TABLE OF
3
ECONOMY RESOURCE METHODOLOGY REPRESENTATION PROJECTED CONDITION BIBLIOGRAPHY
8 14 40 74 82 108
4
...THERE IS ONLY ONE WHOLISTIC
SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS ONEVAST AND IMMANE, INTERWOVEN, INTERACTING, MULTIVARIED, MULTINATIONAL DOMINION OF DOLLARS... IT IS THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF CURRENCY THAT DETERMINES LIFE ON THIS PLANET. THAT IS THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS TODAY. THAT IS THE ATOMIC AND SUB-ATOMIC AND GALACTIC STRUCTURE OF THINGS TODAY. Network (1976)
6 PART I
ECONOMY
RESOURCE
As a rising world power, China has sustained immense domestic and international growth. With any system that has excessive output, there exists need for an equal input that can allow for such growth. In a capitalist economy this void can be filled by the input of natural resources that must maintain the output of manufactured commodities. Without this aspect, there would be no ability to manufacture commodities that contribute to the growth of an economy. Thus, as China’s domestic economy grows, it is necessary to expand its ability to provide resources to match this expansion. This thesis explores the unique problems and possibilities that such a global resource-exchange system can impose upon the practice of architecture in a future dominated by China as world superpower.
SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS The following will propose testing the boundaries of a future resource-exchange system through the creation of an extraterritorial architectural commodity in the form of a hospital that can be implimented in the resource rich area of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
8
China has undergone unparalleled economic growth at home, a fact which has been established on the world demand for cheap production methods (and labor). Such growth will project China as THE leading superpower by the year 2020, overtaking the US, the leading world economy. While the US has supported free market capitalism as a means of survival, China has turned to an “Asian Capitalism� dominated by the state. As such, the government plays a large role both domestic and global investments to secure its dominance as a leading world power.
1990
1988
1986
1984
1982
1980
1978
1976
1974
1972
ECONOMY_GDP_GROWTH RATE
CHINA
WORLD
0% UNITED STATES
fig 2
10
2010
2008
2006
2004
2002
2000
1998
1996
1994
1992
fig 3
12
$8.8 TRILLION CHINA
~ $23 TRILLION USA
2005
1995
2025
1990
1985
1980
2009
~ $25 TRILLION CHINA
2000
ECONOMY_GDP_ACTUAL VALUE
$14.2 TRILLION USA
$25 TRILLION
$20 TRILLION
$15 TRILLION
2040
2035
2030
2025
Since 1980, China’s GDP has grown by an average of 10.02% annually. Based on its projected growth rate of 7.5% as predicted by Pre$10 TRILLION mier Wen Jiabao in March, China is on pace to surpass US GDP growth, which has averaged just 2.67% since over the same period, by 2019. Even if China’s GDP growth slowed to just 5% - which would be very rare from a historical perspective - it would surpass US total GDP by 2021. That type of consistent outperformance simply can’t be ignored.1
2020
$5 TRILLION
2015
2010
Even by conservative estimates, china will surpass US growth estimates by the year 2024.
14
In a world of limited resources, China has gone to great lengths to secure its supply of resources to meet a rapidly growing demand. Such expansion has created a need to expand beyond its traditional sphere of influence into new and under-developed markets. This has brought on a new means of acquiring such resources as the imperialist model of yesteryear is no longer effective in regions where such methodology was previously used to disasterous effects.
fig 4
16
IN AN UNYIELDING QUEST TO SURVIVE, THE VIRUS MUTATES, EVOLVES, AND ALTERS ITS COMPLEXION, DISCOVERING THAT IT MUST ADAPT TO CHANGING CONDITIONS AND COEXIST WITH ITS HOST. Dambisa Moyo Winner Take All
fig 5
Fe Fe Fe
fig 6
Fe
O
3
18 RESOURCE_AFRICAN EXCHANGE
Au
PERCENT OF CHINESE INVESTMENT BY SECTOR 19.00%
Oil and natural gas
18.55%
Rail / Road
10.00%
Other mining
9.20%
Hydroelectric dam
Fe Fe Fe
O Fe
O
O
Fe
7.40%
Fe
Fe
Iron ore
6.90%
Cu
Cu
Copper
5.90%
Civil construction
3.70%
Manufacturing
2.30%
U
U
O
Airports
1.80%
Aid
1.60%
Port construction Au
Au
0.50% 11.00%
O
Uranium
2.00%
0.07%
O
O
Cu O Cu Cu Fe Cu
Gold Water
O
Cu
U
U
Other
Au
O
O
O
Au
Fe Fe Fe
O Fe
O
O
Fe
O
O
O Cu Cu O Cu Cu Fe Cu
ESTIMATED OFFERS less than $500 million $500 million to $1 billion
U
U
$1 billion to $5 billion $5 billion to $10 billion more than $10 billion
fig 7
Au
O
O
O
20 RESOURCE_AFRICAN EXCHANGE_ETHIOPIA
CASE STUDY : ETHIOPIA Ethiopia, although not fully open to foreign investment in mines has changed its policies greatly over the past decade. The introduction of less strict laws regarding mining have allowed foreign companies and governments to pursue investments in the region. China has stepped in within this time frame to present itself as a valid partner in supplying a freindly relationship with the Ethiopian people as a means (to potentially) achieve access to such mining capabilities that are so strategic in the country.
