Sub-City by Peter Hsi

SUBCITY RURAL BODY|CITY ORGAN

architectural degree project by elina zaytseva peter hsi

Pratt Institute School of Architecture Undergraduate B. Arch Program

2017-2018 elina zaytseva peter hsi

SUB-CITY

RURAL BODY|CITY ORGAN

by Elina Zaytseva & Peter Hsi

Degree Project Presented to the Undergraduate Faculty of Pratt Institute School of Architecture Critic: Cathryn Dwyre Lawrence Blough Jeffrey Johnson

02hybrid

01place

00intro

ROCK PRINT

[process]

CONCEPT STATEMENT

ABSTRACT 10

MICROCITY [tarrytown, ny] SUB-CITY [cranbury, nj]

16 20

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

ACTOR NETWORK THEORY

GENEALOGY

[thinking]

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

04event

03aesthetic MAGIC MOUNTAIN

[case study]

DUTCH PAVILION

ANOMALIES

SEARCHING FOR A NEW TYPOLOGY

05activity

appendix

A. GLOSSARY

B. TECTONIC GLOSSARY

D. BIBLIOGRAPHY

100

E. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

102

[case study]

ENVIRONMENTAL UNIT 52

HYBRID ANOMOLIES

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

There developed the desire and need to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;reconstructâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; natural shapes and processes into the experience of contemporary architecture and urban design. To reconstruct is an idea to hybridize images of nature into posindustrial world. David Gissen

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

intro

CONCEPTUAL STATEMENT

Composites of the natural and artificial take on a perspective of heterotic architecture that explores the idea of identity. Emphasizing the identity of composing elements is crucial to its hybridization and mutual benefaction. What is identity and what role does it take on in a coexisting relationship of composites? Architect Reyner Banham and sociologist Bruno Latour both theorized on the meaning of individuality in hybridity. The idea of composite hybridity is explained by Latourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Actor-Network Theory. The focus is on understanding the pure individuality of inputs first, prior to morphing them together in a way that retains those individualities and creates a new multiplicitous performance. Aesthetics is another system of performance,

the performance of the visual. David Salomon discusses this performance as a process, whereby â&#x20AC;&#x153;physical sensation and intellectual reflection are reconciled via our imaginationâ&#x20AC;?. Exploring aesthetics through infrastructural typologies is important to social, economic and environmental issues. Aesthetics provides for opportunities in the blurring of what is considered a natural landscape and what is considered to be artificial. A place such as a Micro-city or an Edge City is a composite in itself, emerging from different urban organizations. What is a Micro-city and Edge City defined by? The existing multiple identities that structure the fabric of a place, speak to an opportunity to assume different identities using methods of hybridization. The landscape is characterized already by odd ad-

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

“ THE UNPRECEDENTED HISTORY ...CAN BE SUMMED UP IN TWO WAYS: EITHER AS THE FINAL LIBERATION OF ARCHITECTURE FROM THE BALLAST OF STRUCTURE, OR ITS TOTAL SUBSERVIENCE TO THE GOADS OF MECHANICAL SERVICE.BOTH INTERPRETATIONS OF THE SITUATION ARE CURRENTLY, LARGELY BECAUSE OF THE INFANTILE FALLACY THAT ARCHITECTURE IS NECESSARILY DIVISIBLE INTO FUNCTION AND FORM, AND THAT THE MECHANICAL AND CULTURAL PARTS OF THE ART ARE ESSENTIAL OPPOSITION” Peter Branham

9 jacencies, in which fulfillment industry exists next to an agricultural meadow. Juxtapositions of artificial/natural, form/performance, and rigid/malleable begin to conceptualize relationships and sets of networks from which new relationships may be designed. The city we are investigating is centered on industrial and agricultural production, making it a transitional place between the urban and suburban. An initial interest in this essentially hybrid mosaic of tiny urbanism was a response to the remarkable contrast of fulfillment cen-

ters sitting side-by-side with historic farmland. How can post-industrial wasteland, distribution centers, and agricultural farms evolve to provide for social, cultural, programmatic and aesthetic needs and desires? Aesthetic emerges together with sensibility which activates ones’ perception and reading of the space. Sensibility, in particular, relates to ethereal qualities adjacent to aesthetic processes. Salomon refers to sensibility as a “tactical, tangible and temporally precise device.” In this case, sensibility will derive from hybridization of distinct identities.

ABSTRACT

The discussion of hybridity in architectural discourse has focused on the production of hybrid identity and on a hybrid place but, not on what happens at the intersection of the two. What kinds of architectonic, programmatic and aesthetic sensibilities are observed at the intersection? What does the intersection reveal about the past artifacts and their transformation? The production of identity is significantly dependent on place and there is opportunity in investigating suburban infrastructure as a place for colliding identities. In an intentional novelistic hybrid,…the important activity is not so much…the mixing of linguistic forms…as it is the collision between differing points of view on the world that are embedded in these forms.(Mikhail Bakhtin 360)

To understand hybridity in human culture, we need to understand the different types of hy-

bridity. Anthropologist, Mayfair Mei-Hui Yang has categorized an organic hybrid which as she describes is a “smooth and unproblematic blending of traits without the contested and agonistic features of the process of combination”.1 The type of hybridity we set out to interrogate deals with extracting sets of identities unique to the place and imputing them as active interventions. This type of cultural hybridity utilizes the tension and conflict of multi-identity for making a new typology of programmatic sequences and events. We define this as composite hybridity in which the traits never morph physical properties but rather form a new type of relationship from the linked individual traits. The result leads to a hybrid identity and hybrid place. The transition between the main city and nearby rural areas has a mutualistic relationship that deals with the interfaces of both. Charac1 Yang 2000, 477.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

rural lands. With these hybrid injections from the main city, the sensibilities and functions of the rural area are essentially altered. We define these newly hybrid rural areas as Sub-City. The current in the Sub-City is in instrumentalizing its next state of transformation, from a rural island of farms and tiny urbanism to hybrid fulfillment landscape connected in a very streamlined way to major cities, ports, and roads. A Sub-City is a hybridized typology of suburban landscape and urban desires. The study of place lends cue to the organizational logic which explains the social and cultural context. Cranbury Township, NJ takes on the identity of a Sub-City in its simultaneous rural expansion (body) with big city traits (organs). Its criticality lies in the presence of industrial fabric neighbored by farmland. Parcel identities: aesthetics, events, and structures are collaged together into a flattened vastness. Flatness is

