27/02

CRITICS DAY!!

parasiting is the word. i am parasiting a highly populated/dense city. i chose new york, but i am really not that sure anymore. it is my excuse to answer a more generic question, i think: how to respond to lack of space (specially public space) or an intention to densify cities.

i chose new york because 1000m2 lots are very manageable. and because i know it quite well. the thing is a size like mine (54200 m2) could easily occupy an entire neighbourhood in a two-floor basis. the program could change according to the needs and ways of life. but i need really diverse characters more or less next to each other. and there is already a lot of existing commerce.

a first thought was connecting residential and office buildings through a network of commercial space and general leisure. that really doesn't exist in new york. i could imagine that on some other city with a more diversified distribution of office space. in new york (as in other many cities - and i can thing of AZCA in madrid, too) there is a financial district that is very compact. businessmen-targeted commerce would really work. and it does work because it exists already!
working on ground zero was so tempting. i mean, it is a completely empty space lacking activity, and surrounded by frenetic workers going round and about, hungry and thirsty and wanting to relax after work or buy groceries because they dont have time to buy it anywhere else. there used to be a huge commercial activity, as i have seen in some studies. it is also amazingly connected (there is a train station, 2 metro stations, a huge parking lot nearby and it is even close to the docks!) the problem is i would need a much bigger size to be able to do it well. the place has such a connotational energy that it is very tricky to work in it, and there is a need for a really big emblematic structure to make america recover from 9/11.
and, of course, that would mean building from scratch, not parasiting at all.
* i went over the idea of parasiting the buildings around to take advantage of the activity i mentioned, but i would really have to make it office-oriented and i dont really see the potential.

so. being quite generic and picturing a sort of sprawl-like mall on the existent city, i thought it might work on the eastern south canal area (theres tribeca - obviously "triangle below canal" and the meatpacking district over there, some area below little italy that i really dont know much and the financial district). somethig i know is that, whereas soho is fully packed with shops and nice cafes and everything, there seems to be a hole on this area (and then as we go down the commercial activity arises again in the financial district). anyway, i need to get more information about this because i thought about it like 5 minutes before presenting the project - yes, throwing away all the thinking ive been previously talking about.

-----> so he did understand the essence of it, i think. it is not a sole building, not a tower. the idea of parasite implies that it is something smaller than the existent (i dont think he meant literally smaller, but in a sort of hierarchy of usage). and he also warned me that i have to be aware of the fact that i cannot build on the street, under the buildings or through the buildings.

all that said, i think there are some issues to deal with:

- the real size and SCALE of the project and how it could look like for a pedestrian.
- what are the active hours and where? WHY is it attrative, to WHOM?
- precise INFORMATION. metre squares, population, examples of similar existent buildings (in size and/or function)
- what is the height of the buildings? what is their shape?
- how does it deal with the streets?
- how do people get there?
- what kind of commerce is there? material goods, services, entertainment, wellness... how does it materialize in spaces? IS IT EVEN MATERIAL? HOW DO PEOPLE BUY?
- make the program RADICAL
- how many people are there at the same time? what times of the day?

and more importantly to purify the idea:
DOES IT PARASITE...
JUST THE BUILDINGS (THE FUNCTION IN THEM) ???
JUST THE STREETS/METRO (USING THE BUILDINGS AS SUPPORT) ???

IS IT A NETWORK OF CONNECTIONS?

HOW DO PEOPLE MOVE INSIDE? HOW DO THEY GET TO/FROM DIFFERENT POINTS?

HOW IS THE PLACE ENJOYABLE?

WHAT IS THE TARGET AND HOW DOES IT CHANGE FROM ONE AREA TO ANOTHER?

I REALLY NEED TO GET RID OF THIS IMAGE I HAVE OF IT FLYING ALL OVER. IT STOPS ME FROM GOING FURTHER.


*** and now, some other interesting issues that came up in the critic (i transcribe literally my notes)

. scale
. how many people AT THE SAME TIME?
. what do they do?
. where do they come from?
. maximize destination (character)
. be specific
. give public space
. see population! and what kind
. 2 pieces of city not connected --> the linkage
. (he can be convinced!!) specific: compare size, demography
implication
. "brand" of my idea!
. examples, search references
. TARGET --> information + specify
. HEIGHT and SHAPE of buildings
. MEASURE streets and buildings
. something that has been proved to function
. references to reality (law, existent m2 + buildings)
. large size --> not to make it too abstract, have PHYSICAL connection
. ways of relating
. EXISTENT COMMERCE
. metro (but assume they come walking)
. RADICALIZE PROGRAM
. middle class goes shopping
. HOPE. SOCIO-POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS. INVENT A RESPONSE TO EXISTENT SHOPPING MALLS. INVENT A NEW COMMERCE TYPOLOGY (new way of buying). not just something that works financially
. services are a kind of commerce! what other forms? how do they materialize?
. generic project in existent places --> generally doent work. if we abstract the conditions it does (prototyping)
. program = what we sell, target
site = interesting, provide conditions to develop
IDEA.... is something else -----> ARCHITECTURAL IDEA (and good architecture please...)
. POTENTIAL of place and idea
. not good mixing functions. only if it gives sense to the shopping
. you can hold on to the ESSENCE (connection, creating new city, parasiting...)
. make timetable + areas!
. PLAYFULNESS
. maybe it JUST parasites the buildings. maybe it JUST parasites the street and doesnt have to do with the building (they are the support)
. is it a system of 2nd public space wherever there's place? is it focused on the buildings? is it a 2nd net of quick connections?
. interesting how people get in and move around
way of enjoying the place
way of buying / is it material?





