An Urban Utopia

AN URBAN UTOPIA AN URBAN LABORATORY TO REVIVE NRC COLONY

A DESIGN DISSERTATION REPORT Submitted By

RIYA GIRISH TIWARI

Under the Guidance of

PROF. UTTARA NALAWADE In partial fulfilment for the award of the degree Of

BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE In

Lokmanya Tilak Jankalyan Shikshan Sanstha’s LOKMANYA TILAK INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN STUDIES

Plot no. 22 & 23, Vikas Nagar, Sector – 5, Koparkhairane, Navi Mumbai, 400709

Affiliated to University of Mumbai NOVEMBER 2020

DECLARATION I hereby declare that this written submission entitled “AN URBAN UTOPIA” Represents my ideas in my own words and has not been taken from the work of others (as from books, articles, essays, dissertations, other media and online); and where others’ ideas or words have been included, I have adequately cited and referenced the original sources. Direct quotations from books, journal articles, internet sources, other texts, or any other source whatsoever are acknowledged and the source cited are identified in the dissertation references.

No material other than that cited and listed has been used.

I have read and know the meaning of plagiarism* and I understand that plagiarism, collusion, and copying are grave and serious offences in the university and accept the consequences should I engage in plagiarism, collusion or copying.

I also declare that I have adhered to all principles of academic honesty and integrity and have not misrepresented or fabricated or falsified any idea/data/fact source in my submission. This work, or any part of it, has not been previously submitted by me or any other person for assessment on this or any other course of study.

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Name of the Student: RIYA GIRISH TIWARI Exam Roll No: 2020AR968 Date: 28th December, 2020 Place: Koparkhairane, Navi Mumbai

*The following defines plagiarism: “Plagiarism” occurs when a student misrepresents, as his/her own work, the work, written or otherwise, of any other person (including another student) or of any institution. Examples of forms of plagiarism include: 1.

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Lokmanya Tilak Jankalyan Shikshan Sanstha

LOKMANYA TILAK INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN STUDIES PLOT NO. 22 & 23, VIKAS NAGAR, SECTOR – 5, KOPARKHAIRANE, NAVI MUMBAI, 400709

Certificate This is to certify that the Dissertation titled “AN URBAN UTOPIA” AN URBAN LABORATORY TO REVIVE NRC COLONY ________________________________________________________________________ Is the bona-fide work of RIYA GIRISH TIWARI Of the Final Year B. Arch. Semester (IX) and was carried out in the college under my guidance and here by partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of the Bachelor of Architecture Under University of Mumbai

Prof. Uttara Nalawade

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Date: 28/12/2020

Acknowledgment First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor guide Prof. Uttara Nalawade, who has not only supported this dissertation with her guidance and criticism, but also encouraged me with her valuable comments and suggestions which has shaped the study towards an intriguing dialogue of architectural discourse and thesis.

This study and research wouldn’t have been a successful coursework without the guidance of professors of Lokmanya Tilak Institute of Architecture & Design Studies.

Finally, this thesis would have never been accomplished without the support of my parents Renu Tiwari and Girish Tiwari for their endless motivation. It has always been easy for me to move forward, feeling the silent support of my family, professors and friends behind me. This work could not have been written without their intellect and contributions.

An Urban Utopia An urban laboratory to revive NRC colony.

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Illustration 1. The binaries of Utopia and Dystopia

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Abstract

An urban utopia – is a speculative experiment with design ideas of future, where the cities are the catalyst in the development process.

The good and the bad, the rich and the poor, we are surrounded by binaries of all things.

It is the primary mode of classifying things. One such classification can be done under the heads of utopia and dystopia. The following research attempts to trace out how designers have dealt with idea of utopia and future. Though utopia is considered to be something contrasting to the reality, it is clear that utopian ideas led to a lot of development. Utopian ambitions are expressed in different mediums that inform us about the imagery of our society now and in future, bridging a connection between reality and fiction, and understanding how it affects the society. There have been over ambitious and experimental projects that have exerted a sense of futuristic approach to it but how well is it liable to individuals use or its contribution to the city, as most of them end up being mere exhibits, judged based on their aesthetics alone. An architecture whose narrative speaks to people and indulges people in its experimentation can be an ideal centre for use. Each topic in the research through analysing of its pros and cons suggests a quality of built form that will at the end create a story board of ideas- a narration of utopia for tomorrow. In the research an attempt has been made to document designs that has stood out because of their pioneering ideology, and has given rise to new concepts. Some of the examples are arcology, vertical city, high tech architecture and experimental architecture.

The dissertation intends to explore how our cities have developed and how entities respond to the dynamic needs of the cities and understand modern movement. In modernism, architecture and city become ideal and broad manifestation of utopias. The construction has become more vertically oriented and a fourth dimension is introduced which is time. The time frame defines the functionality of the space and a building that can transform itself within this time frame, as well as provide for everyone is an ideal solution of our dynamic city. A space that is multifunctional and flexible tends to respond better in today’s dynamic society, and the entities that could not adapt to change end of becoming obsolete. The future is always conceived in binaries of good and bad, with utopia exists a counterpart too known as dystopia. Circling back to the fiction and iii

architecture narrative, dystopia prevails in our ever-evolving urban areas that are exposed to overcrowding, depletion of the resources, death of function or global warming. The dissertation intends to identify one such dystopian like scenario that can be revived by utopian inspired manifestations.

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Table of contents

Abstract............................................................................................................................... iii Table of figures ................................................................................................................. viii Table of illustrations........................................................................................................... xi 1. Aim & objectives .......................................................................................................... 1

PART I- UNDERSTANDING UTOPIA

2. Modernism- Building utopia through visualization ..................................................... 4 2.1.

Utopia and dystopia through the lens of cinema ........................................ 7

2.2.

Architecture and narrative......................................................................... 11

3. Utopia as a blueprint of our modern cities ................................................................ 15 3.1.

Athelstan Spilhaus ‘Our New Age’ comics ................................................. 16

3.2.

Plan Voisin by Le Corbusier ....................................................................... 18

3.3.

3 C CITY ...................................................................................................... 19

3.4.

Archigram .................................................................................................. 21

3.5.

Potteries Thinkbelt by Cedric price ............................................................ 23

4. Utopia realism ............................................................................................................. 26 4.1.

Case study 1- Paolo Soleri’s- Arcosanti ..................................................... 27

4.2.

The death of utopia.................................................................................... 31 4.2.1. Case study 2- Ghosted town of Songdo, South Korea .................. 33

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 35

PART II- ARCHITECTURAL MANIFESTATION FROM PARTS TO WHOLE

5. Utopia in today’s context/ Eco futurism the new utopia ............................................. 39 6. Experimental architecture. ......................................................................................... 42 6.1.

Case study 3- City of Auroville ................................................................... 43

6.2.

Case study 4- Montreal Biosphere ............................................................. 48

6.3.

Case study 5- Netherlands pavilion by MVRDV ......................................... 51 v

6.4.

Case study 6- Fun palace by Cedric Price .................................................... 56

7. The architecture of prefabrication............................................................................. 62 8. Progress and Prospect for future 8.1.

Progress with technology ............................................................................. 69

8.2.

Changing needs of dynamic society ............................................................. 70

9. Vertical cities .............................................................................................................. 73 10. Buildings that transform cities 10.1. Through architecture ................................................................................... 77 Case study 7- Pompidou centre 10.2. Through programme .................................................................................... 84 Case study 8- Plug- in city 10.3. Economical instigator .................................................................................. 87 Case study 9- Guggenheim museum Bilbao 11. Events that transform cities ....................................................................................... 89 Case study 10- Instant city, Archigram 11.1. Megaevent flagship ...................................................................................... 92 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 94

PART III- IDENTIFYING DYSTOPIA

12. Dystopia in today’s context 11.1. Urban dystopian spaces .............................................................................. 95 11.2. Manifestations to rethink our dystopian entities ........................................ 97 11.3. Site- NRC colony the stranded city ............................................................. 101 13. Site analysis .............................................................................................................. 108 14. The narrative ............................................................................................................ 116 15. Design proposal ........................................................................................................ 119 16. Programmes .............................................................................................................. 121 16.1. Area distribution .............................................................................................. 123 vi

16.2. The toolkit ...................................................................................................... 124 16.3. App development .......................................................................................... 127 16.4. Utopian manifestation ................................................................................... 130 17. Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 131

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Table of figures

Figure 1. The fourth issue of zoom-Archigram edition that discussed science fiction, science fact, and space comics. ........................................................................................... 4 Figure 2. Utopia Documents of Reality by Johannes Itten .................................................. 4 Figure 3. The Gotham city from dc comics art by Jim Lee ................................................... 5 Figure 4. Scene from the movie blade runner (1982) by Ridley Scott ................................. 7 Figure 5. Scene from the movie ‘Metropolis’, 1927, by Fritz Lang alongside Opening scene from the movie ‘divergent’, 2014, by director Neil Burger based on novel by author Veronica Roth. ..................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 6. Opening scene from the movie ‘ALITA: BATTEL ANGEL’ by director Robert Rodriguez ............................................................................................................................. 9 Figure 7. Scene from the movie ‘ALITA: BATTEL ANGEL’ by director Robert Rodriguez showing the floating city of Zalem as viewed from the iron city below.............................. 9 Figure 8. Illustration by Colleen corradi brannigan alongside Eda Akaltun....................... 12 Figure 9. Antonio Sant’Elia’s Citta Nuova (1914) alongside Richard Rogers’ Lloyd’s building in London (1986) ................................................................................................................ 15 Figure 10. Minnesota Experimental City: the 1960s town based on a comic strip ........... 16 Figure 11. Proposed model of ‘Plan Voisin’ by Le Corbusier ............................................. 18 Figure 12. Transverse section of the floating city .............................................................. 19 Figure 13. Cross section showing the varied programme in the floating city ................... 20 Figure 14. Archigram - Control and choice dwelling (1967) .............................................. 21 Figure 15. Illustration of potteries thinkbelt by Cedric price............................................. 23 Figure 16. Pre-fabricated Crate housing ............................................................................ 24 Figure 17. Classroom modules ........................................................................................... 25 Figure 18. Acrosanti ceramic apse view............................................................................. 27 Figure 19. Energy Apron- arcology..................................................................................... 28 Figure 20. Model of Acrosanti 5000 master plan ............................................................. 30 Figure 21. Songdo aerial view ............................................................................................ 33 Figure 22. Forrest future city alongside Eco resort design. ............................................... 39 Figure 23. Detroit neighbourhood farm ............................................................................ 40 viii

Figure 24. Model of the galaxy concept of the city of Auroville ........................................ 43 Figure 25. Site plan of the Vikas apartments ..................................................................... 45 Figure 26. Solar kitchen...................................................................................................... 46 Figure 27. Vikas settlement ............................................................................................... 46 Figure 28. Matrimandir, Auroville...................................................................................... 47 Figure 29. Geodesic dome by Buckminster fuller in Montreal, Canada ............................ 48 Figure 30. Icosahedron joints............................................................................................. 49 Figure 31. EXPOSITION OF 1967 ........................................................................................ 49 Figure 32. Section of Montreal biosphere ......................................................................... 49 Figure 33. Plan of Montreal biosphere .............................................................................. 50 Figure 34. External view of Netherlands pavilion .............................................................. 51 Figure 35. Sectional view of Netherlands pavilion ............................................................ 52 Figure 36. Zoning, stacking and floor plates of the Netherlands Pavilion ......................... 53 Figure 37. Proposed extension to the Netherlands pavilion ............................................. 54 Figure 38. Fun palace by cedric price................................................................................. 56 Figure 39. Three-dimensional matrix of learning and leisure environment...................... 57 Figure 40. Fun palace plan showing "tartan grid". Pivoting stairs and escalators provide access to upper floors ........................................................................................................ 58 Figure 41. Sectional drawing of Fun palace. ...................................................................... 59 Figure 42. Organisational scheme of fun palace ............................................................... 60 Figure 43. Structural drawings of fun palace ..................................................................... 61 Figure 44. DOMINO house prototype ................................................................................ 62 Figure 45. Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier ............................................................................. 63 Figure 46. Competition entry for Colony on Mars ............................................................. 66 Figure 47. modular and prefabricated units of vale de cambra ........................................ 66 Figure 48. clockwise from left- modular building units’ assembly, Modules supported by long spanning cellular beams to create, open plan space at the lower levels, instant cookie cutter template for modules.............................................................................................. 67 Figure 49. Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa ..................................................... 68 Figure 50. Hexahedron Arcology section, Paolo Soleri ...................................................... 74 Figure 51. Multi elevators (Thyssen group Germany) ....................................................... 75 Figure 52. Shibuya hyper cast 2, a futuristic vertical city for Tokyo by Noiz architects .... 76 ix

Figure 53. Pompidou centre west front facade ................................................................. 77 Figure 54. Pompidou centre section .................................................................................. 78 Figure 55. Pompidou centre services................................................................................. 79 Figure 56. Pompidou centre floor plans ............................................................................ 80 Figure 57. Pompidou centre floor plans ............................................................................ 81 Figure 58. The construction sequence was bay by bay instead of floor by floor for the full height of the structure. ...................................................................................................... 82 Figure 59. The external circulation system of Pompidou centre giving a view of piazza and the skyline of Paris. ............................................................................................................ 83 Figure 60. Prefabricated service components of plug-in city ............................................ 84 Figure 61. Plugin city- a framework that can withhold all the services along the diagonal pneumatic pipes and then substructure is inserted in to this framework with respect to needs of the city................................................................................................................. 85 Figure 62. Cross section of the Plug-in city ........................................................................ 86 Figure 63. Guggenheim museum port side view ............................................................... 87 Figure 64. Guggenheim museum sections......................................................................... 88 Figure 65.Cultural attractions of the instant city. .............................................................. 89 Figure 66. Instant city as a temporary parasite that deploys architectural programmes in the host city. ...................................................................................................................... 90 Figure 67. “Flip/City”, a proposal by PinkCloud.DK ........................................................... 94 Figure 68. Stranded NRC colony quarters........................................................................ 102 Figure 69. Dilapidated NRC quarters ............................................................................... 103 Figure 70. Celebration of annual festivities at the NRC grounds. ................................... 104 Figure 71. Women of the community- popularly known for shielding the men of the house when police raids are taken place. .................................................................................. 105 Figure 72. The chawls of Indian-Iranis ............................................................................. 106 Figure 73. Dilapidated railway line running towards the NRC company ......................... 111 Figure 74. The Urban Lab app .......................................................................................... 127 Figure 75. Location and upcoming events on the urban lab app .................................... 128 Figure 76. Housing options available at the urban lab app. ............................................ 129