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

teristics of the urban center began to disperse outward into the rural lands forming alternate places. The rural towns constellate off of the city centers and begin to gain agency while establishing a support system for the city. SubCity acts as a production/fulfillment hub for the main city in trade for an economic growth. Its relationship to the city is analogous to the social dynamic in the film “Snowpiercer”. The plot consists of a continuously running train as a social hybrid representing the interdependence of class systems. The front of the train holds the main engine guarded by the upper class while the back carriages are designated for the “inessentials” workers who keep the train running. As the dynamic reverses, those in the front of the train realize their ultimate dependency on the workers in the back. The main city is like the “front of the train” placing programs considered too space-consuming and less essential for daily life into the nearby

“ AND LIKE AESTHETICS, A SENSIBILITY IS NEITHER INHERENT IN AN OBJECT NOR SOLELY GENERATED BY A SUBJECT. IT EXISTS AT THE INTERFAACE BETWEEN THE TWO.” David Salomon

not just a spatial condition but social one as well. The disbursement of programs is vastly disconnected, by design. There exists a general logic of a suburban town; main roads and expressways connecting land parcel to land parcel providing the only method of circulation. Single-family houses lined up along the spine of the main roads lead to the local activities. The town programs take on various scales that create spatial contrasts. The idea of “matter out of place” from Mary Douglas’ anthropological writing Purity and Danger gave a strong statement to the fabric of strange adjacencies found in the Sub-City. Douglas theorizes the ambiguous and the anomalous, socially, cognitively, and physically. She believes that a major problem in our society is the definition of the boundaries, or lack thereof and suggests that these ambiguities or anomalies need to either, conform to its surroundings or be removed. Our direction suggests that there is another take on the anomalies which stems from an interest in fulfillment centers, adjacent infrastructure and agricultural land and what happens in between.

Identifying the light industry fulfillment centers and farmlands as the elements which make up the identity of Cranbury we aim to explore the potential reorganizations and future transformations of Sub-City culture. What is the identity of the fulfillment center? What is the identity of an agricultural farm? How can the two begin to inform additional social and cultural components of everyday life? If we state that the fulfillment centers are the core foundation for other programmatic interventions to take place, what is the sensibility that guides these interventions? To arrive at a conclusion, we begin by understanding the current trajectory of a Sub-City of Cranbury as it sets up for transformation. We view the big box fulfillment centers, township program and farmlands as a division as they are their own anomalies. The ambiguous process of the injection from the main city to Sub-City begs the question of the future of their relationship. We begin to question the exchange between activity, performance, atmosphere and aesthetics, the concept of natural/artificial and landscape/ infrastructure. Through the methods of designing new landscapes and programs, we revert

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

back to a larger relationship between the megacity and the Sub-City. How are the two beneficial to one another? What are the scales of economic, social and cultural exchange between the two and what is the future of urban grafts into suburban/rural landscapes? What do these site-specific hybrid urbanisms, such as the sub-city, have to contribute to new forms of living in the 21st century?

Our intention moving towards the design practice is to build on the idea of aesthetic infrastructure by designing hybrid fulfillment nodes and to choreograph an experience of the hybrid node as well as the experience of moving from one hybrid node to the next as an urban sequence.

â&#x20AC;&#x153; 14

Programmatic concerns were rejected as leftovers from obsolete functionalist doctrines by those polemicists who saw programs as mere pretexts for stylistic exper mentation Bernard Tschumi

Place begins to define where hybridity exists and interacts. It is where the genealogy, history and evolution coexist, borrowing ideas from one another.

Key Terms: Sub- City fulfillment

(ref. appendix A)

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

place

MICRO-CITY tarrytown, ny

A Micro-city can be analogously perceived as an organ outside of the body. The body is its driving source: the big metropolis. The urban energy outside of its periphery spread outward into an advantageous terrain in search of new territory. It settles its roots and grows a micro-city.

Historically Micro-cities have been developing their identities since the 19th century as a result of rapid industrialization and the birth of the railroad. At that time Micro-cities were the developing city centers with an active economy and participating community. However, the 20th century has put a halt to Micro-city development as the push for suburbanization moved outward. Nonetheless, the identity of Micro-cities remains as its genealogy predetermined its

success in organizing them around infrastructure, and landscape. Tarrytown is situated along the Hudson River Valley, about an hour north of Manhattan and is predisposed to advantageous Micro-city culture. Its proximity to the main metropolitan ground paradoxically with its isolation from it is an attractive feature. Waterway and train access also contribute to its enduring energy. Micro-cities have become places for inspiration, innovation, and opportunity for cultural and social growth between people as well as architecture. Studying the Micro-City typology helps us conceptualize and discover the identity of a place and further categories of places.

fig 1. Map of Tarrytown slopes and flood plains.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

1..

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1..

fig 1. Map of Tarrytown parcels showing the town density.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

fig 2.

Landuse map of Tarrytown.

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

SUB-CITY cranbury, nj

Cranbury is a town located in Middlesex County, NJ with a population of approximately 2,300 people. Organized around the main road the townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s housing sprawl lays between its rural landscape and the light- industry grounds. Cranbury is a conglomerate of various small town programs, research laboratories, fulfillment centers and preserved farms which are dispersed and seemingly disconnected in the flat terrain. The abundance of fulfillment warehouses in Cranbury implies a concept of fulfilment at a regional scale. Meanwhile, as it functions as a bedroom community for Princeton and surrounding cities such as, Trenton, Cranbury fulfills a local demand as well.