HQ for the African Union located in Addis Abbaba
22 RESOURCE_AFRICAN EXCHANGE_ETHIOPIA
Designed by Chinese architects removed from the true culture and aesthetic of local building typology. The architecture reflects an international style although has been billed by its designers as being a result of intense study to determine a building that has upheld the principles of the Ethiopian people.
fig 8
Construction workers and materials were all supplied by Chinese firms intent upon delivering the project to the African Union, rather than presenting the project as an opportunity to learn and grow from one another. In a sense the project stands as a gift, presented to the whole of the African continent.
fig 9
fig 10
One could say that the whole project, although conceived to establish a relationship of good will with Africa could be read as a power play, demonstrating the great lengths to which China will ascend to provide a particular level of interest in all aspects of African life and culture, not just financially. This however could be questioned through the methodology of design for the project on the whole.
fig 11
fig 12
fig 13
fig 14
24 RESOURCE_AFRICAN EXCHANGE_EXTRATERRITORIALITY
The example of the new African Union Headquarters in Ethiopia highlights a condition of extraterritoriality in which China is actively engaged. While the primary method of engagement may be intended to exhibit a level of appeasement of native populations in a resource rich nation, the technique by which appeasement is achieved is as similarly intriguing. Here, a prominant architectural desire is met by a building designed by a Chinese architecture firm, built by Chinese workers with imported Chinese materials. Thus, the project (while not the primary formal intent) achieves a representation of economic dominance by means of an architectural agency. While the explicit actions of the Chinese government may be geared towards the preservation of culture and politics in the host nation of Ethiopia, the deceit becomes clear in the methodology by which architectural extraterritorial constructs are utilized.
E X T R A T E R R I T O R I A L I T Y No matter the extent to which a project, in this case a political artifact is intended to be inherently of the host nation to which it is applied, the artifact will retain the intent of its maker. Chinese practices in design and construction can be deciphered from the design no matter the effort that has been taken to conceal them (although the act of concealment here is not meant to imply an intentionally negative deceitful or subversive act). Thus, the agency of extraterritoriality is as Keller Easterling defines it, regulated by a negotiation of worlds that seek to coerce compliance from one another. This is the means by which China seeks to apply architecture, not as a means of representative dominance (although this may be another reading) but as a methodology of coersion that is favored by a means of constructing extraterritorial conditions.
26 RESOURCE_AFRICAN EXCHANGE_ZAMBIA
CASE STUDY : ZAMBIA Unlike Ethiopia, Zambia has been exposed to Chinese investment in the form of extraterritorial appeasement for decades. So long in fact, that Mao initially ordered the first of many projects to be constructed in the country when China was still undergoing its own strenuous economic development. This is primarily due to the abundance of valuable resources that are available within Zambia’s borders, specifically Copper. The case here helps to broaden the idea of what defines a successful programmatic response to their appeasement methodology. Rather than political symbols, Zambia desire-fulfillment has occurred through more actively public programs that are widely accepted as necessary by various social and economic classes.
Rail / Road
Other mining
Civil construction
Dar Es Salaam as existing port city on the Indian Ocean O
Other
Hydroelectric dam
Aid
Fe
Iron ore
Soccer
Cu
Copper
to China
O O
Cu Cu Fe Fe
The TaZaRa Rail System was completed in 1975 by direct investment from Mao as a gift to the Zambian people. The system allowed the country to become self-sufficient from Zimbabwe and South Africa while encouraging better relations with Tanzania.
Investment in soccer stadiums is unique to Zambia
Copper is a major export of Zambia
fig 15
RESOURCE_AFRICAN EXCHANGE_ZAMBIA 28
The TAZARA (Tanzania-Zambia Railroad) System was a product of China’s desired profitable relations with Zambia, a heavily copper rich country. Mao requested the project be introduced in 1970 with a final price tag of $500 million dollars spent on the entire network. This is one of the earliest instances of China flexing its muscle towards the idea of infrastructure projects as mechanisms of resource warfare. China could rely on desire-fulfillment methodology for conquering national public opinion with projects like the rail network. For with this favorable public opinion came an influx of cheap resource mining contracts. More importantly however, is the fact that China is using public opinion as its weapon, rather than brute force or authoritarian corruption. The latter are the mechanisms of the west, but the Chinese government was quick to learn that these tactics are not beneficial for either party in the long run.
INSTEAD,
fig 16
SYMBIOSIS
IS
THE
EFFECTIVE
METHOD
FOR
MUTUAL
BENEFIT.
