The City and The City | a study of urban topology

The City and The City A Study of Urban Topology

2014 John K Branner Research Fellowship Rudy Letsche

Š 2014 University of California Berkeley College of Environmental Design Department of Architecture John K Branner Travel Research Fellowship

The City and The City A Study of Urban Topology

2014 John K Branner Research Fellowship Rudy Letsche

acknowledgements special thanks to the branner family for the incredible opportunity to travel and research this topic for a year, and to christina huang for helping to coordinate the logistics of funding, leave, etc. thanks to nicholas de monchaux, who furnished me with several local contacts and sources on ideal cities and other topics on urbanism. thanks as well to kyle steinfeld, who helped get me a foothold in these topics. in addition to the one hundred plus new people i met on these travels, i benefited greatly from some key individuals. in barcelona journalist jerry lazar helped me as i tweaked methodology in the first few weeks, and the office of arriola and fiol gave me a warm welcome. in fez i was shown wonderful arabic hospitality from saida benfous and family, mohammed ezzymoussi and the dar rbab staff. in casablanca reda channane took great care of me and made sure I saw more of the city than i would have on my own. in rabat driss benabdallah and his family did the same. thanks to the university toulouse school of architecture for showing me around le miraile quartier, and to jean-henri fabre for sharing archival documents from the construction of the school. in jakarta bahrul wijaksana gave me a lot to think about from one short meeting. in singapore jenn celesia was my rock, while michael weiner of gensler, stefano schiavon of uc berkeley, and andres sevtsuk of city form lab gave me some great insights. in cusco, my time was made special and productive thanks to jean-pierre protzen, german benavente, and julio rojas-bravo. and a special thank you to eduardo for shuttling me to the clinic when we thought I was going to die (we were mistaken). last but not least, thanks to fannie cheung for her loving support and abundant patience.

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contents

abstract literary references

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I.

proposal & methodology

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II.

mediterranean region

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III.

equatorial region

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IV.

latin american region

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V. compendium compressions traces installation

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bibliography

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abstract it is impossible to simultaneously design an entity of complexity such as a city, because architectural space is created by three influences: the designers, the users, and time. if the goal for our cities is to elegantly accommodate more residents, use resources more wisely, and brace against changing climate patterns, then it is crucial to understand the mechanisms at work. what in the city can be ordered and optimized, and what could be left to evolve naturally? where is the line between the ideal and the authentic? how does that line move with physical and cultural latitude? while building codes guide development to some extent, they do not effectively guide collective building form. form-based codes assure density with a particular massing, but are often too restrictive and prohibit the natural evolution of the city. architects must look to the space that is created by built forms - both inside and out - to understand how that space accommodates flows operating in larger networks or patterns. what bigger story are these mechanisms telling us, and how do we find them? some mechanisms like the grid are fairly obvious, but others are most evident in urban topology - where systems overlap or break. urban topology is where the city is changing or has the potential to change.

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by teasing the composed city from the emerged city, or vice versa, we can begin to map what was intended against what actually is there, and trace these differentials back to the flows they accommodate - people, energy, water, and capital. understanding urban topology is key to designing urban resilience. therefore, a study of urban potential lies somewhere between the composed city and the emerged city - between the city and the city. throughout this study i investigate how architecture engages the urban, how the urban engages the landscape, and how technology and data are being engaged to represent, create and enhance the built environment.

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the city & the city two cities actually occupy much of the same geographical space, but via the volition of their citizens (and the threat of the secret power known as breach) they are perceived as two different cities. a denizen of one city must dutifully ‘unsee’ (that is, consciously erase from their mind or fade into the background) the denizens, buildings, and events taking place in the other city — even if they are an inch away. this separation is emphasized by the style of clothing, architecture, gait, and the way denizens of each city generally carry themselves. residents of the cities are taught from childhood to recognize things belonging to the other city without actually seeing them. ignoring the separation, even by accident, is called “breaching” - a terrible crime by the citizens of the two cities, even worse than murder. the twin cities are composed of crosshatched, alter, and total areas. “total” areas are entirely in one city, the city in which the observer currently resides. “alter” areas are completely in the other city, and so must be completely avoided and ignored. between these are areas of “crosshatch”. these might be streets, parks or squares where denizens of both cities walk alongside one another, albeit “unseen.” copula hall exists in both cities under the same name. rather than crosshatch, it essentially functions as a border. it is the only way in which one can legally and officially pass from one city to another. passing through the border passage takes travellers, geographically (or “grosstopically”), to the exact place from which they started - only now in the other city.1