Seeing as how the identity of Cranbury does not befit the typology of a Micro-city or an Edge City, a new clarification is necessary. Sub-City is term that describes a rural area (organ) that is capable of generating its own revenue while participating in an exchange with an outer main city (body). This organ contains an urban organism that has been injected into the rural landscape and con-

tinues to feed into the main body; the fulfilment box industry is dislodged into a new spacious territory and continued to export goods into urban centers. What do the large, flat box structures provoke functionally and aesthetically? What kinds of sensibilities are required to understand its hybridization? The identity of a Sub-City is both context specific and context adaptable, meaning it could be identified in multiple places yet be entirely driven by the individuality and circumstance of the place.

fig 2.. Historic map of Cranbury, preveiously named Cranberry from 1861.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

21 1.

fig 1. Cranbury Township aerial from 1697

fig 3. The countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s last township to be organized in 1872.

fig 1. Mapping out parcel lots among preserved famrland.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

5-10% slope pits, sand & gravel wetlands 100-year flood 500-year flood

Cranbury, NJ is a suburban town on the frontier of becoming a Sub-City. It has resembling characteristics of micro-city infrastructure but lacks its social and cultural fabric. The town is essentially divided by the main

road and its supporting infrastructure into islands of residences, farms, and warehouses. The settlements that grew along the main spine are under historic preservation between the industrial warehouse development and agricultural land. Majority of the agricultural land fig 2. Mapping out wetlands, floodplains and slope changes.

preserved farmland open space municiple parks storage/warehouse industrial vacant commercial office/labs public facilities municiple religious facilities single-family townhouse multi-family

fig 1. Landuse mapping of Cranbury Township showing the contrast of farmland with industrial warehouses.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

is also being preserved to prevent the urban sprawl. The current developmental trends for housing and fulfillment centers create underutilized spaces. Distribution centers and farmland start to define a point of interest. The stark flatland continuum coupled with predominantly vehicular circulation emphasizes a sense of distance, time and scale. Viewing of the map as a semidense environment with landscape reliefs is entirely contrasted with the actual experience of driving through the town. Its flatness only highlights the vastness that exists throughout. One loses a sense of place, time and scale because everything is spread out and made

difficult to interact with. Cranbury is located between two main cities, NYC and Philadelphia and is adjacent to a major highway and truck route. The fulfillment centers sit off of that highway and are efficiently arranged in close proximity to one another. There are instances in which the large warehouses are surrounded by agricultural farms creating strange anomalies and begs the question of the prospective future for the Sub-City organization. How can the Sub-City adapt to the demand for more fulfillment centers, agricultural goods, housing and/or public space?

fig 2. farmland and open spaces fig3. housing fig 4. commercial, public facilities fig 5. industrial, storage warehouses and vacant

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

10 mi 3 mi

28 tory burch distribution center williams-sonoma distribution center jerich international

10 mi

lasar logistics fedex ground

5 mi

1 mi

fedex home delivery

2000 ft

2,283 age 47

Trajection of distribution centers from industrial main city to the sub-city.

148,375

NY-NJ-PA Middlesex County PUMA $53,886 $67,296 $72,093 $79,593 $101,348

fig 1.

U.S NJ Middlesex County

$148,375

crate & barrel distribution pearson distribution center

cosmetics & perfume filling & packaging inc. barnes & noble distribution tyler distribution center costco distribution center

wayfair cranbury amazon fullfilment center home depot distribution center

lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;oreal usa inc.

1000 ft

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

management business & financial operations

MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS, SCIENCE & ARTS SALES & OFFICE

health practitioners

18.3%

11.5%

SERVICE

4.3%

PRODUCTION & TRANSPORTATION

NATURAL RESOURCES, CONSTRUCTION, & MAINTENANCE

7.6%

Dataset: ACS 5-year estimate Source: Census Bureau

3.6%

2.8%

2.6% 2.2%

food sales personal care & services

1.9%

10.7%

5.2% 1.7%

6.6%

0.6% 1.2% 1%

1.3%

education, training... legal computer & mathematical community & social service life, physical & social... arts & recreation architecture & engineering

0.7%

construction & extraction cleaning maintenance healthcare support law enforcement supervisors fire fighting supervisors administrative production material installation

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

fig 2., fig 3.

Employment by Occupations

29 Employment by Industries healthcare & social assistance professional, scientific, tech services

15.6%

admin support, waste management service

19%

8.4%

7.8%

7.6% 7%

6.3% 5%

1.8%

educational service

4.8%

accommodation & food service construction arts, entertainment, recreation finance manufacturing retail trade othr services wholesale trade

3.5% 3.3% information public admin. utilities transportation & warehousing agriculture, fishing, hunting, & forestry

“

There is no truth or reality, just ideological tropes and ‘reality-effect’. Christopher Hight

Hybrid is an introspective take on a method of conceptualization. Through the understanding of tectonic relationships, arrives an abstract notion that acts as the structure for further exploration. Concepts are connected via a network structure that essentially becomes scaffolding for project development.

Key Terms: identity composite (ref. appendix A)

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hybrid

ROCK PRINT gramazio kohler & skylar

Rock Print by Gramazio Kohler and Skylar Tibbits shows a playful interdependence between two composite objects. Through an investigative process, the material hybrid explores the dynamic relationship of two polar objects; when organized together, form a gravity-defying structure. As the rocks are being poured in between string extrusions, the two elements begin to cohabitate; hybridize without morphing their individual states. This organizational technique utilizes a predisposed mechanism to redefine the contextual scenario. Following the initial process of robotic assembly, the object is uncovered as though an artifact, revealing the predetermined form. In its completion, its features are full material reversibility and the respective reusability of the aggregated materials. At the

same time structurally active interlocking and differentiated performance; is observed. As the string gets pulled away the granulated rocks begin to collapse out of form resulting in two disassociated objects. Only when the two are in a dynamic relationship there forms a quality of a hybridized composite material. This dynamic process conceptualizes the idea of composite hybrids. Composite is a method of hybridization that begins to deal with the identity of individual elements. The key characteristics are extracted from participating objects and combined together in a hybrid structure in a way that emphasizes the newly defined relationship between the two.

fig 1.- fig.3 Process of excavation to reveal the predetermined form followed by its dissolution.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

In the case of the Rock Print, the identity of rocks: modular, stiff and compressive, and string: flexible, tensile and light, allows for a hyper relationship to form as a result of hybridization. The two elements retain their individual identities in the process in order to become mutually beneficial. The physical process inspires a different way of thinking about hybridity. Elements do not necessarily need to morph physical properties to reach a new formal state and instead can focus

their strongest traits to a network of new relationships. In keeping with Bruno Latourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Actor-Network Theory, the idea of composite hybrids begins to question the perception of truth. What are the newly formed relationships between the objects and their physicality? The true meaning of gravity no longer applies to the newly hybridized structure as its internal forces transcend the traditional understanding.

fig 1 . Digital representation of the composite process

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

fig 2.

