatness”. Koolhaas justifies the existence of this architecture given its own power and presence to break completely the relations with the context and establishing its own rules. Because of their size, these sorts of buildings are in a range where it doesn’t exist the morality. As he says, “its impact is independent of its quality” The Greatness doesn’t need the city cause is the city itself, doesn’t belong to any urban frame, it is independent of the context. The boxes which are going to contain this “Greatness” are called to be the landmarks in a post-architectural landscape where the tabula rasa will be the global situation. However, the scenario presented by Rem Koolhaas where his Greatness is the last architecture redemption for mankind was already introduced by some architects-teams in the ’60s when the Megastructure movement emerged with huge promises of welfare. In relation with the attitude of tabula rasa that Rem Koolhaas notes and whose situation could be contained from the implementation of Megastructures, Peter Hall published an article, in 1968, called “Monumental Follies” warning about the Megastructure. According to him, the devastating mentality behind the Megastructure ideas pretended to wipe out the existent urban textures without any concern about what was going to replace them. It is true that nowadays in many Asian cities, especially in China, the old urban frame is being demolished due to the high demands of land and high-density requirements. These old urban fabrics are understood in many cases as encumbrances and a waste of vital space in strategic areas in the city which are restraining the urban development. It shouldn’t consider that all these areas have an undesirable connotation to be completely transformed and replace for a forest of skyscrapers, surely without any relation with their surroundings. In this point, it’s relevant to mention another reason why the Megastructure could be useful and convenient not only for the infrastructure renewal, but also to preserve old areas that are giving identity to the city. There isn’t any need to undervalue these old consolidated urban frames and consider them as a trash space or disadvantage for the city ambitions. The future development and urbanization could take profit from them as well as from the death spaces around the infrastructures, which are underused and 21

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

consuming vertical and horizontal space, to develop new programs for the city. Related with the use of the trash space as an opportunity for the megastructure development Rem Koolhaas argues:

“The architects thought for the first time in the "trash space" and called it "mega-structure" the final solution to overcome its huge deadlock. Like multiple babels, the huge superstructures would last till eternity, overflowing with non-permanent subsystems that would mutate over time, out of their control.”

Concluding that this utopian dream is a trap against its own materialization due to the problematic of its implementation:

“The megastructure, a kind of technical support that covers everything, that allows everything and, ultimately, questioned the status of the singular building: a very safe Greatness, whose true implications exclude its implementation”

To sum up, and after mentioning the several advantages and pinpointing some problematics and detractors against the implementation of the Megastructure, I firmly believe in this strategy in order to propose an alternative to the high-density development spread around the world, not sustainable and feasible in the long term. In the next section, it is going to analyse the potentiality coming from the implementation of the megastructure strategy. The development of this artefact would encompass a reality beyond the urban issues, it’s a device capable to embrace the whole society in a continuous net of synergies.

Rem. Koolhaass and Jorge Sáinz Avia, About the City (Barcelona : Gustavo Gili, 2014) pag 78 -79.

Koolhaass and Sáinz Avia pag 25-26. 22

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2.3 The potentiality The implementation of the megastructure strategy over the urban infrastructure could begin the development of many aspects which would encompass the whole architecture scope, the industry, the service sector and finally the economy. On the other hand, the renewal of the infrastructure inside the urban tissue would have an impact over the social scope because it would provide a new paradigm where the inhabitants could establish new social interactions. Almost half a century ago Kenzo Tangue, one of the pioneers of the megastructure movement, was really aware of the repercussion that the model of life he was proposing could have over the socio-economical system. According to Kenzo Tangue, the development of the megastructure concept and its physical application would provide technological progress due to the collaboration between different fields of knowledge. The collaboration between engineers, architects, and other sciences disciplines could simulate the development and growth of new companies as well as the advance in the construction techniques. In this sense, a completely new multidisciplinary knowledge an industrial sector could appear in the economic system. On the other hand, the high demands of land in the cities to accommodate the mass population coming from other country areas could be satisfied, as it has been explained in the previous chapter, taking in consideration the vital space over the infrastructure system. The prefab systems could be a solution to build fast, economically, sustainable, mass affordable and with high standards of quality all the elements required for the construction, stimulating the whole industry and supporting the investigation in the technological field. In relation with the new construction paradigm that is going to open this kind of infrastructural renewal, it is important to have in consideration the amount of new city surface which could be built, consequently, the sustainability factor for its maintenance must be a priority. The lack of resources many dense cities areas in Asia are undergoing are leading the design strategy to experiment with new strategies of

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

sustainable development in the new urban extensions. The implementation of the ecologic technologies and the green energies utilization through the infrastructure renewal should start a transformation in the urban model towards a metropolis sustainable growth. On the other hand and related to the development and extension of the city, the economic factor is also crucial for the success of this ambitious plan. Usually, the infrastructure projects eat up the financial resources of the public sector, and many times after their finalization the maintenance and the inaccurate forecast related to their use increase their initial debt. The strategy to avoid this paramount issue could be solved partially by applying a tridimensional concept of land use. The megastructure skeleton would be provided by the public sector as well as the horizontal and vertical circulation systems. Additionally, the private sector would be in charge of the construction above the skeleton, also the empty plot of lands around the infrastructure, whose value would increase due to the renewal. Consequently, the different stages of the infrastructural renewal and new city expansion would be defrayed mostly by the incomes coming from the private sector. Due to this fact, the whole intervention would provide a collective social improvement, fostering new facilities for the neighbours, dwellings for the new inhabitants and better connectivity between fragmented areas of the urban tissue. Finally, the last potential factor the infrastructure renewal could encourage is the development of new design strategies. They would attempt to face the issues coming from mass transportation and circulation as a part of the solution itself, and no one isolated problem. The multiple possibilities provided by the structure of the mega form would make possible an assorted variety of combinations between different architectural and urban elements. The richness this framework can provide us is immense and plenty of diverse situations to experiment with as well as the framework capacity to improve the physical en emotional population urban experience.

Chapter 2 – The megastructure’s purpose approach

2.4 Introduction to the design proposal Taking into account the megastructure potentiality and its relation with the megastructure, it is going to develop a design proposal to put into test the theoretical knowledge acquired during the development of this research This background coming from the megastructural principles is going to provide the main project ideas to substantiate the architectural and urban design strategies applied for the infrastructure renewal. The location chosen to carry out the design project is in my hometown, L’hospitalet del Llobregat, a city inside the Metropolitan area of Barcelona. In the problem statement chapter has been analyzed the convenience for the development of a new architectural approach based in the renewal of the infrastructure to face the high index of growth and urban expansion in some Asian cities. However, there are many reasons why my hometown has been chosen as the design place to apply the knowledge acquired from the research. Along with my two supervisor’s suggestions (Barcelona and Shanghai) and my own experience, we agreed that the urban conditions and factors that involve l’Hospitalet del Llobregat fragmentation and unconnected areas are to a large extent because of the railway infrastructure which goes through the middle of the city. L’Hospitalet del Llobregat meets the requirements to develop a design project which involves the theoretical knowledge coming from the megastructure design principles. On the other hand, my own experience as a user and citizen who has been living in the city and in an area nearby the railway infrastructure, adds more truthfulness to the site analysis and a thorough understanding from the social and urban point of view.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

Image 1 Satellite top view plan of Barcelona Metropolitan area. Coloured railway infrastructure system, parks and old river paths. 2019 26

Chapter 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Megastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purpose approach

Image 2 Satellite top view plan of Barcelona Metropolitan area. Coloured railway infrastructure system, parks and old river paths. 2019

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

Image 3 Barcelona Metropolitan area transport, main roads and geography diagram. 28

Chapter 2 – The Megastructure’s purpose approach

2.4 Conclusions The megastructure purpose’s approach presented in the previous paragraphs is relevant to understand why the topic of this research is focused on the megastructure methodology and design strategy to face the urban infrastructure renewal. On one hand has been done an analysis and explanation of the city’s current situation, focused on the high growth average big cities are undergoing, the vertiginous transformations and the different problems they are suffering. The approach of this research is focused on finding some kind of solution strategies for the actual and next decades challenges the metropolis is going to face. This package of solutions could be based on one hand in the potentiality of the urban infrastructure which nowadays is underuse. On the other hand, in the next steps of this research, it is going to develop a study and analysis of the principles which underlie in the megastructural design concepts. These architectural, social and urban concepts approach are going to provide us with a wide spectrum of possibilities and new devices for the urban renewal design which will be applied finally in the design proposal.

“The megacity needs megastructure. The problems are disproportionate. The megastructure doesn’t exist yet but has to exist and it will exist. It will exist when construction companies are ready. It will exist when the crowd is ready. Mostly, it will exist when our civilization is ready to create architecture…”8

Banham, Megaestructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past. pag 209. 29

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

3. Historical and theoretical background The megastructure term wasn’t used, as such, till half of the 20th century, however, the concept which underlies behind its definition and all the elements which encompass were coming much earlier. First, it is going to provide a panoramic view about the context, economically and socially, under which the first ideas of the megastructure and megacity appeared as the mankind’s dreams based in his faith in the technology and the utopic vision of the machine’s world. After the description of this “first megastructure” approach which set a strategy for the fast and uncontrolled urban transformations in the past century, this research is going to deepen in the Megastructure’s principles. The different principles have been determined from the analysis of a wide variety of conceptual examples around the world, whose ideologists were sharing a common theoretical background. After this thorough analysis which will encompass a wide spectrum of case study, it’s going to summarize the impact of their implementation in a conclusion which will be focused on one project, Parc de la Villette. The theoretical concepts that rule over the megastructure design strategy are going to be taken in advantage for the final design project. This strong conceptual basement is going to determinate the project strategy to implement the megastructure over the railway infrastructure which will become the catalyst of the urban regeneration.

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

3.1 Historical background 3.1.1 Urban precedents and futurism When the Megastructure terminology was defined in the ‘60s

it could be taught

that there weren’t precedents till Fumihiko Maki defined the term. However, when Paul Rudolph was asking about examples to work with this idea he suggested the Ponte Vecchio as a historical hint not projected by architects so as to exemplify the concept. In fact, the Ponte Vecchio, having been build five hundred years ago contains in his nature many of the characteristics that appear in Ralph Wilcoxon's megastructure definition. In the scope of this research, this historical example is also quite useful because a bridge is a city infrastructure with a specific functional purpose, crossing between two sides which can be carried out due to the basic mega form of its own support assembly. Furthermore, a collection of little houses and stores are plugged-in both edges of the bridge as well as the elevated pedestrian path which connects the Palazzo Pitti with the Uffizi grafted in the urban frame and maximizing the bridge linkage with the city fabric.

Image 4Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy

On the other hand, at the beginning of the 20th century the Italian architect, Antonio Sant’Elia, proposed different designs based on the aesthetics of the futurism and the picturesque expression of modern technology. According to Sant’Elia’s : 31

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

“ The city should be invented and reconstructed again as it was a huge and tumultuous plot, active, mobile and dynamic everywhere, and the modern building as a giant machine….the elevators have to climb quickly on the façades as iron and grass snakes…The street has to be made up of floors deeply immersed in the ground, which pick up all the metropolis traffic and connected for the required transfers, to metallic walkways and high-speed moving walkways.9

In Sant’Elia’s proposals, it can be seen how the role of transportation and mobility was presumed to be one of the main issues for the cities developments in the next decades. Sant’Elia was the figure who influenced more directly in the megastructure urban approach, the inventor of the huge buildings panorama over the traffic’s arteries.

Image 6 Project for Milan’s central station.

Image 5 Sant’Elias’s city

Antonio Sant’Elia, 1914

In the United States, the Manhattanism culture was completely devoted towards the traffic intensity and mobility circulation as an expression of its democracy, consumerism, and standard of living growth at the beginning of the XIX century.

Antonio Sant’Elia, “Messagio Sull’Architettura,” Milan, 1914. 32

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

It is not surprising to find drawings which contemplate high expectancies due to the economic development and the acceleration of the urban expansion. Nevertheless, this future urban environment was highly motivated by the supremacy of the traffic circulation over anything else, the city architecture symbolized and justified the existence of this high-density traffic mobility and at the same time stimulate its privilege consideration.

“A city made for speed is a city made for success”10

Image 8 The cosmopolis of the future.

Image 7 Towers on a Hudson River Bridge Between

Harry M. Petit 1908

NewYork and New Jersey. Harvey Wiley Corbett 1930

The utopic vision of futuristic cities where the urban fabric would contain different levels of movements was conceived under a complete faith that the traffic transportation was going to determinate the city landscape in the future at the expense of the inhabitants' living conditions. According to the words of Kenneth Burke:

“ the futurism propensity was to make from the abuse a virtue”

1887-1965 Le Corbusier, Urbanisme / Le Corbusier (Paris : G. Crés, 1924), 190 pag.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

3.1.2 Modern movement approach. The design of the human environment in its entirety was one of the main points the architects of the modern movement wanted to achieve through their design strategies. Many changes were taking place at the beginning of the XX. The transportation and the mass production industry were providing a completely different paradigm to the society who was in a deep transformation. Due to this fact, a new sort of urbanism and architecture should be developed to answer the demands of this society who was anxious to taste the benefits of the machine era. The politics of the tabula rasa and the benefits from a new beginning, in contrast with the undesirable past, were in the ideology of many projects developed by the modern movement as well as for its leading figure, Le Corbusier, who presented this approach by his renewal plan for Paris in the Plan Voisin.

Image 9 Plan Voisin Paris. Le Corbusier. 1925

A new social environment, the reconciliation between nature and human, the free ground to develop all sort of social activitiesâ&#x20AC;Ś these were some of the promises exalted by this radical and rational vision of the urban renaissance. However, this scientifical approach was too overwhelming to be put in practice, and after decades of critics was considered to outrageous cause its roughness against the human scale and perceptiveness.

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

“Modern architecture, which professed to be human, manifested a sterile and totally unacceptable scientific rigour. Therefore let us focus on giving a reply to things as they are, to observe a world as the mass of humanity prefers; useful, real and densely familiar “11

Despite the fact of Modern movement utopic approach, it is important to emphasize that without its transgressor attitude towards the classical architecture methods, the concept of the Megastructure and all that it implies maybe wouldn’t be materialized. Nowadays most of the architectural critics agree as well as Reyner Banham in the ‘70s that the Plan Obus for Alger and Fort l’Empereur in 1931 are the forefathers of the megastructural tendency which follows in ‘60s after the turmoil of the second War-world which implied new demands from a post-war society and urban needs.