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Table of illustration

Illustration 1. The binaries of Utopia and Dystopia ............................................................. ii Illustration 2. Flowchart explaining methodology ............................................................... 2 Illustration 3. Utopian ambitions for future. ....................................................................... 3 Illustration 4. Bausis interpretation ................................................................................... 13 Illustration 5. (City of tomorrow is technologically sound striving to attain utopia, whereas there is still underprivileged living on scraps of the city) summer school 2020Reminiscence of metropolis- utopia vs dystopia ............................................................... 14 Illustration 6. Flowchart explaining aspects of experimental architecture. ...................... 38 Illustration 7. Pioneering experimentation in architecture ............................................... 41 Illustration 8. Range of geodesic domes by Buckminster Fuller ........................................ 64 Illustration 9. future of the small entities- a tea shop ....................................................... 71 Illustration 10. Experimenting with vertical orientation of entities. ................................. 73 Illustration 11. Dilapidated mills in Mumbai, clockwise from right- Indian united mill, Mukesh mills, century mills, shakti mills ........................................................................... 96 Illustration 12. Location map for Mohone ....................................................................... 101 Illustration 13. Radial map to understand the surroundings of NRC plant. .................... 107 Illustration 14. Probable sites for intervention................................................................ 108 Illustration 15. Comparative analysis for site selection. .................................................. 109 Illustration 16. Site surroundings. .................................................................................... 110 Illustration 17. Existing land use of NRC company .......................................................... 111 Illustration 18. Accessibility map to Mohone. ................................................................. 112 Illustration 19. Surroundings and land use mapping. ...................................................... 114 Illustration 20. Vegetation map of NRC colony. .............................................................. 115 Illustration 21. Skyline of NRC colony. ............................................................................. 116 Illustration 22. Accessibility map for Mohone. ................................................................ 117 Illustration 23. The narratives by People of NRC. ............................................................ 118 Illustration 24. Components of architecture ................................................................... 119 Illustration 25. Occupied NRC colony quarters. ............................................................... 120 Illustration 26. Programmes for a flagship development ................................................ 121 xi

Illustration 27. Flowchart to explain the stakeholders .................................................... 122 Illustration 28. Flowchart explaining the programmes ................................................... 123 Illustration 29. The components of toolkit. ..................................................................... 124 Illustration 30. Illustrations based on commodities. ....................................................... 126 Illustration 31. Manifestation of toolkits ......................................................................... 130

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AimExploring the utopian dreams in architectural movements especially dating back from the beginning of modernism, and its impact on the design industry, generating a toolkit to intervene in the ever-evolving urban environment. Architecture needs to respond to the ever-evolving environment and so an infrastructure that can enable experimentation within itself, bring people of diverse backgrounds together under one roof of leisure as well as exploration and experimentation is the expected outcome. The urban utopian toolkit will redefine living, working and leisure in the city.

Objective1. Analysis of literature, visual arts and architectural manifestations as mediums of narrative of future 2. Identifying dystopia1 and utopia2 in today’s context.

3. Identifying what the preconceived notions of future has to offer to the urban/suburban cities through architecture.

4. Generate a narrative for the intervention to be initiated-held-sustained in a particular site condition.

MethodologyResearch1. Analysis and documentation of architectural manifestations from the beginning of modernism in regards to futuristic perspective that they behold.

2. Demonstrate through illustrations and literature review the narrative and scope of architectural experimentations.

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an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.

2 an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect

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3. Analysis of the rise and fall of utopian concept in architecture by identifying its traces in design manifestations. This being possible by understanding and comparing both ideation process and the later shortcomings.

4. Studying the events that led to the experimentation being brought to people eye.

5. Study of factors like land scarcity, death of programme and depletion of resources and considering it equivalent to a dystopian future of a city, thus striving to cater to the problems.

Illustration 2. Flowchart explaining methodology

Case study1. To document and analyse projects that had an experimental vocabulary expressed through its form, functionality or materiality.

2. To document and analyse projects that had a lasting impact on its surroundings and in the fraternity of architecture due to its design idea. Also, that initiated development and experimentation.

3. Analysing the impacts of utopian manifestations, in built and unbuilt forms.

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ScopeIdentifying the utopian ambition of designers and its liability to provide to people and cities altogether. In the research an attempt has been made to document designs that has stood out because of pioneering ideology, and has given rise to new concepts. Some of the examples are arcology, vertical city, high tech architecture and experimental architecture. Inspiration is drawn from the buildings that transformed the cities through their architecture. In modernism, architecture and city become ideal and broad manifestation of utopias, the city can cultivate culture and progress through its infrastructure. The utopia today is based on technological advancements that makes the human life smarter.

Illustration 3. Utopian ambitions for future.

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PART I- UNDERSTANDING UTOPIA

2. Modernism- Building Utopia through visualization.

Figure 2. Utopia Documents of Reality by Johannes Itten

Figure 1. The fourth issue of zoom-Archigram edition that discussed science fiction, science fact, and space comics.

Visual arts have always been a good medium for designers to express their interpretation of the imagery of the future society that we are moving towards. With modernism came the trend of using new styles, new fonts and incorporating a statement of the new style, which was highly influenced by the technological advancement. Futuristic architecture was influenced by automobiles and space age, so the curiosity and fascination about the same were depicted in the new style.

At the peak of modernism there were new ideas about functionality, programme and flexibility. Hand renders and perspectives weren’t enough for architects to communicate these dynamic ideas. We needed something more abstract that conveys greater information about relationships, assemblies and habitation, this led to the propagation of diagrams and axonometries, they were more abstract than perspective

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renders but conveyed more abstract ideas about the space rather than showing the space itself. Enabled by widespread print media, radical groups like Archigram and Superstudio began using collages, photography and juxtapositions of images to convey their radical ideas, sampling images and textures from the print media like magazines, comic strips and graphic text. These were revolutionary, cautionary, dystopian and utopian at the same time but more than ever before, they were engaging and resonating with normal people who could understand the big ideas offered. These ideas made celebrities of these young architects and a lot of their ideas have propagated into the big architectural ideas of today.

Figure 3. The Gotham city from dc comics art by Jim Lee

Design and fiction Fictions, as they are understood in a more conventional literary sense, can and do provide a ground of learning. Critical fictional writing – writing that brings a conceptualized future into confrontation with the conditions of limitation and potential of the present can and does fold into a design process.3 Fiction doesn’t disclose a future for us like a clear image, but rather provides exhausted repercussions of changes that will happen eventually. They provide a scope of discussions, corrections and strategic evaluation. They help us visualize the needs and opportunities 3

Remaking cities- an introduction to urban metrofitting by Tony Fry- page 175

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of the coming future. It is therefore important to create a toolkit to deal with the resilience that we are eventually going to be exposed to. Many technological inventions are based on fictional imaginations and futuristic depictions like, space travel, transport, communication, entertainment etc.

Besides, it’s always comfortable to work in an already developed framework, design fiction helps break those boundaries of framework to imagine in a more liberated manner.

There is a diversity of media used to portray this nearly perfect scenario, slightly trajectory from the fixed notions of storytelling. This helps us ponder on alternative scenarios, questioning the norms we are usually surrounded with, opening up more and more possibilities to look at the future. Design fiction therefore should be regarded as a sociology of future.

The world is changing at an exponential rate and science fiction is fast becoming science fact. Today virtual reality (VR) is a very handy tool for architects to stimulate a physical environment to convey their design to generate the closest possible experience. The fact that any design exists in the three-dimensional virtual work and can have an impact on you like any built form does states that fiction in design isn’t something apart from the physical world. This makes the profession of architecture multi-faceted, as architects now are employed as production designers of films, virtual games etc.

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2.1.

Utopia and dystopia - through the lens of cinema

Figure 4. Scene from the movie blade runner (1982) by Ridley Scott

Designers have always attempted to render for us the nearly perfect imagery of our surroundings. The cinematic universe has gained some artistic advantage over the actual architectural designs of the architects, because of the deliberate attempt made by designers to give the backdrop an identity and make it part of the narrative. Be it the flying automobiles or smart and handy devices, the filmmakers have strived to predict the most accurate versions of our future. It is exerted in a much-exaggerated manner but we do find a striking resemblance in the present day.

Figure 5. Scene from the movie ‘Metropolis’, 1927, by Fritz Lang alongside Opening scene from the movie ‘divergent’, 2014, by director Neil Burger based on novel by author Veronica Roth.

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Divergent (figure 5) is an American science fiction and action film an adaptation by the novel of the same name. It begins with showing a skyline of Chicago frozen in time surrounded by dessert, the source of energy now being replaced from fuels to turbines that generate energy they require to sustain. The skyscrapers are left stranded but a more evolved society is grown around to become more sustainable. What expresses another form of a utopian society is the categorization of individuals based on the qualities they inherit; through genetic decriminalization the higher body seeks to exploit the qualities of the human race.

Metropolis (figure 5) a 1927 film managed to show the highly advanced city image with sky-scarpers grown at every space possible in the skyline of the city adorned with a complicated transit system an exaggerated depiction of the how the western cities were starting to shape in to at the peak of industrialization.

"It is undeniable that the cinema has a marked influence on modern architecture; in turn, modern architecture brings its artistic side to the cinema.... Modern architecture not only serves the cinematographic set [decor], but imprints its stamp on the staging [mise-enscene], it breaks out of its frame; architecture 'acts.’”- Robert Mallet-Stevens

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Dystopia – a science fiction premise

Be it a post-apocalyptic scenario or a natural disaster or an extra-terrestrial life a dystopian backdrop is one of the trendiest now as used by most of the science fiction films or novels.

It is based on the concept of speculative fiction, that predicts possibility with regards to the current conditions, to critique on the current socio-political and technological state.

They have become a fascinating topic because of it being the conventional narrative from our present conditions, be it the global warming or our natural resources depleting, they criticize and expose the shortcomings of existing reality.

Figure 6. Opening scene from the movie ‘ALITA: BATTEL ANGEL’ by director Robert Rodriguez

Figure 7. Scene from the movie ‘ALITA: BATTEL ANGEL’ by director Robert Rodriguez showing the floating city of Zalem as viewed from the iron city below.

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Alita: battle angel is a 2019 cyberpunk4 action movie, which is based in the year 2563 on earth, revolving around the protagonist who is a cyborg5 unleashing the secrets from her past in this post war city called the iron city. The iron city has grown around a massive scrap heap that rains down from Zalem- a giant metal floating city, where only the elite can reside.

The striking difference between extremely flourishing city of Zalem and that of the living on the scrapes -the iron city is yet another factor of the dystopian scenario, the vast gap between economic status where rich becomes richer and poor, poorer.

We do not have a literature of the future for use in courses, but we do have literature about the future, consisting not only of the great utopias but also of contemporary science fiction. Science fiction is held in low regard as a branch of literature, and perhaps it deserves this critical contempt. But if we view it as a kind of sociology of the future, rather than as literature, science fiction has immense value as a mind-stretching force for the creation of the habit of anticipation. Various games have been designed to educate young people and adults about future possibilities and probabilities.

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A genre of science fiction set in a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology.

5 A cyborg, a contraction of "cybernetic organism", is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts.

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2.2.

Architecture and Narrative

‘Invisible cities’ is a novel by Italo Calvino published in 1972. The book is about a conversation between a traveller Marco Polo and an emperor Kublai Kahn. Polo describes these cities with metaphors revolving around culture, language, time, memory, death as well as technology and human perception. ” After a seven days' march through woodland, the traveller directed toward Baucis cannot see the city and yet he has arrived. The slender stilts that rise from the ground at a great distance from one another and are lost above the clouds support the city. You climb them with ladders. On the ground the inhabitants rarely show themselves: having already everything they need up there, they prefer not to come down. Nothing of the city touches the earth except those long flamingo legs on which it rests and, when the days are sunny, a pierced, angular shadow that falls on the foliage. There are three hypotheses about the inhabitants of Baucis: that they hate the earth; that they respect it so much they avoid all contact; that they love it as it was before they existed and with spyglasses and telescopes aimed downward, they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf, stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating with fascination their own absence.”6

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‘Invisible cities’ by Italo Calvino chapter - Cities and eyes pg. no. 77

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Following are the illustration done by artists to represent the narrated city called Bausis

Figure 8. Illustration by Colleen corradi brannigan alongside Eda Akaltun

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Illustration 4. Bausis interpretation

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In an exercise an attempt was made to represent utopia and dystopia in context of the city. During the course of this summer school, mediums of expression were learnt and understood. The various scenarios wherein text precedes imagery and vice versa were explored. Also, after discussions on city forms, utopia and dystopia probable futures were predicted, and as a result of that, illustrations and story boards were made.

Illustration 5. (City of tomorrow is technologically sound striving to attain utopia, whereas there is still underprivileged living on scraps of the city) summer school 2020- Reminiscence of metropolis- utopia vs dystopia

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3. Utopia as a blueprint of our modern cities “Utopia is not a state, not an artists’ colony but the dirty secret of all architecture, even the most debased: deep down, all architecture, no matter how naive and implausible, claims to make the world the better place”- Rem Koolhaas

Figure 9. Antonio Sant’Elia’s Citta Nuova (1914) alongside Richard Rogers’ Lloyd’s building in London (1986)

There was a fascination with the idea of creating utopia in the 20 th century. The focus shifted from constructing something symbolic to starting a discussion to trigger the catalyst of change that the world was going through. Designers started to bring in picture the long-term changes that was expected by the end of era and our response to the same.

Utopianism, or utopian thought, is a way of analysing contemporary situations and perceived problems, and designing an ideal solution. Despite proposed utopias being ideals, they do instigate the conversations that promote innovation and advancement, and in this way, utopia acts more as a way of thinking than a way of action. Utopianism seems to experience a continuous evolution or adaptation, a product of the influence of the immediate past, that is translated, emulated and interpreted. All examples of utopia are a product of their time, and the time period leading up to a certain utopia seems to have an influence on the manifestation of utopia.

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3.1.

Athelstan Spilhaus ‘Our New Age’ comics published in 1966.

“Spilhaus was a man who saw science as the solution to the problems of the world, and became a public figure presenting his ideas of utopia in everyday life through his comic strip "Our New Age." During the mid-1960s, he conceived an ambitious plan to condense his ideas into a prototype for future cities that would be both noiseless and fumeless, accommodating America's growing population and their by-products.”7

Figure 10. Minnesota Experimental City: the 1960s town based on a comic strip

Spilhaus envisaged a 21st century city to be built in Minnesota that was technologically advanced, sustainable and could solve the ever-increasing problem of population and decay of cities due to pollution and exhaustion of resources, in the 1960s. His ideas dealt with providing more civic spaces on the ground and all air pollution removal and waste management utilities happen underground. It was also adorned with the classic Buckminster Fullers geodesic dome8 that promised climate control and a balanced energy system.

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https://www.archdaily.com/883414/the-experimental-city-of-the-future-that-never-got-built A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy loads for their size.

8

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This futuristic utopian city design was way ahead of its time, and it cannot be denied that the predictions made by our visionaries regarding the problems that a city is going to face in future and its solutions that can be executed to make our lives better are accurate at most levels. Design competitions and exhibitions have always invited designers to present their ideologies, while some designers used mass media to promote their design ideologies only a few could get an opportunity to execute such ideas. It’s important to inform the citizens about the upcoming interventions and to understand the process and the narrative behind any new construction that happens or will be required, to happen in near future.

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3.2.

Plan Voisin, Le Corbusier

Figure 11. Proposed model of ‘Plan Voisin’ by Le Corbusier

Grid iron pattern- le Corbusier followed this kind of street panning where streets are at right angles to each other. The grids are then worked out to create self-sufficient modules of the city later termed as sectors or zones.