30 RESOURCE_AFRICAN EXCHANGE_ZAMBIA
Levy Mwanawasa Stadium is a $65 million investment by the Chinese government to answer the Zambian cries for a decent sports facility. There are plans for a $94 million investment in a second sports facility, bringing their total sports investment to $159 million...*
fig 17
...meanwhile Chinese copper mines, (as well as coal mines, farms, etc) backed by billions in investments are in violation of labor and environmental practices. In addition, these industrial investments give little return the the localities in which they are located. *
fig 18
32 RESOURCE_AFRICAN EXCHANGE_ZAMBIA
NDOLA
Levy Mwanawasa Stadium
LUSAKA
New Lusaka Stadium fig 19
While China brings great investment in the form of desirable programs that otherwise would not be funded, there is a disconnect between where these programs are located. While larger infrastructure projects are located in areas that are necessary for supplying their services, programs that are less need driven are typically given over to larger urban areas. China favors large, public projects that elevate the scope and status of urban performance rather than smaller programs that would be less eye catching. Its seems that there is a tendancy toward these programs because of their recognizable value. Grant schemes and large projects are more visable and demonstrate their impact immediately. On the other hand, smaller insertions within an urban scheme can seem less value for their image quality. Thus, rural areas become impregnated with resource consuming infrastructure such as mines and farms while the cities are able to enjoy the manufactured programs that China invests great money, labor and time into producing.
fig 20
34 RESOURCE_AUSTRALIA
The China First Coal Project, sponsored by China First and local Australian coal company, Waratah Coal is a joint venture to secure coal reserves for export. The project seeks to take advantage of under-utilized coal resources in Queensland, Australia that are extremely valuable in the Chinese market with a market value of $A 68 billion. Approximately half of China’s energy is supplied by coal making this a very valuable import for the Chinese government. All in all, Chinese and Australian firms will invest over $A 8 billion into infrastructure that will allow for the coal to be efficiently harvested and exported. This is an interesting example of China’s reach into developed nations. For the most part, mining and resource harvesting directly undertaken by the Chinese government has been limited to less developed nations. The laxe environmental, labor and tax laws in these nations is enticing as it allows for a hefty return on investments. In addition, the lack of existing infrastructure allows Chinese officials to manufacture and fulfill desires that are cheap in comparison to the value of the natural resources that they are harvesting. Thus, such a venture is an acknowledgement of the quasi-extraterritorial nature of resource harvesting in developed nations that China must embrace to secure its position as a world power.
to China
fig 21
RESOURCE_AUSTRALIA 36
Extraterritorial port that services cargo ships bound for Chinese port cities.
Proposed rail yard as an end to the 500km rail system from mine to port. fig 22
38
Chin
>> paraSITE is a project by Michael Rakowitz that seeks to create parasitic space that feeds off of the excess heat resources of buildings. The inital investment to produce a space is small (the cost of trash bags) but the pay-off is huge. The relationship that is established allows for homeless to have a warm place to stay at no expense to anyone.
fig 23
40 METHODOLOGY_ARCHITECTURE AS SYSTEM
The Chinese maintaining a
government has developed a good public relationship with
Resource Exchange the population of
System for host nation.
The system, unlike imperial powers of the past relies on the accumulation of manufactured desirable resources within the host nation. Chinese interests do not seek political dominance, merely a co-existance. [cite; winner take all] Thus, there is a drive to protect the public opinion of the local population. If the system can only survive on the continued acceptance of its growth and the increased investment of Chinese entities within the host nation, then the priority must be to maintain an appropriate level of investment. This process will be the key feature that is designed to maintain a level of ambiguity in order to be applied to any locality while at the same time specific enough to uphold the beliefs and ideology by which China will apply a resource-exchane system. The intent, to extract natural resources and deploy architectural features will be outlined here as a means of potential implimentation.
HOST NATION
trade engaged
Client
Owner
desirable program returned to the original locality
desirable programs recognized
Architect architect designs to meet the needs of the locality
Fabrication materials and parts manufactured
materials and labor delivered
Construction
construction performed on site by Chinese, local workers
resources extracted from host
Desire Mine original desire is produced along with industrial tools
42 METHODOLOGY_ARCHIECTURE AS SYSTEM
As a means of producing an architectural response, it is essential to identify the necessary to conceptualize the idea of site and program as a variability produced by a system within a system. The input can be reduced to the Chinese need to identify potential areas of resource extraction and the output becomes a city and programmatic desire to be fulfilled. Thus, every exchange can viewed in a succinct manner that involves a step-by-step process resulting in a finalized “problem” by which a Chinese solution can be derived. Thus, every exchange can viewed in a succinct manner that involves a step-by-step process resulting in a finalized “problem” by which a Chinese solution can be derived. This process ensures that the most relevant architectural product can be produced to meet local needs and ensure the greatest success from a public relations standpoint.
Owner
1
Determine the appropriate resource in which to engage trade.
2
Investigate regions that have the most successful investment potential.
4
Locate population center within potential region.
5
Determine desirable program to be fulfilled.
Identification of potential extraterritorial architectural investment
Architect Data is returned to Chinese firm to undergo design phase
METHODOLOGY_ARCH SYSTEM_DC ON THE HIGH SEAS 44
DC ON THE HIGH SEAS How does architecture begin to insert itself into a global system that has many hinge-points and is seemingly impossible to understand and control? Jesse LeCavalier’s project, a distribution center for Wal-Mart incorporates very intriguing ideas about the inter-relation of infrastructure, architecture, system, and technology to produce a reaction to global concerns. The end result is a project that takes on larger systematic issues by becoming complicit in the system it is trying to critique. The architecture cannot be removed from the larger system and the new system that is addressed by the architecture cannot function without that architectural intervention.
fig 24
46 METHODOLOGY_PRECEDENT_DC ON THE HIGH SEAS
LeCavalier takes on the idea of Wal-Mart as a global trade deficit inducing system that must respond to challenges of consumption, resources and international trade. The project attempts take on the efficiency of Wal-Mart (considered to be THE most efficient system of capitalist distribution ever to exist) by producing an architectural response that is presented in a non-critcal fashion. Rather, the project seeks to establish a more efficient system as an architectural solution. The answer becomes an architecture that is able to situate itself within a methodology of “big box� architecture. The implied conclusion that such a project draws is that architecture must submit to a larger global ideology one that is dominated by the world of WalMart and not the local boutique. Architecture is not the one-off design rather...
fig 25
...architecture the system
in
must which
it
become operates.