** note: key words for the atelier: "i can imagine it", "be honest to yourself", "a vision", "temple"

25/02

i've been working on the idea of a self-sufficient mall by revisiting fourier and owen.
it is sort of a cinical twist of ideals (how a socialist utopian community can be absorbed by the logic of capitalism) but if things are connected in a proper way they should be able to increase the wellness of the city or natural environment and their inhabitants -i guess and hope.
it is a political/moral decision: if you can't change history, at least use it to improve the future. so, since poor-spread use of land and consumism have got to be somehow linked together (a decontextualized object, the mall kills the city and social interaction instead of improving them)

well, owen and fourier sure knew what they were doing.
synthetised in a very basic topological diagram according to 5 parametres or areas - anchor/destination catchment (including both entertainment and shopping), public space, residence, work, indirect catchment - and their connections - access from outside and inside mobility - phalansteries and this kind of communities have a sort of ultra-functional layout.

still a little decontextualized for me, though. i feel i need a stronger site definition or at least one that is not so introverted that doesn't create a connection with the city. i want a new urban center.
* see florida street and malaysia/anywhere street mall

after working with the plan and connections for a long time, i tried using the plan as an elevation to see how it could work... and voilà! here we had a not land wasting, vertical mall. now i see how mansilla and tuñon arrived to their insultingly fun, round-buiscuit skycraper.
so a self-sufficient, mixed-use building might work, too.


on the other hand, i'd been working before (for the past few days) on a parasite mall. i should ask myself why i keep being so attracted to the idea of parasiting... but anyway. this would be some kind of declaration pro-high-density-awfully-against-sprawl urban planning. there's not going to be land enough in the future.
parasiting functions is so appealing to me, too. i picture the mall on a highly populated city (so it'd have a very urban character) so that suddenly a new level of communications is created. residential buildings are suddenly linked to work and entertainment places. an entire world of new public space is created. new streets float over the old.

not to be too futurist but lets take a look at some utopias of endless-height cities..... (disregard the flying cars)

summing it up:
you can do everything. your life needs are covered.
creating city. connecting parts of a city. connecting people.
no room? no problem
win-win

(in other words: i am trying to put all the interests i had together: high density, self-sufficiency and mixed use, creation of public spaces and advantaging from the fluxes among all these.)


site? well...... it's funny but i don't know and that's precisely what i am asked to choose first.

20/02

oh-kay.... back again, my dearest friends

this time introducing the very challenging job of
1) surviving to atelier Olgiati with no mental and/or physical damage at the end of the semester and
2) designing a shopping mall

so lets get started.
as much as i had thought about the subject - the endless series of photos of commerce and shopping sites for my dad could finally be of some use- it was actually not mucho of an innovation, apparently. the first day of class (that is, yesterday) we got a lecture by this guy, sociologist I guess, who basically put together all i'd thought, added more accurate and certainly more incisive observations and explained them in a.... very scientific way, as to say.
meaning i felt relieved in a way because i wasn't that wrong but at the same time i had nothing new to offer after that.

the outline for the atelier goes as follows:
there's the typology: shopping mall. that cannot be changed, being the entire theme of the course.
then each one chooses a size (scale) to work with. S = 1000 - 10000 m2, M= 10000 - 100000 m2, L > 100000 m2.
from then on, one can develop a program, a specific site, and overall the main strong idea

* it reminded me of the exercises with E+C on 30m2, 3000m2, 30000 m2 (i miss them... my wonderful Sex Cabin, ah!... never talked about it here and neither did i for the Public Parasite Prototype, but they were really fun to design. i literally was too busy with the job itself. sometime i will, though)
and well, of course i thought about koolhaas but thats obvious.

anyway, i was tempted about Large scale (it'd be so challenging and extreme and fun in the end) but i doubted if i'd really be able to deal with it.... so i finally chose M. there was a lotery to get the exact number of m2 we had to build -the S/M people- (...wow i just reallized how hardcore it sounds lol... ), and i liked that sort of dadaist way to choose. i got 54200 m2. great. now i just have to really figure out how much it implies in terms of developing the program i want.


last but not least, 5 points not to miss when designing a mall:
1-Site
2-Identity, recognizability
3-Program (type)
4-Mall itself (didnt really get this one but i guess its about the athmosphere and the services/entertainment/kind of commerce it offers)
5- Efficiency. Circulations. the Mall-Machine.






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just some thoughts at home (sort of brainstorming) about what i feel is interesting:

parallel universes: you can do everything. your life needs are covered. the Holy Mall.
EAT+WORK+SHOP+ENTERTAIN ...(+LIVE??) ----- ISOLATED, SELF-SUFFICIENT, INTROVERTED
campus, monastery, religious communities, utopian socialist phalansteries, hippy settlements, isolated villages, mixed-use buildings, campsites or special school/training sites

public spaces: creating city. connecting parts of a city. connecting people (nokia..lol)
URBAN SCALE + PUBLIC/OUTDOOR LIFE (AGAINST INTROVERTED CONDOS) + INDIRECT CATCHMENT
inside a park, mixed-use complex/suburb (RESIDENTIAL+ENTERTAINMENT+SHOP), prollongation of city center, relationship between 2 existing isolated city centers (gravitational)

parasiting existing structures: no room? no problem
SPECIFIC TARGET + EVENTUAL FURTHER USE + DIRECT CATCHMENT + PARKING NEED COVERED
high-density cities, offices, roofs, over streets, "UFOs", linkage between buildings, attachment to buildings, access from the street, opposite image of density plan, reproducing and developing street fluxes, vertical develpment

parisiting flux of people: win-win
INDIRECT CATCHMENT FROM ANOTHER USE + CONTRIBUTION BY INCREASING ATTRACTIVE (SERVICES)
stations, airports, by-the-road stopping places, gas stations, sites with other anchor shops, urban crossing

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more investigation tomorrow.