In 1925, modernist architect and planner Le Corbusier Proposed the “Plan Voisin” an idealistic mega-project that called for the bulldozing of central Paris and replacing it with monolithic 60-story towers set within an organized street grid and ample green space.

Corbusier believed the efficient plan could transform society by raising the standard of living for all socioeconomic levels, thus sparing the country another revolution.

Central Paris was filthy, overcrowded and disease-prone. Hence, demolishing it was necessary for sanitation and liveability. Le Corbusier’s proposed grid iron construction of 18 glass Towers coupled with green lawns and multi-tiered parks was the perfect answer to this problem. The plan included low-rise apartments, roads and airport as well. It was a blueprint of Corbusier’s dream of a modern city.

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3.3. 3C city by Ant Farm9 and WORKac10

Figure 12. Transverse section of the floating city

3-C City is built to accommodate people and other species amidst a healthy atmosphere of debate and discussion between them. It is a “vehicle of dreams” along with a research lab and a conference centre. The three C’s stand for climate, convention and cruise. The idea is that it’s a floating city not bound by any national borders. People can come together to live in a different way and discuss important issues of the day. The city floats on three stability pods.

The design reinvents the relation between ecology and infrastructure, the public and private and the individual and collective. WORKac and Ant Farm hereby define the Art of Architecture as continually in flux: a dialogue rendering architecture as a relational,

9

Ant Farm was an avant-garde architecture, graphic arts, and environmental design practice, founded in San Francisco in 1968 by Chip Lord and Doug Michels, later joined by Curtis Schreier. Ant Farm declared itself an “art agency that promotes ideas that have no commercial potential, but which we think are important vehicles of culturalintrospection.”

10 WORKac creates architecture at the intersection of the urban, the rural, and the natural. They embrace reinvention and collaborate with other fields to rethink architecture “in the world.” In the face of overwhelming challenges and increasingly normative scenarios, WORKac remains stubborn in their commitment to imagine alternate scenarios for the future of cities.

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synthetic practice that undoes and reconstructs itself by questioning dogmas, expanding the canon and inhabiting its edges to project multiple potentials and futures - while also rewriting its pasts.

The residence spaces look upon to a central congregational hall which is an interspecies (humans and animals) participation hall. This buoyant civilization provides a series of voids with vertical connections and spaces for collectivity. Inflatable walls hold horizontal infrastructure and create zones for private life. Solar panel shingles, pockets of greenhouses and gardens, an algae farm for biofuel and a water-collection river all combine to render infrastructure as architecture.

Figure 13. Cross section showing the varied programme in the floating city

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3.4. Archigram

Figure 14. Archigram - Control and choice dwelling (1967)

Archigram’s design intervention today, even after half a century has passed looks like construction of the future. A lot of today’s concepts are based on their interpretation for example- the plug-in city with modular units that rework themselves resembles to co working and co living spaces of today, or the Manzac11 that is uncannily similar to the smartphones we have today. The walking city that deploys itself from city to city and brings in events refers to tactile urbanism 12that helps our city rejuvenate in today’s age.

The London-based group anticipated the global inter-relatedness of culture and technology and thus had an immediate influence on architectural discussions worldwide. Archigram’s ideas responded to space travel and moon landing, subculture and the Beatles, science fiction and the new technologies of the sixties and seventies. Their historical inspirations came from architect/artists such as Buckminster Fuller, Bruno Taut or Friedrich Kiesler.

“Resource constraints were just as real to us then as they are now, just different. These unpredictable and unforeseeable changes (from the perspective of the 1960s, as from today) were the basis of our experimental architecture, which was designed with the

11

Manzak is an idea for a radio-controlled, battery-powered electric automaton. It has onboard logic, optical range-finder, TV camera, and magic eye bump detectors.

12 Tactical urbanism includes low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment, usually in cities, intended to improve local neighbourhoods and city gathering places.

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intention of producing systems that were capable of accommodating future change of whatever character.”

-Dennis Crompton, Archigram The living city exhibition The “Living City” exhibition of 1963 tried to account for an urban experience unregistered in the purviews of maps, plans, elevations, and statistical analyses. Hurriedly raiding shop displays and ripping up magazines, Archigram’s own drawings, modernist texts, comics, catalogues, and film posters. Archigram believed that the city was the single distinct organism and the Living City Exhibition is a response to the city life. This exhibition explored the micro level movements in an urban context. The group imagined releasing building’s latent energy not through sculpting but through electrical and mechanical impulses, dictated by social activity and projected by images and writhing vinyl.

Archigram then emerged with concepts of plug-in city, walking city, computer city, underwater city etc in the year 1964.

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3.5.

Potteries Thinkbelt by Cedric price

Figure 15. Illustration of potteries thinkbelt by Cedric price.

Cedric Price’s proposal was to take the whole rusting and decaying industrial infrastructure of the Potteries, and turn it into a kind of High-Tech think-tank13. It was to be a new kind of university, called the Potteries Thinkbelt. It was not a “building”, but a kind of circuit, or network, with mobile classrooms and laboratories using the existing rail lines to move from place to place, from housing to library to factory to computer centre.

Existing factories would be used for study, while new factories could be built to exploit new discoveries and theories.

Mobile classroom, laboratory and residential modules would be placed on the railway lines and shunted around the region, to be grouped and assembled as required. Four varieties of modular and disposable public housing (called, with aggressive disrespect for conventional primness, "Sprawl", "Battery", "Capsule" and "Crate") would be assembled at various fixed points along the rail lines. The Thinkbelt is an experiment in conceiving of a different type of learning environment; think about the dynamics of a lecture in a moving rail carriage, and how it might bring staff and students into contact in a way that we can

13

Think tank institute, corporation, or group organized for interdisciplinary research with the objective of providing advice on a diverse range of policy issues and products through the use of specialized knowledge and the activation of networks

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all too easily avoid in the stratified spaces we build into our campus lives. The Thinkbelt is premised on a different social and political settlement for higher education to that which we labour under today; in its own time, it did not attract the attention of policy makers, falling as it did by the margins of planning for the University of the Air – later to become the Open University. Yet its focus on place remains of interest.

Figure 16. Pre-fabricated Crate housing

The Thinkbelt was designed for 20,000 students, but with provision for 40,000 residential units that were flexible in form and adaptable to possible relocation and aggregation; Price wished to see student housing combined with local council tenancies. The four different forms of residential units were crudely named as sprawl, capsule, crate and battery housing, using terminology specifically intended to irritate professional designers.

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Figure 17. Classroom modules

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4. Utopian realism Utopia is commonly understood as a desirable yet unachievable - impossible - future state.

By "utopian realism" it means an attitude to the state of the world that is realistic (e.g., attainable, likely) in the long term.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the world was facing the devastation and destruction brought by World War I. In architecture, the modernist movement was beginning to take shape, and architects believed that their buildings could help solve the world’s problems. Architects became social engineers where their intervened not only to build buildings but to create a difference in the society. With new materials like glass, iron, and steel made available by the Industrial Revolution, modernist architects took to their drafting tables to imagine entirely new cities that supported utopian ideals and were devoid of the corrupted bourgeois sentiments often blamed for many of society’s dilemmas.

The factor which is present at all times is the improvisation in architecture. The difference among them is that today the technology makes it possible, providing a better result.

Actually, in many fields, technology appears as a problem-solving tool that already changed the way of living for present societies. The future will be based in these societies, and the more people access the digital world (internet, software’s, games, etc), the best will be the development of digital spaces.

"In the next few years, the struggle will not be between utopia and reality, but between different utopias, each trying to impose itself on reality ... we can no longer hope to save everything, but ... we can at least try to save lives, so that some kind of future, if perhaps not the ideal one, will remain possible." (Albert Camus, Between Hell and Reason)

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4.1.

Case study 1- Paolo Soleri’s - Arcosanti

Figure 18. Acrosanti ceramic apse view

Location

-Arizona

Year of completion

-1997

Architect

- Paolo Soleri

typology

-Arcology

Programme

-Experimental city

Area

-25 acres

Intent

-Understanding arcology and experimentation in design

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Arcology Paolo soleri conceived a city based on his ideology of archology14, which is combination of architecture and ecology. Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti was as utopian a project as anything built in the 1960s and 70s, a grandiose, ornate secluded Arizona desert community designed with Its ribbed vaults, round shapes, and sweeping curves look lifted from fantasy or sci-fi. Many structures point south for light and heat purposes. The multi-use nature of arcology design would put living, working, and public spaces within easy reach of each other and walking would be the main form of transportation within the city, this leaves this city with no roads.

Figure 19. Energy Apron- arcology

Paolo Soleri envisaged Arcology would use passive solar architectural techniques such as the apse effect, greenhouse architecture and garment architecture to reduce the energy usage of the city, especially in terms of heating, lighting and cooling. The result, he felt, would be a self-sustaining, self-contained hyper-efficient answer to all of mankind's problems.

14

The term was coined in 1969 by architect Paolo Soleri, who believed that a completed arcology would provide space for a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural facilities while minimizing individual human environmental impact. it is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated, ecologically low-impact human habitats.

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A utopian city and an urban laboratory made in the desert of Arizona which was supposed to make a settlement on a 25-acre land for 5000 people is an anti-sprawl development and highly sustainable consists of about a dozen buildings, including modular, block-like stacks of residential units, a music centre, Soleri’s design studio, and a foundry under a half-dome, where bronze bells are cast by community members and sold to support the project.

Existing structures at Arcosanti are meant to begin to provide for the complete needs of a community. They include: a five-story visitors' centre/cafe/gift shop; a bronzecasting apse; a ceramics apse; two large barrel vaults; a ring of apartment residences and quasi-public spaces around an outdoor amphitheatre; a community swimming pool; an office complex, above which is an apartment that was originally Soleri's suite. A twobedroom "Sky Suite" occupies the highest point in the complex; it, as well as a set of rooms below the pool, is available for overnight guests. Most of the buildings have accessible roofs.

Programme Arcosanti was conceived of and remains primarily an education centre, with students from around the world visiting to attend workshops, classes, and to assist with the continuing construction. 40,000 tourists visit yearly. Tourists can take a guided tour of the site or make reservations to stay overnight in guest accommodations. Some Arcosanti funding comes from selling the bells made and cast from clay and bronze on site. Additional funding comes from donations, and fees for workshops that last up to five weeks. Thirteen major structures have been built on the site to date, some several stories tall. One master plan, designed in 2001, envisions a massive complex, called "Arcosanti 5000", that would dwarf the current buildings.

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Figure 20. Model of Acrosanti 5000 master plan

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4.2. The death of utopia

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

– Jane Jacobs. The death and life of great American cities.

From the earlier examples it is understood that what Le Corbusier tried to do in his master plan was part of the utopian visualisation for our cities, but at some point, they lacked practicality or it didn’t speak to people. The “Plan Voisin” actually divided housing based on class, illustrating flaws in his utopian aspirations. That left the idea of utopia again as a fantasy.

Architects the social engineers The idea of utopia is considered a long-term, and so the role of designers transformed to becoming a bearer of bringing about a social change in the society. Modernity came in with industrialization. This was an opportunity for the designers to modernise the society.

Being less informed, the streamlined machine houses didn’t really speak to people and they found it soulless, like they were put in to a system. The effect of this singularity in the design format neglected the complexity of socio-cultural layers of the society.

Similarly, futuristic developments might look inhumane and its scale and mechanism is inspired by large machines, forcing people to become like part of this rigid system keeping technology at the pedestal.

Future shock15 The book is about ‘what happens to people when they are overwhelmed by change’.

Technology makes more technology possible emerging with a super-industrial world. The book argues forcefully, unless man quickly learns to control the rate of change in his personal affairs as well as in society at large, we are doomed to a massive adaptational breakdown. When looked upon a revised utopian model of a city the end product is almost

15

Future Shock is a 1970 book by the futurist Alvin Toffler. The term was coined in 1965 to describe the shattering stress and disorientation that is induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.

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difficult to gulp, and so it is important to be able to look at the change and the process of it, and the time frame and the intervals in which transformation will happen.

Features of post-industrial society -

Goods have become disposable due to mass production and decrease in manual repair.

-

The design of goods becomes outdated quickly. And so, for example, a second generation of computers appears before the end of the expected period of usability of the first generation.

-

Whole branches of industry die off and new branches of industry arise. This affects unskilled workers who are compelled to change their residence to find new jobs.

-

To follow transient jobs, people have become nomads.

-

Death of Permanence. The post-industrial society will be marked by a transient culture where everything ranging from goods to human relationships will be temporary.

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4.3.1. Case Study 2- Ghosted town of Songdo, South Korea

Figure 21. Songdo aerial view

Location

-Songdo, South Korea

Year of completion

-1997

Architect

- Paolo Soleri

typology

-city planning

Programme

-futuristic city

Intent

-Understanding voids in architecture.

Songdo on South Korea’s northeast coast was built from scratch and was designed around technology with computers built into streets and condos to control traffic. It was planned to contain 80,000 apartments, 50 million square feet (5 million square metres) of office space and 10 million square feet (900,000 square metres) of retail space. The city is embracing two key concepts – the first is Aerotropolis which means the airport is 33

integrated in to the urban centre, as we are moving towards more interconnectivity in the world and air traveling is becoming prominent. The second key theme is ubiquitous city which is a Korean concept where every device, service, component is linked to an information network through wireless computing technology. This brings a coordination and synchronization within the city. The city is equipped with such smart systems and one notable example is the Songdo’s trash system, pneumatic rubbish chutes would suck in garbage directly from your homes and transforms it to the treatment facility to be recycled later on to make electricity.

Reasons for its abandonment1. It failed to bring in big companies and investors.

2.The cost of living there is very high.

3. The large city has no culture, no museums, theatres or cinemas. The city is empty on the weekends.

A failure to lure in companies and investors means many of the city's building plots are still empty (pictured). To make the city more internationally acclaimed and attract foreigners, the local Korean entities were neglected thus making the place strange and foreign. The world’s first smart city with a $40 billion budget looks anything but smart. It lies abandoned now and has turned into a ghost town. The residents were promised a futuristic city where front doors would be controlled by remote controls. 15 years have passed since the Songdo project began and the city is less than half built and it feels like a deserted prison. Though erecting an entire city from scratch is a remarkable concept and the city was able to produce the high-tech infrastructure as equipped as any futuristic city, but still the lack of traditional and cultural deposition the city is termed as lost and ghosted.

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Conclusion “Utopia”: the word was coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516 when he started questioning the possibility of a perfect world where society would suffer no wars or insecurities, a place where everyone would prosper and fulfil both individual and collective ambitions.

Yet such a perfect society can only exist with the creation of perfect built infrastructure, which possibly explains why architects have often fantasized on megastructures and how to “order” this dreamed society. Therefore, utopianism as a method has been deeply embedded in architects because they are obliged to bring about a social change through their design.

Utopia has a bad reputation of being contrasting to the reality or the practical world. But it’s a thriving medium in the field of visual arts. But ironically visual arts have always been the main source for inspiration for science discoveries. Its highly relevant and is based on calculative synthesis of our societies, and the direction it is headed towards.

