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.