48 METHODOLOGY_ARCH SYSTEM_DC ON THE HIGH SEAS
The Wal-Mart model can easily be considered a derivation of many visionary architectural models of the 1960s and 70s. These pioneers imagined a future of consumption that could easily be translated into a corporate sales world. Below is a depiction of the network established by Instant City one of Archigram’s most recognizable projects. The project, which layers new programmatic desires over existing urban infrastructure seeks to establish connections that were once non-existant. The density of urban modules becomes representative of population centers and geolological features. The pattern of the newtork is thus a manifestation of the data input into the system to acheive particular locations for the greatest success for programmatic response. The system takes into account many factors to determine a possible response and the nomadic architecture of Instant City continues its journey.
WAL-MART/INSTANT CITY Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s model of desire distribution could be seen as a built version of the Archigram model. Incorporating aspects of the Plug-In City and Instant City system along with the programmatic variability of ArchiZOOM, this system of connections is driven by a need for consumable goods. The desire-fulfillment distribution methodology has led to great success because it is efficient and takes into account larger scales of global production and consumption. Rather than a retail scenario that limits itself to the last step of the process, sales, Wal-Mart has positioned itself to be a larger ideology that has permeated all steps of the process.
CAN ARCHITECTURE BE THE NEXT WAL - MART? fig 26
fig 27
50 METHODOLOGY_ARCH COMMODITY_SKY CITY
SKY CITY
In 2012, a Chinese company, Broad Group introduced a 200 story tower to be fully deployed and built in 10 months. The most intriguing part of the project, however, lies in the fact that the entire design is a translation of the Burj Kahlif in Dubai. The Dubai project, conceived from the architecture firm, SOM is a monument to the power of oil and the United Arab Emirates as a whole. Broad Group, in order to develop their project brought in designers associated with the original Burj Kahlif to engineer a taller, more efficient tower that maintains similar aesthetic choices to that of the original monument. In fact, the entire project can be seen as an attempt to corrupt what was once conceived of as an architectural monument into an architectural commodity. The new tower, called Sky City, is not intended to maintain the same principles of monument establish in Dubai and re-defines itself as a building that can be implimented anywhere at anytime under any conditions. It is designed to sustain maximum tolerances with regard to sustainability, natural forces (earthquakes, wind, etc.) and all in a constrained time frame for building using mass production techniques along with pre-fabricated panels. In the end, such a project typifies the extreme attitude Chinese interests have in developing more efficient methods of distribution when it comes to urbanization and building environments. Will the is be the future of architecture in a world dominated by a Chinese economy?
Architectural Monument
fig 28
fig 29
Architectural Commodity
fig 30
METHODOLOGY_ARCH COMMODITY_SKY CITY 52
com - mod - i - ty noun /ke’madite/ commodities, plural 1. articles of commerce, a good or service that is exchanged for monetary gain.
fig 31
54 METHODOLOGY_ARCH COMMODITY_SKY CITY
mass pro duc tion (n) the production or manufacture of goods in large quantities, especially by machinery.
mass cu stom iz at ion (n) The ability to cater to a “market of one,” printing tailored to an audience of one specific individual.
fig 32
fig 33
fig 34
56 METHODOLOGY_ARCH COMMODITY_SKY CITY
MASSED PRODUCED “ARCHITECTURE�
In 2010, Broad Sustainable Group, a private Chinese company sought to build a 30 story building in just 15 days. The result is a mass produced hotel, composed of pre-fabricated floor and wall sections, that is stable and environmentally concious. The entire process was inspired by a devastating 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China. The process here was designed to impliment rapidly produced buildings that could withstand great forces, thus allowing for growth while at the same time respecting the safety of the occupants.
fig 35
58 METHODOLOGY_ARCH COMMODITY_SKY CITY
OFF_SITE FACTORY
ON_SITE
At the factory, pieces are manufactured to strict specifications. Floor and wall panels contain all the necessary services including ventilation and electrical wiring.
On site, the pieces are easily put together by the construction team. Because all services are included, there is little technical skill required at the site of assembly.
OFFICE BUILDING?
COMMUNITY CENTER?
Due to the nature of the system, the pieces can be assembled in an number of possible ways. In theory, the physical arrangement of the parts can reflect the nature of the program for which they are arranged. The inherently A-spatial objects take on a new spatial identity based on pre-described programmatic intentions.