Utopia isn’t a blueprint; it is a way of life. One cannot achieve a utopia or design one, but strive to achieve it, and in this process a better version of the society is formed. Designers who went beyond the conventional methods of representation or design process are highly celebrated for their out of the box interventions, despite their controversial technicalities, and impractical approach they still resonate a sense of forwardness in their thinking. This becomes an attempt to break out from the standardized notions of design.

If we as designers are able to generate a relevant narrative for our dynamic societies we are in short aware and prepared for what we may be exposed to in near future. A radical approach to problems enables greater possibilities towards solutions.

Resilient approach in utopianism The term utopia as much as it means to be idealistic, may also be conceived as something as unrealistic. Architecture is a patronage of equal balance between technical and creative approach to any problem. What happens to be a utopian ideology, as a creative outlook may be lost in the translation process of construction in real time and become unfavourable or at least unimpactful. All types of utopianisms, regardless of how they are categorized, share a common denominator. They are all alternative constructs 35

challenging established settings and situations perceived either as problematic or insufficient and must be considered further. All are triggered by such reflective queries. A framework that can sustain the experimental ideology that follows the utopianism 16 concept will be the ideal outcome.

What maybe be utopia today may not be the same tomorrow. That creates a nostalgia of concepts that were to be a part of our future. For this reason, a scheme pictured by an architect through their conceptual design or narrative maybe utopian but the resultantbuilt form may never become an operational utopia.

“Can a single building be the embodiment of Utopia? Maybe, but only if it is also the physical manifestation of, and frame for, a community of agreement. So, for example, whereas, an operational Fourier Phalanstère17 would be a building-based utopia, the vast majority of public housing projects, wherever they might be found, would not be. The key difference between usual public housing schemes and a Phalanstère has more to do with the social organization of the communal living it houses than with the specific architectural form it takes; although whatever its form, it must be shaped around the social forms it is meant to house. Thus, a conventional public housing scheme might take a form similar to a Phalanstère, but that alone would not make it utopian” (2011, Imagining and Making the World: Reconsidering Architecture and Utopia, Peter Lang AG, Bern, 187).

There are two types of utopian dimensions, one that completely destroys the existing reality and strives to create this imaginary state which are aggressive materialization of completely new large-scale interventions, while the other is when the existing realities are used to build the ideal manifestation. Another way to explain this would be whole from the parts and parts to the whole approach. The first one strives to transform completely the city with its new ways and the approach strives to constructs the whole 16

the belief in or pursuit of a state in which everything is perfect, typically regarded as unrealistic or idealistic.

17 Charles Fourier developed a compelling utopian project called the Phalanstery in 1808, a community body composed of three hundred households coming from diverse economic and social backgrounds. The phalanstery, inhabited by a community called the Phalanx, gathered in one single monumental building the different activities that regulated modern society. Seeking an egalitarian and cooperative society, goods produced by the workers were put in common and redistributed equally to the families rewarded according to the three forms of property, capital, labour, talent.

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before the parts. The second one is through the production of interdependent parts of the building, with provision of existing parts or construction of newer parts. This level of aggressiveness of a utopian ideal determines whether an idea of literally destroying the existing make-up to replace it with the new and alternative, or one playing within the existing realities to transform them from within predominates the utopian imaginary. One example of the detached utopian architectural intervention from the existing urban imagery is Acrosanti located in between the Arizona dessert by Paolo Soleri which reimagines living in city that is more ecological.

What becomes the framework for developing the wholes, are from experimentation in architecture. They may be at different scales and in different forms, but strive to create a broad ideal manifestation of ideas. In this dissertation an attempt will be made to develop these parts to the whole approach. Where parts are design manifestations by designers that strive to achieve a progressive future.

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PART II- ARCHITECTURAL MANIFESTATION FROM PARTS TO WHOLE

Illustration 6. Flowchart explaining aspects of experimental architecture.

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5. Utopia in today’s context/ Eco futurism the new utopia

Figure 22. Forrest future city alongside Eco resort design.

In the second half of the 20th century, scientists and researchers started noticing the negative influence of all the technological developments and human activities in the past couple of centuries on the environment. However, only in the 21st century, the awareness translated into actions, and the term sustainability has become in vogue. Now that our world has come to a realization that our ultimate solution to all the problems like global warming is preserving our nature and the bio diversity. Eco modernism thus is a philosophy that human can protect nature with help of technology. It also raises the question that are we really in a time where technology is at pedestal and every question can be answered through technology.

An ecological compatibility can be created by the new concept of Aeroponics. It is an artificially created climate for the growth and development of plants without the use of soil and substrates. With this cultivation method, the roots of the plant freely hang in the aeroponic model. The nutrient solution is supplied to the roots with micro droplets or fog, thereby creating an air-nutrient medium. The solution forms a cloud enveloping the roots, and in the pauses between spraying, aeration of the roots takes place.

With technological advancements and these high-tech solutions, it has now become possible to imagine systemized and programmed so called smart buildings. Since these are just overly romanticized manifestations only a smaller portion being actually integrated in the built environment, it is important to look at factors of economic expense,

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the availability of technology for execution and maintenance as well the expertise- team of labours.

Agrihoods18 Urban agriculture is an important aspect in the city of Detroit, Michigan. the urban extensions threaten the vacant areas in the city and so to use them as farming spaces can be more efficient as well as environment friendly. Aside from economic benefits such as job opportunities and sales, these farms can bring fresh fruits and vegetables into urban and suburban areas and education in functional skills to residents of all ages. The movement has also been connected to social justice. Many urban proponents believe in “food sovereignty,” which means the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. This community is based on a non-profit organisation whose only aim is to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to the city.

Figure 23. Detroit neighbourhood farm

18

Short for agricultural neighbourhoods.

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Illustration 7. Pioneering experimentation in architecture

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6. Experimentation in architecture Architecture since a long time has been a patronage of experimentations. Right from usage of computer aided architecture design to experimentation with materials and construction techniques, technological advancements have a great contribution in this field. World expositions provided a platform for such inventions to be displayed at the global level. Our rapidly changing society is becoming dynamic. For architecture to simultaneously respond to the pace of changing environment has been exposed to the possibilities of portable, prefabricated and modular, demountable, dynamic, adaptable, mobile structures. Any ideal intervention strives to focus with a futuristic prospective in design. With architecture being considered multi-disciplinary, it enabled architects to strive for greater good, to bring about an invention that will makes the lives of people better. This gave rise to architecture manifestations.

With different experimentations in design industry it is now possible to develop innovative design tools and methodologies. Collaboration between different feilds has opened up a new level to explore and make more efficient design soulutions.

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6.1.

Case study 3- City of Auroville

Figure 24. Model of the galaxy concept of the city of Auroville

Location

-Auroville, Pondicherry

Year of completion

-2008

Architect

-Roger Anger

typology

-city planning

highlight

-experimentations within the city

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Auroville is a small intentional community19 in South India with a population of around 2000 people. It started out as a utopian experiment in 1973 and today is a small close-knit community engaging in sustainable practices. Like all other utopias that were celebrated around the same time, the vision for Auroville was dictated by a single individual. Auroville adheres to the larger universal ideal of utopia – non ownership of land, abolition of the power of money, centralized dining hall, rotational community work to avoid boredom, unending education etc, yet there are certain intricacies that are unique to this intentional community. The man-made settlement consists of four zones: an industrial zone (organic farms), an international zone (areas for visitors), a cultural zone (shops and businesses) and a residential zone, this idea was later envisaged in to the spiral plan by architect roger anger (figure 24).

Auroville was a town that belonged to “nobody in particular” but rather “to humanity as a whole”. Auroville is self-sustaining with no government, no currency and no religion. There’s the mysterious “Aurocard,” which appears to be a kind of debit card that can be obtained on-site for transactions. Auroville has inhabitants, from forty-three different countries. Residents of Auroville are expected to contribute a monthly contribution to the community. They are asked to help the community whenever possible by work, money, or kind. The "guest contribution", or a daily fee paid by the guests of Auroville, constitutes a part of Auroville's budget. There is a system of "maintenance", whereby those Aurovilians in need can receive from the community monthly maintenance which covers simple basic needs of life.

Auroville houses some of the best experimental architecture which are majorly grassroot projects which necessitated the active participation of the residents in the construction.

The materials used are also sustainable.

The architects from the Auroville Design

Consultancy have designed over 20 public spaces for the town, including kindergartens, libraries, resorts, and homes.

19

An intentional community is a planned residential community designed from the start to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle.

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Figure 25. Site plan of the Vikas apartments

The creation of this community called Vikas community was based on a particular spirit, life style and appropriate architectural design. The extensive use of environmentally sound materials- compressed stabilized earth blocks, appropriate building technologies, (earth and ferrocement), renewable energies (solar and wind) and ecological water management (watershed harvesting and biological waste water treatment), were the basis of its material implementation. It includes 23 apartments and communal spaces like a community kitchen, sports grounds, and landscaping incorporating rainwater catchment systems. The natural layout of the Vikas site informed its design, maintaining existing greenery and topography. Solar and wind energy were harnessed through photovoltaics and a wind pump for water infrastructure. The buildings were designed to respond to environmental factors such as wind direction and heavy rains, but also to reflect the spiritual aspirations of the community

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Figure 27. Vikas settlement

Figure 26. Solar kitchen

The solar kitchen name is derived from the big solar-bowl 15 m in length planted on the building which provided part of the steam for cooking. The kitchen provides almost 2000 meals every day. Apart from this building Auroville has more than 200 houses fully powered by photovoltaic panels and many other houses using solar power in conjunction with state grid connection.

It’s not surprising then, that the architecture of Auroville is too, is an experimentally mixed bag. There are modern Kahn-like standalone houses, vernacular huts with thatched roofs, homogeneous clusters with names like “Aspiration” or “Solitude” and eco-friendly public centres dedicated to earth building, all around a central, gold, monumental building.

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Figure 28. Matrimandir, Auroville

The city of Auroville at its centre consists of Matrimandir, a large meditation chamber built from gold-plated discs, is both the physical and spiritual centre of the township.

The aristocratic structures are more attractive and looks more spectacular. The temple is in the form of a huge sphere surrounded by twelve petals. Many golden discs are covering the Geodesic done. Which helps to reflect sunlight inside the temple and gives the structure it's characteristics radiance. There is electric used inside the temple. The geodesic dome also known as central dome. There is a meditation hall constructed inside the centre dome. Which is known as inner chamber This inner chamber also contains the largest optically-perfect glass globe in the world.

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6.2.

Case study 4- Montreal Biosphere

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

-Buckminster fuller

Figure 29. Geodesic dome by Buckminster fuller in Montreal, Canada

Location

-Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal, Canada

Year of completion

-1967

Architect

- Buckminster Fuller

typology

-museum

Programme

-exhibition centre

Architect Buckminster fuller is known for his design of geodesic domes, one of those known by the name the Montreal biosphere served at the world exposition of 67’ held in the united states. The volume contained within it is so spacious that it comfortably fits a 48

seven-storey exhibition building featuring the various programmatic elements of the exhibit. Another notable feature while it was part of the exposition was the monorail route that passed though the structure for visitors to experience the dome in that journey.

Geometrically, the dome is an icosahedron, a 20-sided shape formed by the interspersion of pentagons into a hexagonal grid. Originally it had acrylic face on the surface but later a fire destroyed it. This lattice-type structure is created entirely of three-inch steel tubes, welded at the joints and thinning gently toward the top of the structure so as to optimally distribute forces throughout the system. This made it a very light weight structure overall.

Figure 30. Icosahedron joints

Figure 31. EXPOSITION OF 1967

Figure 32. Section of Montreal biosphere

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The idea was to create a regulated environment within a well-structured geometry that is sustainable as well as easy to mass produce as a blueprint design. The design works to provide an internal shading system as well. It showcases the futuristic ideologies inherited by the architect in the post war modernism that intended to understand and navigate the complex interrelationships of society, technology and environment. The internal exhibition building also featured the longest escalator built at that time which was 37 m long.

Figure 33. Plan of Montreal biosphere

Architects have always attempted to visualize future for us, this design is one of the visionaries during the modernist era to create a sustainable and futuristic design that broke the conventional design theories, it became an ideal project for its unique materiality and geometry as well as a vey ahead of its time design intervention.

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6.3.

Case study 5- Netherlands pavilion by MVRDV

Figure 34. External view of Netherlands pavilion

Location

-Hannover, Germany

Year of completion

-2000

Architect

- MVRDV

typology

-Experimental

programme

-Exhibition space

Expo 2000- ‘Humankind-Nature-Technology’ The Netherlands Pavilion at the 2000 World Expo sought to reflect on this ‘new nature’: a mix of technology and the natural, emphasizing nature's make-ability and artificiality.

MVRDV’s pavilion revealed that technology and nature need not be mutually exclusive; 51

that they can - and should - reinforce one another. “At its conception Expo 2000 presented a yet untested typology and thus functioned as a laboratory; an experimental landscape.

The proposal not only saved space but saved energy, time, water and infrastructure. A mini-ecosystem or future survival kit it explored how to ensure adequate light and address a lack of land. Expo 2000 is as a symbol for the multi-faceted nature of society: it presents the paradoxical notion that as diversity increases, so too might cohesion.”20 Expo’s Dutch theme, ‘holland creates space.’

Rather than occupying the full site, six Dutch landscapes were stacked into a tower on one portion of the site, while the remainder of the area became an open outdoor space within the expo grounds. representing a country defined by its lack of land, the pavilion conveyed the liberating message that nature can be created artificially and stacked vertically. It became a key reference for sustainable design, presenting an ideal of a building as a selfcontained ecosystem, incorporating nature and generating its own internal resource cycles.

Dividing up the space and arranging it on multiple levels surrounds the building with spatial

events

and

other

cultural

manifestations. The building becomes a monumentalised multi-level park. The fact that this kind of building does not yet exist means that it also gets to function as a laboratory. It not only saves space, literally it

also

saves

energy,

time,

water,

infrastructure. Of course, it also tests existing qualities: it attempts to find a solution to a possible lack of light and land.

At the same time the density and the diversity Figure 35. Sectional view of Netherlands pavilion

20

of

functions

builds

connections, new relationships.

MVRDV

52

new

3

6

2

5

1

4

Figure 36. Zoning, stacking and floor plates of the Netherlands Pavilion

Each floor represents a type a landscape namely- dunes, greenhouses, pots, forest, dike, polder. Similarly, each floor plate has a quality of its own. It can therefore serve as a symbol for the multi-faceted nature of society: it presents the paradoxical notion that as diversity increases so too, seemingly, does cohesion. The visitors were taken to the top floor with the elevators and then they were allowed to proceed downwards through six flights of stairs placed externally. The Dutch Pavilion is primarily a concrete and steel structure. However, the fourth story, which houses a small forest, also utilizes timber in the form of whole structural logs that preserve their appearance as trees with the retention of their bark. The floor plates are arranged such that it expresses a form of compartmentalised public spaces, stacked on one another vertically. The building is 53

Topped off with operating wind turbines that provides power to the entire building. The structure fully embodies dreams of an ecologically informed future. Another factor that it embodies is, perhaps in the near future extra space will be found not just by increasing the city’s width but by expanding it vertically.