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mielville, china. the city & the city.

invisible city: eudoxia “in eudoxia, which spreads both upward and down, with winding alleys, steps, dead ends, hovels, a carpet is preserved in which you can observe the city’s true form. “at first sight nothing seems to resemble eudoxia less than the design of that carpet, laid out in symmetrical motifs whose patterns are repeated along straight and circular lines, interwoven with brilliantly colored spires, in a repetition that can be followed throughout the whole woof. but if you pause and examine it carefully, you become convinced that each place in the carpet corresponds to a place in the city and all the things contained in the city are included in the design, arranged according to their true relationship, which escapes your eye distracted by the bustle, the throngs, the shoving. “all of eudoxia’s confusion, the mules’ braying, the lampblack stains, the fish smell is what is evident in the incomplete perspective you grasp; but the carpet proves that there is a point from which the city shows its true proportions, the geometrical scheme implicit in its every, tiniest detail. it is easy to get lost in eudoxia: but when you concentrate and stare at the carpet, you recognize the street you were seeking in crimson or indigo or magenta thread which, in a wide loop, brings you to the purple enclosure that is your real destination. “every inhabitant of eudoxia compares the carpet’s immobile order with his own image of the city, an anguish of his own, and each can find, concealed among the arabesques, an answer, the story of his life, the twists of fate. an oracle said that one of the two objects has the form the gods gave the starry sky and the orbits in which the worlds revolve; the other is an approximate reflection, like every human creation. is the true map the carpet, or “the city of eudoxia, just as it is, a stain that spreads out shapelessly, with crooked streets, houses that crumble one upon the other amid clouds of dust, fires, screams in the darkness.”1 1

calvino, italo. invisible cities.

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proposal the difference between the emerged city (dense, traditional, low-rise and sometimes unnavigable) and the composed city (ordered, legible, sometimes sterile) is rich with architectural possibilities. through comparative studies of actual and ideal urban form at similar physical and cultural latitudes, i propose a hybrid form of urbanism that intelligently combines the idealized world of energy flows, circulation and infrastructure, and the real, living tissue of the city. in an era of sweeping, informal urbanization, diminishing resources, and environmental instability, i believe the answer lies not in the city as it is, or in the city as we might like to to be, but in the fruitful co-existence and cross-fertilization of the two - the city and the city.

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the city emerged the emerged city exhibits an urban texture that was created over a long period of time carrying embedded knowledge. these parts benefit from the patina of time - some boast a reclaimed or reused infrastructure that creates a space that is nearly impossible to create in a single, simultaneous design. informal activities and networks are part of this realm.

the city composed the composed city exhibits symmetry or optimized geometry derived from performative requirements like traffic flow, defense, or finance. the modern era brought forth a new urban texture with larger, taller buildings standing alone, like pavilions in ever larger swaths of open land. the walking city gave way to the driving city.

the city intersected where do the emerged city and the composed city coexist? where is one informing the other? where do informal networks and flows infiltrate ideal urban fabric? where is order amid a seemingly chaotic, formless city? where is disorder amid a seemingly ordered city?

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research questions topology in terms of design, usage, and time what is the culture of space in a given city?

: : variation between districts or neighborhoods?

: : mechanisms that carve and hold space?

: : measure for continuity | public-private | individual-collective-corporate

: : architectural typologies created?

: : courtyards | passages | enclaves | slums what is the underlying structure or nature of the city?

: : original settlement, axis, topography, hydrology

how is the urban fabric changed?

: : squeezed | stretched | ruptured | ripped | torn

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research themes formal & informal

: : formal in informal | informal in formal

: : formal to informal | informal to formal

: : networks: physical | visual | aural

light & shadow

: : direct light | reflected light | blocked light total & alter

: : exculsive realms

: : scale | proportion | material | texture crosshatch & breach

: : inclusive realms

: : scale | proportion | material | texture

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mediterranean [jan - may]

spain : : barcelona italy : : rome : : naples : : florence : : san giovanni valdarno : : venice : : palmanova morocco : : fes : : casablanca : : marrakesh : : tetouan : : rabat france : : marseille : : toulouse : : lyon : : paris

tetouan rabat casablanca

fes marrakesh

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paris

lyon

palmanova venice

toulouse marseille

florence barcelona

san giovanni valdarno

rome

naples

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spain : : barcelona

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barcelona, spain barcelona is a city with a few highly distinct districts, offering plenty in the way of urban coexistence and “breach”. : : eixample is barcelona’s modern extension. : : ciutat vella is barcelona’s old town. : : barcino is the original roman settlement.

