Crossing Boundaries: New Contexts for Architecture in the Face of Exponential Urbanism PDF

2010 Nr 2(28) Elżbieta Komarzyńska-Świeściak* Crossing boundaries. New contexts for architecture in the face of exponential urbanism...

2010 Nr 2(28) Elżbieta Komarzyńska-Świeściak* Crossing boundaries. New contexts for architecture in the face of exponential urbanism Den(s)city Nowadays there is a need for ‘infinite’ architecture. far apart, so everybody is continuously on the move. With Buildings and structures should be in state of constant the intention to deal with horizontal density expansion, ur- change in order to match the dynamic processes taking ban development seems to be a major policy and a central place in a modern city: its fragmentation and ephemeral principle of growth management programs used by cities character, vivid cultural context, mobility and interlace of around the word. One way to create density is stacking infra, urban material and landscape. Furthermore, urban programs, structures and volumes, still leaving necessary sprawl creates an exponential growth of continuously mov- unbuilt voids. All this leads to creating more challenging ing masses – housing, working and recreation are situated and dense contexts for currently realized projects. Extorted public space Mobility and high-car dependence are signs of mod- ern life style. As a result car traffic takes over the city. Streets and many old squares, which in the past were part of public realm, became just necessary links to get from point A to point B. Street in no more public as it is used mostly by cars instead of people. In a well-known Nolli plan of Rome from 1748 (Fig. 1), private spaces such as dwellings are rendered as black solids and public spaces such as streets and squares or church interiors as white. If we would draw Nolli plan of contemporary Rome, there would be a lot fewer white voids than before – the heavy- traffic streets would have to be rendered as solid blocks. Part of public realm was taken. Integration Fig. 1. The 1748 Nolli ichnographic plan of Rome – Giambattista Nolli After the representative age with the subsequent post war concept of ‘The Black Box’ (Modernism, representing urban programs in clearly defined volumes) we gradu- * Wrocław University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture. ally enter an era where representation fades and is go- 106 Elżbieta Komarzyńska-Świeściak ing to be replaced by integration. Integration of ar- that accommodate processes that refuse to be crystallized chitecture with existing and already defined city core. into definitive form; it will no longer be obsessed with the As a result, activities have to overlap and buildings must city but with the manipulation of infrastructure for end- adapt to different programs over time (Bernard Tschumi’s less intensifications and diversifications, shortcuts and cross-programming concept ). If there is to be a ‘new redistributions– the reinvention of psychological space urbanism’, it will not be based on the twin fantasies of. Infinite architecture of contemporary city has to be order and omnipotence; (…) it will no longer aim for sta- integrated and deal with most concentrated, intense and ble configurations but for the creation of enabling fields dynamic contexts so far. Overlooked context Individual building is always seen first as a part of the are unadapted yet and hard to deal with. On the other hand, whole. Every building engages in a dialog (which some- they provide interesting conditions for vivid architecture times happens to be a quarrel) with the history, beliefs and of compression and intensification. Rough and uncommer- needs of a particular place and time. City fragmentation, cialised territories determine new challenges and strategies urban growth and demand for new kind of programs in- for cityscape. The potential urban performance of the un- corporated into existing urban fabric makes architecture programmed spaces is gigantic and could be introduced in territory spread on sites which have never been considered a wide variety of projects: from small landscape concepts before: infrastructure nodes, postindustrial brownfields, to large-scale developments. Many empty and unused highways surroundings, underground garages and pas- zones can be heavily programmed in order to fill the urban sages, bridges and viaducts, roofs and walls of existing material with diversity and missing integrated services, buildings, rail tracks, etc. On the one hand, these spaces leading directly to higher efficiency and lower costs. Architecture takes the streets Fig. 2. A8ernA in Koog aan de Zaan – NL Architects. Photo by Luuk Kramer Part of our public domain has been already overtaken identity – proves that even in dense cities there are still by heavy traffic but it still can be given back. Even busy places for recreation or play. It was constructed on an streets – treated as an opportunity, instead of as a disaster underused green area (perceived as an urban void in the – could become a friendly environment to accommodate central area) in the middle of the Westblaak, a major traf- a new type of urban life. fic artery bordering a shopping district. This central lo- Famous ‘Westblaak Skatepark’ and Restaurant in cation is so effective that it guaranteed the skatepark’s Rotterdam – already an icon of the city’s cultural success and it is always crowded – both by skaters and  Crossing boundaries. New contexts for architecture in the face of exponential urbanism 107 their audience, especially in summer. The development soccer field, basketball pitch, parking lot, roofed square somehow compensated dramatic lack of useable green with the supermarket, little shops, fountain, mini-marina, space within Rotterdam downtown district – the skatepark ‘panorama deck’ and ‘river’. In an unexpected way, the became there an asset for