60 METHODOLOGY_ARCH COMMODITY_PRECEDENT_CAPITALISM+MIES
WITH THIS, ONE IS LED ALMOST AUTOMATICALLY TO THE DISCOVERY OF WHAT MAY WELL BE THE “DRAMA” OF ARCHITECTURETODAY:THAT IS,TO SEE ARCHITECTURE OBLIGED TO RETURN TO PURE ARCHITECTURE, TO FORM WITHOUT UTOPIA; IN THE BEST CASE, TO SUBLIME USELESSNESS. Manfredo Tarfuri Architecture and Utopia
CAPITALISM + MIES
Contemporary architecture is undergoing a corruption of production efficiency but this is by no means the first instance of such corruption of architectural ideology. While today we see the corruption of a Chinese mentality in architectural production, history reveals a much more elaborate staging of architectural production becoming a system of what Tarfuri calls“sublime uselessness.� Such sublimity is achieved through the capitalist mentality of efficency in which profitability and public image (two factors which influence contemporary models in a different manner) are maximized and controlled not by governments but by private institutions of business. Mies van der Rohe is the foremost example of such high architecture becoming a meaningless symbol for the social, political and economic conditions surrounding the conception of his architecture.
fig 36
62 METHODOLOGY_ARCH COMMODITY_PRECEDENT_CAPITALISM+MIES
Seagram’s Building New York, 1958
Toronto-Dominion Centre Toronto, 1969
IBM Building Chicago, 1973
The true nature to which Mies’ work was commodified by capitalism is evident in the corporate architecture he produced, beginning in 1958 with the Seagram’s Building in New York. This building, in some fashion would be reproduced in several other cities by his own hand, expressing an extreme indifference toward the spatial contextual nature of architecture in favor of a capitalist context that was beyond any one site or locality. Thus, commodity architecture was born of extreme flexibiliy and a desire to submit to the global system of capitalism. fig 37
Toronto-Dominion Bank
IBM Joseph E. Seagram's & Sons
64 METHODOLOGY_001_RESOURCE
#1 CHOOSING A RESOURCE In order to establish a system that is based on a resource-exchange trade, it is first necessary to identify the appropriate resource in which to invest. As a nation with room to grow, China still relies on vast resources that have been passed over by other developed nations, such are the remnance of their developing past. At the same time however, the advanced economic growth that China has experienced has been pioneered by advancing technology that requires only the lastest and most expensive natural resources. Technology produced through these resources has caused certain mineral prices and gold to skyrocket in price meaning Athat their extraction is extremely valuable to all parties involved. In addition, consideration shoud also be given to where resource investment is occuring to determine what raw material to extract. For example, a country that relies heavily on coal should not be considered as a potential investment opportunity for coal mines. Thus, great consideration must be implimented here to determine profitability and the greatest success for investment.
fig 38
66 METHODOLOGY_002_SITE
#1 CHOOSING A SITE Once a resource is selected, the primary focus must turn to establishing a site that is most adventagious for its proximity to natural resources as well as centers of population density. Currently, the Chinese exchange system favors a location that is within an urban context, removed from the point of resource extraction. Taking on this method of programmatic separation (desire fulfillment separated from Chinese mining), the task then becomes locating a site within an urban context that can be adequately utilized for its proximities to urban densities that are present in a more localized urban condition. Items to consider include the role of vacancy and sprawl in identifying a potential siting condition that is most likely to test the visibility and public-ness of the potential program. There is no need to take an architectural commodity intended to produce a public response and locate it far from the city center or out of reach of transportation infrastructure that can allow it to be easily accessed by locals.
68 METHODOLOGY_003_PROGRAM
THIS IS A HOSPITAL
THIS IS PUBLIC HOUSING THIS IS A PUBLIC SCHOOL
THIS IS A TRAIN STATION
#3 CHOOSING A PROGRAM The choice of programmatic response, is the most critical part of the project from a Chinese perspective. This is the point at which actual people will become complicit in the larger system of resource exchange. It is essential to identify a programmatic response that is designed solely around the actual desires of the region and city in which a project is built. In Africa, Chinese interests defined this step as a building that the people cannot give themselves, something that is large in scale and something that is HIGHLY public. This has been a successful model because it recognizes the importance of the program to situate itself as a gift to the locality that is for each and every individual. One might add that it is necessary to be classless and unmarked by the social stigmas that define a particular region. There should be no question that the programmatic response is for the good of those it serves.
70 METHODOLOGY_003_PROGRAM
...INCREASINGLY THE SPECIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEFINITION OF PROGRAM AS A SET OF CODED INSTRUCTIONS IS PERTINENT TO ARCHITECTS BOTH LITERALLY AND AS AN OPERATION ALIGNED WITH ITS DEPLOYMENT AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY. Ashley Schafer Praxis 8: Re-Programming Introduction
72
fig 39
74 REPRESENTATION_LG SCALE
In order to establish a full spectrum of believability when establishing a projected future very unlike our own world, it is necessary to establish a grand scale of white noise to give reference to much larger at issues at play without explicitly addressing them within a visual narrative. Sci-Fi films depicting future narratives often include aspects of conditions that are tangential to the character’s narrative. These controlled depictions of life beyond the main sequence are designed to hint at a larger tale of events without revealing completely what is going on so as to confuse the audience. In Children of Men, this is achieved by through the glimpses of the outside world that are revealed during a drive through the English countryside. Burning piles of cows and angry mobs of people demonstrate a world that is torn and broken even if the action occurring within the characters’ homes is quiet and tranquil. Blade Runner and Minority Report have a more mysterious visual representation that allows for longer tracking shots simultaneously reveal and conceal the city around the characters. Minority Report has a white glow to the film, reportedly achieved by bleaching the original film to give the shots a milky white haze.