Fabrication process of rock compression and string tension.

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

fig 1 . Digital representation of the composite process

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

fig 2.

Fabrication process of rock compression and string tension.

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

Sub-City cranbury, nj

culture

“two architectures” reyner banham_

technology

program

existing

industrial

activity

aesthetic

individual forces

infrastructure

grotesque

potential

farmland-scape

“designing ecologies”

christopher hight_

“reassembling the social”

bruno latour_

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

“space & events” _bernard tschumi

“towards a new infrastructure” _david salomon

industrial grotesque

“an introduction to grotesque” _geoffrey galt harpham

environmental units

“Primer”

_atelier bow-wow

hybrid identity

hybrid place

project proposal

aethetic infrastructure

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

engineered identity

GENEALOGY

Hybridization can be interpreted through the lens of Marina Levina and Diem-My Bui, who pose that we live in a repressive culture; our tensions, fears, and perception of an overabundant environment are at the threshold between structure idealism and monstrous future.1 Hybridization derives from a new kind of liberty, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;messy and multipleâ&#x20AC;?2 which generate aesthetics and sensibility. It is an intentional desire to transform, mutate, distort and refine. The type of hybridity we are interested in is one that creates composite variation. It hybridizes from individual traits and characteristics, or identities, of participating elements to take on new forms, aesthetics, sensibilities, and functions. The Sub-City we are interrogating, Cranbury, is by design, a conglomerate of multiple identities; the fulfillment center industry, high-income housing, and agricultural preservation are the three main compositions. The town has become a satellite organ outside of the main body providing service to it whilst staying alive as a

result of it. It is a reflection of our desires of space, vastness, nature; it is a cloned body that has potential to embody monstrosity. Monstrosity, in this scenario, means a new organization, one that does not prioritize hierarchy. The fulfillment centers are the supporting sub-organs within the sub-body of Cranbury

2 Salomon 2016, 64. 1 Levina, Bui 2013, 3

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

that distribute desires/needs through the infrastructural veins. Fulfilment centers genetically mean to satisfy, perform and implement and thus provide the context for hybridity to take place. The sensibility we are focusing on pertains to the isolated adjacencies between the rural and infrastructural fabric, whose interfaces are yet to be visualized. What happens at the intersection of farmland and a giant warehouse? The aesthetic value of the warehouse is concealed and therefore, underutilized. The material and structural identities of the warehouse are points

with which hybridity can engage with. Perhaps the farmland begins to composite onto the structural system while simultaneously modifying it to accommodate the new relationship. Aesthetics begin to speak to our perception of function of the hybrid and the sensational atmosphere it exudes. Hybrid composites in the form of environmental units constitute social and informational hubs. The new hybrid bodies or hubs are multifaceted organisms that fulfill social interaction, learning, and production. The hybrid bodies must ensure adaptability for future growth and change.

“

... is not their capacity to ‘humanize’ or ‘beautify’ otherwise ugly artifacts. They are not something added after the fact. Rather, combining infrastructure with aesthetics undermines the rigid, efficient, positivist, monocultural way in which the form is conventionally conceived. David Salomon

Aesthetics is another system of performance. Exploring aesthetic sensibility between, sublime nature, ecology, materiality, infrastructure, and space opens up new approaches to viewing social, economic and environmental issues. Aesthetics provides for opportunities in blurring the perception of what is considered natural landscapes and artificial ones.

Key Terms: aesthetic composite sublime (ref. appendix A)

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aesthetic

MAGIC MOUNTAIN Amid Cero 9_case study

Magic Mountain is situated in Ames, Iowa as an artificially created landscape atop an existing power station. A visual transformation offers a new ecological growth in the city. The living mountain is made out of an articulated composition of roses, lights, and honeysuckle and attracts species such as butterflies, birds and various insects. Using bioengineering techniques the architecture and energy infrastructure are converted into a living system producing an ecosystem that is subject to human interaction. The skin wrap is divided into several subcategories based on attracting different species.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

Their work resembles the ideas explicated in Atelier Bow-Wow’s primers. Environmental units are combinations of ecological contexts which inform the architectural objects. They create a context for multiple perspectives to take place; each organism or “actor” is at the center of their own environmental unit. In other words, the ecological drape over the old factory creates a condition in which one species’ environmental unit may be a single rose while another’s the entire rose field. The contextual motivations are

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The approach is often biological, ecological and anthropological defined by gathering knowledge of local ecologies, environmental conditions, and material processes. Amid Cero 9 hybridize existing program with new ensembles resulting in a speculative duality of architecture and ecology.

expressed through aesthetics that begins to define the visual and functional consequences of hybridization. There is a subliminal nature to aesthetics that operates on a subconscious level creating associations in which we view designed scenarios as “simultaneous integration of multiple technical and social issues”1. Aesthetic relationships can be composed in such ways as to subconsciously influence our ideas and thinking. Using the senses such as seeing or feeling we interpret physical spaces which then translate subliminal ideas into our psyche, further affecting our thoughts and understandings. The individual abstract interpretations become ideas of their own creating many more internal images.

1 Salomon, David. “Towards a new infrastructure: aesthetic thinking,

synthetic sensibilities” 56

fig 1. Power Plant in its context.

fig 2. Re-aestheticized skin over the power plant.

DUTCH PAVILLION MVRDV_case study

The Dutch Expo 2000 is a project that fully explores the concept of composite hybridity through the programmatic arrangement. Each layer in the expo serves the purpose individually and collectively. The layers were conceived as types of ecosystems and environments existing in the Netherlands. A data-driven process results in what MVRDV refers to as “datascapes”, an architectural aesthetic that “makes visible the invisible forces that shape building today”.1 The composited and condensed ecosystem provides for a multi-purpose public space and explorative exhibition space. The initial gesture was to understand a series of factors and demands for the program that reflected the existing conditions of the context. Based on the relationship between each scenario, the design formed a composite understanding of mixing environmental processes with ‘fun space’.