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the eixample eixample means “extension� in the catalan language. it was a very large urban project that connected several small towns by developing the plain between them with an autonomous system of isomorphic city blocks.

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the city composed a system of chamfered blocks with courtyards oriented to 45 deg optimizes exposure to daylight.

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the city composed every apartment in the entire district will experience this kind of light at some period of the day.

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the city emerged each block was designed to have a communal courtyard, but the courtyards were gradually filled in as the city developed... ...with buildings that required larger footprints (like this skylit grocery store below).

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the city emerged these days, the city is actively clearing the courtyards to restore them to their original intention - green space. several of these are publicly accessible, creating a network of courtyard parks to escape from the noise of the street, walk the dog, read a book, or play on the monkey bars.

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ciutat vella ciutat vella means “old city� in the catalan language. ciutat vella grew in stages - here we see evidence of the city walls, moved outwards two times. the walls prohibited the city from spreading out, resulting in a hyper-densification. when density became too great, the walls were torn down and a new one built. the heavy red lines indicate avenues that were carved out of the dense urban fabric toward the end of the 19th century.

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the city emerged ciutat vella was not designed to optimize exposure to daylight, but there are some surprisingly well lit spaces. reflected light is effective here due to the dense, low-rise fabric and the color of the exterior walls.

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the city emerged the effect is more powerful when the buildings pull back slightly to create a small square.

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the city intersected on the topic of squares, consider this one near a transition of the two fabrics (eixample + ciutat vella). activated by many different itineraries, the space is set up with a break in the dense urban fabric by richard meier’s museum of contemporary art.

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the city intersected skateboarders, tourists, toddlers, strollers, and cafe loungers in a harmonious urban coexistence.

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the city composed barcino is the original roman settlement, over 2000 years old.

image: joan busquets, 2005.

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the city composed the informal activity of roman armies setting up camp became more formal over time, and the layout concepts would become the basis for permanent town settlements throughout the roman empire. characterized by two major cross streets, the decumanus maximus (east/west axis) and the cardo maximus (north/south axis). the cardo-decumanus is a major intersection, where one would find the forum (town square) surrounded by the town’s most important buildings, like courts and temples.

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the city emerged barcino illustrates two simple behavioral phenomena that help shape cities: : : the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. : : sustained informal activities will acquire an architecture over time. those shortcuts that have altered barcino from a grid of roman superblocks to a maze of winding medieval alleyways

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the city intersected the original roman forum temple had been used by medieval builders as structure for their own buildings. until the 1990’s, some lucky people had these enormous capitals in their living rooms! those apartments have been removed and the columns now enjoy a bit of air in their own hidden courtyard.

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the city intersected parts of barcino’s wall remain.

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compressions

ciutat vella: ferran-princessa axis

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eixample: gran via

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transverse itineraries one urban itinerary: i mapped all of my own walks, runs, and rides in the city. they are shown here, colored according to the historical phase of the city.

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italy : : rome

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the city composed rome is perhaps the most layered occidental city. : : the ancient city is marked by ruins unearthed at every major construction project. : : in baroque times a pilgrimage network was made manifest by pope sixtus : : in modern times, mousselini attempted a new city to the south as a catalyst to future growth southward.

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the city intersected baroque rome provides an example of both city design (top down) and urban ordering (bottom up) approaches. the classical city emerged from local rulesets, while in the 1600s, pope sixtus gave form to the christian pilgrimage between the seven votive churches by carving straight streets out of the dense urban fabric.

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the city composed tension was a baroque spatial innovation using long, straight streets with a focal object on axis, drawing the eye up and out. the catch here is that the tension network was acting on an emergent order, too - that of pilgrims moving between the votive churches. sixtus merely reinforced what was already occurring by widening, possibly straightening the streets, and putting focal points at each church - the obelisks. ow one can walk through the streets of Rome and overhear tourists saying things like, “It’s all about the obelisks.”