THE AUDIENCE FOR THE MOST PART, HAS A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE GREATER SOCIETAL ISSUES AT PLAY BUT IS REMOVED FROM THESE LARGER PROBLEMS THROUGH REPRESENTATIONAL TRICKERY. Similarly, Blade Runner utilizes the exact same techniques except through a lens of darkness. The city fades into the dark of night, exposing the audience to glimmers of light and shadowy figures that require an imaginative nature to fill in the blanks.. If the project involves a larger, global system that is in play beyond the typical building scale, representation techniques such as those described must be implemented in order to hint at, but not completely reveal the world beyond the defined program.
THERE MUST BE SUFFICIENT WHITE NOISE TO CAPTURE THE AUDIENCE BUT NOT DISTRACT FROM THE OVERALL MESSAGE OF THE ARCHITECTURE.
Washed out
fig 40
Grey-ed out
fig 41
Blacked out
fig 42
76 REPRESENTATION_MED SCALE
Within the context and conditions defined here, the project is proposing a system of architecture rather than an architectural monument, as is the traditional value of architecture. This means that the representation of such a building must reflect this larger concept as a system. The building is essentially a kit of parts to be rapidly assembled and prototyped, a commodity of building.
What How come
is a rapidly assembled, prototyped drawing commodity? can these words begin to describe drawing techniques that might into play with regard to representing the building that it produces?
This idea of representation seems to be best described by axonometric drawings that zoom in and out of different components of the building. One could re-imagine drawings by Scarpa that collaged to bring a new life to the components that compose the building as a whole.
fig 43
fig 44
REPRESENTATION_SM SCALE 78
The individual parts take shape slowly, each pursuing its specific role, initially schematic in concept, gaining in complexity as it contrives to evolve into a new form. At this stage, the processes of articulating, connecting and interlocking must combine harmonically to produce a precisely machined, perfectly efficient and near organic whole. Bianca Albertini Carlo-Scarpa: Architecture in Details The Course of Invention
80 PART II
China, as a world power will seek to establish a resource-exchange mechanism in the United States, an up-and-coming market for resources that are currently underdeveloped there. Chinese interests will have to negotiate the standardized process for engaging in such a systematic approach to establishing the best possible location and scope of such a project in a developed nation.
>> Huntington Beach, CA circa 1950. From 1920 to approx. 1960, the area around Los Angeles was a hotbed of oil extraction. While this apocalyptic depiction of Los Angeles may be frightening, the fact remains that such development helped to shape the city into what it is today.
PROJECTED
fig 45
82 PROJECTED CONDITION_SITE_RESOURCE
WHERE IS THE BEST POSSIBLE INTERVENTION FO
fig 46
Niobrara* Montana Thrust Belt
Bakken***
Heath**
Cody
Williston Basin
Big Horn Powder River Gammon Basin Mowry
Basin HilliardBaxterMancos Greater Green River Basin Uinta Basin Manning Canyon Mancos
Michigan Basin
Appalach Basin Antrim
Niobrara* Park Basin
Piceance Basin
Forest City Basin
Denver Basin
Illinois Basin
OR CHINESE INTERESTS IN THE UNITED STATES? Hermosa Paradox Basin
ntereymblor
New Albany
Pierre
Lewis San Juan Basin
Raton Basin
Woodford
Anadarko ArdBasin m Palo Duro Bend ore Ba sin Basin
AvalonBone Spring BarnettWoodford
ExcelloMulky Cherokee Platform
Permian Basin
Marfa Basin
Barnett Ft. Worth Basin
Eagle Ford
fig 47
Pearsall
Fayetteville Arkoma Basin
Chattanooga
Black Warrior Basin
Conasauga
Valley & Ridge FloydProvince Neal TX-LA-MS Salt Basin Tuscaloosa
HaynesvilleBossier
0
84 PROJECTED CONDITION_SITE_RESOURCE
Shallow natural gas Deep natural gas Rare earth elements
The conditions highlighted here necessitate a site that becomes part of a system of resource extraction and consumption. While many varied resources exist on the global scale for extraction and manipulation, these can be broken down into two categories. There are resources that can be applied directly to energy consumption and those that are indirectly tied to energy consumption. What will be the imagined future of natural resource consumption? What resources will be necessary to harvest in order to stay competitive on a world market? Two emerging natural resources that remained untapped in many markets include natural gas shale and rare earth minerals. The former are directly tied to energy consumption and has been proven to have vast reserves worldwide that are just only now being opened to market trading. Similarly, rare earth minerals are only now beginning to become heavily valued for their use in electronics and renewable energy tactics but a vast majority of global reserves are not being utilized to their potential.