1 Allen 2003, 83

There developed the desire and need to “reconstruct” natural shapes and processes into the experience of contemporary architecture and urban design. To reconstruct is an idea to hybridize images of nature into the postindustrial world. Hybrid natural and architectural forms such as grottos and other landforms are being manifested through Atelier Bow-Wow’s description of environmental units. Each unit or layer suggests a technological implication. There is a sense of the machine as the architect of the spatial and environmental organization that uses individual units as inputs into a “coded” sequence to produce the hybridized composite. The composite is evident in the way that the units retain their individual contribution and function at an interdependent level. Similar to ideas of operation drawn from Rock Print, composite hybridization in the Dutch Pavilion questions the hyper technologized approach to architecture.

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1. fig 1. Artificial park layer in the pavillion.

2. fig 2. Exibition space that also provides ecological function.

3. fig 3. Exibition space years after pavillion opening.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

waste

farm

industry

plateau

rain

wind

trees

houses

agriculture

The relationship between inputs, process and outputs is illustrated by sets of environmental units or data collections, a robotic arm and composite combinations. The robotic arm represents a computer generated method used to assemble quantities of data.

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liesure

ENVIRONMENTAL UNITS

Environmental units encompass sets of spatial networks between architectural objects and environments. An environmental unit is dependent on an organism within the space that acts as its central driver. It is important to note that every individual organism has its own perspectival world. The organism at the center of its environmental unit or scenario is able to draw its own set of relationships that project outward to its ethereal boundary. The units are inscribed with certain functional, programmatic and aesthetic affordances. Affordance permits for a limited variety of reading of the space and ultimately sets a boundary of interaction between the unit’s components and its occupiers. 1 The environment is identified as the “Umwelt”, which, refers to a fragment of the surroundings that is specifically perceived by any given organism at its center. Meanwhile, affordances are the surrounding objects which allow for a certain kind of utility. The “Umwelt” 1 Stalder, Escher, Komura, Washida 2013, 18.

has an interchangeable relationship to the surrounding, which is essentially the human “Umwelt”. For instance, the “Umwelt” of a fly would be fruits in a bowl or a lightbulb, which for humans are the surrounding objects which afford us nourishment and light. It is important to understand that every object has a relationship to the entirety of an environmental unit. In this model, the environment has an effect on the body and conversely, the body reacts to its environment. (Atelier Bow-Wow: A Primer. 17)

Architectural bodies provide for context for interactions. There are two domains that “must remain absolutely district” according to Bruno Latour; nature+society and science+culture.2 In Latour’s perspective, cultural and social conventions should be treated as natural and studied as a science. Contemporary architecture took a shift from focusing on form and structure to atmosphere and environmental systems. 2 Hight 88.

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Designing architecture for all things â&#x20AC;&#x153;naturalâ&#x20AC;? whether its culture, people, animals, processes etc. should consider their core perspectives. The microhabitats within macro habitats all play a role in the interconnectedness of nature and thus have a role in design. To understand what makes up an environmental unit, we need to unpack its individual components. The geological composition, natural resources and inhabiting organism contribute to the network of relationships that make up a unit. By viewing the individual

components as layers to the organized unit we gain opportunities for generating composite hybrids. With Stan Allenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s index of geologic operations, we begin to customize topographies with innate affordances. The topographic layers imply of certain natural processes that fully take place once two or more layers are composed together. Using the generic inputs we set out to explore environmentally conscious composites that collect and store and reuse water, repurposes underutilized post-industrial wasteland, and ultimately create opportunities for social interaction.

stan allen index

1. liquify

erode

2. sediment excavate

vegetate

Environmental Unit Designing Scenarios

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fig 1.

Hybrid unit of an e n v i ro n m e n t a l process and leisure. The terrain layer filters and stores water and the catwalk layer creates an exhibition, social environment.

fig 1. Hybrid unit of an e n v i ro n m e n t a l process and an underutilized space. An artificial terrain hides a waste facility and neutralizes the compost deposit. 2.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;

A reality nevertheless distances and often manipulated, filled with skillful staging, with characters and sets in their complementary relations. Bernard Tschumi

Event is what socially and culturally connects individuals to each other and to place. Lack of event disables communication and slows down progress. Social, environmental and aesthetic interventions placed into the existing fabric of place have pontential to influence event.

Key Terms: (ref. appendix A)

anomolies matter out of place

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event

ANOMALIES matter out of place

When interrogating the concept of a city organ being injected into a rural body we devise a catalog of what anthropologist Mary Douglas calls, “matter out of place”. In her book Purity and Danger, Douglas discusses ambiguity and anomaly through a symbolic interpretation of purification and hygiene. She rejects the notion that rituals of purification and hygiene in different cultures are perceived as either purely symbolic or purely practical and suggests rather, our own attitudes are not necessarily one or the other. (cite) While we associate dirt with bacteria in our culture and essentially register it as “matter out of place”, it holds symbolic meaning in a different social context.

A closer look at the Sub-City landscape, reveals multiple cases of what can be considered as “matter out of place”. For example, fulfillment centers adjacent to preserved farmland, residential houses adjacent to fulfillment centers, fulfillment centers adjacent to rivers and wetlands, etc… These adjacencies are what we begin to categorize as anomalies in the rural landscape. Such anomalies pose a dilemma for the Sub-City as we question the future land use development, population density, and horizontal sprawl. Does the Sub-City remain unchanged with time or will conceived interventions change the course of the conglomerate landscape?

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

We are cataloging infrastructural adjacencies to understand trends between different types of roads and their surrounding destinations. Can infrastructural systems begin to inform nodes of encounters between existing fabric and hy-

brid composites?(ref p. 60-61) Looking into the adjacencies between landscapes and program we question the agency of rural anomalies. Do the rural landscapes set out the constraints on the program? Are the anomalies purely practical or do they suggest a symbolic value? (ref p.62-63) Zooming into the specific architectural typologies, we discover hybrids of programs; mixed-use program scenarios suggest a desire to compact density and efficiency. (ref p. 6465) What can we infer from strange adjacencies between land and program to conceptualize the type of hybrid we set out to design eventually?