reinventing the wider city in elevated highway provides an opportunity to reconnect creative ways to produce joyful, lively and playful urban the village to the source of its existence. space. ‘Living Bridge’ concept for Hamburg Hafencity by Another project that took advantage of the concrete Hadi Teherani is a completely different type of project, jungle in order to create new urban quality is ‘A8ernA’ dealing with incorporating new functions into the traffic in Koog aan de Zaan (Fig. 2). The new road crossing system. His proposal is ‘a city on the water’ – 700-meter- Zaanstad town produced a brutal cut in the urban fabric, -long development in the form of a five-storey bridge creating a challenging context for any kind of architec- spanning over the Elbe River and including luxury apart- tural development. Furthermore, progress in traffic sys- ments, shops, parks and other businesses. There are many tem has resulted here in a radical separation between the other similar concepts, like ‘art-’ and ‘recreation-’ bridg- Church and the former town canter. The NL Architects es (they all took inspiration from the 14th century mar- project restored the connection between both sides by ac- ket place bridge Ponte Vecchio) in Florence but ‘Living tivating the space under the road. Instead of a disaster, the Bridge’ – if approved from logistic and political point of remarkable (because of its cathedral-like spatial quality) view – would be the world’s largest such development space under the road was considered an opportunity. New and could then fundamentally change the way we think type of urban life was accommodated there: skate bowl, about infrastructure. Reclaiming the landscape Fig. 3. The High Line in New York City – Field Operations and Diller, Scofidio & Renfro. Photo by Vivien Chin Fig. 4. Bridges of Melbourn – Steven Holl. Photo by author 108 Elżbieta Komarzyńska-Świeściak A dramatic lack of pleasant useable greenery within ness to the changing needs, opportunities, and desires of dense city centres can be also solved by introducing land- the dynamic context – the proposal is visibly designed to scaping to challenging and dense contexts, like degraded remain perpetually unfinished. The (…) design succeeds infrastructure zones. Interlace of infra, urban material and in preserving the High Line’s tough industrial character green areas leads here to reclamation of landscape. without sentimentalizing it. The High Line project (Fig. 3) in New York City is Introducing a landscape program over the infrastruc- a good example here – design for converting the old el- ture was also the main topic of “Olympic Sculpture Park” evated defunct rail that runs 30 feet above Manhattan to project (Fig. 5) in Seattle. The context here was an 8.5- a public space. Architects have fantasized about the High acre industrial brownfield incorporating a drop of more Line since at least the early 1980’s, when Steven Holl than forty feet from street level to the waterfront, sliced first completed a theoretical proposal to build a “bridge of into three by active railroad tracks and an arterial road. houses” that straddled the elevated tracks (Fig. 4). Weiss/Manfredi Architects proposed in such context an Finally in 2004, Field Operations and Diller, Scofidio exemplary strategy of civic placemaking. The industrial & Renfro was selected to design a master plan that would brownfields context was approached here by rediscover- transform an abandoned section of elevated freight track ing it and its potential to become part of an urban land- into a public park. The first two sections the three- scape by suggesting additional infrastructures, uses, and section High Line are now completed; the third has yet public activities. The concept was a complex “artificial to be approved. The designed walkway includes more topography” of unfolding planes reconnecting the city than 100 species of plants that were inspired by the wild with its neglected waterfront. As a result Seattle gained seeded landscape left after the trains stopped running. The a “park building” fusing architecture, engineering, and design includes several squares, sitting and focal points, landscape architecture. In terms of context, on one level, a giant outdoor movie screen, visible from the street and the Olympic Sculpture Park can be seen as affirming the a public swimming pool with an elevated sandy beach. conflicts and tensions generated by Seattle’s simultaneous It is considered one of the most thoughtful, sensitively development of industrial and postindustrial profiles. But designed public spaces built in New York in years. On on another level, it creates an unprecedented urban space the other hand, it still provides flexibility and responsive- allowing for new encounters and interactions. Parasitic architecture Fig. 5. Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle – Weiss/Manfredi Architects. Photo by Benjamin Benschneider Another kind of relation between architecture and in- single extravagant actions – could become essential tools tense urban fabric could be a parasitic relationship. As more in order to obtain the density of urban development. Such and more people filter into the city, open land to build on attributes of parasitic architecture as adaptability, transi- will become more and more scarce, and we may have to use ence, and mobility could be the answers to the ephemeral every available bit of space we can, including empty bare and dynamic character of contemporary cities. walls, bridge pylons, and retaining walls. In this context, Among many parasitic architectural objects, there is parasite developments – nowadays still considered only a visible tendency to serve the need for mobile living and  Crossing boundaries. New contexts for architecture in the face of exponential urbanism 109 Fig. 6. Nomiya Temporary Rooftop Restaurant in Paris – Pascal Grasso. Photo by Kleinefenn extraordinary experiences. The potential of mobile exclusive ing empty vertical surfaces. The proposed structure aims services is shown by Parisian architect Pascal Grasso who to turn previously plain wall into a liveable private space. has installed a temporary, transportable Nomiya Restaurant Mimicking parasitic qualities, the home is designed for du- (Fig. 6) on the roof of Le Palais de Tokyo museum. But then rability and adaptability, evident in its construction made of again The Prefab Parasite, designed by Australia-based Lara prefabricated panels so that the home could be affixed onto Calder Architects reveals the possibilities of reusing exist- any wall or pylon large and strong enough to hold it. Programming infrastructural nodes The most advanced relation between architecture and ty zones along heavy infrastructure. The A20 highway, infrastructure would be the development fully integrating which functioned as a test case, is the northern part of the both urban and infra layers. The blueprints of the infra- Rotterdam Ring – a bundle of infrastructure. The research structure system and the building would evolve then into was not approached in accordance with current laws and simultaneously designed and tight cooperation between regulations in order to reveal the potentials. There were architects and traffic engineers would decide about the chosen six locations in the A20 context which represented shape of the cityscape. typological examples of many comparative situations in In 1997–1998, Monolab conducted an independ- Holland. Research put emphasis on intertwining of pro- ent study called ‘Infrabodies’ on programming of emp- gram and infrastructure in conditions of high compres- Fig. 7. Compressor Overschie – Monolab Architects 110 Elżbieta Komarzyńska-Świeściak sion, as fusion creates new programs and performs best develop, but they force us to learn techniques of concen- with flexible and variable programming. The main idea tration and intensification, the tools for urban planning behind the concept is that nodes, embedded in existing in- in the nearby future. The projects proves that the ur- frastructural networks, are ideal locations to realize mas- banism is loaded with much more potential than we are sive programs. using these days and that concept, fusing infrastructure After that study Monolab Architects researched several and urban material with existing landscape, is the right similar test cases in Holland, such as infrabody ‘Compres- way of integrating metropolitan programs, especially in sor Overschie’ (Fig. 7) and ‘A12 Long Term’ – long-term cases where the visual presence of these programs is inap- view of the highway. These kinds of sites are difficult to propriate or not wanted. (Cross) programming the city Bernard Tschumi in Event-cities explores the re- temporary cities can be heavily programmed in order to lationships between spaces and events. This is apparent fill the urban fabric with diversity and missing integrated in the ‘unclassifiable’ or ‘unprogrammed’ space found services. There is a huge potential in (cross) programming in the gaps, margins, and in-between spaces included in these spaces as it could lead directly to higher efficiency many of his later projects (Kansai Airport, le Fresnoy in and lower costs. Tourcoingt). These are places in which an infinite number New contexts for architecture of contemporary city – of unplanned events could take place, where life is not apart from physical (infrastructure layer, city roofs, etc.) – exhaustively determined by functionalist architecture are the cultural and sociological conditions like dynamic dedicated to the proposition that there is only one set of and interlaced life patterns (living/working/leisure) mo- appropriate behaviours for a specific space. Representa- bile and flexible life style. Density (concentrated layouts tion is replaced by integration. of functions) and integration/cooperation of previously The same strategy could be used in the case of expo- separated functions are the tools to deal with all these nential urbanism. Many empty and unused zones in con- contexts. References Corner J., Scofidio R., Designing the High Line: Gansevoort Street Tschumi B., Architecture and Disjunction, Cambridge: The Mas- to 30th Street, Friends of the High Line, Nowy Jork 2008. sachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1996. Jodidio P., Olympic Sculpture Park, [in:] Green Architecture Now!, Tschumi B., Event-cities, Cambridge, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Lon- Taschen, Köln 2008. don: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1994. Koolhaas R., S, M, L, XL, Monacelli Press, USA, 1998, p. 969. van Kuilenburg J.W., Infrabodies, ARCH+, No. 147, August 1999, Ouroussoff N., Gardens in the Air Where the Rail Once Ran, New pp. 67–73. York Times, 12.08.2004. van Kuilenburg J.W., Infrabodies, [in:] Monolab texts – the green Tajima M., The city a playground, [in:] Nova Terra – Jaargang 5, booklet, Monolab Architects, Rotterdam 2010. 2005, No. 1, pp. 35–39. Przekraczanie granic. Nowe konteksty architektury w dobie procesu zagęszczania się miast Fragmentacja miasta, tzw. ‘urban growth’ i zapotrzebowanie na kingi i przejścia podziemne, mosty i wiadukty, dachy i ściany istniejących projektowanie budynków o elastycznym i multifunkcjonalnym programie budynków, torowiska kolejowe, etc. Na podstawie wybranych realizacji prowadzą do tego, że architektura współczesnych miast musi się mierzyć i koncepcji w artykule przeanalizowano zależności między architekturą z nowym rodzajem kontekstu. Terytorium architektury rozszerza się na a takim nietypowym „agresywnym” kontekstem. węzły komunikacyjne, poprzemysłowe tereny, otoczenia autostrad, par- Key words: exponential urbanism, crossing boundaries Słowa kluczowe: zagęszczanie miast, przekraczanie granic