86 PROJECTED CONDITION_SITE_NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque is the most prominant city in which such a Chinese exchange system could take place. Its isolation as a city center only truly known by its own locality can be an advantage to allow for investment in a resource-exchange system in this region. The city can serve as a testing bed for Chinese investment and resource extraction primarily because of general obscurity. In addition, a programmatic need to appeal to the whole of the populous can easily be identified as Albuquerque is a city that lacks extreme urbanA complexity. Despite its lack of traditional urban context, it is the largest city in its region of resource rich territory, the closest of which is Phoenix at over 300 miles southwest of the city. As V.B. Price outlines in his book, Albuquerque: A City at the End of The World, however, Albuquerque is a city maligned by general obscurity. It is isolated in a physical and psychological context. Even its separation from major metro-hubs, it does not match their scope or scale in attracting a large population to visit its corner of the United States.10 Thus, any Chinese intervention would receive local notariety while avoiding harsh criticism that may result from a more recognizable cityscape.
88 PROJECTED CONDITION_PROGRAM
$7,000,00
In January, 2013 the United States Congress was unable to reach a deal to postpone the inevitable fical cliff. The proposal which was determined to solve the problem of a ballooning federal debt actually caused a dramatic recession as over $7 trillion in budget cuts and tax increases went into automatic effect. With no deal between Democrats and Republicans, there was no proper solution allowing the United States of America do avoid instantly loosing 3.4 million jobs and families paying over $2,000 more in annual taxes. Such economic devastation resulted in an unemployment jumping from 7.8% to well over 9%.
00,000,000
Once again the bastion of democracy and freedom, the United States was vaulted into a great economic decline. Considerable cuts had to be made to large fiscally irresponsible programs in order to cushion the budget crunch. This presented an opportunity for economic investment for a Chinese Resource-Exchange system as they could step in to fill the gap created by such large budgetary constraints. While in previous architectural exchanges, underfunded programs included soccer stadiums and government headquarters, in the United States desirable programmatic needs would be derived from the irresponsibilty of government to provide for its people.10
90 PROJECTED CONDITION_PROGRAM
ID ICA D E E/M 23% R / A DIC 93B ME $ 7
RY TO A D AN 12% M / R HE 419B T O $ ST RE E NT / 6% TI NE 197B $
IT Y UR C SE 0% I A L 1B / 2 C SO $ 70
E NS FE / 20% E D B 68 $7
RY NA O I 9% ET C R 0B / 1 S I D 66 $
IT FIC 37% E D T/ .3 $1
UE EN % V E 3 XR /6 TA 2.2T $
According to the 2010 US federal budget the primary fiscal expenditures were defense, healthcare, and social security. These sectors alone account for 63% of the total budget (equal to the total tax revenue from that year).10 As a result, these are likely programs that face scrutiny for their ballooning and complicated costs. In addition, these expenditures are closes associated with many overlapping architectural typologies meaning the effect of their de-funding would be widespread across many fields of built expression. Thus, there are many areas for investment within these federal sectors that would benefit localities within a resource-architecture exchange system. Defense and Medicare alone are tied to many typologies that range from education to hospitals to factories. With such a range, these are areas which require the most research for a possible intervention.
FEDERAL
FUNDING
+
ALBUQUERQUE
Albuquerque in many ways could be considered a collage of federally funded programs. With interstate transportation, military expenditures, a large college campus, healthcare facilities, and public parks, the sprawl of the city is littered with government programs. In fact, two of the top three employers of the city of Albuquerque rely at least partially on government intervention, the military and healthcare. As a result, Albuquerque has become a national leader in nuclear advancement for the military and the primary healthcare center for the state of New Mexico.10
92 PROJECTED CONDITION_PROGRAM
If the city of Albuquerque is re-conceptualized as a city affected by cuts to the federal budget, then the impact could be devastating. Lack of funding could result in the inability of necessary services to be continued in their traditional fashion. Thus, Chinese investment in these sectors of programmatic decay could produce a successful exchange to the mutual benefit of the city and the Chinese government. Healthcare in particular presents the most interesting area in which China can establish itself as an investor. Healthcare is itself a reflection of technological dominance and the ability of China to provide a center that is better than current conditions could allow the city and the country to become more accepting of their ability to maintain a healthy relationship of architectural and resource trade.
25
1_
40
AB
QB
A IOP
B RK
AN OT
AB
ICA
QB
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R GA
AR IOP
DEFENSE
DE
1_
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EDUCATION HEALTHCARE TRANSPORTATION PARKS + RECREATION
KIR
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94 PROJECTED CONDITION_SITE_ALBUQUERQUE
Taking into account programmatic necessity of a programmatic response to the decreased funding of healthcare as a federal expenditure, it is necessary to choose a site within the city that has the greatest implications for visibility and successful implimentation. The obvious choice for such a location is the healthcare center associated with the university of new mexico. The building is located in close proximity to a campus used by thousands of students, allowing the hospital to be highly visible in the public eye. In addition, such a location allows the project to be located on highly trafficed circulation points that deliver suburban-ites from the sprawling outer stretches of Albuquerque into the downtown center. If we can assume that crisis, then there is the where healthcare was options with regards to
potential federal and state de-funding will lead to an impending health potential that hospitals that already exist will become relics of a past life a much less expensive and easier to obtain. Thus there become many how to treat these existing buildings and locating a possible intervention.
to downtown
Vacant zone in close proximity to UNM health center and operates on major means of urban circulation.