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Mary Douglas states that a way to resolve the anomalies is to either conform to them or to remove them as they are “matter out of place”. We are intrigued by the anomalies and therefore take on the position to ‘conform’ to them but only through hybridizing explored components and creating double adjacencies between tectonics, programs, aesthetic interfaces and environmental implications.

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Diagrammatic Section Geologic Adjacency

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fig 1. Section A is an unrolled section thorugh the SubCity. It shows the geologic identity and typology of the land as it slices through residential areas, farmlands, and light industrial sectors.

64 1.

fig 1. Section B cuts through the major highway infrastructural system and the adjacent fulfillment center.

Diagrammatic Sections Infrastructural Adjacencies

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65 2.

fig 2. Section C cuts through NJ TPKE and the adjacent pond, fulfillment center, railway and townhouses.

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fig 1. Section C cuts through Cranbury Brook River, its surrounding infrastructure and residential area.

Diagrammatic Sections Infrastructural Adjacencies

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67 2.

fig 2. Section D cuts through Main st. and RTE 130 and its surrounding landscape.

industrial storage_preserved farmland_houses

houses_river

fullfilment centers_farmland

houses_preserved farm

industrial storage_preserved farmland

fullfilment center_houses_farm

fullfilment center_houses_farmland

temple_houses_preserved farmland

distribution centers_service industry_farmland_river

distribution centers_river

Sub City Trends Strange Adjacencies Catalogue

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open space preserved farmland farmland public space

Finding anamolies in the Sub-City fabric. The individual scenarios show adjacencies between big box fulfillment centers, preserved farms and housing. The fulfillment centers are â&#x20AC;&#x153;matter out of placeâ&#x20AC;? since they are not typical components of the rural landscape.

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1. Cranbury Bookwormresidential house with a book shop.

2. Construction Companycommercial office with a residential house. 3. Johnson & Johnson Lab 4. Cranbury Museumpublic facility with residential house.

Cranbury Program Mix-use Catalogue

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5. Cranbury Townhall & School- public facility complex. 6. Princeton Ballet House. 7. Red Barn- historic landmark of Cranbury on ppreserved farm land. 8. 1st Constitution Bank

SEARCHING FOR A NEW TYPOLOGY

When zooming into the idiosyncrasies of the town fabric, relationships between architecture, terrain, privacy, openness, and scale are revealed. These relationships speak to the broader concept of urban and suburban interaction. There is a notion of beneficial annexation between the megacity (NYC) and the micro, or in this case Sub-City. The individuality of the small town participates in the exchange of commerce with the booming city center. This relationship evolves to conceptualize the idea of the consumption-driven culture in that the Sub-City infrastructure allows for the efficiency and expansion of manufactured goods being transported to city areas. City centers in response grow with

higher density and demand for those goods. The mutually beneficial relationship opens up the possibility of isocial culture to be annexed from the mega-city into the Sub-City. By redefining the spatial, functional, programmatic and aesthetic relationships of the Sub-City, we are searching for a new typology of activity. The fulfillment centersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; interior monstrosity is defined by the massive organizational system quick, efficient and constantly changing. The industry is driven to fulfill the masses outside of its Sub-City boundary, but, how can it fulfill its current surrounding?

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Rural: In general, a rural area or countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. The Health Resources and Services Administration defines the word rural as encompassing â&#x20AC;&#x153;...all population, housing, and territory not included within an urban area. Whatever is not urban is considered rural.â&#x20AC;? Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas are commonly rural, as are other types of areas such as forest.

Suburb: A suburb is a mixed-use or residential area, existing either as part of a city or urban area or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city.In general, they have lower population densities than inner city neighborhoods within a metropolitan area, and most residents commute to central cities or other business districts; however, there are many exceptions, including industrial suburbs, planned communities, and satellite cities. Suburbs tend to proliferate around cities that have an abundance of adjacent flat land.

City: A city is a large human settlement. Generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organizations and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

Edge City: A modern, suburban area that acts as a central business district, since it contains lots of office buildings & jobs, malls & shopping centers, cultural and entertainment offerings, and major transportation corridors. The term was coined by Joel Garreau in his 1990 book of the same name. Garreau’s five rules of Edge City -Has five million or more square feet (465,000 m²) of leasable office space. -Has 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²) or more of leasable retail space. -Has more jobs than bedrooms. -Is perceived by the population as one place. -Was nothing like a “city” as recently as 30 years ago. Then it was just bedrooms, if not cow pastures.”

Sub- City

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Micro-city: A middle ground in the urban taxonomy that sits between rural lifestyle on the one hand and urban lifestyle on the other. As urban sociologist Robert Lang described, “a new metropolitan form with an expansive periphery and relatively small core.” Population: 10,000 to 50,000

A-100 R-LI RLD-1 RLD-3 R-ML V/HR VC HC GC CM

agricultural preservation residential _light impact residential _low density (1) residential_low density (3) residential_mt. laurel village / hamlet residential village commercial highway commercial general commercial community mixed use

HM highway mixed use RO/LI research office & light industry I-LI light impact industrial LI light industrial R-AH residential_affordable housing RAR residential_age restricted I-LI-S light impact industrial_sewer area R-ML II residential_mt. laurel II R-ML III residential_mt. laurel III PAR planned adult residential (overlay)

Zoning Map

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1..

fig 1. Selecting existing adjacencies.

fig 2. Using the knowledge of zoning coordinates we are exploring new scenarios. In this scenario, we are replacing rivers with roads and main roads with rivers and focusing residential organization around the fulfillment centers.

Designing Scenarios Hybridizing the Zoning Parcels

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1..

fig 1. Selecting existing adjacencies.

fig 2. In these scenarios we are exploring the relationship between the fulfillment centers and agricultural farm. We are placing fulfillment centers in the middle of farms and organizing residential houses around those farms.

Designing Scenarios Hybridizing the Zoning Parcels

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1..

fig 1. Selecting existing adjacencies.

fig 2. In these scenario we are exploring the agency of landscape over the fulfillment center. The landscape covers over the fulfillment centers and created hills for certain agricultural production or housing development.

