...some explanations...

-1- "Can't really understand what's going on with this model at all".

This is the Recipient in the form of a chasm. There is also a 'hill' -as in there is the solid to the void, the chasm and the hill- depending on what part of the Contrada, and relating to what is happening on the 'city-side'. Materially they feed each other reciprocally. They are both the initial starting point which sperate the city from the interior of the Contrade, but then which expand and change over time, and grow to become the structure of the entire Contrada itself.

 

In the first stage, the inhabitants dig the chasm as mode of physical and psychological separation from the generic city.

The second stage is where the inhabitants start to take the barrier and its logic, and expand it, change it and occupy it to begin forming and formulating the shape of their Contrada.

 

-2- Is the grid your formal device for this contrade?  If so, what does the grid enable?  what is its purpose spatially, formally, structurally, politically, etc etc. 

 

Indeed, the grid is the framework that contains the spaces that are carved out into the ground. They are concrete grids which are laid down each time the inhabitants dig a certain amount under the last grid, in order to stabilise the gound for further exploratiosn, and also become the spatial frames in which they begin to move all of their activities.

 

 

-3-you mention the grid will become the uniqueness of this contrade - how and why?  how can the grid be unique? 

 

 I dont know how exactly the grid is unique, or whether it needs to be, but in my current model that Im working on, Im trying to investigate two areas where I think it will develop a different type of space: first is where the grids adapt at different stages to the needs of the Contrada and its residents, like the rings in a tree trunk, and the second is how the voids created become the vehicle for a 3dimensional inhabitation.

These are all for the 'Chasm' area of the Contrada, but there will also be the mirror image of the 'Hill' areas.