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the city composed piazza del popolo hosts three radials of the pilgrimage network. this symmetry is further expressed by two self-similar churches at the ends of the blocks.

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the city composed a line extending between the obelisks in front of rome’s two most important churches (san giovanni in laterno to st. peter’s) passes directly through the campidoglio, designed by michelangelo.

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the city composed to the south of rome’s center lies EUR. it was supposed to be the catalyst for rome’s future growth to the south of the city. today it remains a satellite of the city and serves as a business center akin to la defense in paris.

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the city composed EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) was built in the 1930s under Mussolini, in the Italian rationalist style. a pared down revival of classical architecture, fascist in that the planning is rectilinear and axial as was classical roman town planning, but scaled for the automobile. though EUR never became a city, (it is a corporate office park with a residential component), EUR does provide a glimpse of what european cities might have looked and felt like if the other side had won world war two.

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the city composed EUR is architecturally ordered in plan, but at street level it is disordered and sometimes unnavigable. cars clutter the streets. sidewalks end suddenly in a sea of cars, and the pedestrian is left to find his own way through.

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transverse itineraries one urban itinerary: i mapped all of my own walks, runs, and rides in the city. they are shown here, colored according to the historical phase of the city.

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italy : : florence

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the city composed like barcino, florence’s center was originally a roman settlement. unlike barcino, florence’s center has maintained the roman grid in large part, mainly thanks to a building type - the palazzo.

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the city composed florence’s center boasts an intact roman cardodecumanus with forum-cum-square. half florence’s town center maintains a superblock grid thanks to the palazzo building type. in italy, the palazzo is a building with courtyards, generous proportions and symmetry.

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transverse itineraries one urban itinerary: i mapped all of my own walks, runs, and rides in the city. they are shown here, colored according to the historical phase of the city.

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the city composed several florentine new towns were built from scratch in the late 13th century as florence rolled out a strategy to organize its countryside.

firenzuola

castelfranco

san giovanni valdarno

terranuova 90

firenzuola

scarperia

florence

castelfranco

terranuova san giovanni valdarno 91

the city composed the new towns were inspired by florence’s center, gridded as it was from the roman settlement. The central square was instrumental in bringing a group of disparate, uneducated country-folk together to become urbane over time. some of the people from these towns went on to become influential citizens of florence.

castelfranco comparison of town squares

san giovanni valdarno 92

firenzuola

terranuova 93

italy :: san giovanni valdarno

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the city composed the towns were modeled after the gridded center of florence, but exhibit even more design thought in their relational geometry.

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the city composed despite medieval origins, these towns mark the beginning of a renaissance of ideal town planning through relational geometries and proportions.

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the city composed the loggia of the church comes to the mid-point of the cross street. the geometry is reinforced in the paving design.

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the city emerged when i arrived sunday afternoon, the town was desolate. i thought i made a huge mistake coming here. by 5pm the town was buzzing with activity. the main street and the town square still serve as the gathering space for the town. this convention is due only to the schedule adhered to culturally - the sunday afternoon italian family dinner.

after sunday dinner, 5pm.

during sunday dinner, 3pm.

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transverse itineraries one urban itinerary: i mapped all of my own walks, runs, and rides in the city. they are shown here, colored according to the historical phase of the city.

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italy : : palmanova

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the city composed palmanova in northeast italy was built in 1593 to defend the eastern borders of the republic of venice from turkish invasion and austrian pressures. the choice of a nine-pointed star-like plan unites the influences of the renaissance cultural debate and the most advanced solutions of military engineering at the time.

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the city composed square parks were planned at all radials at the second web, but either only a few were executed.

sforzinda, filarete’s ideal city of the late renaissance

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the city composed the large central square was designed to host military assemblies. today, without its original function, the space feels vacant and oversized.

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the city emerged the regular geometry of the street layout results in particular building form-types at various corners.

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transverse itineraries designed for 20,000 inhabitants, the maximum was only ever 10,000 people. 5,000 of those were military. the abandoned barracks take up a lot of area, and have not yet been adapted to new use. still closed to civilians, only after seeing this trace did i realize the barracks made up a large swathe of the city on which i never stepped foot.