This project attempted to build this multi-faceted relationship between unconventional collage of things that exists together on a similar narrative and bring about a platform to experiment programmes. When a building breaks out of a conventional framework it caters to large arena of disciples, allowing more experimentations within it possible.

Another possible insight would be the breaking of stereotype that you necessarily need a land/substrate for landscaping.

Renovation Plan

Figure 37. Proposed extension to the Netherlands pavilion

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With the revitalization, the MVRDV team seeks to convert the former expo pavilion into a co-working office building, with two new buildings to be added to the space surrounding the pavilion. One of these new buildings will contain student housing and the other will host offices and parking. With its third level forest, MVRDV’s design maintains the qualities that made the pavilion an icon of the 2000 world expo and reinterprets the original project’s concept for the two new buildings. An addition of Two stepped buildings is done on the perimeter of the original site. The two new buildings add student housing — in the larger building — with offices and parking in the smaller building. these form perimeter blocks around the site, stepping down to create an entry point on the west of the site that provides access to the centralized landscaped courtyard.

Every roof is used as a public park keeping the original ideas intact, and these stepped roofs surround the building opening up more space to public domain.

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6.4.

Case study 6- Fun Palace

Figure 38. Fun palace by cedric price

Location

-Paris

Year

-1963 (unbuilt)

Architect

-Cedric price

typology

-Museum

Programme

-Exhibition centre

Improvisational architecture The Fun Palaces is an annual, free, nationwide celebration of culture at the heart of the community, using arts, science, craft, tech, digital, heritage and sports activities as a catalyst for community engagement. The Patterns of utopia are conceptualized as guidelines that help the integration of social imagination into the design process. A construction that is in the endless process of construction, assembly and disassembly. In this design, the important point is spatial uncertainty. The Fun Palace (Entertainment Palace), initiated by British architect Cedric Price and theatre director Joan Littlewood, is

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an architectural and technological experiment. The aim of Fun Palace is to create a new experimental, improvised architectural language by creating architecture and technology. Fun Palace is not a conventional building, but a machine that adapts to cultural and social conditions a unique synthesis of a wide range of contemporary discourses and theories, such as the emerging sciences of cybernetics, information technology, and game theory, Situationism, and theatre to produce a new kind of improvisational architecture to negotiate the constantly shifting cultural landscape of the post-war years.

The theatrical brief Joan Littlewood had conceived of a new kind of theatre designed to awaken the passive subjects of mass culture to a new consciousness. Her vision of a dynamic and interactive theatre provided the programmatic framework on which Price would develop and refine his concept of an interactive, performative architecture, adaptable to the varying needs and desires of the individual. She envisioned an ideal realization of Brechtian theatre as a place of cultural bricolage where people could experience the transcendence and transformation of the theatre, not as audience, but as players and active participants in a drama of self-discovery.

Figure 39. Three-dimensional matrix of learning and leisure environment.

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Structural Workability Cedric Price received help from Frank Newby, a construction engineer when designing Fun Palace. Newby and Price have constructed a structural system of 14 parallel-line service towers, consisting of nested frames called Newby's tartan grid. Stairs, elevators, electrical cables and mechanical installations are placed in square-shaped towers. The structure is approximately 237 meters long and 109 meters wide. There are two gantry cranes inside this entertainment factory and the modules inside the building are transported by these cranes. The stairs and walkways inside the building are designed to move. Users can create new spaces by changing the stairs, walls and platforms inside the building. All structural elements inside the Fun Palace should be able to respond to the wishes of the users. The solution to this was cybernetics and game theory.

Figure 40. Fun palace plan showing "tartan grid". Pivoting stairs and escalators provide access to upper floors

To complete the project, and to induce cybernetics, the specific areas where mathematical models were needed1.Fun Palace and environment, visit schemes 2.Mechanical and architectural calculations: capacity etc.

3.Specific participatory activities, interactive activities 4.Individual scenarios: teaching machine etc.

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5.Controlled group activities 6. Communication and information systems 7. Environmental Variables for Various Users 8. Cybernetic art forms.

9. determination of what is likely to induce happiness.

The activities that the fun palace might have housed or stimulated were – Eating, Ski practice, Drinking, Bowling, Go-karting, Dancing, Music concerts, Resting, Country dancing, Drama and operatics, Archery, Son et lumière 21 , Swimming, Photography, Restoration of vintage cars, Voice patterns, Finger painting, Mutual admiration.

Figure 41. Sectional drawing of Fun palace.

21

Sound and light show

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Figure 42. Organisational scheme of fun palace

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Conclusion Machines were taking over everything post world war two. Leisure became a trending aspect to indulge people, which blurred the boundaries between work and leisure. What stands out in this idea is the factor of experimentataion that is indulged for the varied activities to take place. Only the external steel frames are fixed rest of the elements like crane modules staircases move along for activities to be held. Not just flexibility in the form but it allows a ability of varying public movement pattern, through mechanical movemnets. Therefore it is termed as socially interactive machine, not a museum, nor a school, theatre, or funfair, and yet it could be all of these things simultaneously or at different times.

Figure 43. Structural drawings of fun palace

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7. The architecture of pre-fabrication22 Prefabricated housing was popular during the Second World War due to the need for mass accommodation for military personnel as a means of quickly and cheaply providing quality housing as a replacement for the housing destroyed. Later, Prefabricated buildings served as an inexpensive and quick way to alleviate the massive housing shortages associated with the wartime destruction and large-scale urbanization and migration to the cities.

The pioneering concept of ‘Dom-Ino’

Figure 44. DOMINO house prototype

The ‘Dom–Ino’ house of Le Corbusier from 1914 is the prototype of prefabrication. The basic task was the creation of easily reproducible and mass produced ‘base components’ as the elements for batch production. In this way a system, which was based on a concrete framework consisting of horizontal concrete slabs supported with pillars settled on concrete footings and connected with cantilever stairs was created.

22

Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The units generated out of fixed components.

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The building was called an icon of modernity because it was the first one which separated ‘the structure from the envelope’, and offered an open floor plan, devoted to any arrangements of the interior space. The plan was independent of construction.

Additionally, the stairway gave a possibility of access to one side of the structure on all levels. It was a prototype of the building which was not fulfilled; however, further concepts and projects of Le Corbusier developed his original idea. One example is the Maison Citrohan from 1920 and other villas from the 30s, for instance, Villa La Roche, Villa Cook and Villa Savoye. Now that the structural component becomes independent of the façade, it becomes an important design element to work with. Be it creating green façade or kinetic façade it has given our buildings a personality of its own.

Figure 45. Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier

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Geodesic dome by Buckminster fuller Buckminster Fuller is known as an inventor and a futurist for his concepts of spaceship earth23, ephemeralization24, dymaxion25 etc. Although never built, the Dymaxion's house design displayed forward-thinking and influential innovations in prefabrication and sustainability. Not only would the house have been exemplary in its self-sufficiency, but it also could have been mass-produced, flat-packaged and shipped throughout the world.

Geodesic dome is another one of his inventions. The geometry of this dome allows light weight easy to construct structural system of prefabricate parts. It has a structural merit of containing most volume with the least surface area. It also allows uniformity in the temperature with maximum gain of solar energy and light.

Illustration 8. Range of geodesic domes by Buckminster Fuller

23

Spaceship earth is a worldview encouraging everyone on Earth to act as a harmonious crew working toward the greater good.

24 Ephemeralization, a term coined by R. Buckminster Fuller, is the ability of technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing."

25 Dymaxion is a term that Buckminster Fuller associated with much of his work—prominently his Dymaxion house and Dymaxion car. Dymaxion, a portmanteau of the word’s dynamic, maximum, and tension sums up the goal of his study, "maximum gain of advantage from minimal energy input.”

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Also, a large space flexibility is obtained. One of his study involves an idea of covering a portion of Manhattan with a dome. He essentially proposed it to regulate climactic conditions and reduce the amount of energy input.

Future of prefabricated architecture The composite structural system is the recent growing industry, where the two different materials are bound together so strongly that they act together as a single unit from a structural point of view. Lightweight composites often outperform wood, masonry and steel, achieving a lower carbon footprint because the heavier traditional materials require more energy to manufacture, transport, assemble and support. Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) is a composite material constituting a polymer matrix blended with certain reinforcing materials, such as fibres. Fibre reinforced plastics can be as strong as some metals but they are much lighter and therefore more fuel efficient. It is possible to employ composite materials as structural system due to technological advancements. As now there is a need for larger and more flexible interior spaces.

Carbon fibre26 is being increasingly used to replace steel and aluminium in construction as its low weight and has high load bearing capacity. The addition of carbon fibres to plastic resins is becoming a widely used strategy to enhance the mechanical properties of 3D printed parts. What takes prefabrication at the next level is the technology of 3d printing.

3D printing is a type of additive manufacturing that can be used to rapidly fabricate components with highly customizable geometries, most typically using a layer-by-layer fabrication process Most 3D printers capable of processing composite materials are based on the polymer-extrusion process, known as Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). In addition to FFF 3D printing, a few companies have developed an approach which combines composite 3D printing with robotics. Such a combination provides greater flexibility in terms of geometry, since the robotic arm can move along multiple axes, and the possibility of printing larger parts.

26

Carbon Fiber is a polymer made of thin, strong crystalline filaments of carbon that is used to strengthen material.

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Figure 47. modular and prefabricated units of vale de cambra

Figure 46. Competition entry for Colony on Mars

Modular building A modular building is a prefabricated building that consists of repeated sections called modules. Modularity involves constructing sections away from the building site, then delivering them to the intended site. For buildings of 6 to 10 storeys height, a vertical bracing system is often located around an access core, and assisted by horizontal bracing in the corridor floor between the modules. For taller buildings, a steel podium frame may be provided on which the modules are stacked and supplemented by a concrete or steel core.

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Figure 48. clockwise from left- modular building units’ assembly, Modules supported by long spanning cellular beams to create, open plan space at the lower levels, instant cookie cutter template for modules

Metabolist architecture Among many, one of the most influential representatives of the Modern movement that promoted credo of flexibility were the Metabolists. Metabolism was glorious Japanese architectural movement of 20th century that had envisioned a new direction for architecture and urbanism. The first Japanese architecture movement after the World War II, it aimed to achieve synthesis and harmony of tradition, technology, human and nature. Metabolists envisioned the cities of the future as flexible and expandable structures that remind the process of growing organisms. In their opinion the traditionally fixed forms and functions were out-dated. Metabolism: the design of long-term structures to support short-term components. It was based on achieving organic growth in megastructures using the properties of prefabrication and modularity in architecture.

“The philosophy of metabolic design is based on exchangeability, modular buildings, prefabricated parts and capsules. The units move, change or expand according to the needs of the individual, thereby creating organic growth”27

27

Pilar Echavarria, Portable Architecture – and Unpredictable Surroundings 2005, p.24

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The Nakagin capsule tower was conceived out of two towers that was attached with capsules that can be used as apartments and studios. These cubical capsules were made out of bolted steel frame and reinforced steel panels, that is supposed to be bolted to the tower and could be detached and attached easily. This makes the building renewable within itself. The building

celebrates

the

idea

of

interchangeability and flexibility through the capsule, and its history reflects the rise and fall of Metabolism’s technological utopias.

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Figure 49. Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa

8. Progress and prospect of future

8.1.

Progress with technology

Science and utopia are both intertwined, as they both strive for a new advanced version of the current society. One imagines a perfect scenario while other becomes a medium to express materials and technology of future, or vice versa where the science advancements are based on reference of the speculative imagination of tomorrow.

Space X founder and Lead Designer Ellon Musk announced the most ambitious plans yet for the colonization of planets and satellites beyond Earth, including the establishment of a lunar base and a permanent mars colony by 2022. Hyperloop is another one of the futuristic inventions that enables transportation at a hypersonic speed, while also being energy efficient. It was first developed as a concept of “fifth mode of transport” 28 .

Hyperloop is a sealed tube or system of tubes with low air pressure through which a pod may travel substantially free of air resistance or friction.

Mobile phones have replaced all aspects of our lives and the same device is now used to control our surroundings. There are specialized systems that control all conditioning of the interiors from one device, on just some clicks. Smart city works on the similar lines. A city that adapts to your needs, provides you information that is tailored as per you needs.

28

The four modes being airways, railways, waterways and underground, Ellon Musk came with this new idea of transportation in 2012.

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8.2.

Changing needs of dynamic society

The architecture of change is the new means to help sustain our adaptability with the environment. It supports transience in the modern life and brings about impermanence in the society as the new paradigm shift. We see architecture as a synonym to permanent built in the city which is the source of development of the city and the sole purpose of the building is to create a statement or impression. Along with this chunk in the city lies a transforming temporary in nature fast and fleeting pop-up shops, recreational spaces for people, markets and mobile houses, which can be termed as more impermanent. With notion of development there is abrupt changes that happen to attain a technologically advanced position over all but it also tests the Capacity to adapt. With society being converted to what is termed as dynamic society which is the outcome of adaptability in change, this position demands for a constant upgradation of what is existing for the sake of consumerism. Consumerism has a high exposure in the mass media and what is trending becomes the most feasible solution to adapt to. It leads to mass production. The constant upgradation in the time frame sets the criteria to develop a manufacturing and expiry date of everything. This results to obsoleting of many things. This transformation to avoid obsolescence can be seen by tracing out future prospect of smaller entities in the city.

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Illustration 9. future of the small entities- a tea shop

To understand what is happening to us as we move into the age of super-industrialism, we must analyse the processes of acceleration and confront the concept of transience. If acceleration is a new social force, transience is its psychological counterpart, and without an understanding of the role it plays in contemporary human behaviour, all our theories of personality, all our psychology, must remain pre-modern.

When looked upon a particular change that has happened it is almost impossible to gulp the instant end product that is why it is important to understand the span of time in which the change has occurred and so does the process matter. Without time, change has no meaning. Time can be conceived as the intervals in which change occurs. Simultaneously intervals in different events that has occurred can help in building a conclusion of development. Any process in employment and deployment helps us understand the extensions that can be added within to function the built more efficiently, such changing

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or incrementing setup is an end to the permanent rigid structure providing more adaptivity and an ephermal29 background.

In context of the mode of the building designed it can be distinguished as static or dynamic permanence. The static permanence deals with more traditional qualities like linear continuity stability and tangible to create mass and solidity with is eternal in nature.

Dynamic permanence involves a flexibility of location and dispersion of distinct parts, each enduring in potentially unique applications and locations from their origin. Dynamic permanence breaks down the building into individual components, each with its own potentially unique and enduring path. Architectural manifestations of dynamic permanence include “disassembly design”, “diversified lifetimes” and “rematerilization”.

Architect Dr. Philip Crowther defines ‘disassembly design’ as a process where buildings are designed in such a way that they may eventually be carefully taken apart so that the materials may be reused or recycled. He describes the ideal disassembly as being the “exact opposite of the assembly process”, as opposed to demolition, it is a careful and time-consuming process of dismantling. The temporary architecture is now providing opportunities to experiment with materials and forms and buildings relationship to its surroundings.