Image 10 Project Obus, Argel . Le Corbsusier. 1930

This architectural and urbanistic artefact apparently unlimited was based in the concept of a huge superstructure which was supposed to be a dense infrastructure spread over the land, like an artificial landscape. It would contain a highway at the top and an open frame where users could build their homes according to their needs,

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

completely out from the architect control. Thus, a sort of principle of indeterminacy underlined in its aesthetics whereas the whole shape preserved its identity. The iconoclastic stereotype of private transportation was again the main concept of this project, a mixture of landscape and architecture where the mass circulation would define the boundaries of its organic shape.

Image 11 Project “A” Fort l’Empereur, Argel. Le Corbusier. 1931

“The civilization of the road will re-establish the harmonious and regular relations between town and country, relations broken by the railway that, working contrariwise, had emptied the country in favour of the town and had drawn men away from nature, their natural milieu.”12

Le Corbusier used the same principles to apply his idea to any city which was susceptible to being transformed as well as its identity to be reborn. Long wall-buildings with all cities activities would wriggle the nature landscape, ploughing through the topography and becoming themselves part of it. The project for re-urbanization for Rio de Janeiro and the seascrappers in the plan for the Montevideo city are remarkable examples of the proto megastructure ambition. Every element would be subordinated by the control of a huge infrastructure capable to articulate the development of the whole city, when it was actually, the city.

Le Corbusier. “Les besoins collectifs et le génie civil." In Anatole de Monzie, Pierre Abraham

(eds.). L’Encyclopédie Française, Tome XVI (Paris: Societé de l’Encyclopédie Française, 1935) 36

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

Image 12 Study for reurbanization of Rio de Janeiro. Le Corbusier. 1929

Image 13 Plans for Montevideo. Le Corbusier. 1929.

“ In any case, the results of science fiction, whether systemic or neo-futuristic, tend to suffer from the same conditions that affect the “ Ville radieuse “ and “ Plan Voisin “, disdain for the context, distrust of the social continuum, use of symbolic utopian models for literal purposes, and the assumption that the existing city should disappear.”13

Rowe and Koetter, Collage City, 42 pag. 37

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

3.1.3 Mixture between architecture and infrastructure From the very beginning of contemporary cities’ birth, the infrastructure of transportation has shaped the urban tissue notably. The cities in the middle ‘50s were thought to prioritize the vehicle circulation, stimulating the mass of people to use this mean of transport and structuring the city for this purpose to the detriment of space for the pedestrians. The free-open space out of obstacles that the modern movement was proclaiming for a better environment, now was interrupted and broken by the same condition which was supposed to guide the evolution and expansion of the cities, the flows of traffic, the mass circulation and the transportation, the symbol of the modern metropolis.

“The automobile was primarily responsible for the deterioration of the cohesive social structure of the city, ..they destroyed the quality of the public spaces and stimulated the urban expansion to distant districts.”14

Keeping in mind the problematic dichotomy between the pedestrian space and the traffic mobility Louis Khan suggested in 50’s a project which aimed to take out from the city centre the traffic congestion in order to provide urban public space for pedestrian circulation, social activities and institutional buildings. Louis Khan thought about spaces of pause, continuity and intermittent movement, to find a balance between the different flows of circulation. The project for Philadelphia is an attempt to emphasize the importance of the pedestrian space in the city, to reconnect urban areas and to set aside the private traffic mobility as a functional matter that shouldn’t be the main focus of the urban development.

The project essentially is composed of colossal monumental structures, which were supposed to be multi-functional buildings where huge parking lots would store all the vehicles out from the city centre. Although this structures composed a big

Richard George. Rogers, Philip. Gumuchdjian, and Pasqual Maragall, Ciudades Para Un Pequeño

Planeta (Barcelona : GG, 2000). 38

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

network system, any of them could be considered a megastructure element.

Image 14Perspective Sketch plan for Philadelphia “System of Movement and Restructure for the City”. Louis Khan. 1952

The shape and the functionality of this project’s elements were coming from the motivation to do something with the traffic issue however, the traffic mobility itself determined finally the whole architecture image. The raison d’être again of all this picturesque aggregation of forms was justified by the organisation of the traffic mobility. In fact, it was the extended idea since the appearance of the modern movement and the discourse of the “age machine “; the energies coming from the traffic circulation, properly organized, could make up the modern city in a big scale.

Image 15 Building proposal, circular towers.

Image 16 Project for Philadelphia traffic

Louis Khan, 1952.

refurbishment. Louis Khan. 1952 39

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

One of the main problems about the design of infrastructures is the lack of planning vision towards the future in relation to urban growth and future expansion rather than its shape and cityscape. Regarding this statement, Paul Rudolph, in the ‘70s, developed with his students an urban renewal plan for the Lower Manhattan Express Way. The prominence of the highway is at the same time an issue for the city’s fragmentation but simultaneously gives the opportunity to take profit of its presence to practice experimentally with urban elements and foresee with perspective the future demands of the city. In the experimental case study of Paul Rudolph, the highway would be the equivalence to a mega form or superstructure, supplied by the traffic circulation requirements in the city. The scar which implies this roadway in the urban tissue is what justifies, on one hand, the need to cover it. Additionally, it gives the change to develop a new urban extension which would adapt its metabolism according to its surroundings, from low density to high density by skyscrapers on its edges. Now the collective space is shared in different levels of flows interwoven providing an expressionist image which reminds us of the pictures of the cosmopolis of the future. ( pag 28 Image n 4)

Image 17 Project for the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Section. Paul Rudolph 1970 40

Chapter 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Historical and theoretical background

Image 18 Project for the Lower

Image 19 Project for the Lower Manhattan

Manhattan Expressway. Section Paul

Expressway. Perspective. Paul Rudolph 1970

Rudolph 1970

Nevertheless, the faith in the mass private circulation and the imperative of the congestion as a quality for the city was still a deeply firm idea in the urban project strategy. On the other hand, there were case studies less presumptuous with the cityscape and more humble in their social approach regarding the community. These proposals suggested concept-ideas that could be carried out in several stages less invasive with the existing urban fabric. The urban renewal they attempted to achieve was based on sustainable growth as well as the implementation of big areas of public space, improving the population life environment.

Image 20 Project for Harlem district. Aerial view

Image 21 Project for Harlem district. Section

Columbia University 1967

Columbia University 1967 41

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

The materialisation of the integration between the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architecture and the mobility infrastructure as an articulator in the urban development, it saw the light with the construction of the Manhattan Bus terminal in 1965, curiously at the end of the edges of the proposal suggested by Paul Rudolph in 1970.

As well as some of the proposals described above, the bus station terminal design take advantage from the fly rights over the railway as a plot of land to build due to the lack of available space in Manhattan. Apparently, this interchange transport node, with blocks of dwellings above its platform, looks like a megastructure inserted in a metropolitan dense context. This artefact intensifies the place identity giving a recognisable shape and sense to the area. The city as a building finally had become a plausible concept, solving the trouble between the architecture developed on a big scale interweaved with its urban context by the megastructure as its shape device.

Image 23 Bus terminal Manhattan. Pierluigi Nervi 1965-6

Image 22 Bus terminal Manhattan. Pierluigi Nervi 1965-6

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

3.2 Megastructure’s principles 3.2.1 Temporary events and flexibility The flexibility in terms of architecture could be understood in two ways, physical flexibility and time flexibility. In both cases, the element describes as a flexible has the quality of being able to change or be changed easily according to the physical and temporal circumstances. “The Fun Palace” unbuilt example embraces both notions of flexibility which are interesting to discuss according to its potential for the implementation of the Megastructure.

In 1962 Joan Littlewood, a theatre director,

requested to the architect Cedric Price

for a “ device”, “service”, “mobile space” as a new concept that could open up culture, science and education to the metropolitan society and its engagement with the learning and entertainment. The Fan Palace was understood as a device whereby the society could be linked under these two goals ( learning and entertainment ) as well as its ability to improve the urban social connection as a regional and national attraction. Therefore, the implementation of this artefact should give answers to the society requirements of pleasure and learning through the different activities that were going to take place over time. According to with Cedric Price, the flexibility of change over time should be accomplished by the ability of users to control their own physical environment a sort of “life-conditioning”, in words of Cedric Price, which is an intrinsic part of his design philosophy.

This “ fun artefact “ could be physically described as an open structure which looks like a shipyard with a 260 x 114 m rectangle silhouette in the plan. Five lines of fifteen steel frame towers would be connected on their heads by steel trusts. On the roof, a grain would transport the mobile elements from one side to the other regarding the performances or activities that were going to be developed.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 24Cross section Fun Palace. Cedric Price. 1964

According to Cedric Price description words: “The Fun Palace’s structure and enclosures contribute to and emphasise the possibilities of a twentieth-century mechanised environment…. A three-dimensional activity framework that enables maximum flexibility and change in individual volumes and the whole.”

Cedric Price refers to traditional architectural proportions to regulate the scale of what might otherwise, be misconstrued as a heavy engineering plant. The Fun Palace was designed as a “short-term” element with a fixed ten-years lifespan.

“ In-built flexibility, or its alternative – planned obsolescence, can be satisfactorily achieved only if the time factor is included as an absolute design factor in the total design process”15

With these words, Cedric Price proclaimed the necessity of a limited lifespan of building cause from his point of view the architecture is not just a question of space also a question of time. The temporary nature of this project, a unique experiment in that time in the area of urban planning, was a response in order to make use of a site in a short-term whereas the long-term urban plans were still in development. 15

Cedric Price, Cedric Price Works 1952-2003 : A Forward-Minded Retrospective / Samantha

Hardingham (Montreal : Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2016), 47 pag. 44

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

Image 25 Cross section Fun Palace showing potential uses of interior space. Cedric Price. April 1964

Therefore, due to the short-term lifespan of the Fan Palace and its unfolding in different locations, it was supposed to have influence over several communities and an impact in the urban regeneration of each neighbourhood. Cedric Price used the metaphor of the port, whose aesthetics and operationally values he was fascinated, for understanding the main structure as well as the ecology as one of the main principles of his architecture. This terminology, “ecology” wasn’t well known in that time however, Cedric Price applied it as a concept for his Fun Palace design by self-sustaining and adaptable structures. In contrast with the metabolism in Japan, the temporal permanence of the Fun Palace rooms was supposed to be changeable even every day, while the elements in the megastructures developed by the Japanese practices were thought to remain untouchable at least for one generation. Therefore, the temporary rooms in the Fun Palace would be built with a limited number of recoverable elements which would be stored when they weren’t used. Due to Cedric’s Price proposal, the architect Arata Isozaki, his counterpart in the Metabolism movement, said:

“The important thing was that there no longer was any strict time space composed by the architect but, rather, mechanical systems reconfiguring in every possible way in response to circumstances.”

Rem Koolhaas, Project Japan : Metabolism Talks ... / Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist ; Editors:

Kayoko Ota with James Westcott, AMO (Köln : Taschen, 2011), pag 20. 45

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 26 Fun Palace Interior perspective. Cedric Price 1964

Finally, the purpose behind this temporal flexibility and adaptability was to provide the conditions for “city events”. This is a fundamental statement in Cedric’s Price design philosophy cause according to him, the architecture should provide the mechanisms to enable the process of change. The event conditions enabled by The Fun Palace were going to be the generators for the change, the catalysts for the urban physical and social interaction and regeneration.

“It is interaction, not the place that is the essence of city and city life”17

These assortments of events enabled by the temporal flexibility and adaptability supplied by the Fun Palace is directly related to the kind of entertainment the contemporary society needed to find in the urban public space. In relation to the appearance of this new ludic social class that Yona Friedman called Homo Ludens, the movement and the changeability were going to become two basic requirements to face populations’ demands. In the case of Fun Place, the citizens' requirements are consequences coming from the flexibility principle that rules over the whole design.

Ron. Herron and Barry Snowden, “Archigram No. 7: Beyond the Architecture,” 1966. 46

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Furthermore, Yona Friedman emphasised the biological need of the fun that demands freedom of choice without obstacles. According to Constant Niewenhuis, who consider the urban life as the complete development of an open game:

“The cities purely functionals are not going to satisfy the needs, totally different from the Homo Ludens. The Homo Ludens environment has to be flexible and mutable, guaranteeing any movement, any change of place or mood, any behaviour style…”18

This statement was clearly represented by Constant’s project called Neo Babylon, which attempted to project the structures that would define the environments where the Homo Ludens would develop its public activities.

Image 27 New-Babylon. Constant Niewenhuis. 1958

On the other hand, Yona Friedman, completely imbued by Constant, also claimed for the development of a new architecture an urban approach. As a result, the innovative artefact had to be flexible and mobile to hold the Homo Ludens demands. At the same time, this element should enable the changes and be adaptable regarding the circumstances. Consequently, Yona Friedman universal suggestion for this utopian

Banham, Megaestructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past., 83 pag. 47

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

urban society is a spatial frame structure elevated above pillars, containing all city program by interchangeable elements. This structure carpet would spread over the old urban fabric avoiding the relation with its context.

Image 28 Ville Spatiale over the city of New York, Yona Friedman,1964

Finally, it is important to highlight that the ludic flexibility Yona Friedman and Constant wanted to achieve, was made possible by the elements that compose the essence of the Fun Palace, the purpose of which was to enable the ludic conditions for the urban society.

The materialization of the Fun Palace’s philosophy was carried out by the Pompidou Center in Paris even though the concept was less audacious than its predecessor. Despite the fact that the floors of the Pompidou Center remain immovable, the spatial conditions deployed in each one is enough flexible and adaptable to move the program inside it. In terms of functional dynamics is closer to the ludic character that symbolized Constant’s Neo-Babylon project. The potential of this kind of multi-functional building remains in its ability to be sufficiently unprogrammed for all sort activities to happen. The spatial character was design to produce continuous, improvisatory… ultimately, different sort of cultural situations. This architectural artefact has been revealed as the iconography of the flexibility and the public amusement behind the high-tech architectural language and aesthetics to stand its 48

Chapter 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Historical and theoretical background

mutable behaviour. This building has become a device of change and improvement for the community because its influence goes beyond the simply urban physical transcendence. Nowadays the Pompidou Center has become a symbol for the cultural and social regeneration, as well as an icon of the transformative process the contemporary architecture should trigger in the city.

Image 29 Section from the original competition entry for the Centre Pompidou. Richard Roger and Renzo Piano 1977

Image 30 Exterior view Pompidou Centre. Urban Space and building.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

3.2.2 Linkage, continuity and intensity One of the main problems of our cities due to the infrastructure inserted in them, like the highways or the railways, is the scar they produce in the urban continuity as well as the lack of linkage between sectors cause their physical and social segregation. In the ‘60s, and as a consequence to satisfy the demands of the contemporary urban growth and expansion, Fumihiko Maki, a member of the Metabolism movement in Japan, worked about a series of concepts which involved investigations about a new urban order that he called “the collective form”. This research opened a new exploration about the relationship between the architecture and the city as well as the importance of the linkage between the elements that compose the city environment.