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morocco : : fes

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fes, morocco : : 789 AD - fes el-bali (medina) : : 1276 AD - fes el-jdid (extension) : : 1916 AD - ville-nouvelle (new city) fes was the capital of morocco until 1925. fes elbali, the original city, is one of the world’s largest car-free urban areas. this is the area where i focused my study. fes was a wealthy and noble place, steeped in a high culture of religion, philosophy, and education. fes has been called the “mecca of the west” and the “athens of africa”. fassis, the name for people from fes, carry a reputation for shrewd business acumen and high culture. they are found all over morocco now, especially in casablanca, and also in france.

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fes el-bali (medina) : : 789 AD - fes el-bali (medina) : : 859 AD - al qarawiyyin mosque the al-qarawiyyin mosque-religious college was founded by fatima al-fihri in 859 with an associated school (madrasa), which subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the historic Muslim world. It is the oldest existing, continually operating and the first degree awarding educational institution in the world according to UNESCO, and is sometimes referred to as the oldest university. al-qarawiyyin itself is named after the qairaouan mosque in tunisia, the oldest mosque in the maghreb and the cradle of the muslim maliki rite. notes (field): fes medina is labyrinthine and intense. the call to prayer here is haunting and arresting - the whole medina from hill to valley fills with a ghostlyl but commanding, cacaphonous wail. i’ve been offered hash, beer, and massage about 100 times in three days. i cannot take a walk without attracting a “guide” that would even follow me home, some helping me through the maze, some seemingly trying to get me more lost and confused in order to pick my pockets. there are usually enough “eyes on the street” to spot this and call it out. the scams seem infinite, but so far amusing.

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the city emerged the al-qarawiyyin mosque-religious college is the epicenter of the city. surrounding the mosque itself are various madrasas (religions schools and colleges) that are associated with the mosque. the next ring is made up of souks (open markets). the next ring is made up of industrial uses factories, crafts, and the like, the heaviest of which are situated along the river. outside this ring are residential buildings, almost all of which are the riad typology.

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the city emerged outside the gates of the medina one finds informal markets. these markets represent the very phenomenon that began the islamic cities commercial activity set up in tents somewhere in the desert. given a road, these activities would grow the city organically outward along the road. this is exactly how fes grew from its beginning mosque-university complex and surrounding commerce, industry and residence, along the talaa kbira, acquiring architecture over time.

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the city emerged there is a definite fractal nature to the streets of fes, of which there are over nine thousand! no gates separate the public and private realms, but as the streets narrow, one feels there is some kind of threshold beyond which it is no longer open to non-residents. as i approached these thresholds, locals would invariably tell me “no, this way the medina is closed� and instruct me to turn around.

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the city emerged extending from the main mosque, the attarine spice market lines the main street, talaa kbira. by day it is highly activated with all manner of townfolk. by night it is a lonely, harrowing place.

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the city emerged talaa kbira is a mixing realm, through which everyone in the medina at some point passes. a dynamic street with open/closed conditions, different times yield different spatial expreriences.

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the city emerged fes streets take one through light and shadow, in a harrowing path to some unknown place. some of these dark passages end in pleasant surprises.

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the city emerged derbs are dead-end alleyways, unless you are this man, who seems to have a key. derbs narrow to a degree that indicates a threshold, beyond which is a more private realm.

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the city emerged as one follows the streets, some spaces emerge that are semi-public and other spaces emerge that are semi-private.

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the city emerged the riad is the most prevalent building type in the islamic city. it is a private realm with rooms organized about an open courtyard, and a roof deck. as the family grew, more bates (rooms) were built. this is how the city aggregated. these interior realms are very private, with no exterior view windows, and the entrance jogs to prevent a visual connection from the street.

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the city emerged in islamic culture, the cafe is the man’s social, nonreligious realm. the rooftop is the woman’s private realm.

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transverse itineraries my paths over a two week period. a great amount of reporting from the upper left, where i lived, but the talaa kbira showing how important a street it is, leading to the mosque.

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france : : marseille

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marseille, france marseille offers a glimpse into the past and wouldbe future. in the center of town, the proportions are human scale. in le corbusier’s unite d’habitation the scale is also human, but the urban surroundings are decidedly not.

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the city composed in the ville radieuse, the scale is for automobiles. the human scale does not enter the picture until one comes into the building.