to airport
PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL fig 48
PROJECTED CONDITION_PROGRAM_HEALTHCARE_ABQ TYPOLOGY 96
fig 49
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO - EMERGENCY MEDICINE
98 PROJECTED CONDITION_PROGRAM_HEALTHCARE_TYPOLOGY
PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL OPERATES AS A STAND ALONE COLLECTION OF BUILDINGS
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO EMERGENCY MEDICINE PART OF THE UNM CAMPUS (EXTRA-URBAN)
On the previous pages are examples of the traditional hospital typology located within Albuquerque city limits. They fall in line with the normative ideology that is established by efficent healthcare processes. They are essentially closed boxes that limit access and control the presence of those who don’t belong. These hospitals have a large presence as a physical object but no acknowledgement of the urban condition in which they reside. While Albuquerque on the whole does not exhibit a prototypical pedestrian based urbanity, this does not excuse the tendency of hospital architecture to close in on itself and disregard an existance beyond its boundary. Instead, healthcare typologies must become innovative and respond to the conditions in which they exist to acheive a more successful public architecture.
PROJECTED CONDITION_PROGRAM_HEALTHCARE_NEW TYPOLOGY 100
HOSPITALS SHOULD RESONATE WITH THE PROCESSSES OF CHANGE THAT ARE SO TYPICAL OF CITIES. THE DYNAMICS OF MEDICAL PROCESSES SHOULD NOT RESULT IN BUILDINGS THAT LOOK LIKE ISOLATED ISLANDS, AND THUS FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS SHOULD NOT BE THE SOLE GUIDING PRINCIPLE IN THEIR DESIGN. Cor Wagenaar The Architecture of Hospitals The City and the Hospital
102 PROJECTED CONDITION_PROGRAM_HEALTHCARE_TYPOLOGY
Traditionally, hospitals were conceptualized as a control mechanism for scientific pursuits. The idea of patient and family care presented within the contemporary healthcare typology was not a factor of formal design. In a sense, hospitals took on a model similar to the panopticon in its concerns for spatial control. There was a distinct physical separation between the doctor and the patient that was manifested in large, open wards filled with patients and little personal contact between the two. Since the early years of this formal response, the typology has adapted considerably (to technological advances and new care methodology) but it is still regarded as a pseudo-public program. While the expression of a hospital is primarily a place for the public to heal, it is still a controlled environment.10
THE
HOSPITAL
IS
NOT
PUBLIC
In order to express itself as a high-profile public program, the hospital typology will have to be manipulated once again. The formal asperations of the hospital building are usually oriented around servicing an efficient medical system. While this is a noble undertaking, efficiency of a closed system is not a desirable condition for investment. In order to fulfill a Chinese resource-exchange system, it would be necessary to open up the healthcare system as a much more public entity. This will bring value to the investment as a symbol of power and stability through adapting a typology that is so heavily dominated by improvents in technology and means of care. A more public hospital system will showcase these two elements in co-existance with one another to acheive a common goal of appeasement.
104 PROJECTED CONDITION_PROGRAM_HEALTHCARE_NEW TYPOLOGY
In a quest to produce a high-profile public hospital, traditional ideology surrounding healthcare typologies must be re-interpreted. Hospitals have always maintained a sense of isolation. In a studio taught by Markus Schaefer at the Berlage Institute, the idea of the evolving hospital typology was dissected through relationships made to other architectural typologies.
fig 50
In the end, students combined public programs including airports, shopping malls and theme parks with the hospital typology to produce a more varied response to how the hospital could engage a more public life that it was missing. In the end, the studio found that such a response was indeed interesting from a public program perspective as well as maintained an ability to adapt to ever expanding technologies.10
106 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abramson, Daniel, “Obsolescence: Notes Towards A History,” Praxis 5: Architecture After Capitalism (2003): 106-112. LeCavalier, Jesse, “DC on the High Seas,” 306090, Volume 13: Sustain and Develop (2009): 246-248. Shiqiao, Li, “The Economy of Desire,” 306090, Volume 13: Sustain and Develop (2009): 205-211.\ Easterling, Keller, Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and its Political Masquerades (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005). Easterling, Keller, “Active Forms,” in Fast Forward Urbanism: Rethinking architecture’s engagement with the city, edited by Dana Cuff and Roger Sherman (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011). Moyo, Dambisa, Winner Take All: China’s race for resources and what it means for the world (New York: Perseus Books Group, 2012) Price, V.B., Albuquerque: A City at the End of the World (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003). Schaefer, Markus, “Building Hospitals – Hospital Buildings,” in The Architecture of Hospitals, edited by Cor Wagenaar (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2006) Schafer, Ashley; Reeser, Amanda, “After-Thoughts,” Praxis 5: Architecture After Capitalism (2003): 4-5.
Sloan, David Charles, “Scientific Paragon to Hospital Mall: The Evolving Design of the hospital, 1885-1994,” The Journal of Architectural Education (1984- ), Vol. 48, No. 2 (Nov., 1994): 82-98. Wagenaar, Cor, “The City and the Hospital,” in The Architecture of Hospitals, edited by Cor Wagenaar (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2006) Xiangming, Chen, “China’s New Revolution,” in The Endless City: The Urban Age Project by the LSE and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society, edited by Rickey Burdett and Deyan Sudjic (New York: Phaidon Press, 2010).