As the new things are derived it is reflected in all life forms and so does it reflect in the built around us. The advancements are adapted. Here comes a question of how do we sustain with existing built fabric? Or should we at all be using the existing outmoded environment to upgrade it. Demolishing something, or subtracting something from the built environment, which is non-functional and its physical form being not compatible with the changing environment in a time frame, could even be seen as a tool, a productive intervention itself towards the built environment. On the other hand, an obsolete structure can have an adaptive reuse of it with temporal functions and flexible spaces put in to it. As the human relation to the commodity is ephermal so does the respond of the build towards its users should be to suffice the constant development overall.

29

Anything that lasts for a very short period of time.

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9. Vertical cities The world exposition saw a competition between various countries to erect the tallest man-made structure ever made. Eiffel tower was built with a similar intent to create a symbol of technological advancement in the construction industry using lightweight materials like steel and glass. It was later replaced by Chrysler building in New York and then an even taller empire state building was erected, and the list goes on. The meaning of skyscraper was a building that exceeded 10 to 12 floors but now it means a structure that exceeds 40 to 50 floors. It has evolved in years with advancing construction technology, and better resistance to seismic and wind loads.

What arranging entities in a vertical orientation does is decreasing the overall footprint and avoiding the unorganized horizontal expansions on the city fabric.

Also, a common service core can be spread across these entities.

Illustration 10. Experimenting with vertical orientation of entities.

Right from the time when the skyscrapers were erecting, architects and city planners have envisaged a time when entire cities might be housed in one building. A city consists of comfortable housing that is also connected to social amenity spaces, service-based centres, in short, a combination of spiritual, commercial and social spaces. A city should therefore respond to this multifunctionality to its inhabitants and also provide a

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comfortable living environment with easy accessibility to all services. Modernist utopian Paolo Soleri sought to reconnect city life with nature under his concept of Arcology.

Arcology was Soleri’s antidote to the inherently wasteful, inefficient, and resourceconsuming effects of urban sprawl. The most recognizable of Soleri’s concepts was his Hexahedron Arcology, a highly dense, 900-meter structure in the shape of two offset inverted pyramids that incorporated passive solar technologies to generate energy and reduce dependency on resources. The megacity would not be placed in a high ended perfectly landscaped plot but rather will be in to the wilderness, providing an equal opportunity for dwellers of both cities and the country side. School offices and cultural centres are placed in a compact formation and on the deeper layers exits factories, warehouses and heavy industry. The whole of the structure ats as an organism where the skeleton is the city and the heavy industry at the bottom digest and pumps and regenerates the organism.

Figure 50. Hexahedron Arcology section, Paolo Soleri

With increasing needs of the dynamic society cities are cluttered with all sorts of infrastructure, at all possible vacant spaces. Since half the population lives in urban cities and more and more are moving towards them for job opportunities and to have a better 74

life, there is a land scarcity in our urban hubs. Vertical construction therefore a solution to cater to overcrowding. Also, a horizontal expansion will mean the depletion of more natural resources. But the question here is, can a building really replace an entire city?

This question too is answered by means of technology.

Mobile phone has replaced most of our materialistic things, similarly a high-tech building can replace most of our systems that initially existed in different parts or different locations. For example, no availability of subsoil can enable vertical farming through the help of aeroponics (see chapter Eco futurism). With such a huge scale the mobility within the structure becomes an important aspect. MULTI elevators 30 can allow rope free elevators, and multiple cars can be moved in a common shaft using motors and pneumatic process alone.

Figure 51. Multi elevators (Thyssen group Germany)

The main aspect of creating these vertical cities is to create less impact on our environment and so the goal is to make these structures entirely self-sustaining. Building upward instead of outward enables us to host vast amounts of people in a small footprint, while conserving land and natural resources. Vertical cities could also have other environmental benefits. Having numerous services and amenities in these megatowers would reduce the need for driving, reducing emissions associated with cars and saving residents money. With technology it is possible for structures to create their own electricity through solar panels and wind turbines part of the building environment itself.

30

MULTI is the world’s first cable-less elevator that moves not only vertically but also horizontally. It works with linear motor technology. It is developed by a Germany based company.

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Vertical city is grouping together aspects of a human life in to one entity which a manmade sustainable environment. In a vertical city, people would live, work, and go to school. Internal temperature control, artificial sunlight are some aspects are supposed to be worked out.

As new technologies advance, urban typologies change constantly: commercial spaces have a stronger

focus

on

customer

experience;

workspaces are more diverse and activity-based; housing will have more communal amenities; entertainment will be virtual-based and not dependent on space; wellness will grow on importance; and greenery and food supply will be incorporated into the urban structure. Building itself will the source of power too.

Figure 52. Shibuya hyper cast 2, a futuristic vertical city for Tokyo by Noiz architects

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10. Buildings that transform cities

10.1. Through Architecture Case study 7– Pompidou centre

"Technology cannot be an end in itself but must aim at solving long term social and ecological problems."- Richard rogers

Figure 53. Pompidou centre west front facade

Location

-Paris, France

Year of completion

-1976

Architect

- Richard rogers and Renzo piano

typology

-high tech urban centre

Programme

-modern art museum

Designed as an “evolving spatial diagram” by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, the architecture of the Centre Pompidou boasts a series of technical characteristics that 77

make it unique in the world – the inspiration, even the prototype, of a new generation of museums and cultural centres. It is distinctive firstly in the way it frees up the space inside, with each floor extending through the building entirely uninterrupted by load-bearing structures.

The building shares its space with a public library, a centre of industrial design, museum of modern arts, and a centre of music and acoustic research. The exterior consists of escalator running through six floors of the building, which is covered with plexiglass that enables this service unit to be visible on the outside. Another notable feature is the huge paved piazza that acts as a building frontage for the high-tech nature to be perceived and also to allow cultural events in the city to take place.

Figure 54. Pompidou centre section

Two basement levels and one ground floor are reserved for services and technical infrastructure. The seven-story superstructure is made up of glass and steel. The floors are reinforced concrete. The structural systems and the services are placed completely detached to the interior spaces for barrier free open plan spaces.

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Figure 55. Pompidou centre services.

Pompidou centre is the first major example of an 'inside-out' building in architectural history, with its structural system, mechanical systems, and circulation exposed on the exterior of the building. Initially, all of the functional structural elements of the building were colour-coded: green pipes are plumbing, blue ducts are for climate control, electrical wires are encased in yellow, and circulation elements and devices for safety (e.g., fire extinguishers) are red. According to Piano, the design was meant to be “not a building but a town where you find everything – lunch, great art, a library, great music”.

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Figure 56. Pompidou centre floor plans

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Figure 57. Pompidou centre floor plans

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Figure 58. The construction sequence was bay by bay instead of floor by floor for the full height of the structure.

The main structure – a permanent steel grid – provides a stable framework into which the moveable parts, including walls and floors, can be inserted, dismantled and re-positioned as necessary. The components and connections are of a scale rarely seen in the construction industry – massive steel elements were fabricated in off-site foundries and delivered by truck to the site during the night. The six-storey superstructure consists of thirteen bays and was constructed of 16,000 tons of cast and prefabricated steel with reinforced concrete floor sections. The two main structural support planes comprise a series of 800 MM diameter, spun-steel, hollow columns, each of which supports six gerberettes, or brackets. One end of each gerberette is connected to an outer tension column, while the other supports a steel lattice beam. The stability of the building is achieved through diagonal bracing in the long façades and by stabilised end frames. The cladding is a curtain wall of steel and glass, mixing glazed and solid metal panels hung from the floor above to keep them structurally separate from the façades, and therefore easily changed.

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Figure 59. The external circulation system of Pompidou centre giving a view of piazza and the skyline of Paris.

The building was to have had no main entrance in the traditional manner, rather a permeable ground floor where entrance to all parts of the building could be made.

However, the fundamental arrangement of the building and its relationship with the city remained as the architects intended. The entrance to the building is at the level of the street and the piazza and relates to the life of both. Alternative access is via the lifts, escalators and staircases attached to the west façade. Each of the five major floors are uninterrupted by structure, services or circulation.

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10.2. Through programme Case study 6- Plug-in city

Figure 60. Prefabricated service components of plug-in city

From previous examples of Archigram it is evident of the experimental architectural that the group visioned of alternative urban scenarios that flied in the face of the superficial formalism and dull suburban tendencies common to modernism of the time. This provocative project suggests a hypothetical fantasy city, containing modular residential units that “plug in” to a central infrastructural mega machine. The Plug-in City is in fact not a city, but a constantly evolving megastructure that incorporates residences, transportation and other essential services--all movable by giant cranes. concerns of modernism lay at the heart of Plug-In City’s theoretical impulse, not limited to the concept of collective living, integration of transportation and the accommodation of rapid change in the urban environment.

As well as hosting private homes, the architects envisaged the megastructures featuring a host of elevated public spaces. "Unlike traditional, existing cities – which are basically

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two-dimensional with buildings extruded up from the ground plan – we were looking at an alternative way of putting a city together, where it would be possible to have open spaces at upper levels,"31. The megastructure consisted of access systems, diagonal lifts, and the servicing elements that bring up food and water and take-out rubbish.

Figure 61. Plugin city- a framework that can withhold all the services along the diagonal pneumatic pipes and then substructure is inserted in to this framework with respect to needs of the city.

Through plug-in city and similar projects like this one, Archigram tried to depict the prefabrication construction method in a more distinctive framework rather than the preconceived notion of mass-produced components. The mega structure then was divided further in to substructures that carried prefabricated dwelling capsules. The concept aimed to give people more flexibility and choice in the design of their home, allowing them to customise the capsules and easily replace them when required. These capsules varied in sizes and could be replaced. Another notable feature was the depiction of a permanent "crane way" that would facilitate continual rebuilding. Which makes it a permanent and moreover an essential part of the building. Mobility also is an essential component of the design. The network would include a high-speed monorail, and

31

Dennis Crompton, Archigram, about the concept of plug-in city associated with a high-rise megastructure.

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hovercrafts would serve as moving buildings. The motor transit is also given an importance by provision of stacked parking spaces.

Figure 62. Cross section of the Plug-in city

Peter Cook's cheerful, colourful drawing is accessible and inviting. It conveys complexities of the design in a more interesting, visually appealing manner. The comic book style popular with Archigram members, and characteristic of the counterculture of the 1960s, conveys a youthful excitement with form in a technologically enhanced world.

What Archigram designed was a nomadic alternative to traditional ways of living, dividing the megastructure in to different nodes (houses, offices, supermarkets, universities). They dreamt of including wearable houses and walking cities—mobile, flexible, impermanent architecture and hoped that it would be liberating, and respond to the ever-evolving changing societal needs.

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10.3. Economic instigator Case study 7- Guggenheim museum

Figure 63. Guggenheim museum port side view

Location

-Bilbao, Spain

Year of completion

-1997

Architect

- Frank Gehry

typology

-Museum

Programme

-Exhibition centre

Experiment in design Guggenheim museum is built in Bilbao’s dilapidated port area, which was once the city’s main source of income. Appropriately, the museum became part of a larger redevelopment plan that was meant to renew and modernize the industrial town. Almost immediately after its opening in 1997, the Guggenheim museum became a popular tourist attraction, drawing visitors from around the world. The building stands out for its experimental design idea with materials like titanium glass and limestone. The finish of the approximately 33,000 extremely thin titanium sheets provides a rough and organic effect, adding to the material’s colour changes depending on the weather and light 87

conditions. The other two materials used in the building, limestone and glass, harmonize perfectly, achieving an architectural design with a great visual impact that has now become a real icon of the city throughout the world.

The complex design as well as orientation and number of bars to be put in the structure was intervened with the help of 3-d software. It also helped in positioning of different titanium sheets at their place. One of the marvels of deconstructivism in architecture, this museum is seamlessly integrated in the urban fabric.

Figure 64. Guggenheim museum sections.

Gehry tried to involve the project within a larger urban scheme, revitalizing the waterfront and exploring the places from where better views could be enjoyed. Both the atrium and the galleries space visually integrate to the external landscape and incorporate the cityscape as part of the building component.

Economic instigator The socio-economic impact of the museum has been astounding. During the first three years of operation, almost 4 million tourists visited the museum—generating about 500 million in profit. Furthermore, the money visitors spent on hotels, restaurants, shops and transport collected over 100 million in taxes, which more than offset the cost of the building. The museum became a great replacement of the dilapidated port area. This revitalization effort for the city of Bilbao became a great success and therefore it is named as ‘The Bilbao effect.’

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11. Events that transform cities Case study 10- Instant city, Archigram “Cities have provided society with a physical centre—a place where so much is happening that one activity is stimulated by all the rest. It is the collection of everything and everyone into a tight space that has enabled the cross stimulus to continue. Trends originated in cities. The mood of cities is frantic. It is all happening—all the time. However decadent society may be, it is reflected most clearly and demonstratively in the metropolitan way of life.”32

Figure 65.Cultural attractions of the instant city.

Year of completion

-1970

Architecture group

- Archigram

32

Peter cook, Archigram

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Typology

-Temporary city (experimental city)

Archigram's Instant City concept is a transportable kit of parts that can be quickly assembled to provide the inhabitants of small towns with access to the resources and cultural attractions of a large metropolis. The idea of instant city is very much inspired by the Archigram’s experience of moving around the world with spreading their ideas.

The narrative Instant city in its raw form was something similar to a cultural circus that could be transported and deployed to various places with kits of the parts. It focused on taking the cultural essence of a metropolitan city to fewer known towns. For an instance these towns would be exposed to city life and its culture. Further the design was developed to be able to be hung from an airship and could be deployed through air within a time span of just few hours. The group also started to extend the Instant City concept as a series of parasitic elements that could enhance existing buildings and structures.

Figure 66. Instant city as a temporary parasite that deploys architectural programmes in the host city.

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Infiltration Instant city superimposes, for a time, new spaces for communication onto an existing city.

This audio-visual environment (of words and images projected onto suspended screens), associated with mobile objects (airships and hot air balloons with tents, pods and mobile homes hanging from them) and with technological objects (gantry cranes, refineries and robots) creates a city that consumes information, one intended for a population in movement. The first step towards network of information, education, leisure and facilities, Instant City is brought to the towns on the edge of a metropolis by a fleet of allterrain vehicles and helicopters. In this way, the local community is integrated into the metropolitan community. This idea of infiltration is intended as a complementary rather than foreign addition to the communities visited so that there is a blend between these two contrasting realities.

Instant City embodies the utopian vision of architecture freed from its foundations, of a flying and aerial city, which transforms architecture into a situation, into a reactive environment. Architecture appears both as a consumer object and as the creation of an artificial environment.

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11.1. Mega-event flagship (MEF) The term “flagship” has come out of its naval realm and into the common parlance in order to define the best or most prominent product, building, service, etc., among a group, series, network, or chain33.The flagship development enables events but also sets the stage for urban renewal in that specific region. It is led by global mega-events such as the Olympics or the Expos. MEF development is envisaged by policymakers as not only a global platform for place branding, but also an event-based mechanism to accelerate the process of urban renewal. Developing a flagship product aims to highlight an organization's core competitiveness and sustain the business by making the most profit among all its products. Having a post event plan. The megaevent is made well versed to attract as many investors as possible for sustaining the post even development.