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the city composed inside the unite d’habitation, the children’s rooms and the hotel rooms are proportioned according to one modulor. i found the rooms to be quite comfortable, though the ceiling really need not be this low. adhering exactly to the ideal geometry is not necessary.

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compressions

ville radieuse, a city scaled with machines at the center

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quai du port, a city scaled with man at the center

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france : : lyon

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lyon, france lyon is an ancient city that started on the banks of the rhone river. it grew eastward, away from the hill, eventually occupying the confluence of two rivers. the areas of study were early-mid 20th century social housing solutions put forth by tony garnier and morice leroux.

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the city composed the quartier etats-unis was a realized version of the residential part of tony garnier’s cite industrielle. being so remote from lyon’s center, it is a relatively quiet, unpopulated part of town. therefore the streets do not have a lot of life. the layout is symmetrical due to the economy of the project. the public and private realms are separated by an open, linear courtyard. instead of a gate, there is a typical pergola that creates a threshold.

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the city emerged the original design was four stories, which the government increased to six. in this picture one sees the original niche dimensions, designed to bring daylight deeper into the living spaces. since the original had no elevators in the design, they have been retrofitted. this eats up a good deal of niche space that was meant for daylight.

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the city composed a typical pergola serves as threshold between public and semi-private space. as a non-resident i felt like a trespasser when i walked through the semi-private linear courtyards.

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equator [jun - aug]

singapore : : singapore indonesia : : jakarta

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singapore

jakarta

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singapore : : singapore

[sin] singapore

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the city intersected singapore’s urban structure is fractal - the local neighborhoods with architecture and culture characteristic to southeast asia are like beads on a necklace of a global infrastructure. from a distance it looks like a mix, but in reality the city is made up of very individual pockets, with almost a monoculture of ethnicities as denizens of their respective neighborhood.

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the city emerged little india a much more local story over here marina bay top of the world - financially and spatially

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the city emerged the outdoor culture of the global and the local

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the city intersected the scale differential between singapore’s downtown financial district and the neighboring shophouses on boathouse row is extreme. some shophouses have lost their claim to a scalar mismatch with traffic arteries. this kind of scale juxtaposition kills street life.

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the city emerged the sunday gathering of the filipina maids on singapore’s main retail thoroughfare, orchard street. little india’s population on the street far exceeds the capacity of the traditional five foot way.

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transverse itineraries self-trace showing the historic-cultural areas visited in color.

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indonesia : : jakarta

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jakarta, indonesia jakarta is a very large city. i spent all my time in the center, though even the center is absolutely huge. it is not a city in which one can get around easily. i focused on two areas - bendungan hilr to the south, and batavia in north jakarta.

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the city intersected jakarta has a trans-city bus line with its own dedicated lane, which i use everyday and thank allah it exists. otherwise, there is no getting around efficiently without a scooter. sadly, some developers are purposely choking the kampongs (local lane neighborhoods), in an effort to strangle the life out of them, and force the locals to sell their land. this has happened along the main roads, and the replacement product is glassskinned office/residential towers on campus tissue, walled and gated to the surroundings, accessed by automobile. in my experience, the kampungs offer all of the redeeming qualities for this city. they are fun, easily walkable, with local food options, and the people are just lovely.

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the city intersected local jakarta the wet markets are where to find kampong locals doing their shopping global jakarta malls are a major part of the culture

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the city intersected global jakarta water is managed carefully in the rich neighborhoods ... local jakarta ... and not so well in the poor neighborhoods

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the city intersected local jakarta informal food and services sets up shop outside the walls and gates of... global jakarta gated walls of complexes - offices and residences

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transverse itineraries jakarta is an enormous city. areas of focus were bendungen hilir to the south and batavia to the north.

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latin america [sep - dec]

peru : : cusco : : lima

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lima cusco

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peru : : cusco

cusco, peru cusco was the capital of the incan empire in the andean region of south america. it lies in present day peru, and is mainly a tourist attraction at the center, but outside the center is where the locals live.

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cusco, peru the incan city took the shape of a puma (one of the three most sacred animals in incan culture). the historical center lies mainly inside this area, with the head of the puma a very sacred site, sachsaywaman, which was the equivalent of a citadel in incan times. the puma shape comes from topography. there is a river flowing from the “front paws” toward the “tail”, another along the back. these rivers now run underneath the city. the heavily touristed historical center lies inside the region shaped like a puma. the locals of cusco reside outside this area.

