Illustration 10. Experimenting with vertical orientation of entities

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

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 resource-

consuming 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.

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

Figure 50. Hexahedron Arcology section, Paolo Soleri

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.

Vertical city is grouping together aspects of a human life in to one entity which a man-

made 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.

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

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

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.

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.

Figure 54. Pompidou centre section

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”.

Figure 56. Pompidou centre floor plans

Figure 57. Pompidou centre floor plans

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

hovercrafts would serve as moving buildings. The motor transit is also given an

importance by provision of stacked parking spaces.

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.

Figure 62. Cross section of the Plug-in city

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

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.’

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

Year of completion -1970

Figure 65.Cultural attractions of the instant city.

Architecture group - Archigram

32 Peter cook, Archigram

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.

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 all-

terrain 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.

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

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.

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.

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.