“Linkage is simply the glue of the city. It is the act by which we unite all the layers of activity and resulting physical form in the city “

The main point of this statement is the relation between different city elements and the whole which Maki defined as the three paradigms of the collective form: the compositional form, group form and mega form. They could be antagonistic modes but can coexist together in one configuration bringing about new urbanism, a new city. The matter of the transportation integration into an efficient network was one of the main issues in Fumihiko Maki case studies where the city linkages were carried through by new urban design elements. This new urban design elements would be a kind of mix-used facilities based on the transportation exchanges which would be located in the intersection between different mobility flows. In addition, other urban facilities called “city rooms”, situated in gathering places and “city corridors”, to be built above busy sidewalks would be added into the city network.

Fumihiko Maki, “The Japan Architect Num 16 ( 4 ),” 1994, 269 pag. 50

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

Image 31 City Room. Fumihiko Maki 1965

“ City Room and City Corridor, open frameworks for indoor/ outdoor urban space.” The architect does not concern himself with the ways City Corridors and Rooms will be used”20 These elements would be gradually integrated into the urban fabric and intensified by the pedestrian movement between the different transportation points. This new focal points would become the new urban energy generators. Nowadays, it is possible to find this sort of elements in high-density cities like Hong Kong, Singapore or Seoul.

"Anyone who appreciates the meaning of a city will agree that a true city is a congested city: congestion not of cars, but of people driven to agglomerate by a multitude of related activities “21

According to Maki the architectural form of this transportation exchanges “city rooms”

should be found in the flow of urban transportation instead of massive

constructions which could alter the urban structure. Furthermore, Archigram team, located in England, shared with Maki this point of view however, they were more radical in terms of density of elements. 20

Fumihiko Maki, ““Theory of Group Form“ The Japan Architect,” 1970.

Rem. Koolhaas and Jorge Sainz, Singapore Songlines: Portrait of a Potemkin Metropolis… or 30

Years of Tabula Rasa (Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2010). 51

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 32 Warren Chalk and Ron Herron , City Interchange project. 1963

In the ‘60s some urban projects were facing the diversity of urban flows developing solutions based in multilevel segregation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. This provides a “topological” plan of walkways, like the urban renewal proposed by Fulham Studio. The people’s wishes of consumerism were paramount while the cars were to scape rather than commuting. Housing, shopping, leisure, and traffic were stacked and interwoven to create an urban core that was multifunctional and manageable for the inhabitants’ demands.

Image 33 Urban renewal. Fulham Study,

Image 34 Pedestrian network for

1963. Taylor Woodrow Design Group.

Urban Renewal: Fulham Study, 1963

On the other hand, the distinction of pedestrian and vehicular traffic could also be seen in the Smithson's project in Berlin, where a new strollers platform was developed to interact above the old urban tissue and at the same time being interlaced with the new urban elements, creating different network flows, upper and down. The main idea of the project was based on the definition of new structures of communication and at the to provide a new city identity after the Second War world. 52

Chapter 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Historical and theoretical background

Image 35 Pedestrian network for Urban Renewal: Fulham Study, 1963

Image 36 Project for Berlin Hauptstadt. View of the traffic and pedestrian segregated circulation. Alison & Peter Smithson. 1957

Following with Makisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; theoretical approach, his strategy with an open-ended and organic urban structure allows the metropolis and its inhabitants to be adapted to unpredictable changes. In addition, the merit of this urban network overcome the lack of flexibility and elasticity which our cities are undergoing currently.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 38 Open-End System. Fumihiko Maki

Image 37 Movement Systems in the City, Boston 1965

As it has been mentioned above the three compositional approaches of the collective form could be combined to define a new kind of urbanism, and the linkage or linkage disclosing is one of the main components of this innovative concept on that time. The concerns for the city connections were shared by Maki with his counterparts in Europe and the United States, the TEAM 10. Alison and Peter Smithson, in different proposals they were carrying out, revealed the importance of the circulation flows, the linkage between urban elements, the city preexistent context and the user experience as one more decisive factors for the urban design strategy. The networking system Maki was experimenting with, was exemplified one decade before by the Smithson’s “cluster” idea. In fact, the “cluster” it was revealed as an open-end system as Maki pretended on a metropolitan scale with his project design for Boston in 1965. Nonetheless, compared with Maki’s design elements,

in the

Smithson’s proposals for the Golden Lane urban renewal in the ‘50s, the concepts like city rooms and city corridors weren’t mentioned despite the huge ambition of their proposal.

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

Image 39 Golden Line. Master Plan.

Image 40 Golden Line axonometric.

“…in the Cluster concept there is not one ‘centre’ but many. Population pressure-points are related to industry and to commerce and these would be the natural points for the vitality of the community to find expression - the bright lights and the moving crowds.”22

Fumihiko Maki and the Smithson’s argued that the social, spatial and physical linkage would be successful between urban events if they provide a living understandable sequence for the users. The linkage is based on assembling experiences, and not all of them are physical but also emotional. Maki provides five basic physical linkage categories to explain what must be done to make a link and establish the relationship between the urban elements. To mediate, To define, to repeat, to make a sequential path and to select.23

In relation to this research, the operational term which fits better and establishes a direct connection with the megastructure is the fourth one. Fumihiko Maki suggest designing a path arranged with buildings or parts of multi-use buildings. This path will be furnished with a continuous sequence of useful activities which propel people 22

Alison and Peter Smithson, editorial in Architectural Review, November 1957, excerpted in Reyner

Banham, The New Brutalism (London:Architectural Press, 1966), pag 72 23

Maki, “The Japan Architect Num 16 ( 4 ),” 269. 55

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

through it. This artefact described by Maki gives us the idea of a large multi-functional structure that contains quasi-buildings and transportation system for going from one function to another within the frame. All the entity would work as a symbiotic element with a continuous activity provided by its inherent program and the usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; movement. Despite the fact that Fumihiko Maki was fascinated by the Megastructure concept and its qualities he was critic insofar the structural ambition of the designers was out of the human scale and the functional needs as well as their underuse by the economic purpose.

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

3.2.3 Movement dynamics, change and indeterminacy These concepts are the main points in which are based on the utopic-design approach, the group Archigram, were developing in the ‘60s, a suggestive proposal for the society new rhythms and city urgently renovation demands. Plug-in city combined elements which are coming from the modernist era and the imagination of the society’s future living conditions. Le Corbusier’s plan Obus in Alger, Unite d’Habitation, Soviet linear city, are some precedents the plug-in city took concepts for its own design. The life in collectivity, interchangeable architectural units, the dynamics of the mobility in different levels due to the high-speed transportation links…. All of them were summarized in a megastructure system devoted to continual circulation.

“Archigram valued the traffic, was the assumption that surging mobility was commensurate with good living and with democracy”24

Image 41 Plug-In City. Axonometric local district in medium-pressure area. Peter Cook 1964

Simon Sadler, Archigram Architecture without Architecture (Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2005),

80 pag. 57

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 42 Plug-In_City, Max. Pressure Area, Long Section. Peter Cook. 1963

One of the challenges of this proposal was to attempt to provide a strategy to keep cities viable in an era of rapid change. Other contemporary proposals to Plug-in city coming from the metabolism movement; like Oceanic City (Kiyonoru Kikutake, 1962, image 49 pag 62 ) and the Plan for Tokyo Bay ( Kenzo Tangue 1960, image 47 pag 60) were dealing with the same considerations, many of them as a direct consequence of the Second War World and the urgent need for the reconstruction of the city and the post-war society. With the aim to prioritize the inhabitants’ daily life quality and make architecture as a device towards this change, the classical attributes to design the conventional “good architecture” were set aside.

Plug-in city design would be based in a combination of many elements; a structural lattice frame support for changeable units and other random elements which late, would be deposited along lines of transportation. In fact, this was the other purpose of this urban design strategy, to stimulate the circulation and accelerate the city-in-flux. In this way, all the services and activities would never be disconnected. The Archigram approach contrasts with the traditional architecture scope, devoted to the contemplation of itself instead of the dynamics that it’s able to generate. It could establish a comparison between Cedric Price Fun Palace and the Plug-in city, both understood like a sort of port with non-stop activities, where the goods would arrive by different means of transport connected to the circulation network. 58

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

Plug-in planning promoted architecture as an event that could only be realized by the involvement and commitment of its citizenry through this continuous and dynamic system of movements.

“Events. Insofar as it constantly affirms that there is no architecture without action or without a program and that architecture importance resides in its ability to accelerate society’s transformation through a careful procuration of spaces and events.”25 These circulations’ dynamics have their physical expression in design aesthetics. Therefore, there is a strong relationship between change and movement dynamics with the architectural image expression. This fact is perfectly recognizable and understandable in the several drawings, Peter Cook and Archigram group developed throughout the ‘60s.

“ Archigrams urbanism was an extreme response to an extreme problem, permitting the city to keep meeting an apparently insatiable demand for mobility “26

The problems of population growth, land use, and traffic were tackled; with a new architectural language; by the Plug-in city where all the elements that contain the bustle of the metropolis were in a dynamic connection. That’s the reason why Peter Blake, in Architectural Forum note: the fundamental idea of Plug-in city, is to consider the city as a unique organic entity. A system in continuous change would supply the organic solutions for growth, reproduction and evolution, that the Plug-in City needed to survive. The previous tactic plan jointly with the circulation flows would give to the whole configuration an aesthetics of incompleteness and blurred boundaries.

Bernard Tschumi and N.Y.) Museum of Modern Art (New York, Event-Cities : Praxis (Cambridge,

[MA] : MIT Press, 1994), 11. 26

Sadler, Archigram Architecture without Architecture, 79 pag. 59

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

“For a world undergoing such rapid transformation, Archigram proposed organic change rather than total, sudden, centralized projects.”27

Moreover, the movement of the flows, the organic solutions and the concept of change would be the base for the growth and expansion of the whole system as well as the shape generator factor. The object form is just a result of the whole system interaction, not a purpose itself as in the case of traditional architecture approach. One of the Archigram’s purposes was to provide the users with the possibility to change the environment where they were living. Due to this fact, an open-end strategy was entrusted in the hands of the citizenry. People were going to determine the way they wanted to live and the sort of relations they wanted to establish, hence an architecture that expressed the inhabitants' wishes of “change”.

“Architecture can be much more related to the ambiguity of life. It can be throw-away or additive; it can be ad-hoc; it can be more allied to the personality and personal situation of the people who may have to use it.”28

Image 44 Plug-in capsule system. Chalk Herron. 1965

Image 43 Capsule Homes, Tower and Capsule Elevations.Warren Chalk. 1964

Sadler, 50 pag.

Peter Cook, Experimental Architecture (London:Studio Vista, 1970), p. 67. 60

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

The materialisation of this philosophy was carried out by a system of “plug-in” and “plug–out” capsules integrated into big frame structures where would be also mix-used elements intermingle with other program’s functions. Simultaneously this system of capsules is conceived as a temporary cityscape because the inhabitants could choose where they wanted to live. Thus, a continuous movement fostered by the opportunity of choice would furnish architectural image with mutable and unstable characteristics.

“It is easier to allow for individual flexibility than organisational change—The expendable house; the multi-use of fixed volumes; the transportable controlled environment.”29

The mass production and prefab methods were supposed to be the strategy of this transportable and interchangeable kits world. The metabolism movement in Japan was facing and experimenting with the dynamics that involve mobile architecture as well as the consideration of the building as a factory itself, always unfinished. Unfortunately, the promises of a dynamic and changeable architecture adhere to the inhabitants' wishes didn’t go further way than the pure formal shape.

Image 45 Nakagin Capsule

Image 46 Nakagin

Tower. Kisho Kurokawa 1972

Capsule Tower. Section. Kisho Kurokawa 1972

Cedric Price, “Activity and Change,” in Archigram,no. 2, (1962) 61

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

As well as Yona Friedman, who considered the factors of mobility and change as human essential requests, the possibility of users' choice has been in the mind of the architects' projects after the peak of the megastructure style movement in the ’60s. They were attempting to face the transience of users demands in the architectural space. The proposal for an urban extension in Barcelona designed by Iñaki Abalos y Herreros is a clear example in which was given the chance to the users to change the environment in accordance with their demands. A new urban fabric proposal would be composed by a net of skyscrapers over podiums. These huge structures, like shelves, would contain dwellings whose spatial distribution could change in accordance with their users’ specific needs. The technology would be the device to achieve a high level of functionality and mobility required to build the transient spaces wanted by the users.

Image 47 Housing and city. Barcelona. Abalos y Herreros. 1988

Image 48 Floor plan showing the changeable

Image 49 Housing and city. Skyscraper

possibilities of the space. Housing and city. Barcelona.

section. Barcelona. Abalos y Herreros. 1988

Abalos y Herreros. 1988

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

"The construction of a situation is the development of a transient microenvironment and a set of events for a unique moment in the life of some people.”30

Another paramount issue which should be highlighted in Archigram’s work as well as in the different proposals of their counterparts in that time is the idea of indeterminacy. This concept underlies in the essence of Archigram’s methodology and opened the spectrum to understand the architecture and urbanism from a different point of view. In fact, one of the main ideas of Plug-in city was to develop a sort of urban experience less determinate physically and mentally, an open-end system as Fumihiko Maki experimented in his study plan for Boston in 1965 ( image 34 pag 49 )

The paradigm Archigram was attempted to implement, with dynamics strategies and the changeable features of their architectural items, could be only achieved by the active involvement of the citizenry. The same inhabitants were going to create the open-end framework by an architecture that would express their wishes of continuously changeable situations, as a characteristic of a society who is ready to intermingle with the urban new dynamics and mutations.

Banham, Megaestructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past., 83 pag.

Peter Cook, Experimental Architecture (London:Studio Vista, 1970), pag. 67. 63

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

3.2.4 Permanent and transient cycles. The counterpart of the megastructural movement in Japan was called Metabolism, and portrayed its faith, as well as Archigram, in a stimulating vision of accelerated urbanism and advanced technology. Furthermore, this approach wouldd attempt to achieve the coexistence in parallel between the artificial and the untainted nature fostering a kind of techno-utopic view of the world. This issue would be one of the main points of metabolism; in words of one of its members Kisho Kurokawa:

“Integrate the natural paradise with the artificial paradise, this is the third paradise”

The Metabolism, as well as the TEAM 10 in Europe, was one of the movements that rose up in the postwar architecture panorama which attempted to break with the CIAM principles and envisaged a more human architecture that could be responsive to differing the individual needs.32 The challenge to deal with people’s life needs was directly related to the Metabolism own meaning, understanding the urban environment like a live organism that should contain the different life cycles. This concept was translated physically through the design of long-term structures to support short-term components. The different elements were supposed to sustain the permanent and transient urban cycles according to the temporary circumstances and population requirements. Thereupon, this principle was applied later for Plug-in City ( image 39 pag 53 ) design where each one of its elements has its own lifespan (as Peter Cook wrote down in his drawings), the same as the Tokyo’s Bay plan proposed by Kenzo Tangue in 1960. This proposal is the masterpiece of the Metabolism movement and the reference for the following megastructure developments, due to the great assortment of resources applied for its conception.