Designing Scenarios Hybridizing the Zoning Parcels

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peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;

A city is more than a place in space, it is a drama in time. Patrick Geddes

It is through activities especially mixed ones that we begin to develop a sensibility to spatial hybridity. Activity defines the constraints as well as possibilities for programs in a hybrid composite.

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activity

HYBRID ANOMALIES

Fulfillment centers are intriguing on their own; there is a rigid organization to the efficient, energetic and often excessive flow of product. The products are constantly being moved out and replaced cycling over based on demand. All this interior activity is being isolated by the â&#x20AC;&#x153;boxâ&#x20AC;? masking the potential exterior interactions. The box sets out to represent the mundane and heavy attitude of industrial infrastructure and confirm the issue of flatland typology. What would happen if the boxes were removed leaving the interior swarm to interact with the surrounding environment? There is potential to discover new events and activities through

hybridized programs and synergy between infrastructure, people, machines, and landscape. Our approach is to view the activities and events in hybrid nodes as environmental units in interaction with other different hybrids environmental units. These new hybrid anomalies will explore scenarios between fulfillment centers, infrastructural systems, and agricultural farms. Tectonic and structural systems, circulation routes and farmland will be the driving components of environmental units that focus on fulfilling the Sub-City with annexed cultural and ecological programs.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

A scenario between a fulfillment center and agricultural farming explores ecological and social programs such as water recycling, harvesting and selling of organic goods. We are interested in introducing public circulation into the underutilized height space of the fulfillment centers. The roof spans to encompass the warehouse program and series of pavilions for agricultural market space. The roof itself is hybridized with a topography that enables agricultural farming and a performance for water collection.

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What is the relationship between the big box center and its adjacent circulatory elements? Can the infrastructure of the fulfillment box accommodate such elements? One such scenario presents a highway that intersects a fulfillment center. The highway begins to branch into the building creating access points for distribution trucks and other vehicles. The existing structure of the center modifies to support the possible expansion of the highway system. This type of hybrid between the road infrastructure and the fulfillment center entertains the idea of public participation as spectators of a new synergy.

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appendix

GLOSSARY

AESTHETICS n. 1. (Archaic) the study of the nature of sensation. 2. visual and temporal value that exists in all objects. 3. interfaces between the acting components. 96

ANNEX v.

1. to participate in an exchange; especially between two different land typollogies.

ANOMOLY n. 1. an odd, peculiar, or strange condition, situation, quality, etc. 2. matter out of place. 3. something that does not fall into the fabric of context, but creates basis to redefine it. COMPOSITE adj. 1. made up of two or more elements which retain their identities without ever physically morphing. n.

2. state of coexistence, co-context.

IDENTITY n. 1. unique set of qualities and conditions that speak to the spatial or formal being. 2. the state of remaining the same regardless of scenario.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

FULFILLMENT n. 1. the process or business of handling and executing customer orders, as packing, shipping, or processing checks. 2. the act of tranfering desires. TREND n.

1. tendency of occurrences, conditions, activities, etc 2. emphasized contextual pattern.

SENSIBILITY n. 1. temporal tool. 2. sensory reading of space/place based on innate or intentional aesthetics. 3. sensitivity to spatial qualities relating to human interaction. SUB-CITY n. 1. rural body. City organ. 2. rural areas that provide goods annexed by megacities; simultaneously annex culture and activity from the megacity. 3. rural landscapes with outsource agency; desire to fulfill some other body. SUBLIME adj. 1. relating to an untangible interface of nature.

SYNERGY n. 1. the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc. 2. reaction of composite hybrids.

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INFRASTRUCTURE n. 1. framework, system, organization in service to hybrid activity. 2. body of aesthetic implications.

TECTONIC GLOSSARY

compression + tension

tension + tension

98 compression members (unsupported)

pattern

general tension tension members (unsupported)

smoothing between anchors

tensegrity (composite)

local tension

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big box structure highway infrastructure pratt institute soa _ degree project // heterotic architecture _ sub-city

landscape parcels

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Stan Allen, “Artificial Ecology,” Reading MVRDV, edited by Veronique Patteeuw, Rotterdam, NAi Publishers, 2003, 82-87. 2. Banham, Peter Reyner. The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment 2nd Edition. Chicago : University of Chicago, 1969. 3. Douglas, Mary. Purity and danger: an analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. New York, Praeger, 1966. 100

4. Hight, Christopher. “Designing Ecologies.” in Projective Ecologies, 84-105. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University School of Design. 5. Garreau, Joel. Edge City: life on the new frontier. New York: Anchor Books, 1992. 6. Gissen, David. “The Architectural Reconstruction of Nature, Dendur/New York.” Grey Room 34 (2009): 58-79. 7. Latour, Bruno. Reassembling the Social: an introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

9. Stalder, Laurent, Cornelia Escher, Megumi Komura, and Meruro Washida. Atelier Bow-Wow: A Primer. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2013. 10. Tschumi, Bernard. “Spaces and Events”. Architecture and Disjunction. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2001. 11. Yang. “Putting Global Capitalism in Its Place: Economic Hybridity, Bataille, and Ritual Expenditure.” Current Anthropology, vol. 41, no. 4, 2000, p. 477. 12. Yoon, Meejin J. “Praxis: Writing Building.” Programming Scennarios: R&Sie..., 2006, 73-81.

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8. Levina, Marina. Bui, Diem-My T. “Introduction: Toward a comprehensive monster theory in the 21st century,” Monster Culture in the 21st Century : A Reader. New York, New York : Continuum Publishing Corporation, 2013.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Stalder, Laurent, Cornelia Escher, Megumi Komura, and Meruro Washida. Atelier Bow-Wow: A Primer. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2013. Environmental units, conventional elements, freeloaders and the discipline of behaviorology are elementary principles which categorize various architectural hybrids. These primers describe relationships of organism and their environments, individual clichés and their affordances, behavioral interventions, and parasitic scenarios. It is important to note that every individual organism has its own perspective world. The organism at the center of its environmental unit or scenario is able to draw its own set of relationships that project outward to its ethereal boundary. The environment is a network composed of millions of these relationships. This is a similar idea drawn from Bruno Latour’s actor network theory. 2.