World expositions The world exposition was initiated as a medium for business and cultural exchange. The progress of nations can be traced through history and the megaevents that initiated the progress. World expositions not only gave us interesting buildings to look at but also an opportunity to look at what is possible in the near future. The event also strives to bring in light the global level problems and create an open platform for nations to discuss them and to experiment with sustainable design ideas. The pavilions from exposition are still standing as urban laboratories, a statement of architectural experimentations. The research also considers a new purpose for the collective construction of our cities.

The utopian model to reinvent the city can therefore be inspired from experimentation of functions that suit the needs of the dynamic city, they will be held under one scheme/theme exploring business science and arts. A platform that can allow the culmination of these programmes can withhold the responsibility of the development in the surroundings. An exposition can allow the structure to be able to host events (for the time it serves) and bring the location that can be later transformed and that can also sustain to transform its surroundings and indulge people in its progress.

33

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus, 2011, Macmillan Dictionary, 2012

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Initially, World exposition saw a competition between various nations to build the tallest manmade structure, with the most unique geometry and newer construction techniques.

Now the competition is about becoming a superpower on the world stage, being able to provide the state-of-the-art exhibition spaces and comfortable transit linkages. Now with advance mediums to reach to the global level, communities can use this platform to express their ambitions.

To further formulate the research, a manifestation is derived that put forth parameters that may be followed for an exposition to take place in a city that is in the developing process to ensure maximum development and a success of a megaevent.

One such example would be the Astana Exposition City 2017 at Kazakhstan. The expo plan was designed in two phases - Phase 1 or the “Expo Mode,” will see the design and construction of the exposition buildings including the central Kazakhstan Pavilion; Theme, Corporate and International Pavilions; as well as hotel, retail, art and performance spaces.

The first phase will also include the design and construction of a series of buildings that will act as a “covered city,” which will include retail, residential and office spaces. Phase 2 or the “Legacy Mode,” will finalize the first Third industrial Revolution community. The Expo buildings will be converted into an office and research park, attracting international companies and entrepreneurs. Expo parking and service zones will be transformed into thriving and first class integrated neighbourhoods including an additional 700 residential units, as well as office, hotels, local markets, and civic and educational facilities.

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Conclusion

Figure 67. “Flip/City”, a proposal by PinkCloud.DK

Architecture is patronage to the radical ideas being lost in Socio, political and economic implications. The ones that made it to the real time are now monumentalized as ideals.

For example, nothing like Pompidou centre (which still looks like a building from future) was ever built again because of its such strong context, it’s very difficult to bring the similar justice to any other place in the city. Buckminster fuller through his design interventions not only came up with unorthodox ideas but also strived to solve global issues through his ideas. Certain forms of experimentations and radical ideas have completely transformed our perception of food shelter and work. For example- with the concept of aeroponics, crops can be grown organically even without a subsoil, and in vertical direction. The vertical orientation of buildings has not only solved the issue of land scarcity but also reimagines the dynamics of a city in a building which is intact in a sustainable ecosystem.

All these experimentations have coexisted to create an image of future. The relevance of each idea to its host city can then be taken in to consideration to generate a narrative that will give rise to the intervention and that will sustain the infrastructure and will initiate the progress of the city around.

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PART III- IDENTIFYING DYSTOPIA

12. Urban dystopian spaces Dystopia is characterised by any negative environmental, political, economic and social issues. In visual arts its usually represented by a dark destructive scenario which is an exhausted version of our current situations like global warming, or depletion of natural resources. Urban hot spots are the protagonist as well as the antagonist of any architectural narrative.

Like other cities, European and Asian, Mumbai has lost its orientation towards its historic city centre and is developing, in the planner’s imagination, into a Metropolitan Region.

The emerging new developments are divided in to zones that serves to the dynamic lifestyle of the city of Mumbai. This question the relevance of the historical parts of the city. At the centre, the most interesting prospects for the city have to do with reclaiming the post-industrial landscapes in the city for public use. It is the Mill Lands and the vast stretch of land along the city’s Eastern Waterfront that are emerging as the focus of this ‘reclaiming’ process, where multiple aspirations, needs, and conflicts are playing themselves out.

The south and central Bombay houses thousands of cessed buildings some being as old as centuries. The main reason of these buildings still occupied is The Rent Act, a legacy of the British Raj, froze rents, made it extremely difficult for landlords to evict tenants and made tenancy inheritable. Freezing the rents to a very smaller amount making the upkeep of the building difficult. Mumbai is the economic capital of India and since the past decade it has seen a massive migration of people to the city for job opportunities. The high density and less area of settlements has reduced the quality of life of the economically weaker sections residing in the city.

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Death of program- Mumbai mills Mumbai mills were integral part of Mumbai’s economy but with industrialization the mills ceased to be profitable. The dilapidated mills in Mumbai has now become a residual space at various parts in the city. Other than creating a nostalgia the dead infrastructure evokes a sense of horror of what future of buildings looks like. The redevelopment process has started and now they are adaptively reused to make malls pubs or restaurants or they are completely redeveloped to make commercial residential infrastructure.

Illustration 11. Dilapidated mills in Mumbai, clockwise from right- Indian united mill, Mukesh mills, century mills, shakti mills

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12.2. Manifestations to rethink our dystopian entities What does a city of tomorrow looks like? The science fiction has fed us with scenarios of extreme utopian/dystopian state of the city we live in. The changes that are happening around are drastic but gradual to be conceived under one subhead of development. There are variety of things that played a role in redefining our cities. These manifestations reimagine for us the buildings of future, and therefore the cities of future.

Flexibility If the building is not able to adapt with the changes around it may face death of function and livelihood. “Flexibility” in architecture, refers to the ability of a building to continuously adapt its space layout and even its structure to evolving needs. The relation between entities is preferred to be temporal to keep up with the dynamics of the life. To serve to such a dynamic living, a flexible approach best fits the requirements of today. For example, with increasing crunch of space the concept of tiny house has become increasingly popular. The entire design revolves around the flexibility that the spaces offer, a built-in cabinet in the day time becomes a bed and provision of sliding screen can create a division between living and sleeping space. Add wheels to the house and the tiny house is now a mobile house. There are rising concerns that built-in technology will be out of date by the time it is constructed or, at least, by the time that a ten-year lease expires. To combat this, designing with flexibility in mind is key. In future, we may see Buildings of the Future being mass-designed with flexibility in mind. Buildings of the Future will no longer be rigid structures that can’t change: by design, they will adapt and their spaces will be adaptable without significant building modifications. This could give rise to a greater degree of modular or off-site construction.

Multifunctionality Very similar to the concept of flexibility, multifunctionality allows different functions to exist in cohesion with each other. The pandemic of 2020 has left people stuck at home, but that didn’t stop the dynamics of life. Our own house became our school, gym, office and leisure space etc. The future of cities is somewhat imagined on the similar lines.

Where on one click you would find everything you need. The physical motion from one place to another will be reduced.

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Work in urban areas Working in the cubicle for several hours of the day is considered toxic for humans. Our working environment is being vastly redefined today. Companies’ hierarchical structures are being flattened everybody prefers to be called by their first name and work is purely based on the expertise basis. Jobs are morphing into project-based activities, with shorter time frames and not permanent jobs. Online platforms for job search enable seamless turnover and reemployment. The community of workers is also now both a physical and virtual reality: online communities play a greater role in the work culture. The work spaces are now less compartmentalized and you can work right from the comfort of your sofa.

Traditional functions are being aggregated into: Open spaces for work, transparent and continuous communal spaces, enclosed meeting rooms. There is a sense of plasticity to every space that can be remodelled according to the employees’ comfort and office requirements. Offices don’t need a physical infrastructure anymore a virtual network is created to coordinate. The concept of WeWork is therefore trending in urban areas as it provides just the right amount of space for everyone right from a freelancer to a start-up or a smaller branch of a big company. As the millennials are now the part of the major working class, their culture and needs are reflected in the kind of spaces they want to work in. Leisure is one important criterion, interactions co working and collaborations has brought more efficiency in the work.

Automation in design The same way the Metabolists34 believed in technology as a catalyser for the Metabolic city, technology is today at a turning point, and could enable a profound shift in the way we build and live. Through the advent of urban analytics and semi-automation, our cities have today more insights and ability to react to the cities’ pulse in a near-to-real time fashion. As we see the trending concept of “smart cities”, the world wide web is making is easier to create an urban utopian city that can structure itself with all the data available at all times. With technological advancements the construction time has also been reduced compared to traditional methods. The entire building is modelled through high

34

Metabolist architects and designers believed that cities and buildings are not static entities, but are everchanging—organic with a "metabolism."

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end software’s and it provides the building experience in real time before even the construction has begun. The energy efficiency the climatology, temperatures all are now compatible with these software’s. With prefabrication and automation, it is now possible to construct almost all parts of the building away from the site and then the process of assembling takes place within hours on site.

Technology driven design We humans are programmed to be attracted by everything that is smart. Right from smart phone to smart homes and even smart cities. The technology is a tool to thrive today. It is possible to equip buildings with the state-of-the-art smart devices that makes the human life easier. It is possible by the very trending concept of the Internet of Things (IoT)35.

Energy usage patterns, temperature trends or people movement throughout a building, all these can be measured through latest technology. Humans as consumers, every product that reaches to them is through this vast network of things that are designed to assist them.

Rethinking urban heat islands.

The metropolitans have a bad reputation of being highly toxic in terms of air quality and environmental impact. The increasing urban heat effect has brough about a revolution in the construction industry of using more sustainable products that has least carbon footprint. Environmental factors have now become an important criterion of material selection. Paolo Soleri through his design of Acrosanti reimagines living in a city. His hypothesis revolves around the term ‘arcology’ that strives to create ‘ecologically lowimpact human habitats’. Acrosanti in its nature is not only very utopian but also acts as an urban laboratory for various functions to take place, which is open to all communities.

The popular concept of ecomodernism argues that human should strive to protect nature and improve human wellbeing by developing and deploying technologies that decouple human development from environmental impacts. At a building scale the demand for low carbon footprint materials have increased and they are adorned with greenery as much

35

The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a paradigm in which objects equipped with sensors, actuators, and processors communicate with each other to serve a meaningful purpose.

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as possible. The current technology has enabled to grow plants away from the subsoil at the high-rise construction too. Hydroponics and aeroponics is the future of farming.

Conclusion Our perception of things is largely based on binaries of good and bad, the developing cities are striving for becoming the ideals- the good place to live in. The changes that entities attain with time and is proportional to the development it has gone through. If the city is not able to attain these changes in the given amount of time it becomes primitive, and soon may become dystopian. Technology becomes the aid in the development process.

But the design shouldn’t be technology centric but rather people centric. Everybody wants to move to the city because of the better lifestyle and better opportunities it has to offer, and so the developing areas want to provide that lifestyle and comfort. It is therefore important to equip cities with design interventions compatible with the future. These interventions are manifestations based on human behaviours, technology, and the changing climatic conditions. These should be used as blueprints, but based on parts to whole approach with proper considerations given to the impact on community and neighbourhood around.

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Illustration 12. Location map for Mohone

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12.3. NRC colony- the stranded city

Figure 68. Stranded NRC colony quarters.

The city of Mohone, around 60 kilometres north-east of Mumbai came into limelight when a major chemical and rayon manufacturing company called National Rayon Corporation (FOUNDER MR. RASHIKLAL CHINAI SHET NOW CALLED NRC Ltd) established their Functional working unit. It is the one of the flag ship company of Duncan Goenka Group manufacturing Viscose Filament Yarn, Nylon tyre cord Fabric and Chemicals such as Caustic Soda, Sulphuric acid, Carbon-di-sulphide etc. The company provided living facilities (apartments, hospital, club, school, shopping) to the employees thus forming the NRC Colony. NRC Ltd, went on to become one of the top companies of India in the early 1970s. Such an establishment resulted in sudden population growth and an opportunity for new businesses. NRC Limited was established in the year 1946 is the one of the flag ship company of Duncan Goenka Group manufacturing Viscose Filament Yarn, Nylon tyre cord Fabric and a few Chemicals. The plant was established in the town of Mohone along the outskirts of Kalyan, Mumbai. The Company's plant is situated on freehold land of about 450 acres and was developed with full infrastructure such as Railway-siding, Water works, Staffs and Officers colony, School, Hospital, Shopping complex. In the 1970’s the company was regarded as one of the top textiles and chemical industry in Maharashtra 102

and it also enabled business in and around the city of Mohone. Mohone's economy was largely depended on National Rayon Corporation.

In the year 2009 the plant faced a major lockout due to consecutive loses faced by the company. By the year 2010 all departments were shut except the power plant that fed water and electricity to the workers quarters. The Goenka group had almost finalised the deal to sell the entire land to Mumbai-based relators Hiranandani. However, stiff resistance from workers' union, which was backed by some political parties, saw the buyers back out. There are still families residing in the staff and workers quarters that refuse to leave the place unless their share of money is paid to them and a rehabilitation is promised.

Figure 69. Dilapidated NRC quarters

Another protest was done by the gram panchayats in Mohone village from whom company has acquired the land 31 years ago. According to them they were promised an employment for the local youth and selling off the land to a development company abandons their community.

As the company is in the state of despair it has become

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hazardous for the environment. Not only the plant but most of the residential complexes social amenities spaces are facing the same abandonment and negligence.

Cultural events at the NRC ground

Figure 70. Celebration of annual festivities at the NRC grounds.

Despite the isolation of the colony, the large 2.5-acre NRC ground is still very functional to host some of the annual religious and sports events. The most popular ones are the Ayappa puja organized by the south Indian community residing in Mumbai. The extensive puja is a three day long public event and sees a flock of devotees coming in and out for darshan throughout the day. The event also sees a large fair indulging people in rides and cultural events. There are fireworks, maha aarti and bhajans organized throughout these three days. It is as if like the city almost comes back to life every year for these three days.

The ground being the only open space in that area it also hosts weddings and sports tournaments.

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The “thieves” of Ambivali

Figure 71. Women of the community- popularly known for shielding the men of the house when police raids are taken place.

In a small portion of the Ambivali lives a migrant community of Indian-Iranis. The community has been categorized as nomads by the state government. The group of nearly 250 families, they are largely infamous for alleged crimes prevailing in Ambivali.

Geographically the migrants are from Baloch which is split between Pakistan and Iran now. They came to India in around 1600’s. The Indian-Iranis have been moving all across Mumbai and have lived in chawls of Vasind, Mulund, Dadar, mumbra, etc in the city of Mumbai. The community has resided in Ambivali since more than 50 years now. According to the community, Despite being in India for more than seven generations now, the society has not accepted them as their own, and they are still deprived from the basic needs of the citizens.

Their homes are frequently raided by police officers when a crime gets registered in the area as they are the easy targets, also because of the bad reputation they have gained since in the past some young members were involved in the chain snatching and pick pocketing business. According to the community the police demands money and gold from them in return to set them free, the kind of amount which they can’t possibly have.

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Most of the older generations of this community are illiterate as they didn’t have required documents and money to complete education. Due to this they never got proper jobs that paid them enough for their family. Neither to get a permanent house. This might be the reason that some portions of the community turned to stealing as their way of earning.