Koolhaas, Project Japan : Metabolism Talks ... / Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist ; Editors:

Kayoko Ota with James Westcott, AMO, 19 pag. 64

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

Image 50 Tokyo Bay project. Commercial district. Kenzo Tangue. 1960Image 48. Tokyo Bay project aerial view. Kenzo Tangue. 1960

Which is interesting of this design proposal it isn’t the appearance provided by its architecture or compositional form, if not the network of linked elements composed and organised by the life’s cycles principles. Like a natural organism, the life-death cycles are implied in its behaviour allowing its natural expansion and change. Moreover, evaluating the whole framework of elements and their life cycles, it is possible to encompass the dream of total design in a broad timeline. Something that the modern movement not even could conceive. According to Kenzo Tangue’s statements, this organic methodology would allow binding together the parts with the whole fostering the possibilities of the total design in combination with the long term and short term cycles, needed for the contemporary life and the mankind itself. The materialization of this concept was carried out by the development of several proposals as the Tokyo Bay Plan, which suggested a shape in scale with the human mass, including a mega form and small units, interchangeable and plug-in inside the bigger structure.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 51 Tokyo Bay project. Commercial district. Kenzo Tangue. 1960

In the case study of the Tokyo Bay plan, Kenzo Tangue thought in the city future in the long term, considering the unpredictable changes the metropolis would have to overcome. As it has been explained above, the principles of the metabolism underlie in this proposal strategy, dividing the city into permanent elements with long term lifespan and transient elements with a short term lifespan. Like a living organism taking into account the life cycles. The mega form is provided by a net understood as a tree ( the permanent element ) with the dwellings units as the leaves ( transient elements ) which appears or not regarding the circumstances and citizenry needs. Inside this framework, the expansion and contraction of the different systems which are in dynamic contact ( as well as in the Plug-in-City ) should be balanced by the mega form. This device would allow the coexistence of the different elements and their life’s cycles. However, if the mega form hasn’t considered the different systems own identity and lifespan, it could become obsolete and being one of the worst city’s troubles. According to Kenzo Tangue: 66

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

“What would be ideal is a sort of mega form that allows keeping a visual coherence and a permanent order in the long-term despite the balance conditions of the different elements that composed the whole system”33

Kenzo Tangue’s counterpart in Japan, Kiyonoru Kikutake, shared the same concerns as Tangue, just as the consideration for the Japan urban and economic growth the necessity of land for cities expansion and development. As a consequence of that, in 1962 the project of an Oceanic city showed up as a combination of Tangue’s metabolism key issues and a kit of city elements. They would have a different proportion of change, lifespan and mobility possibilities, just like The Nakagin Capsule Tower ( 1972 ) or Capsule Homes, Tower and Capsule ( 1964 ), did some years later. ( images 42 , 43 pag 56 )

Image 52 Project for Oceanic City. Kiyonoru Kikutake. 1962

Kenzo Tangue’s proposal evaluated the troubles stemming from the fact of facing systems with a different life cycle. In addition, how to balance these systems under a mega form that should remain unchangeable and provide a sense of structural order for the whole framework in the long-term. Both considerations we tested in the

Shinkenjiku, Tokyo, May 1959 pag 3 67

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Tokyo Bay Plan. This master plan was described as a rectangular circuit chain, a big megastructure of communication above the water connected, in turn, with other megastructural elements with their own life’s cycles and natural organic changeability. Different circuit levels with their own identity and urban character would be integrated into the whole framework finishing in the borders with dwellings clusters spread on the bay. These dwellings elements, with A shelve shape where insert individual units, were thought in order to be extendible, to disappear, or to grow back in accordance with the urban requests. Despite the fact that the project’s mega form seems being shapeless and out of control it was conceived as a project with possibilities of growing and change. In fact, their supporters, as well as Kiyonoru Kikutake and Tangue itself, claimed that theirs was the only solution to building Japan economy in rapid development after the Second World War. On the other hand, Archigram Plug-in city was justified in similar terms, but it wasn’t economically judicious. Many critics considered these proposals incomprehensible and immeasurable for the social sensitivity, completely out of the human scale, even if the proposal could be justified economically or for social welfare. For Arata Isozaki, who never joined Metabolism, the group was too optimistic: “ They really believed in technology, in mass production, they believed in systematic urban infrastructure and growth… The metabolism had no scepticism toward their utopia”

Image 53 Central district in Tokyo Bay Plan. Kenzo Tangue. 1960 68

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

The persistence of Kenzo Tangue with the Tokyo Bay plan was motivated to introduce new urban values as well as a freedom from the restraints imposed by the land and the old city structure which was incompatible with the new activities cycles and social dynamics necessary to the life in the contemporary metropolis.34

3.3 Potential challenges and problems of the Megastructure After analysing some of the theoretical examples which sustain the principles of the megastructure’s strategies it is paramount to comment which could be the challenges this archetype has to face for its implementation in a real environment. First of all, it is important to remind that for centuries the urban development has been spread horizontally where the flows of the pedestrians, goods and vehicles were the basis for the urban growth. The city life and the urban culture has emerged from different sorts of public spaces with a strong identity linkage with their context and the people who participate in them. The traditional image of the city, as Aldo Rossi well explained in the book the City’s architecture, is defined by a series of elements with a high significance for the citizenry who despite not knowing their identity is familiar with them. These series of elements built the city’s identity and determines the citizenry perception of their urban environment. In this point is really important to consider the consequences of the Megastructure regarding the traditional urban culture and the pedestrian perception. The conventional relationships between the users would completely change in an atmosphere not tested before where thousands and thousands of people would continue living and working in the same space designed out of the common urban and human parameters. It is completely unpredictable which would be the consequences for those people coexisting inside a super-structure artificial atmosphere. On the other hand and related in a great extent with the issue of the user psychological perception of living, the human scale has a huge significance for the

Koolhaas, Project Japan : Metabolism Talks ... / Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist ; Editors:

Kayoko Ota with James Westcott, AMO.pag 284 69

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

living quality and social viability of the megastructure paradigm. Frequently the city environment worsens in the same degree the metropolis is not able to absorb the whole mass who inhabits it, not being capable to supply all the population requirements. Searching new strategies to accommodate families, workers and new activities, the cities have become a dystopia of the living welfare. For the future urban developments which aim to apply the megastructure concept, one of the main issues for their success is precisely how to deal with the human scale inside an environment which is focused in the high density. This duality between the usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behaviour and the artificial atmosphere which defines their leaving place is one of the most important challenges the megastructure has to face. The inhabitants of this huge artefacts will need to feel comfortable and psychological adapted inside them to guarantee their social success and acceptance otherwise, they will be an undesirable icon condemned by society. The first attempts to achieve a functional and successful artefact in terms of users adaptability and social interaction are going to need long-term research and trials. The uncertainty in the unknown experience and unpredictable human behaviours in a new environment are undetermined factors the first prototypes will have to test to get empiric results in order to improve the design strategies in the future.

Another important challenge for the implementation of the megastructure paradigm involves the functional streamline which involves the interrelation between the several programs carried out inside and at the same time their relationship with the public and private activities of the users. The wide diversity the megastructure is called to embrace is extremely complex to organize; just like to hold a productive net which provides workplaces and balance the populationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s socialisation with their privacy. The same problematics a city has to deal daily. The multiplicity of the functional variety cannot be simplified inside a sort of mixed-use building with any sort of imaginable weird shape, is mandatory to go further and think with a revolutionary attitude to create an innovative artefact capable to balance all this diversity in a three-dimensional space. 70

Chapter 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Historical and theoretical background

Finally, the challenges regarding technological and environmental issues are going to be one of the main obstacles for the megastructure attainment. Nowadays, the matter of safety is increasingly a crucial design factor due to the fact that the buildings are bigger, with more functions and with more variety of users with different requirements. If an artefact, with the same functions of a city, is going to be built, it should satisfy with the same level of strictness the safety demands. The prevention disaster is another week point the megastructure has to deal for its complete viability, otherwise, the risk would be too high. Fortunately, the high-tech is increasingly more sophisticated and giving constantly new answers and methods which could be used for the megastructure structural confidence against the environmental catastrophes.

It is undoubtedly true that the challenges and problems the megastructure paradigm have to face to overcome the theoretical design and unfold all its potential as a viable built environment are extremely difficult. Nevertheless, involving in the megastructure development the universities, research centres, private and public sectors there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t any reason because of historyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest dream cannot evolve in the next decades.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

3.4 Conclusions The deep review that has been carried out in the previous section has emphasized and highlighted the main principles used as a strategy to develop the concept of Megastructure. These considerations could be summarized in one project that includes all the features and conditions to be considered as a megastructure from the point of view of the methodology and systems applied for its design conception. The Parc de la Villette, ideated by Bernard Tschumi, is a worthy successor of the ideology of being a device to foster the change. Despite the fact that the final result of this project couldn’t be considered as a reliable picture of the common understanding of “megastructure” in the formal terms, the philosophy which underlies behind this term embued la Villette. “I’m really interested in these things because they are not about form, or about what architecture looks like, but about what it does. So in this respect, I think that, for me, every time, the design concept will come before the form”35

The Parc de la Villette reflects perfectly the principles that have been explained in detail in the last sections. This fact is not a mere coincidence given the connection that Bernard Tschumi had with Cedric Price and other members of Archigram as Peter Cook. They influenced Tschumi’s architecture approach and methods, beyond the simple consideration of the shape or the rigidity of the strict functionality. “Architecture is as much about the events that take place in spaces as about the spaces themselves. The static notions of form and function long favoured by architectural discourse need to be replaced by attention to the actions that occur inside and around buildings, to the movement of the bodies, to activities, to aspirations; in short, to the proper social and political dimension of architecture. The collisions of programs and spaces, in which the terms intermingle, combine and implicate one another in the production of a new architectural reality”.36 35

Samantha Hardingham, Bernard Tschumi : Parc de La Villette / Samantha Hardingham and Kester

Rattenbury (New York, NY : Routledge, 2011). 36

Tschumi and Museum of Modern Art (New York, Event-Cities : Praxis, 13. 72

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

Image 54 Top view of Parc de la Villette

Taking into consideration the previous statement it’s possible to understand how far Tschumi's approach for a new architecture development was and the scope that it would encompass. Emphasising the social dimension and people’s activities as a central point of his architectural discourse and project methodology. In the case of the Parc de la Villette, its character relies on the way the project operates in scales beyond itself, as a network system that embraces a bigger reality. As well as Cedric Price, Bernard Tschumi understands the architecture as a way to liberate rather than confine, a catalyst for the social transformation. By designing new ways of living, new environments and rethinking the relation between the individual and the society, the architecture becomes an instrument capable to redefine the users’ interaction. Taking into account this precept, one of the main issues the project focusses is in which way the public space defines a social environment in permanent transformation; a completely different approach from the traditional architectural program. This matter was materialised, partially, based in the concepts which embodied Cedric’s Price Fun Palace but at a territorial scale. 73

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

“The varied and ever-changing activities will determine the form of the site” “To enclose these activities, the anti-building must have equal flexibility. Thus the prime motivation of the area is caused by the people and their activities and the resultant form is continually dependent on them”37

On the other hand, the understanding of the architecture as a catalyst for the transformation lead Tschumi to be interested in other knowledge fields which influenced his architectural approach, specifically art movements such as Surrealism, Dadaism, Deconstructivism… as devices to propel social changes.

“Our starting point is ideas or concepts, and the ways in which concepts relate to other disciplines and to different modes of thought. Architecture is not the knowledge of form, but rather a form of knowledge. In other words, whenever we start to do something as architects we need to ask ourselves what architecture is. Architecture is not a pre-given thing”38

Bernard Tschumi attempted to find new routes and dialogues to re-interpret the architecture and generate a contemporary reading of the city with different systems that could operate in a micro and macro scale. The same approach the Team X aimed to apply when they were facing the fragmentation and disconnection of the city, developing architectural strategies to intensify and promote the urban network. According to Tschumi ideas for the general plan of Parc de la Villette, which was important for its success was to generate design conditions, therefore urban situations. The same statement as the situationist movement claimed. (pag 58, n 30 ) “Architecture is not about the conditions of design, but about the design of conditions”

Bernard Tschumi

Cedric Price Archive, 1963. Cite dans Stanley Mathews.The death of the author: Cedric Price as

anti-architect”. Architecture and authorship, London, Black Dog Publishing, 2007. 38

Hardingham, Bernard Tschumi : Parc de La Villette / Samantha Hardingham and Kester

Rattenbury. 74

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

This precept is based on the idea that the activities of the city are the most important and the conditions for their recreation inside the project could provide a different type of urban culture. The implementation of these situations could initiate the transformation of the society through new kind of interactions, thus the same purpose Archigram team and Cedric Price aimed to achieve with their intriguing proposals. “Our project starts with the following thesis: there are building-generators of events. As much through their programs as through their spatial potential, they accelerate a cultural or social transformation that is already in progress “39

The previous statements are the general and metaphysical framework that underlies in the Parc de la Villette strategy which, as it has been seen, is completely influenced by the megastructural though. The project of Parc de la Villette contains in its nature one organizational strategy, that it could be called mega-form, the “point-grid” and the principle of superimposition of three systems of elements (points, lines and surfaces) which are the architectural translation of the experience and time factors. They are themselves linked with the issues of the space, movement and events, theorised by Tschumi.