Yoon, Meejin J. “Praxis: Writing Building.” Programming Scennarios: R&Sie..., 2006, 73-81.

R&Sie…work at micro and macro scales to hybridize environmental scenarios with architectural programs. Their approach is often biological, ecological and anthropological. Their architectural approach is defined by gathering local ecological sequences, environmental conditions and material processes. They fuse what they call “coded instructions” or programmatic sequences with contextual ensembles resulting in a speculative duality of architecture and ecology. Their work resembles ideas of Bow-Wow’s primers. Environmental units are combinations of ecological contexts which inform the architectural objects. These forms of hybridized relationships open up perspective epicenters of sub-organism systems and create a multifaceted architectural spectrum. 3. Hight, Christopher. “Designing Ecologies.” In Projective Ecologies, 84-105. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University School of Design. 102

The text is a critique of ideas of architecture as a multifaceted field that is essentially mediating ecologies between different systems. Architectural bodies provide for context for interactions. There are two domains that “must remain absolutely district” according to Bruno Latour; nature+society and science+culture (p.88). In his perspective, cultural and social conventions should be treated as natural and studied as a science. Contemporary architecture took a shift from focusing on form and structure to atmosphere and environmental systems. Designing architecture for all things “natural” whether its culture, people, animals, processes etc. should consider their core perspectives. The microhabitats within macro habitats all play a role in the interconnectedness of true nature and thus have a role in design. 4. Salomon, David. “Towards a new infrastructure: aesthetic thinking, synthetic sensibilities.” Journal of Landscape Architecture 11, no. 2 (2016): 54-65. doi:10.1080/18626033.2016.1188574. Aesthetics is another system of performance. Exploring aesthetics through infrastructural typologies is important to social, economic and environmental issues. Aesthetics provides for opportunities in blurring of what is considered natural landscapes and artificial ones. There is a subliminal nature to aesthetics that operates on a subconscious level creating associations in which we view designed scenarios as “simultaneous integration of multiple technical and social issues” (p.56). Aesthetic relationships can be composed in such ways as to subconsciously influence our ideas and thinking. Using the senses such as seeing or feeling we interpret physical spaces which then translate subliminal ideas into our psyche further affecting our thoughts and understandings. The individual abstract interpretations become ideas of their own creating many more internal images. 5. Gissen, David. “The Architectural Reconstruction of Nature, Dendur/New York.” Grey Room 34 (2009): 58-79. doi:10.1162/grey.2009.1.34.58. Historically architects have tried to reconstruct the built objects by reproducing elements of nature as an aesthetic expression. Then contemporary architects have sought to reconstruct urban atmosphere by inserting landscape expressions. There developed the desire and need to “reconstruct” natural shapes and processes into peter hsi // elina zaytseva _ critic c. dwyre // l. blough // j. johnson

6. Latour, Bruno. Reassembling the social: an introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Actor-Network Theory is a socio-theoretical approach to understanding relationships between objects, ideas, processes and other factors in social and natural contexts. Latour began the study by looking in the ‘in medias res’ or in the middle of things. The idea of composite hybridity theoreticized from Latour’s ANT through the understanding of each elements of the hybridity has an individual identity after composed, and to create a network of order and understanding. Composite architecture extracted from ANT as a form of understanding the importance of individualism and hybridity. “not the source of an action but the moving target of a vast array of entities swarming toward it.” 7. Garreau, Joel. Edge city: life on the new frontier. New York: Anchor Books, 1992. Joel Garreau speaks about the development of American cities as these urban cores that transformed how people work and live. He classifies a new kind of city structure; edge city. Edge cities contain all the functions typical urban centers have but in a village sprawl environment. The tall corporate towers surrounded by green hills, trees and running trails and city centers tied by freeways are just some characteristics of these edge cities. Edge city is this hybridized typology of suburban landscape and city desires. The “edge” signifies a transition from dense cities to new reinvented land that will one day too become history in creations of newer worlds. Immigrants, artists, pioneers move out into edge cities defining them as growing frontiers and a sanctuary from the negative aspects of civilization. “Regenerative power is located in the natural terrain; access to undefined, bountiful, sublime Nature is what accounts for the virtue and special good fortune of Americans. It enables them to design a community in the image of a garden, an ideal fusion of nature with art. The landscape thus becomes the symbolic repository of value of all kinds—economic, political, aesthetic, religious…” (Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden.) 8. Banham, Peter Reyner. The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment 2nd Edition. Chicago : University of Chicago, 1969. Banham believed architecture is both the expression of form and function, from most of the time, there isn’t a clear distinction in which he favored towards, however, he does have problem when one overpowering the other. Take Wright as an example, Banham believed the fact Wright would hide the certain structural or mechanical elements to better his argument in architecture is the means of lost of identity. “Both interpretations of the situation are current, largely because of the infantile fallacy that architecture is necessarily divisible into function and form, and that the mechanical and cultural parts of the art are essential opposition.” 9. Tschumi, Bernard. “Spaces and Events”. Architecture and disjunction. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2001. Tschumi believed that architecture exist only when it’s being activated by people’s interaction to the building. Architecture must be designed with the inclination of events, actions, and activities, and the movement of any occupants that will eventually inhabit it. “Programmatic concerns were rejected as leftovers from obsolete functionalist doctrines by those polemicists who saw programs as mere pretexts for stylistic experimentation.”

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the experience of contemporary architecture and urban design. To reconstruct is an idea to hybridize images of nature into postindustrial world. Hybrid natural and architectural forms such as grottos and other landforms were being manifested in projects at the time of 19th century when the focus was mostly on architecture and culture that replaces images of nature. “Reconstruction and history imply socialized relationships to nature versus neonaturalism. The architectural reconstruction of nature offers a self-conscious insertion of architectural and urban history into architectural representations of nature.” (463) Drawing from genealogy, representation, function and aesthetics of landscapes can reproduce the atmosphere surrounding urban infrastructure.

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SUB-CITY

RURAL BODY|CITY ORGAN

2017 elina zaytseva peter hsi