Architecture as the Definition of and Solution for Congestion
Harvey Corbett introduces the idea of the “metropolis as the modern Venice”, where pedestrians used “raised bridges to pass over a canal of automobiles”, the end result being thousands of mini villages/islands throughout the city. Not only does this paint an interesting picture about the metaphor between built and natural, but it got me thinking that we really don’t utilize the “public” space around buildings in the city except for the ground level. What Koolhaas defines as the layering of the Earth’s surface through artificial levels actually only applies to the buildings/islands (except for the occasional skywalk between buildings). Why have we stopped at the interior spaces? Can we not start to layer the vertical grid of program with a horizontal grid of program to activate the metropolis in a total three-dimensional sense? Does this solve problems, or are we again creating unnecessary congestion within our cities?
City of the Future, Harvey Corbett
The Metropolis of Tomorrow, Hugh Ferriss
If the metropolis will be built in a total three-dimensional way, would there be problems about the ground or lower levels? Such as the natural light only comes from the top not around . It may create another congestion and negative space.
ReplyDeleteI love both Ferriss and some of Corbett's images. They also remind me of some of Paul Rudolph's sections of the cities that he imagined people living in with vehicles and transportation occuring below the city street.
ReplyDelete"...we really don’t utilize the “public” space around buildings in the city except for the ground level." I have thought about this problem as part of my studio project in 2015 at Clemson when the three year track students designed a skyscraper in Brooklyn. I proposed that a vertical tower should also be broken programmatically into public spaces and had a stair and escalator system wrapping the building to provide circulation between public spaces that were shared with offices and residents of a mixed use program. The technical problem is how you deal with security and access control as well as privacy. For example, I had ciruclation wrapping the building like a ribbon but that created problems where the public could "see" into offices and residences in the tower even though they were not part of the intended usergroup. If you let the true "public" into the building beyond the first floor - how to you keep an interest for investors into the skyscraper? Where does public end and prviate begin in those scenarios? (Sorry for long comment, haha.)