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the city composed “to understand what cusco used to look like, one must travel to machu picchu and ollantaytambo. upon seeing these wondrous places, you must then imagine - cusco was even better.”1 cusco means “naval of the earth” in the inkan language. it was the capital of the inkan empire in the andean region of south america. at the naval of the puma (effectively the naval of the naval, as central as one could be in the inkan universe) was the inti wasi, or temple of the sun. from the heart of the temple extend seqe - datum lines distributed among the four provinces of the empire and along which sacred sites (wakas) were built. i attempted to delineate the composed, native city from the imposed, spanish city and the modern city from the historic city.

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rojo-bravas, julio. personal interview, sep 5, 2014.

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the city intersected the most sacred site in cusco, the inti wasi, or temple of the sun, which later became the qoricancha, or palace of gold, now is the site of the santa domingo church. the church’s nave is directly atop the most sacred part of the most sacred site of the incan empire from this point all the seqe extend throughout the empire, aligning numerous other sacred sites, miles away.

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the city intersected spanish arches meet incan walls

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the city intersected arches of the santa domingo church were build right off an incan temple wall. the cloister of santa domingo is built atop the most sacred site in cusco.

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the city intersected terraces like these used to cover the hillsides of cusco. the terrace walls are still intact in some places, though later building has engulfed them or used them as structure.

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the city intersected right: a preserved incan street, now culminating in the plaza mayor, surrounded by european-style churches. below: an incan doorway and an incan path culminating in a spanish-style courtyard.

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the city intersected some incan roads were closed by the spanish as they redesigned some of the city to their own liking. some incan roads still exist inside preserved courtyards. they are inaccessible to the public.

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the city intersected some incan walls were covered by the spanish as they redesigned some of the city to their own liking. some incan walls still exist behind spanish ones.

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the city emerged despite the original city and its partial uncoverings, the real cusco of the present day is located outside the heavily touristed historic center. one must ironically head outside the original city gates to encounter the real cusco. on this side, goods are marketed for cusquenos, and sold to cuscquenos.

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compressions

loreto: an incan street

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pumacurco: a spanish street

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transverse itineraries one urban itinerary: i mapped all of my own walks and rides in the city. they are shown here, colored according to the historical phase of the city.

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Compendium

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traces : : transverse itineraries as i traveled i used gps to trace my paths through each city. i did this for all modes of movement - car, train, biking, running, walking. here those maps are printed at the same scale. it becomes evident those cities that require more automated transport due to their extents, and those that are very walkable, due to their density. it is counter-intuitive that singapore, one of the densest cities in the world, would be the most extensive mapping.

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mediterranean :: spain :: barcelona

mediterranean :: italy :: rome

mediterranean :: italy :: naples

mediterranean :: italy :: florence

mediterranean :: italy :: palmanova

mediterranean :: morocco :: casablanca

mediterranean :: morocco :: fez

equator :: singapore :: singapore

equator :: indonesia :: jakarta

latin america :: peru :: cusco 247

compressions compressing time and space these images were taken every thirty paces with a 35mm focal length at the same horizon line, then overlaid. the idea is to challenge traditional opticality by compressing both time and space, highlighting rhythms and flows unique to a place. repetitive objects and spatial proportions are thus amplified, while subtle differences exhibit vibration. the following diptychs show sharp contrast of urban fabric from the same cultural and physical latitude. an old town and a new town, a renaissance arcade and a modernist loggia, a local neighborhood and a global district, a native street and a conquester’s colonial street.

old and new in barcelona: ciutat vella (left) and eixample (images by author)

renaissance and modernist in marseille: quai du port (left) and unite d’habitation (images by author) 248

islamic and french in fes, morocco: medina (left) and ville nouvelle (images by author)

local and global in jakarta, indonesia: kampong (left) and jl. sudirman (images by author)

native and colonial in cusco, peru: incan street (left) and spanish street (images by author) 249

installation the city and the city was installed for three weeks in february 2015 at wurster hall gallery, uc berkeley along with the two other branner fellows’ work.

“the city and the city” branner fellowship installation, february 2015 250

“2014 branner fellows� gallery installation, february 2015 251

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