Image 55 Concept diagrams for La Villette large scale organisation

“Bernard Tschumi, Architecture: Concept & Notation Centre Pompidou, Paris 30 April–28 July

2014,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 74, no. 2 (June 15, 2015): 264–65. 75

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As it has been said, the large scale project organisation is based in a mega-form based in a rigid point-grid imposed in the territory such a tabula rasa operation taking the inspiration from the plan Voisin of Le Corbusier. “The concept involved a kind of tabula rasa approach, as opposed to following the genius loci or context. Then there was an organisational diagram, from the grid to the concentric circle, as found in the Baroque, Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin, and his plan Obus for Algiers.”40

On the other hand, the Parc de la Villette is a direct manifestation of Tschumi's own writings and theorising on space, movement and event that were defined in his previous theoretical work, the Manhattan Transcripts. These terms codification underlies in Tschumi’s architectural vocabulary applied to La Villette. “The purpose of the tripartite method of notation (events, movements, and spaces) is to introduce the order of experience, the order of time – moments, intervals, sequences- for all inevitably intervene in the reading of the city”

Image 56 Assortment of organizational concepts for la Villette location. 40

Hardingham, Bernard Tschumi : Parc de La Villette / Samantha Hardingham and Kester

Rattenbury. 41

Manhattan transcripts. Theoretical projects. London . Academy Editors. 1994 pag 23. 76

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

The grid, “the mega-form framework”, organises and orders the superimposition of the three autonomous systems ( points, lines and surfaces ). According to Tschumi, this primary strategy could be widespread in order to be applied for any large-scale development independently of its context. Moreover, the grid provides a huge amount of flexibility to the different programs and events that are developed in its limits and allows the possibility to change them over the ensuing years. The dynamics of the cycles of movement in the space are canalised by the three different juxtaposed systems referred above. As well as in the principle of the life cycles of Kenzo Tangue, the autonomy of each system ensures the viability of the whole net hold by the mega form, in this case, the point-grid. Each autonomous system approach is different due to the multiple relations established between users’ experiences, temporal factors, and their movement over the space. Precise conditions for each system are designed but they have totally unpredictable intersections with other systems dynamics, hence the uncertainty factor underlies in the project’s nature as a generator of unexpected amusement.

Image 57 Superimposition of the three different systems of la Villette, the points, the lines and the Image 58 Parc de la Villette Floor Plan

surfaces over the grill.

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The first one of the systems that integrate the project is called the system of points, carried out by the follies, a kind of cube pavilions. They have multiple configurations which contain different programmed activities that could be modified to the extent that the needs change. The additive element system, coming from the prefabricated construction, was revealed as the best choice to provide a system which could be transformed in multiple sorts of possibilities. A kit of parts as Archigram team, the Metabolist movement or Cedric Price itself could say.

On the other hand, the second system is a set of lines, a planned circuit that links various points of the park, fostering unexpected encounters through a sort of cinematic promenades that direct peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flows. Finally, the last compositional element, the system of surfaces is based in completely un-programmed spaces which can be appropriated by the users in unexpected ways. Once more, the concept of uncertainty is revealed as a design strategy based on usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; spontaneous behaviour.

Image 59 Point system. Follies different

Image 60 Event and social activity taking place in

configurations and possibilities

one of the follies.

Chapter 3 – Historical and theoretical background

Image 61 System of lines. Walkway or bridge over the Parc connecting different points.

These horizontal plans unfold a widely amount of spaces with infinite possibilities which intersects unpredictably with other events and movements flows all over the park. This is the perfect environment where the Homo Ludens of Yona Friedman could get on free from the preconceived activities defined by the architectural space’s traditional segregation. ( pag 42, n 18 ) This systems superimposition creates “a tension”, but maintains the internal logic of each autonomous system in a whole heterogeneous network. Consequently, this tactic defines something new in the architecture which is coming from the previous principles developed by the megastructure movement in the ‘60s.

Image 62 System of surfaces. Unexpected and unprogrammed social activities taking place over the Park surfaces 79

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

The project embraces a kind of architecture that is able to foster new interactions between users as well as with their artificial environment. This unfolding of possibilities towards the human and urban social approach, as it has been seen, is one of the main features which characterised the whole design. It needs to emphasize that this fact jointly with the superimposition of autonomous layers, provides a kind of hybrid character to the project, due to the multi-faceted identity of its composition. The methodology and point of view given by la Villette goes beyond the architecture itself and opens a new paradigm for the architecture as Tschumi attempted to achieve in this social-urban experiment.

In the next chapter is going to analyse different case studies which implement strategies that are given their specific answer to the city requirements taking into account the issues of the movement dynamics, social connection experience, and urban public space as design conditions. The La Villette Parc is the clearest example of a very specific architecture where multiple tactics are expressed by a heterogeneous combination of systems interrelated in several time sequences. A megastructure in terms of system and subsystems inserted in a network where the social activities and the intangible theoretical concepts have become built forms.

“The activities of an organised society occur within a balanced network of forces which naturally interact to form a continuous chain of change. . .”

Price, Cedric Price Works 1952-2003 : A Forward-Minded Retrospective / Samantha Hardingham. 80

Chapter 4 – New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility

4. New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility According to the rising of the consumption patterns and new ways of entertainment, the need for public space to develop all sort of social activities is becoming a crucial urban matter and a part of the city cultural and community life network. In the last decade, several urban developments and city renewals have been taking into account the wide possibilities coming from the synergies of the public space intensity. New design strategies have been taking profit of the underuse infrastructures, combining their features with new architectural elements for the development of public spaces which are able to intensify the social interaction and propel the users to new urban experiences.

4.1 The Megastructure as a framework for public space. In this section is going to be done an explanation of the different strategies used to apply some megastructure principles combined with the city infrastructure in order to provide public and a common urban space. Thought the case study of different built examples it’s going to show how different design strategies provide a wide spectrum of relationships between the public space and their consequences over the urban environment. Each one of the case studies contains several features which encompass many issues related to the urban tissue, infrastructure renewal, social improvement and city connectivity. One of the main factors for the integration between the city and the infrastructure is the development of the urban space as a common shared ground, capable to spread out and to interwoven with the city context. In all the case studies the megastructure is the device which supports the social public activity, as a previous mega-form or as new framework element. The public space obtained from the implementation of the megastructure principles will be a generator of intensity, livable spaces and activity. This factors will be paramount as agents of change for the urban regeneration and citizenry environment improvement.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

4.2 Case studies and strategies for public urban space regeneration. 4.2.1 Urban topography. Slopes and platforms The syntax given by a mega form which encompasses and contains all the program is one of the main strategies to provide a flexible public space where could be developed any sort of events non-conditioned by a previous rigid shape. In this case, the architectural syntax would be based on the development of an artificial urban topography which is conceived as an extension of the ground being part of the cityscape and the infrastructure system. With the freedom provided by an open design, untied from the conventional compositional architectural elements, the organization and possibilities of the space are unlimited. The users are able to colonize the surface in the way they prefer establishing by themselves all sort of relations and interactions out of the control of the designer, giving to the project an uncertainty nature. This feature is crucial to transfer the control of the social activities directly to the users how are going to get along on it. To achieve this level of freedom, the structure of the megastructure should provide enough flexibility to avoid the conflict between the functional use of the infrastructure and the space required to deploy the social events.

Image 63 Yokohama Cruise Terminal. FOA. 2002 82

Chapter 4 – New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility

Image 64 Yokohama Cruise Terminal surface view. 2019

The Yokohama Terminal in Japan is a clear example of this mixture between a monofunctional infrastructure with a static use and the continuous movement of the social activity on its surface. The design attempts to be an extension of the city’s public space and an interface between the land and the sea in order to achieve a condition of harmony with the context where it’s located. There is a balance between the functional infrastructure requirements, the flows of the user’s movements and spontaneous activities. This fact provides a remarkable coexistence and interaction between the physical elements and the intangible behaviours that composed the whole intervention. A platform for leisure and to enjoy the city dynamics; intermingling the urban bustle with user’s social synergies.

On the other hand, is interesting to point out the Logroño Railway Station, the counterpart of the Yokohama Cruise Terminal, which employs the same strategy but in a completely different context. The Logroño Railway station is located in the middle of a mid-dense urban tissue, a precondition that influenced the project strategy for its renewal and new development regarding the features of its immediate context. Currently, it can be seen in the cities infrastructural projects in which exist a complete disconnection between the users and the urban space provided by these projects. A problem with their scale in relation to the site where they are located it is revealed as one of the main issues the infrastructure project has to tackle. 83

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 65 Logroño Railway Station. Spain. Ábalos + Sentkiewicz architects 2012

In the case of Logroño Railway Station, the project strategy goes beyond the pure rigid functionality of a railway station program. The infrastructure potentiality lies in its capacity to behave as a scaffold to hold urban situations, just like Bernard Tschumi; designing the conditions for the future activities developed in the urban space. Designing the conditions for the unexpected represents the main challenges for this sort of project due to the reality that encompass. In the case of Logroño, the concept strategy to face this fact was based, as well as Yokohama terminal, in the development of a continuous topographic surface above the transportation program that behaves as an extension of the urban ground.

Image 66 Logroño Railway Station cross section.

Chapter 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; New paradigms for the Megastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feasibility

The program could be less ambitious than the Bus terminal in Manhattan ( Image 20 pag 38 ) in terms of mixture, however the project put up itself the place identity due to its effect over the surroundings. The scope that encompasses this project goes beyond the image of a building itself. A big structure covers the roof that provides the conditions to support future programs regarding the citizenry needs. Nowadays, a park covers the surface and it has become a generator of intensity establishing new networks of movement, connectivity, and livability at macro and local scale.

4.2.2 Urban elevated systems. Overlapping the city levels. In the last decade, some cities have been carrying out projects focused on the pre-existing infrastructure in order to regenerate and intensify the activity in deteriorated urban sectors. Additionally to propel the re-use of the old infrastructure elements with new meanings concerning the contemporary public requests. The city infrastructure in most of the cases is based on a system built over the city fabric which provides the user with a different point of view of the urban environment from a different level. The previous considerations take place in one the High line in New York, one of the most successful projects which promote urban public space and social activity regeneration. The main element of this well-known project is the elevated railroad that was inserted in the city at the beginning of the XX century. The main purpose of this infrastructure was focused on providing a better and more efficient transportation system for the citizenry. Moreover, the railway was an indispensable device which satisfied the logistical demands of the industries located in the city; many of them with the railway as an extension of their architecture language. The infrastructure and the architecture were mixed in a hybrid productive system of consumer goods which were distributed throughout the city. A continuous system in motion was holding flows of goods, people and city productive activities.

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renewal

Image 68 High line New York. 1930

Image 67 High line New York s.XX

As a consequence of the industrial and storage activity decline after some decades, the High line was falling into disuse. One of the pioneers who saw the potential of this net over the city was Steven Hall, who in the â&#x20AC;&#x2122;80s suggested a strategy to revitalize that city area taking profit from the preexisting elevated infrastructure. In that sector, the density was lower, due to this reason the proposal attempted to increase the population and to develop a new productive tissue capable to unfold new activities and amenities for the community.

Image 69 Bridges Houses. Steven Hall. 1982 86

Chapter 4 – New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility

This proposal was the first attempt to provide some suitable solution to two main issues which were cause and consequence at the same time. On one hand, an old element which was abandoned without any use, just a symbol of the past. On the other hand the deterioration of the urban environment and the lack of social intensity due to the economic and productive activity decline. “It involved making the whole of the High Line a public space, and over that public space we would construct a series of houses, each of which would be occupied by a different social stratum.”43

Image 70 New York High Line. 2009 -2011-2014

Finally, after some decades, the New York High was commissioned to be refurbished and transformed in a new city public space which would portray the identity of the local environment. Over the railroad platform, several conditions have been designed to foster spaces with intensity where multiple activities can be performed. Art, culture, leisure a huge variety of events are taking place over this kinetic path, as Bernard Tschumi would call it, which is interweaving with the community life just as the user daily experience. The sequence of events is one of the main project strategies that some infrastructures without any interest are capable to unfold due to the potentiality which underlies in their nature. The dynamics of the users’ circulations jointly with a mix-used program, furnished by the facilities linked to the

Steven Hall. Robert McCarter. Ed. Phaidon 87

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promenade, will ensure the successful operation of the system. The result generated from the previous infrastructure goes beyond a simple walking promenade refurbishment. This element is an artefact generator of life along its itinerary which is intermingled with the urban tissue. The improvement of the urban space quality as much as for the citizenryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience has been remarkable emphasizing the role of architecture as a mechanism of change.

Image 71 Different sequences of activities over the High line

The counterpart of the High line in New York is an urban project called the Skygarden which is located on the other side of the world in South Korea. An old highway that used to be an encumbrance for the city environment has been transformed into a new urban public space. This infrastructure used to direct the traffic flows inside the city center through an upper level avoiding contact with the ground and grazing the closest buildings. This infrastructure renewal has completely changed the highway meaning; the unsuitable rubbings with other city elements have become points with tension that foster the urban intensity. The privileged space occupied by the road traffic has been replaced by public areas full of pedestrian flows. This fact allows the city to breathe and expand its civic activities over a dense and busy central area. 88

Chapter 4 – New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility

Image 72 Skygarden Seul. MVRDV.2015

On the other hand, the intervention goes further than the simple refurbishment of the highway to be transformed into public space. It’s connecting the horizontal congested ground level of the city with an intermediate elevated level which spreads out the vertical flows coming from the buildings plugged to it. In this new city platform, the behaviour of the movements’ network could be equivalent to the “clusters” systems ideated by Alison and Peter Smithson and other members of Team X during the ‘60s.

Image 73 Skygarden Seul. Net of systems top view. 2015

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

The highway platform is not only polluted by the program and flows coming from the buildings nearby, but also it’s interlaced with the city public corridors and green areas located on the ground floor. Finally, a complex network system is generated overlapping layers composed by circulation movements, activities, events and programs ( to some extent this project contains the principle of superimposition Bernard Tschumi experimented in la Villette, pag 68 ). The project achieves a transcendence over the metropolitan scale due to the physical and intangible ramifications which exude from its intensity, being extensible over the city.

Image 74 Skygarden Seul. Pedestrian promenade view. 2015

“….a metropolis, a city its architecture, geography and landscape can no longer be planned nor designed as static and independent entities; but a dynamic highly networked system.”

Both study cases analyzed in this section are behaving like a nervous system that balances the flows of information throughout its connections to other points. Both examples provide a new lifespan for an underused infrastructure, nurturing the human cycles over it and portraying a new cityscape to be gazed by the citizenry from a completely new perspective. 44

Everyone Needs Fresh Air : Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition &amp;

Symposium, 65 pag. 90

Chapter 4 – New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility

4.2.3 Urban spatial structures. Avoiding the ground level contact The purpose of the estrangement from the ground level or for the definition of a new city’s ground level involves many considerations and factors that the architects and urban planners throughout history have been facing. Looking back in the time, one of the pioneers who addressed this issue was the Russian architect and artist El Lissitzky.

Image 75 Wolkenbügel Moscow system 1924-1925. El Lissitzky

The Lissitzky’s proposal, the Wolkenbügel, had the objective to create an imaginary space by means of new construction forms, afforded by the technological advancements, and the new values given with the ideology from the Russian socialist revolution. The Sky-hood Lissitzky’s concept, applied to this project, would arise a horizontal skyscraper from the old city context defining a new ground level to deploy the socialist society. Therefore, Lissitzky saw the Wolkebügel skyscraper as a potential artefact for the social transformation which the citizenry was undergoing at that time. The project responded to the demands of these social changes within the context of the old Moscow urban frame. Basically, the idea of the project was to furnish a system of horizontal skyscrapers unfolded over the congested intersections of the radial ring-roads in Moscow. The huge horizontal cantilevers were supposed to be

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

standing by piers which would contain the vertical circulations. Through the freeing from the ground restraints, Lizzitzky wanted to conquest the empty space above the city, the sky, a challenge the society had to achieve by mean of a superstructure capable to overcome the gravity.

