STUDIO I // Instructor Matt Shea [http://mongowork.com/]
Urban Design + Planning Studio
August 2010 - December 2010
For my studio project I designed a ECOLOGICAL URBANISM // Vertical Urban Farming City with Mass Transit as its core circulation.
Theory behind my project //
In my Ecological Urbanism Project I had a pragmatic approach to my design. One of my reflections brought up the thought of a manipulated city with designed green spaces. Some tragedy I see in this is: can manipulated and planned natural spaces be classified as real, organic experiences? Meaning, when we plan to place a part or put living natural systems in buildings, is this ‘real nature’ or is this some hybrid ideology of our existence and application of nature to our sense and style of living?
One of the main ideas I had for my project was to maintain and rebuild severed connections with nature, our potential, to promote both vertical and horizontal movement and to have the possibilities of space not withered by program. One connection concept I explored was the idea that its external designs and façade projections would relate to and reference an interior reality. Related to the idea of the skyscraper city plans of New York where potentially hundreds of different programs and unrelated use inhabited the same space in the skyscraper envelope. The exterior would simply be to restore as much nature as possible and the interior could be flexible in use, program and invite a diversity of potential.
“Arrangement is the gradation of aims, the classification of intentions.” This quote by Corbusier reveals that program and plan will show importance. Corbusier approached Manhattan and Paris opposite to those of New York. He called for great obelisks, far apart, so that the “city would have space and light and air and order…”2 I can see the positives in both methods and wonder if an amalgamation would be best. The method I choose was to use the exterior space (with potential inference to interior uses?) of a building to engage outdoor landscape and life and let the interior be appropriate and interior specific (though, does this hide the everyday life?). The second method would be to have the “exterior make certain revelations about the interior that the interior corroborates”; 1 the honest façade.
Sustainability and Architecture create an inventive opportunity and new ethics. In my ecological city, the designers are the creators and enablers of social good. Architecture is Architecture, Nature is Nature; does an equidistant design exist? If I reinforce my thesis does this thinking equate paranoia?
As I approached my urban planning project I kept in mind the rising population. One of the biggest issue we face today as a human race. As humans, we have to plan ahead for growth management, and I don’t mean Corbusier’s Radiant City or City of Towers. Therefore, in my design, I placed emphasis on green building, health, interactive environments, multi-use spaces and circulation corridors without being surreptitious about the politics and implementation of it.
Urban Design + Planning Studio
August 2010 - December 2010
For my studio project I designed a ECOLOGICAL URBANISM // Vertical Urban Farming City with Mass Transit as its core circulation.
Theory behind my project //
In my Ecological Urbanism Project I had a pragmatic approach to my design. One of my reflections brought up the thought of a manipulated city with designed green spaces. Some tragedy I see in this is: can manipulated and planned natural spaces be classified as real, organic experiences? Meaning, when we plan to place a part or put living natural systems in buildings, is this ‘real nature’ or is this some hybrid ideology of our existence and application of nature to our sense and style of living?
One of the main ideas I had for my project was to maintain and rebuild severed connections with nature, our potential, to promote both vertical and horizontal movement and to have the possibilities of space not withered by program. One connection concept I explored was the idea that its external designs and façade projections would relate to and reference an interior reality. Related to the idea of the skyscraper city plans of New York where potentially hundreds of different programs and unrelated use inhabited the same space in the skyscraper envelope. The exterior would simply be to restore as much nature as possible and the interior could be flexible in use, program and invite a diversity of potential.
“Arrangement is the gradation of aims, the classification of intentions.” This quote by Corbusier reveals that program and plan will show importance. Corbusier approached Manhattan and Paris opposite to those of New York. He called for great obelisks, far apart, so that the “city would have space and light and air and order…”2 I can see the positives in both methods and wonder if an amalgamation would be best. The method I choose was to use the exterior space (with potential inference to interior uses?) of a building to engage outdoor landscape and life and let the interior be appropriate and interior specific (though, does this hide the everyday life?). The second method would be to have the “exterior make certain revelations about the interior that the interior corroborates”; 1 the honest façade.
Sustainability and Architecture create an inventive opportunity and new ethics. In my ecological city, the designers are the creators and enablers of social good. Architecture is Architecture, Nature is Nature; does an equidistant design exist? If I reinforce my thesis does this thinking equate paranoia?
As I approached my urban planning project I kept in mind the rising population. One of the biggest issue we face today as a human race. As humans, we have to plan ahead for growth management, and I don’t mean Corbusier’s Radiant City or City of Towers. Therefore, in my design, I placed emphasis on green building, health, interactive environments, multi-use spaces and circulation corridors without being surreptitious about the politics and implementation of it.