But not all of them are criminals. The community prefers to live in their close knitted circle, they marry within the community and take up small impermanent jobs, and avoid interactions with the outside world with a fear of being misunderstood by them.

Popularly known as the thieves of Ambivali, the Indian-Iranis have now made their way through the neighbourhoods’ undesirable attitude. Today the kids from the community are sent to schools, and there is hope among the community that they will be accepted by the society. Living in darkness for so long awaiting a validation doesn’t the community have an equal right for urban facilities and opportunities.

Figure 72. The chawls of Indian-Iranis

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Unification and integration of vulnerable communities From the above analysis of the National Rayon Corporation colony and its neighbourhood its evident that Dystopia like condition is a breeding ground for crimes and negligence of human quality of life. It also calls for an emphasis that is supposed to be given to not only to the architecture but also to the environmental, social and economic aspects while in the process of urbanization. Community involvement and people’s participation is another way to resolve this issue, to create a more sustainable environment.

Illustration 13. Radial map to understand the surroundings of NRC plant.

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13. Site analysis

Illustration 14. Probable sites for intervention.

Site selection To choose a site the surroundings are considered, the communities residing and the accessibility to the site are few important aspects. The site should be easily accessible should not hinder the existing realities of the city that are prospering and the intervention should be able to subtly fit in coherence with the environment around. The intervention on the site should also be able to refill the void that is created in the colony after the lockout of the company. The three chosen cities lie in and around the Mohone town area to both facilitate the town as well as bring about a commercial profit by bringing in more visitors and investors in to the precinct. Following parameters are taken in to consideration for site selection- the area, surroundings, land use and accessibility.

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Illustration 15. Comparative analysis for site selection.

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Illustration 16. Site surroundings.

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The chosen site (site option 1) is directly next to the Ambivali station. It is surrounded by roads on three sides. The land is where the National Rayon Corporation textile company was built.

The textile and viscous industry consisted of various plants

and

laboratories.

Almost 2/3rd portion of the company

comes

under

urbanisable land in town planning scheme. The site is present at the NRC entrance gate and has entrances from two sides.

The

company

was

connected to a railway line Illustration 17. Existing land use of NRC company

from

the

nearby

line

connection to the central railway line in Mumbai. This railway brought in goods for the company, but later was dilapidated due to lockout.

This railway line becomes an asset to the location since it provides an independent access to the site.

Figure 73. Dilapidated railway line running towards the NRC company

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Accessibility

Illustration 18. Accessibility map to Mohone.

Ambivali popularly known as Mohone by the residents is a small town which falls under the thane district of Maharashtra. It belongs to the Kalyan-Dombivali municipal corporation. It is accessible by the Ambivali central Railway station. Mohone is accessible by road from Kalyan. It also has two alternate routes that lead to Titwala which is famous for the Siddhivinayak Mahaganapati Temple, wherein lakhs of devotees visit this temple every year. Mohone falls next to the Ulhas river which is the west flowing originating from thane creek and flows up to the Vasai creek. The nearest airport is the Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Mohone became a developing town when NRC ltd established its textile unit there. Before that the pockets of land were inhabited by small villages. Mohone’s economy is largely dependent on National rayon corporation but due to the recent lockout the economic crisis has increased.

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Other than the company's employees, outskirts of Mohone has owned farmers, mostly early settlers. These farmers mostly earn their income by selling their crop in major cities like Kalyan and Dombivli.

The suburb is the next probable site for upcoming developments as it is directly connected to the metropolis of Mumbai.

Upcoming developments in Ambivali (Mohone).

Kalyan-Dombivli is one of the 98 cities shortlisted to be developed as a 'Smart City' under the Smart Cities Mission of the Government of India. MMRDA36 has issued Kalyan and Ambivali as third Mumbai with probable sites for infrastructure development. Under the same scheme the Taloja Kalyan metro project is proposed. It is a circular metro loop proposed and is under feasibility surveillance by Delhi metro rail corporation and the work has begun in 2018 to connect Ambivali and Kalyan to the regions of thane and Mumbai.

A multi modal corridor has also been proposed connecting Virar to Alibaug which is a 126 km long expressway joining major national highways. The corridor will consist of eight lane highways and a central metro line. This will enable a connectivity between seven major MMR regions of Virar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Dombivali, Panvel, Taloja and Uran.

The most awaited infrastructure coming up is the Nirmal Lifestyle City in Ambivali West area. The project is known as “Mumbai beyond Thane”. The project offers 26 towers of 25 floors that has apartments buildings with perfect combination of contemporary architecture and features to provide comfortable living. The developments come along with community hall, gymnasiums, club house and grocery shop facilities.

36

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority is a body of the Government of Maharashtra that is responsible for the infrastructure development of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region

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Surroundings and land use

Illustration 19. Surroundings and land use mapping.

The freehold land of 450 acres was designed with full infrastructure such as Railwaysiding, Water works, workers, Staffs and Officers colony, School, Hospital, Shopping complex. Most of the social services are cut-off and infrastructure are in dilapidated condition. The building heights are not more than G + 4 storeys. The NRC school is still functional. There is a shopping complex present just outside the colony gate. The entire Mohone precinct gets its supply of water from the clean water plant present just adjacent to the manufacturing unit. The entire city planning was strategically designed to be well connected to the nearby accessibility points.

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Vegetation

Illustration 20. Vegetation map of NRC colony.

Before the establishment of the National Rayon Corporation in this area, the land of Mohone belonged to the local farmers, who were then compensated for their lands, and promised a job opportunity to build the textile plant. Since then, there has been an increasing urban sprawl in and around the city of Mohone. This led to more and more shrinkage of farmlands eventually giving rise to highly dense settlements around the company and the Ambivali station. People started migrating towards station because that ensured easy access to their jobs in the city. The colony area is set amidst the dense green areas, with trees like goldmohur, banyan and neem lining across the both sides of the street. After the lockout the wild greenery also managed to took over some of the concrete structures that are dilapidated. The main source of the food for this area is the local vegetable vendor. Due to increasing urbanisation of land the farms are shrinking and the urban heat island effect is also increasing.

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14. The narrative

Illustration 21. Skyline of NRC colony.

The dilapidated industrial plant and colony of NRC is abandoned now for 10 years. The megacity that was planned with the establishment of the company’s functioning unit, was intended to create this nearly perfect infrastructure. Home for the workers, education and health facilities, social and communal infrastructure was the by-product of the planning. But due to unfavourable conditions the company couldn’t sustain for long. The living condition are now, non-favourable but still there are families residing in the workers colony because the textile plant was their livelihood. The staff and worker quarters are in dilapidated condition, the hospital is shut down completely, the community places that were thriving then are now abandoned and a sense of despair is spread throughout. There is still a hope in the families to receive something from the organisation that they had been part of for many years. Similar to any other dystopian scenario the town has now fallen a prey to negligence and the development process is at complete halt. The city of Mohone is in the so called “developing process” but since the lockout of the industry not 116

much economic profits have been seen in the city. the land owners are in dispute among themselves and with the company’s workers association. This situation has also caused an increase in the criminal activities happening in the neglected colony area. The maintenance is almost nil and basic services like electricity and water is undersupplied.

Every aspect of the precinct is showing signs of depleting resources. The huge company land that was the source of the people around is like an urban void now, and its renewal can promise the progress around. The expected design intervention should be able to ensures further expansion/development of the precinct around bringing about economical profit, improved hygiene, better lifestyle and more opportunities for the younger generations.

Illustration 22. Accessibility map for Mohone.

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Illustration 23. The narratives by People of NRC.

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15. Design proposal

Illustration 24. Components of architecture

The urban laboratory is an experimental centre in the stranded city of Mohone with the main intent to revive the colony of national rayon corporation. It will inform and facilitate a platform from which to experience and reflect upon utopian ambitions. It also strives to revive the city by providing employment to the locals, enabling experimentations and manufacturing process. It will also initiate community driven business and provide an infrastructure for integration of these communities. This laboratory will enable experimentation on basis of radical approach to design. Experiment with living, working and leisure. Composed from a narrative, the dissertation uncovers and reframes the utopian ideas in relation to design of experimental spaces. The toolkit will enable experimentation with radical ideas of future.

The infrastructure will have to be multifaceted to indulge diversity of functions within itself. Being compatible with state-of-the-art facilities will ensure the progress of the city around. The functions should be both community friendly as well as indulge visitors based on event based mega flagship development.

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The current conditions of the NRC colony quarters are unfavourable for habitation.

The workers colony consists of around 20 buildings out of which 2 are broken and rest are partially dilapidated. Around 18 families still reside in these buildings.

Most of the quarters are empty in the staff colony except for 12 to 13 families that are still residing there. Taking away their homes, nothing would be left for them. An intervention that can enable them a rehabilitation with basic facilities and an opportunity for income support will the ideal solution.

Illustration 25. Occupied NRC colony quarters.

We are moving towards a more ecological future where green is the major aspect to be looked upon. And that combined with technology can ensure us a solution for an even healthier environment. To create an independent ecologically sustainable dwelling, in line with reducing carbon emission, Urban Farming strives to raise the interest of agriculture across the surrounding urban habitat. It is not only an effort to bridge the gap to agriculture but also remains as an initiative to vegetate the environs. HYDROPONICS and AEROPONICS– is a smart way of sustainable cultivation which doesn’t require soil; thus, it aims to increase the excellence of Urban Farming at rooftops and indoors. Urban Farming helps to revamp the elapsed agriculture and increase our quality of living by nurturing this smart way of cultivation.

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16. Programmes

Illustration 26. Programmes for a flagship development

The design intervention is a flagship development project. The urban laboratory should be able to facilitate programmes flexibly that would profit the owners of the land who once went in to despair, also provide to the communities residing in the area. Since the current conditions of the company quarters are not apt for residing, a rehabilitation of the residents of the NRC colony shall be favourable. The company is supposing to pay back the dues to the workers, and that can be in the form of commodities from the developed infrastructure. The intervention should also exert a sense of experimental and utopianism that would attract enthusiasts across to come and experience it. The infrastructure shall also provide a platform for expositions to take place to discuss the design ideas of future that will help for the progress of the city. The design will host a platform for designers and thinkers to collaborate and experiment with design ideas of the future. The place shall be able to initiate thinktanks to conduct experiments and research in their fields that also ensures progress and enlightenment of the city around.

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Illustration 27. Flowchart to explain the stakeholders

Owners- The main reason for the company to shut down was the losses faced by them, and so there is a scope of profit from redeveloping the company land.

Community- NRC colony originally was known for its close-knit community, to revive the colony the community strengthening should therefore be considered. With abandonment a lot of neighbouring communities got affected too and therefore altogether balance is necessary that would uplift the neighbourhood.

Visitors- Visitors strengthen the economy of a place. An infrastructure can play an important role in bringing the place in public domain, eventually promising its progress.

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16.1. Area distribution

Programmes

Area (in SQM)

Laboratories for designers to experiment with prefabrication

– 4,000

Auditoriums and theatres for thinktanks

– 2,000

Discussion and meeting areas

– 1,000

Exposition pavilion- to discuss and display design ideas of the future

– 10,000

Condominiums and Rehabilitation homes

– 10,000

Aeroponics/vertical farms- source of organic food for the centre

– 5,000

Commercial and social spaces

– 5,000

Leisure and recreational spaces

– 3,000

Services, Assembly areas, Store

– 5,000

Total

– 45,000

Illustration 28. Flowchart explaining the programmes

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Illustration 29. The components of toolkit.

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16.2. The toolkit The intervention is based on parts to whole approach of design, where programmes are different parts of the whole urban laboratory. These programmes may exist in more than one form that can be termed as components. These components can exist in a prefabricated toolkit. The kits of the parts format of toolkit will assist in building/rebuilding/sustaining the urban laboratory. This prefabricated framework is a more flexible design solution for the future developing city. this toolkit will help understand the scope of the building and the extent to which it is supposed to be constructed.

The components can be used as commodities by the owners to gain profit. One can buy, invest as well as rent and experience in this urban laboratory. The primary commodities shall include basic requirements of a home, food and job security. The secondary commodities are the ancillary services in the dwelling. The urban lab will have their own unique currency system that is not physical but is based on cloud transactions. The urban lab currency will ensure a more safer transaction system that is both unique and efficient.

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Illustration 30. Illustrations based on commodities.

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16.3. App development

Figure 74. The Urban Lab app

Alpha test37 of the app development Smart buildings integrate technology and the Internet of things. Using technology all aspects of the building can now be programmed. Mobile phones have replaced all aspects of life and the same can be used as a tool for building sciences. An online portal of the infrastructure will help reach to people the components of the building.

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Alpha Testing is a type of acceptance testing; performed to identify all possible issues and bugs before releasing the final product to the end users. Alpha testing is carried out by the testers who are internal employees of the organization.

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Figure 75. Location and upcoming events on the urban lab app

This app/website will help to identify the number of users interested in indulging the urban laboratory. Also, to identify their interests to generate a public participatory design chosen by the people themselves. This will help to generate a data that is the virtual form of the upcoming design even before the construction has begun. It will also help to identify the kind of upgradations that is needed for the rebuilding process to adapt to the changes.

The online portal will look after services like payments, bookings etc. It will publish all the latest newsletters and also provide a events list for interested people to get indulged in.

This platform is also a great opportunity for think tanks to publish their research and organize events.

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This app will help you choose from variety of options of dwellings and will also allow for customisation of your dwellings. People can choose their dwellings according to their needs. They can make a combination of various facilities available in the toolkit.

A custom size and shape will be decided based on the factors like age group, occupation and number of dwellers.

Example- 1.01- House 400 is a customisable dwelling unit of 400 sqm ideally suited for a family of 3 members.

Figure 76. Housing options available at the urban lab app.

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16.4. Utopian Manifestation The manifesto of the urban laboratory is based on following urban utopian radical ideas Arcology, Paolo Soleri- a vertical city that has very less impact on the environment.

Elimination of private automobiles to create a closed knitted and compact city centre.

Instant city, Archigram- a toolkit of parts that transforms suburbs in to a culturally enriched metropolis.

Fun palace, Cedric Price- Cranes and prefabricated modules for learning, creating and individual fulfilment. For architecture to break out of the reputation of being an exhibit.

Geodesic dome, Buckminster fuller- construction of a barrier free, large controlled environment.

Illustration 31. Manifestation of toolkits

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17.Bibliography Grierson David, Unfinished Business at the Urban Laboratory — Paolo Soleri, Arcology, and Arcosanti.

Soleri Paolo, Arcology: The City in the Image of Man. Calvino Italo, Invisible Cities.

Fry Tony, Remaking cities- an introduction to urban metro fitting.

Toffler Alvin, Future Shock.

Kurokawa Kisho, Metabolism in Architecture.

Sadler Simon, Archigram Architecture without Architecture.

Selwyn Neil, a circus of ideas- revisiting Archigram’s visions for education and architecture in the information age.

Torisson Fredrik, -Utopology, A Re-Interrogation of the Utopian in Architecture.

Larissa Acharya, Flexible architecture for the dynamic societies.

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