“ A new energy must be released, which provides us with a new system of movement ( for example, a movement which is not based on friction, which offers the possibility of floating in space in remaining at rest )”45

Image 76 Wolkenbügel. 1924-1925. El Lissitzky

The Porta Barcelona project, a building developed for the Olympics in 1992, when the city was undergoing a deep transformation, is a suitable counterpart of the Wolkenbügel with which it could be compared in terms of strategy.

Porta Barcelona project is located the same as Wolkenbügel , in a bustle intersection road deploying its functional program above the city ground floor. A scaffolding structure holds, floating in the air, the livable space; symbolizing a sort of gate through which the urban flows pass by inalterable. The canopy furnished by the

El Lissitzy: Life, Letters, Texts”, pag 345 92

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suspended volume is the element that allows deploying different sort of urban activities. The conditions to develop unexpected events in the urban space, as Tschumi developed with different systems in la Villette, are given by the tension created between the upper level and the city ground surface.

Image 77 Porta Barcelona Building. 1989

It is important to emphasize that the void space spread over the suspended volume doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t involve any sort of shape consideration, insofar the architectural element above it is the instrument that creates the tension necessary to provide the conditions of the urban public space. On the other hand, the tension acts as a link between the two levels, changing the flat and rigid notion of the urban space into a tridimensional reality capable to deploy and stimulate more variety of public activities and social events.

Image 78 Plan and section Porta Barcelona Building. 1989 93

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 79 Model of the project systems, the horizontal skyscraper over the topography

Finally, the implementation of this tactic in a scale that completely redefines the cityscape was carried out by Steven Hall through his project the Vanke Centre, located in Shenzhen, China; called by himself horizontal skyscraper.

“ The building appears as if it were once floating on a higher sea that has now subsided; leaving the structure propped up high on eight legs.”46

This project strategy could be understood as a mixture of two complementary systems that provide richness conditions to perform different activities in the space. On one hand, the ground level is artificially domesticated to generate a topography which contains part of the program. This ground level is hidden by the landscape and public spaces as in the case of Yokohama terminal and Logroño Railway Station. The second level system is based on the idea of the “cluster” that, with the same behavior as a living organism, is spread above the geography touching it just in certain points where take place the connections between the two levels. Additionally, the strategy to avoid the contact with the ground provides a perceptible tension between the upper and lower levels. Hence, the users feel an experience of protection between the edges of both systems, in the space which remains in between.

Brian Libby, “Urbanisms: Working with Doubt.,” Sustainable Industries, no. 88 (2010): 169 pag. 94

Chapter 4 – New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility

Image 80 Horizontal skyscraper-Vanke Centre.Shenzhen. China. Steven Hall Architects. 2009

The foremost achievement of this project is the way that strengthens its presence in relation to the landscape by means of these two systems. Both levels are defined by mega forms which contain open-ended structures, extensible and adaptable over the territory. On the other hand, the whole artefact is susceptible to be modified by external forces interacting with it, nevertheless, it is able to maintain the autonomous identity of both systems. Furthermore, the project avoids the banal conception of the architecture as an object to become a mechanism which enables the urban life jointly with the landscape. As a result, the whole project acts as an extensive network which blends urban and natural environments becoming a kind of “hybrid” element.

Image 81 Horizontal skyscraper-Vanke Centre.Shenzhen. China. Steven Hall Architects. 2009 95

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

4.3 Conclusions The conclusions inferred from the analysis of the different strategies applied for the development of proto-megastructures systems in the last decade encompass a huge field of considerations. To summarize some of them, first of all, I would like to emphasize the relationship with the context, not only in a physical way but also in terms of time. As it has been described, the three different strategies address the issue of the context in different ways but always taking into consideration their location even if there was the need to give a new meaning to the place. Basically, the connection with the context is established through the dialogue with the city main level, which is the surface where all the urban situations are usually developed. Due to this fact, the way each of the strategies understands, manipulates and interacts with the city surface is completely different. In the first strategy, the artificial manipulation of the topography allows providing more intensity to this surface. This fact generates more possibilities to perform different activities and to intermingle the artificial topography’s nature with the logic of the infrastructure which covers. The second strategy develops itself a sub-level for the city as a second ground floor which supplies the demands the first level can’t achieve due to the complexity of the urban network. Furthermore, this strategy takes advantage of a previous layer of transportation to develop a new urban space. In fact, the “space” was always there, but with a rigid and strict functionality. The third strategy could be understood as a consequence of the two previous ones; the tension generated due to the fact of avoiding contact with the ground floor. This is obviously an attitude towards the city and its potential resides in the interaction between the program in the upper level and the activities deployed in the ground floor, a continuous cycle of dynamic interactions. Furthermore, another engrossing facet which entailed the implementation of these strategies is the potential to drive reforms over the city environment. All the

Chapter 4 – New paradigms for the Megastructure’s feasibility

examples analyzed have been successful on account of their capacity to pervade the areas they pass by with public nature. They are devices which enable the change towards an improvement of the urbanity and the social welfare by supplying new facilities and social structures for civic interactions. It is undoubtedly true that these contemporary artefacts have become a sort of multitasking spatial infrastructure47 concerned with the city characteristics; a corporatized system that provides life.

“The construction of public infrastructure such as cultural, educational and sporting facilities is in line with the idea of civic evolution and progressive social equity. It simultaneously rebuilds and rehabilitates the form of the city, and qualitatively and culturally renews public space.”

Due to the condition to promote the urban and social renewal they have become a symbol for the community, new city landmarks which have taken the role of city generators of new intensities and dynamics. On the other hand, the scale of this urban extensions, either new developments or infrastructure renewals, allows deploying sustainable strategies and devices to provide a better environment. Most of them have assimilated as a design factor issues as the recycling, greenery, self-sufficient systems and green energy production as a key point for the viability of the city living experience in a closer future. Finally, it is important to define the identity and common features all these examples have in common beyond their consideration as proto-megastructure systems. Their transcendence and influence over the tangible and intangible elements in the urban field could be the result of three components combination and relationship; the object, the landscape and the infrastructure49. The case studies analysed previously, 47

Everyone Needs Fresh Air : Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition &amp;

Symposium. 48

Everyone Needs Fresh Air : Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition &amp;

Symposium. 49

Rita Pinto. (2011) Hybrid architecture: object, landscape, infrastructure. Barcelona: Universitat

Politècnica de Catalunya 97

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have these three components in their design strategies to a greater or lesser extent, but always interacting as an ensemble. This group combination of multidisciplinary elements could be defined as Hybrid architecture.The contemporary challenges of the metropolis have forced the development of this intriguing architectural concept, quite the opposite from the traditional architectural approach.

“The hybrid building is a barometer recording the evolution of our society. Each new juxtaposition reflects a willingness to confront the present, and to extend exploration into the future”50

This hybrid system works in multiple levels establishing synergies and functions with the surrounding urban context.51The foremost issue related to this concept of “hybridity” concerning the city scenario is its role to configure new qualities for the common public space. In conclusion, its potential to provide vitality for urban transformation and regeneration.

Joseph Fenton, “Hybrid Buildings,” Pamphlet Architectue n.11, Princeton Architectural Press,New

York- San Francisco, 1985, 41 pag. 51

Joseph Fenton, “Hybrid Buildings.” 98

Chapter 5 – Research conclusions

5. Research conclusions In the contemporary urban overview, architecture and urban planning traditional conceptions of design have revealed to be obsolete due to the social and political changes such as the volatile social dynamics behaviours which makes unpredictable the future developments. Within this dissertation has been done a review of the last mid-century theories and main principles which underlined behind the megastructure movement as a method to address the future metropolis demands and the citizenry new social requests.

The contemporary city has liquefied into a dispersed urbanity in which architecture is but one more network with infrastructure as its vector of mobility.52

The understanding of the architecture and urbanism as disciplines which have to cooperate and being weaved together is a must to face the contemporary city challenges. The complex interplay between the social behavior and urban forces shaping the cities, demands action plans which imply the whole system. Flexible and adaptive spatial “structures” should tackle the issue of large-scale planning. On one hand, they have to strive to deal with the metropolis development rhythm and simultaneously with the indeterminacy. As it has been seen throughout the several examples analyzed, the city infrastructure has had a predominant role regarding this issue therefore, is in the infrastructure where lies part of the solution today.

Deep adaptation… is possible the most fruitful point of contact between the theory of complex systems, and the problem of architecture.53 52

Tom Allen, Stan ; Mayne, Combinatory Urbanism the Complex Behaviour of Collective Form, ed.

Sthephanie Rigolot (Culver City. United States: Stray Dog Café, 2011), 27 pag. 53

Christopher Alexander. “ New Concepts in Complexity Theory Arising from Studies in the Field of

Architecture An Overview of the Four Books of Scientific Problems Which Are Raised” ( May 2003)

the Nature of Order with Emphasis on the

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

In order to adapt the city infrastructure to the new urban demands and unpredictable changes, its previous role understood as a mere functional transport system has to mutate to become a new artefact. This transformation, as it has been explained previously in detail, has been carried out in several cities, with different physical and social context, fostering widely enhancements for the community. renewals

transformations

have

been

taken into

Some of these

consideration some

old

megastructural concepts which enable non-conventional solutions to deal with the complexity that encompasses the urban reality. Any conclusion coming from the theoretical analysis of the megastructure principles is going to be unfruitful if these concepts are not tested in a practical way to verify if their statements are suitable for the social demands and urban problematics complexity. Because of this fact, is the aim of this research to exemplify with a design proposal how to apply and take into consideration some of the megastructural principles analysed, that from my point of view can be implemented for the infrastructure renewal and consequently for the urban regeneration. The design proposal has an identity which belongs to the realm of the territory, whose physical scale goes beyond the architecture but its physical materialization still needs architectural qualities in order to be in harmony with its context and the users. On the other hand, the overall design strategy requires to develop a series of systems for integrating architecture and urban concerns. Due to this fact, the overlapping of systems needs the architectural conception in order to apply the design parameters to achieve a successful juxtaposition of the elements integrated into its complex nature. These series of overlapping systems would be the project strategic point which is going to sustain the principles coming from the megastructural approach for the successful development and linkage with the city. These series of systems could be called, according to Stan Allen, operational strategies. These operational strategies 54 are the key point to promote a new methodology based in the “combinatory urbanism”, something that the design

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proposal attempts to reach. This combinatory urbanism is achieved by a set of tactics based on some principles which also were employed by the first megastructural approach however, they have been polished and rename regarding our contemporary context. These principles tackle the mixture of logic operations at multiple scales, the integrative between different networks and the strategic organizations with elastic characteristics.

Combinatory urbanism offers an alternative method of urban production that designs flexible frameworks of relational systems within which activities, events, and programs can organically play themselves out. As such, combinatory urbanism engages the premise of continuous process over static form and, in doing so, present fresh ways to activate the city.

These principles are unfolded, as it has been said, by the operational systems, which in our research have been exemplified by three different typologies regarding the urban public space. The urban topography, the urban elevated systems and the urban spatial structures. Throughout these systems jointly with the principles coming from the megastructure and metabolism movement philosophy; such as the life cycles, the city dynamics, the linkage, no stability ….; the design framework will be supplied with enough resources to deal with the complexity of contemporary reality and the future growth.

Every project begins with the research as the main force to enable its development. To conclude, the aim of this project, based on theoretical research, is to formulate questions to a wide spectrum of problems that will assist us in creating new linkages or relationships not yet discovered.

The project should be understood as an

evocative ensemble of suggestions rather than a conclusive end state and this research reveals the design philosophy and process that has created it. 55

Allen, Stan ; Mayne, 38 pag.

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6 Design Proposal 6.1 City’s history The history of L’Hospitalet del Llobregat dates back almost two thousand years ago, to Roman times. In the Xth century the boundaries of the municipality outline a surface that extended till the Collserola Mountain in the north and till the Llobregat River in the west. The geography of the area made up the edges of the city. The first population’s cores were located nearby a church in one of the neighbourhoods that, at present, compose one of the city’s districts. The other big core of population was located around a medieval Hospital placed in the old town centre, currently disappeared, hence the name of the city.

Image 82 Railway infrastructure 1941

In the beginning, L’hospitalet was a farming village till the end of the XVIII century when the industrial revolution took place and textile factories began to set up there. At the beginning of the XX century, the city was undergoing a huge economic and demographic growth due to the industrial activity and the new transportation infrastructure built to increase the commercial net and develop the public mass mobility system.

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During the last years of the dictatorship, 1970, thousands of immigrants came from the countryside to work in the Barcelona metropolitan area and L’hospitalet became the second densest city in the country. With the democracy restoration, the city began to build public facilities, parks and public spaces for the community who were living the previous decades deprived of the essential public services.

After the Barcelona’s Olympics, the city was undergoing its second big transformation till our present time to become a modern town in the Barcelona’s metropolitan area, with attractiveness for new economic activities, with more and better transport and amenities.

Image 83 L’Hospitalet railway 1932

Image 84 L'hospitalet del Llobregat district division

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6.2 Current situation of L’hospitalet del Llobregat Nowadays the city of L’Hospitalet is undergoing a huge transformation which involves big areas nearby its old and underused railway infrastructure which is a border for the city’s physical and social connectivity. Due to this fact, the city council decided in 2008 to begin to cover the railroad with a sort of box ( The Sant’s Box as is it called ) which would furnish a public park at the top. The decision to cover the railway infrastructure with a huge concrete structure was taken to face and improve many of the issues the city is enduring today.

Image 85 Railway path going through L’Hospitalet del Llobregat till Barcelona central station

The first of them, as it has been commented above, is the border that implies this infrastructure into the urban fabric. Nowadays the railway road is like a scar which goes through the city. Throughout years of urbanization and expansion, the urban fabric has been adjusting to the infrastructure edges as a result, many gaps and trash spaces have appeared leaving a mark on the city readability. One of the main purposes of this coverage strategy is the renewal of these spaces giving them an identity to be useful as potential areas to locate new amenities or develop new urban extensions.

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Image 86 Calaix de Sants.( Sants Box, public space ). Aerial view 2017

On the other hand, the second huge purpose of the project was to achieve a better social and physical cohesion between the next to the railway path. Most of the physical connections between both sides of the railway are just made for the traffic circulation and there are few passageways for the pedestrian who several times feel disoriented because the solutions are not suitable.

Image 87 Sants Box public space under construction.

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The social connection is another challenge this project wanted to address in order to bring together the different communities who were estranged due to the psychological border that this infrastructure symbolized. Through the covering of the railway, new physical connections have been furnished into the different neighbourhoods and the upper park above the box has become the meeting public place for the whole community. Despite all the improvements that, without any doubt, have been achieved through this project, there are still many points and issues that have to be tackled.

Image 88 Sants Box public space upper view. 2017

Image 89 Sants Box public space lower view.2017

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6.3 Requirements for the new proposal design Taking into account all the achievements accomplished by the Sants’ Box, I consider that the few strategies applied in the project aren’t enough for its future expansion and in order to achieve a more ambitious outcome. First of all and focusing on the implementation in the preexisting urban context, I consider the current proposal’s nature is too rigid to be adaptable to different urban conditions. This structure furnished by a concrete box has the only purpose of covering the railway and develop a continuous and monotonous park path above it. The box entails a huge impact over the closest surroundings which feel the pressure of the element just like the users who are overwhelmed and intimidated by this sudden and closest presence. One of the purposes this artefact was thought for was to establish a physical connection with some of the isolated facilities around the railway which are completely disassociated from the urban weft. Nevertheless, many of the connections haven’t been realized due to operational difficulties. Besides, this path should have provided a continuous path connecting the different educational and cultural amenities in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, the economic revival that would propel through the implementation of this device and its surroundings refurbishment hasn’t been as successful as the community expected, hence there is a frustration feeling towards the “concrete box” due to all the inconveniences that have implied after one decade of construction. Therefore, the new proposal should take into account this factor to provide a solution enough radical to encompass a productive system with enough strength to guarantee its financial viability and the economic tissue that is going to generate. Finally, the potential that implies a renewal of this magnitude should involve a complete transformation in the identity of the place, as well as more density of activities which would entail more intensity too. In conclusion, a wider and more ambitious scope which encompasses all the features of the urban complexity.

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6.4 Project design strategies and outcomes Regarding what it has been explained in the research conclusion chapter, the strategies, that the new design proposal should encompass to face the contemporary urban issues, have to go beyond the traditional architecture and urbanism approaches. According to Tom Mayne, when the architecture scaled up, like any other complex assemblage, undergoes a change of state which requires new rules and new techniques for its development.57 These new techniques and methods, previously explained in detail, have to supply the solutions that the context demands to achieve the transformation of the urban environment. This combinatory urbanism of elements requires a set of design tools and new concepts to adequate to the complexity and indeterminacy of the city. This set of design tools pervades the different urban strategies which have a hybrid character; combining landscape, architecture and infrastructure; enabling more possibilities for the infrastructure mutation into a more complex artefact which is able to encompass a broader field of influence. The main strategies which are going to be employed to foster this mutation are based in the combination and overlapping of the different systems mentioned before; the topography, elevated systems and urban spatial structures; which entail the main principles coming from the megastructure philosophy.

For the urbanist, from is the best expressed when it is designed to enclose a space that fosters overlapping and complex social exchange and interaction.58

Urban Rooms and city corridors are going to be spread throughout the railroad itinerary to stimulate the intensity, activities and events. A new urban level is going to be developed to establish linkages between isolated areas and provide them with new flows of pedestrian circulation and new programs. A new cultural and Allen, Stanâ&#x20AC;Ż; Mayne, Combinatory Urbanism the Complex Behaviour of Collective Form.pag 53

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educational seamless path is going to appear reconnecting the neighbourhoods physically and socially. The kinetic movement of the citizenry is going to be deployed over this new city level through sequences of intervals and moments framed in different architectural scenarios. A new network of public space is going to arise, full of dynamic entertainment and change circumstances, triggering unique experiences and unexpected interactions between the users.

The contemporary urban environment is composed and recomposed by each individual every day around literal and virtual itineraries, and not in relation to a fixed arrangement of places.59

Finally, the mutation coming from the infrastructure renewal, applying the megastructural concepts in its genetics, is going to provide the metropolis with a new kind of hybrid artefact hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen till then. Innovative and radical, which will attempt to rebuild the site itself. The role of the infrastructure has been understood as an encumbrance and now is it called to become a significant device of hope for the future, it is portraying as a key element to enhance the urban welfare. Thereupon, urban identity and cityscape will undergo a permutation which would entail a completely new understanding of these two intangible concepts in the inhabitants' consciousness.

Is the responsibility of the architects to engage the most difficult urban problems, analyse them objectively, and work uncompromisingly toward the realization of practical and poetic urban solutions.60

Abert Pope, Ladders ( Houston: Rice University School of Architecture; New York: Princeton

Architectural Press, 1996), pag 32 60

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Image 91 L’hospitalet railway top view

Image 90 L’hospitalet railway top view

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Bibliograpy - Allen, Stan ; Mayne, Tom. Combinatory Urbanism the Complex Behaviour of Collective Form. Edited by Sthephanie Rigolot. Culver City. United States: Stray Dog Café, 2011. - Banham, Reyner. Megaestructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past. Barcelona : Gustavo Gili, 1978. - “Bernard Tschumi, Architecture: Concept & Notation Centre Pompidou, Paris 30 April–28 July 2014.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 74, no. 2 (June 15, 2015): 264–65. - Corbusier, 1887-1965 Le. Urbanisme / Le Corbusier. Paris : G. Crés, 1924. Everyone Needs Fresh Air : Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition &amp; Symposium. Singapore : School of Design & Environment, National University of Singapore, 2011. - Hardingham, Samantha. Bernard Tschumi : Parc de La Villette / Samantha Hardingham and Kester Rattenbury. New York, NY : Routledge, 2011. - Herron, Ron., and Barry Snowden. “Archigram No. 7: Beyond the Architecture,” 1966. - Joseph Fenton. “Hybrid Buildings.” Pamphlet Architectue n.11, Princeton Architectural Press,New York- San Francisco, 1985. - Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York : A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. Rotterdam : 010 Publishers, 1994. - Koolhaas, Rem., and Jorge Sainz. Singapore Songlines: Portrait of a Potemkin Metropolis… or 30 Years of Tabula Rasa. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2010. - Koolhaas, Rem. Project Japan : Metabolism Talks ... / Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist ; Editors: Kayoko Ota with James Westcott, AMO. Köln : Taschen, 2011. - Koolhaass, Rem., and Jorge Sáinz Avia. About the City. Barcelona : Gustavo Gili, 2014. - Libby, Brian. “Urbanisms: Working with Doubt.” Sustainable Industries, no. 88 (2010): 32.

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- Maki, Fumihiko. ““Theory of Group Form“ The Japan Architect,” 1970. “Investigations in Collective Form.” Number 2. The School of Architecture. Washington University : St. Louis, 1964. - “The Japan Architect Num 16 ( 4 ),” 1994. - Price, Cedric. Cedric Price Works 1952-2003 : A Forward-Minded Retrospective / Samantha Hardingham. Montreal : Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2016. - Rogers, Richard George., Philip. Gumuchdjian, and Pasqual Maragall. Ciudades Para Un Pequeño Planeta. Barcelona : GG, 2000. - Rowe, Colin., and Fred Koetter. Collage City. Barcelona : Gustavo Gili, 1998. - Sadler, Simon. Archigram Architecture without Architecture. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2005. - Sant’Elia, Antonio. “Messagio Sull’Architettura.” Milan, 1914. - Tschumi, Bernard, and N.Y.) Museum of Modern Art (New York. Event-Cities : Praxis. Cambridge, [MA] : MIT Press, 1994. - Alison and Peter Smithson, editorial in Architectural Review, November 1957, excerpted in Reyner Banham, The New Brutalism, London:Architectural Press, 1966 - Peter Cook, Experimental Architecture, London:Studio Vista, 1970 - Cedric Price, “Activity and Change,” in Archigram,no. 2, 1962 Shinkenjiku, Tokyo, May 1959 - Cedric Price Archive, 1963. Cite dans Stanley Mathews.The death of the author: Cedric Price as anti-architect”. Architecture and authorship, London, Black Dog Publishing, 2007. - Manhattan transcripts. Theoretical projects. London . Academy Editors. 1994 - Robert McCarter .Steven Hall.. Ed. Phaidon - El Lissitzy: Life, Letters, Texts - Rita Pinto. (2011) Hybrid architecture: object, landscape, infrastructure. Barcelona.Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

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List of pictures Image 1 Satellite top view plan of Barcelona Metropolitan area. Coloured railway infrastructure system, parks and old river paths. 2019 .......................................................................................... 26 Image 2 Satellite top view plan of Barcelona Metropolitan area. Coloured railway infrastructure system, parks and old river paths. 2019 .......................................................................................... 27 Source Pablo Irarrázaval Saavedra.Sobre la línea. Relatos, miradas y paseos sobre el Cajón Ferroviario de Sants. Master Thesis. ETSAB. UPC Image 3 Barcelona Metropolitan area transport, main roads and geography diagram. ................ 28 Source: Done by the author Image 4Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy............................................................................................ 31 Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_Vecchio Image 5 Sant’Elias’s city ................................................................................................................. 32 Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EVqY68 Image 6 Project for Milan’s central station. Antonio Sant’Elia, 1914 ............................................ 32 Image 7 Towers on a Hudson River Bridge Between NewYork and New Jersey. Harvey Wiley Corbett 1930 ................................................................................................................................... 33 Source: Rem. Koolhaas, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifiesto for Manhattan Image 8 The cosmopolis of the future. Harry M. Petit 1908 ........................................................... 33 Source: Rem. Koolhaas, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifiesto for Manhattan Image 9 Plan Voisin Paris. Le Corbusier. 1925 .............................................................................. 34 Source:https://www.pinterest.com/tim_jacoby/le-corbusier-villa-contemporaine-exposition-des-a Image 10 Project Obus, Argel . Le Corbsusier. 1930 ...................................................................... 35 Source:https://www.citylab.com/design/2014/11/why-an-ambitious-fanciful-linear-city-failed Image 11 Project “A” Fort l’Empereur, Argel. Le Corbusier. 1931 ............................................... 36 Source: http://atlasofinteriors.polimi-cooperation.org/2017/11/14/cellula-del-piano-per-algeri/ Image 12 Study for reurbanization of Rio de Janeiro. Le Corbusier. 1929 ..................................... 37 Source: http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx Image 13 Plans for Montevideo. Le Corbusier. 1929...................................................................... 37 Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/558

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Image 14Perspective Sketch plan for Philadelphia â&#x20AC;&#x153;System of Movement and Restructure for the Cityâ&#x20AC;?. Louis Khan. 1952 ................................................................................................................. 39 Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/579 Image 15 Building proposal, circular towers. Louis Khan, 1952. .................................................. 39 Source: http://kahnpark.org/events Image 16 Project for Philadelphia traffic refurbishment. Louis Khan. 1952 .................................. 39 Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/488 Image 17 Project for the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Section. Paul Rudolph 1970 .................. 40 Source: www.arch.illinois.edu/sites/default/files Image 18 Project for the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Section Paul Rudolph 1970 ................... 41 Source:https://www.paulrudolphheritagefoundation.org/news-of-the-prhf/2018/10/28/rudolphs-lo mex-project-featured-in-new-renderings Image 19 Project for the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Perspective. Paul Rudolph 1970 ........... 41 Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/909 Image 20 Project for Harlem district. Aerial view Columbia University 1967 ............................... 41 Source: Banham, Megastructure: Urban Future of the Recent Past. Image 21 Project for Harlem district. Section Columbia University 1967 ..................................... 41 Source: Banham, Megastructure: Urban Future of the Recent Past Image 22 Bus terminal Manhattan. Pierluigi Nervi 1965-6 ........................................................... 42 Source: www.eiroaarchitects.com/New-York-Bay-Region.htm Image 23 Bus terminal Manhattan. Pierluigi Nervi 1965-6 ........................................................... 42 Source: https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/george-washington-bridge?page=2 Image 24Cross section Fun Palace. Cedric Price. 1964 ................................................................ 44 Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/842 Image 25 Cross section Fun Palace showing potential uses of interior space. Cedric Price. April 1964................................................................................................................................................. 45 Source: http://www.bcchang.com/transfer/articles/2/18346584.pdf Image 26 Fun Palace Interior perspective. Cedric Price 1964 ...................................................... 46 Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/842 Image 27 New-Babylon. Constant Niewenhuis. 1958 ..................................................................... 47 117

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Source: https://stichtingconstant.nl/new-babylon-1956-1974 Image 28 Ville Spatiale over the city of New York, Yona Friedman,1964 ....................................... 48 Source: http://www.yonafriedman.nl/?page_id=225 Image 29 Section from the original competition entry for the Centre Pompidou. Richard Roger and Renzo Piano 1977 .................................................................................................................... 49 Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2013/07/26/richard-rogers-centre-pompidou-revolution-1968 Image 30 Exterior view Pompidou Centre. Urban Space and building. ......................................... 49 Source: https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en Image 31 City Room. Fumihiko Maki 1965 .................................................................................... 51 Source: https://hasejun.exblog.jp/12268880 Image 32 Warren Chalk and Ron Herron , City Interchange project. 1963 .................................... 52 Source: https://arcspace.com/bookcase/archigram-a-guide-to-archigram Image 33 Urban renewal. Fulham Study, 1963. Taylor Woodrow Design Group. .......................... 52 Source: Sadler, Simon. Archigram Architecture without Architecture. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2005. Image 34 Pedestrian network for Urban Renewal: Fulham Study, 1963 ........................................ 52 Source: Sadler, Simon. Archigram Architecture without Architecture. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2005. Image 35 Pedestrian network for Urban Renewal: Fulham Study, 1963 ........................................ 53 Source: Sadler, Simon. Archigram Architecture without Architecture. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2005. Image 36 Project for Berlin Hauptstadt. View of the traffic and pedestrian segregated circulation. Alison & Peter Smithson. 1957 ....................................................................................................... 53 Source:https://nathaliestachnik.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/alison-peter-smithson-haupstadt-berl in Image 37 Movement Systems in the City, Boston 1965 ................................................................... 54 Source: Maki, Fumihiko. “Investigations in Collective Form.” Number 2. The School of Architecture. Washington University : St. Louis, 1964. Image 38 Open-End System. Fumihiko Maki .................................................................................. 54 Source: Maki, Fumihiko. “Investigations in Collective Form.” Number 2. 118

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The School of Architecture Washington Universityâ&#x20AC;Ż: St. Louis, 1964. Image 39 Golden Line. Master Plan. .............................................................................................. 55 Source: http://www.grids-blog.com/wordpress/category/projects Image 40 Golden Line axonometric. ............................................................................................... 55 Source: http://www.grids-blog.com/wordpress/category/projects Image 41 Plug-In City. Axonometric local district in medium-pressure area. Peter Cook 1964 .... 57 Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/797 Image 42 Plug-In_City, Max. Pressure Area, Long Section. Peter Cook. 1963 .............................. 58 Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/797 Image 43 Capsule Homes, Tower and Capsule Elevations.Warren Chalk. 1964 ............................ 60 Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/313070611567557565 Image 44 Plug-in capsule system. Chalk Herron. 1965 .................................................................. 60 Source: https://www.pinterest.com/lawsonspencer/architectural-drawings Image 45 Nakagin Capsule Tower. Kisho Kurokawa 1972 ............................................................. 61 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakagin_Capsule_Tower Image 46 Nakagin Capsule Tower. Section. Kisho Kurokawa 1972 ............................................... 61 Source: http://www.rimayamazaki.com/project/nakagin-capsule-tower Image 47 Housing and city. Barcelona. Abalos y Herreros. 1988 .................................................. 62 Source: http://hacedordetrampas.blogspot.com/2011/11/proyecto-en-la-diagonal-de-abalos.html Image 48 Floor plan showing the changeable possibilities of the space. Housing and city. Barcelona. Abalos y Herreros. 1988 ............................................................................................... 62 Source: http://hacedordetrampas.blogspot.com/2011/11/proyecto-en-la-diagonal-de-abalos.html Image 49 Housing and city. Skyscraper section. Barcelona. Abalos y Herreros. 1988 .................. 62 Source: http://hacedordetrampas.blogspot.com/2011/11/proyecto-en-la-diagonal-de-abalos.html Image 50 Tokyo Bay project. Commercial district. Kenzo Tangue. 1960Image 48. Tokyo Bay project aerial view. Kenzo Tangue. 1960 ........................................................................................ 65 Source: https://thelongandshort.org/cities/canned-designs-tokyo-kenzo-tange Image 51 Tokyo Bay project. Commercial district. Kenzo Tangue. 1960 ........................................ 66 Source: http://archeyes.com/plan-tokyo-1960-kenzo-tange Image 52 Project for Oceanic City. Kiyonoru Kikutake. 1962 ........................................................ 67 119

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Source: https://www.designboom.com/architecture/kiyonori-kikutake-1928-2011/ Image 53 Central district in Tokyo Bay Plan. Kenzo Tangue. 1960 ................................................ 68 Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10464883.2012.720915 Image 54 Top view of Parc de la Villette ......................................................................................... 73 Source: https://www.archdaily.com/92321/ad-classics-parc-de-la-villette-bernard-tschumi Image 55 Concept diagrams for La Villette large scale organisation ............................................. 75 Source: https://www.pinterest.com/laceyA711/parc-de-la-villette-bernard-tschumi-plan Image 56 Assortment of organizational concepts for la Villette location. ....................................... 76 Source: https://www.pinterest.com/laceyA711/parc-de-la-villette-bernard-tschumi-plan Image 57 Superimposition of the three different systems of la Villette, the points, the lines and the surfaces over the grill. .................................................................................................................... 77 Source: http://www.tschumi.com/projects Image 58 Parc de la Villette Floor Plan ......................................................................................... 77 Source: http://www.tschumi.com/projects Image 59 Point system. Follies different configurations and possibilities ...................................... 78 Image 60 Event and social activity taking place in one of the follies. ............................................ 78 Source: https://www.archdaily.com/92321/ad-classics-parc-de-la-villette-bernard-tschumi Image 61 System of lines. Walkway or bridge over the Parc connecting different points. .............. 79 Source: https://www.pinterest.com/maxchrofi/urban-design Image 62 System of surfaces. Unexpected and unprogrammed social activities taking place over the Park surfaces ............................................................................................................................. 79 Source: https://www.pinterest.com/mccarthyarch/archi-bernard-tschumi Image 63 Yokohama Cruise Terminal. FOA. 2002 .......................................................................... 82 Source:https://www.archdaily.com/554132/ad-classics-yokohama-international-passenger-termi nal-foreign-office-architects-foa Image 64 Yokohama Cruise Terminal surface view. 2019 ............................................................... 83 Source: Taken by the author Image 65 Logroño Railway Station. Spain. Ábalos + Sentkiewicz architects 2012 ........................ 84 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_photography Image 66 Logroño Railway Station cross section. .......................................................................... 84 120

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Source:https://www.dezeen.com/2012/10/17/high-speed-train-station-in-logrono-by-abalossentki ewicz-arquitectos/ Image 67 High line New York s.XX ................................................................................................. 86 Source: https://www.thehighline.org/history Image 68 High line New York. 1930 ................................................................................................ 86 Source: https://www.thehighline.org/history Image 69 Bridges Houses. Steven Hall. 1982 ................................................................................. 86 Source: http://hiddenarchitecture.net/bridge-of-houses Image 70 New York High Line. 2009 -2011-2014 ........................................................................... 87 Source: https://www.thehighline.org/design Image 71 Different sequences of activities over the High line ........................................................ 88 Source: https://www.thehighline.org/visit Image 72 Skygarden Seul. MVRDV.2015 ........................................................................................ 89 Source:https://www.archdaily.com/882382/seoullo-skygarden-mvrdv/59f124feb22e38e2ab0001b 7-seoullo-skygarden-mvrdv-masterplan Image 73 Skygarden Seul. Net of systems top view. 2015 ............................................................... 89 Source: https://www.mvrdv.nl/projects/208/seoullo-7017-skygarden Image 74 Skygarden Seul. Pedestrian promenade view. 2015 ........................................................ 90 Source: https://www.mvrdv.nl/projects/208/seoullo-7017-skygarden Image 75 WolkenbĂźgel Moscow system 1924-1925. El Lissitzky .................................................... 91 Source:https://antitheziz.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/horizontal-skyscrapers-1923-1925-by-el-liss itzky Image 76 WolkenbĂźgel. 1924-1925. El Lissitzky ............................................................................. 92 Source: https://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/03/07/lissitzky-wolkenbugel-1924 Image 77 Porta Barcelona Building. 1989 ..................................................................................... 93 Source: http://arqxarq.es/4-axa-barcelona-92-edifici-porta-vila-olimpica-amado-domenech Image 78 Plan and section Porta Barcelona Building. 1989 .......................................................... 93 Source: http://arqxarq.es/4-axa-barcelona-92-edifici-porta-vila-olimpica-amado-domenech Image 79 Model of the project systems, the horizontal skyscraper over the topography................ 94 Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2010/03/05/vanke-center-shenzhen-by-steven-holl-architects 121

The Megastructure revival as a device for urban infrastructure’s renewal

Image 80 Horizontal skyscraper-Vanke Centre.Shenzhen. China. Steven Hall Architects. 2009 .... 95 Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2010/03/05/vanke-center-shenzhen-by-steven-holl-architects Image 81 Horizontal skyscraper-Vanke Centre.Shenzhen. China. Steven Hall Architects. 2009 .... 95 Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2010/03/05/vanke-center-shenzhen-by-steven-holl-architects Image 82 Railway infrastructure 1941 .......................................................................................... 102 Source: Pablo Irarrázaval Saavedra.Sobre la línea. Relatos, miradas y paseos sobre el Cajón Ferroviario de Sants. Master Thesis. ETSAB. UPC Image 83 L’Hospitalet railway 1932............................................................................................. 103 Source:Pablo Irarrázaval Saavedra.Sobre la línea. Relatos, miradas y paseos sobre el Cajón Ferroviario de Sants. Master Thesis. ETSAB. UPC Image 84 L'hospitalet del Llobregat district division.................................................................... 103 Source: Done by the author Image 85 Railway path going through L’Hospitalet del Llobregat till Barcelona central station 104 Source: Pablo Irarrázaval Saavedra.Sobre la línea. Relatos, miradas y paseos sobre el Cajón Ferroviario de Sants. Master Thesis. ETSAB. UPC Image 86 Calaix de Sants.( Sants Box, public space ). Aerial view 2017 ..................................... 105 Source: Done by the author Image 87 Sants Box public space under construction. .................................................................. 105 Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardines_de_la_Rambla_de_Sants Image 88 Sants Box public space upper view. 2017...................................................................... 106 Source:https://www.archdaily.com/801120/raised-gardens-of-sants-in-barcelona-sergi-godia-plu s-ana-molino-architects Image 89 Sants Box public space lower view.2017 ....................................................................... 106 Source:https://www.archdaily.com/801120/raised-gardens-of-sants-in-barcelona-sergi-godia-plu s-ana-molino-architects Image 90 L’hospitalet railway top view ........................................................................................ 110 Source:Done by the author Image 91 L’hospitalet railway top view ........................................................................................ 110 Source:Done by the author Image 92 Site photo....................................................................................................................... 111 122

List of pictures

Source:Done by the author Image 93 Site photo....................................................................................................................... 111 Source:Done by the author Image 94 Site photo....................................................................................................................... 111 Source:Done by the author Image 95 Site photo....................................................................................................................... 112 Source:Done by the author Image 96 Site photo....................................................................................................................... 112 Source:Done by the author Image 97 Site photo....................................................................................................................... 112 Source:Done by the author Image 98 Site photo....................................................................................................................... 113 Source:Done by the author Image 99 Site photo....................................................................................................................... 113 Source:Done by the author Image 100 Site photo..................................................................................................................... 113 Source:Done by the author

123

APPENDIX

Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;hospitalet urban stapler A railway infrastructure and city renewal

6 5 4

SECTIONS ALONG THE RAILWAY 7 9

6 5

4 3

SITE URBAN ANALYSIS AND SUGGESTIONS

Actual urban connections and future desirable connections paths

Desirable green connections and paths

Public facilities desirable path connection along the railway

DIAGRAM OF THE DESIRABLE CONNECTIONS AND RELATIONS BETWEEN THE URBAN ELEMENTS

DEMOLITIONS AND URBAN SPACES FOR NEW EXTENSIONS

PROJECT DEVELOPING PROPOSALS

SKETCHES OF THE SITE APPLYING MEGA STRUCTURE IDEAS

MODEL PHOTO FIRST APPROACH

Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;HOSPITALET CENTRAL STATION AREA

LA FLORIDA NEW NEIGHBOURHOOD AREA

TECLA SALA AREA

LA TORRASSA PARK AREA

URBAN FRAME AND FACILITIES ALONG THE RAILWAY

SPORTFIELD

SCHOOL

SPORTFIELD

SCHOOL

HOSPITALET CENTER RAILWAY STATION

RAMBLA JUST OLIVERAS SUBWAY STATION

SCHOOL

SWIMMING POOL

KINDERGARTEN

SPORTS CENTER

LIBRARY

CHURCH

LA FARGA SHOPPING MALL

SCHOOL

CHURCH

LA FLORIDA MARKET

HEALTH CARE CENTER

HOSPITALET CEMETERY TECLA SALA LIBRARY

LA TORRASSA SUBWAY STATION

SANTA EULALIA SUBWAY STATION

SWIMMING POOL

SCHOOL

ART FACTORY

SCHOOL

CREATIVE FACTORY

ART CENTER

SANTA EULALIA MARKET

L’HOSPITALET DEL LLOBREGAT MASTER PLAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

ELDERLY RESIDENCE

OFFICES / DWELLINGS / COMMERCIAL AREA / HOTEL

WORK-LABS / SOCIAL HOUSING

L’HOSPITALET CEMETERY

OFFICES AND WORK-LABS

NEW NEIGHBORHOOD COMMUNITY

TECLA SALA CULTURAL CENTER

CENTRAL STATION PARK

L’HOSPITALET CENTRAL STATION

ART FACTORY

SANT JOSEP NEW MARKET LA FARGA CONCERT HALL

LA FARGA SHOPPING MALL

EDUCATIONAL AMENITIES

OFFICES / SHOPPING / RESTAURANTS

CREATIV

S AND WORK-LABS

TECLA SALA CULTURAL CENTER

RELOCATED POWER PLANT NEW PLAYGROUNDS

NEW SOCIAL HOUSING

LA TORRASA MARKET / SHOPPING MALL RAMBLA DE SANTS GARDENS

SB SC

RESTAURANTS / SHOPPING

OFFICES / SHOPPING / RESTAURANTS

CREATIVE FACTORY

HEALTH CARE CENTER AND HOSPITAL

SANTA EULALIA SUBWAY ART CENTER

+ 34

+ 27.96

PROJECT PROPOSAL SECTION C

+ 44

+ 37 + 44 + 33.32

+ 37 + 25.72 + 33.32

+ 22.51

+ 18.81 + 25.72

SOCIAL HOUSING

NEW TORRASSA SHOPPING MALL & MARKET

TORRASSA PARK EXTENSION NEW PUBLIC SPACES

+ 22.51

RAILWAY

+ 18.81

PROJECT PROPOSAL SECTION B

SOCIAL APARTMENTS FOR YOUNG AND ELDERLY PEOPLE

COMMUNITY COMMON SPACES

+ 42.19 + 40

+ 34 + 42.19 + 40 + 27.96 + 34

+ 24.40 + 34.35

+ 35.92 + 34.24

+ 27.96 + 24.40 + 27.23 + 11.82

PLAYGROUND

TORRASSA PARK

15 m

30 m

60 m

RAILWAY

+ 37

8.81

+ 12.35 + 18.81

FOLLIE MULTI-PURPOSE BUILDING + 12.35

OFFICES AND WORK LABS

+ 19.84

+ 11.82 + 19.84

+ 11.82

HIGH PEDESTRIAN PROMENADE

SHOPS AND AMENITIES ON THE BASEMENT

NEIGHBOURHOOD CIVIC CENTRE

PROJECT PROPOSAL SECTION A

SOCIAL APARTMENTS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

COMMUNITY COMMON SPACES

OFFICES AND WORK LABS

+ 34.35

+ 35.92 + 34.24

+ 27.23 + 11.82

+ 18.38

SUBWAY 5m

15 m

30 m

60 m

TORRASSA PARK

RAILWAY

GREEN PLATFORM & PLAYGROUND

NEW POWER PLANT SITE

HIGH PEDESTRIAN PROMENADE

PROJECT PROPOSAL. RAILWAY STATION SECTION

15 m

30 m

60 m

OFFICES / WORK LABS

15 m

30 m

60 m

RAILWAY PARK

HIGH PEDESTRIAN PROMENADE

+ 11.82

OFFICES AND WORK LABS

HOSPITAL

+ 21

+ 18.38

+ 12.35

SHOPS

NEW COVERED RAILWAY STATION

SHOPS AND AMENITIES ON THE BASEMENT

SOCIAL HOUSING

APARTMENTS

OFFICES / WORK LABS

HEALTH CARE CENTER

NEW PARK & PUBLIC SPACES

PROJECT DESIGN STRATEGIES AND PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION

Spatial structures

Elevated pathwalk

Artificial topography and platforms