October 2009 Archives

A few days have been spent struggling to formulate a clear drawing of the Rockefeller Re-Brief.  The explanation in text remains relatively clear I feel, even though it needs tidying.  The re-brief will be situated over the existing Rockefeller Center, which in itself has a very clear boundary. My main struggle has been to draw ways in which the Rockefeller Center can be re-briefed now, according to current social, political, climatic events, in a drawing that does not attempt to redesign Rockefeller Center as an extension of the old, but instead begins to create a dialog regarding which elements of the Center can be utilised, and perhaps exemplified in the Re-Brief.  I feel as though I need to direct any discussion on the Plates away from my novice attempt to redesign Rockefeller and more into the Fictional arena, in terms of the drawing, of a discussion around the principals of a Micro City today, and how that can influence my next task to create a first Plan of the Inverted City.  Maybe I'm reading into this a bit too much!  It's a challenging task - not least to get the image to work with my ideas.

Below is a small extract of the kind of drawing that will be shown, although it really is work in progress!  There's going to be many layers to this drawing....

I've been looking at the inside of the Inverted City.  Not sure if the drawing is clear enough at all and it makes sense???!  I've got some further text to go with it below the image to clarify what's what.  Still incomplete though - the blank at the top is work in progress...

The ultimate success of the Rockefeller Center by Raymond Hood and his team was determined by a number of contributing factors.  Factors that only existed due to the specific conflicts of the time and context of the project.  Five key factors can be described as:

 

-       Aesthetics and scale: The hope of the American public that they could strive through the Great Depression by building high and with extraordinary glamour.

-       Global Stage: Straight from the First World War, the amalgamation of world cultures to increase tolerance and help trade links was fundamental

-       Mixing and stacking programme: The schism of programme, and infrastructure ensured congestion throughout would occur.

-       Gardens: On the roofs, the Gardens allow occupants to use the roof and to give a better view to those overlooking it.

-       Grid erasure: The creation of the Plaza at ground breaks the Manhattan grid thus creating a charged void, or focal point to be attracted to.

 

The Inverted City

 

The factors that Raymond Hood was facing eighty years ago, we are now facing today.  The conflicts and context have changed, but the solutions are the same.  Just this time, on a much larger scale.  The five key factors above can therefore be Re-Described as the following.

 

-       Aesthetics and Scale: The American economy is in turmoil. New economies are emerging and threatening to end America's position as the Worlds only SuperPower.  The American people need hope.

-       Global Stage: It has never been so critical to unite the Worlds cultures and religions to ensure the end to terrorism and conflicts throughout.

-       Mixing Programme: The success of the Inverted City to be a city within a city, it will need the critical mass of users and programmes.

-       Gardens: Not just for a view, but the Gardens will become the power house to kill the micro-cities carbon emissions. Agriculture, allotments, gardens and forest will capture the C02 from the city below.  Food will be provided. Vegetarian style.  Rain water will be captured and filtered. Waster water will be recycled.

-       Grid Erasure: Both on Ground and above, the city sits on a SuperBlock, bounded by the Manhattan grid, but devoid of it within.  Vehicular infrastructure does not exist. Vertical Subways, diagonal escalators and the use of walking moves the population.

 

Re-Briefing the Rockefeller Center will be Re-Briefing the Rockefeller Center TODAY.  Raymond Hood, Rockefeller and their team had a vision for their time.  A vision entirely to help solve the problems of Manhattan, and the World then.  If they were alive now, what would they design?  The Conflicts and Context are different. Politeness is useless. As they were then, we must be brave and bold. A new city beckons.

Following today's tutorial, the next two weeks will be spent illustrating in a single vertical quintet what exactly is in this Inverted City.  A clear section defining programme, infrastructure, structure.  Who is the city for, why does it exist?  What is it in this moment in time that will define its meaning.  Big questions.

For interest, and unrelated to The Inverted City, here's a section of Gaetano Pesce Church of Solitude, transverse section, 1974-1977 (MOMA) A City within a City orientated around the Church?

Headlines. December 18th 2009. News Bulletin. The President has made a bold statement on the last day of the Copenhagen Climate Summit. With the agreement of nations including China and India, Barak Obama will lead the way in re-modeling America's cities.  He stated that the metropolis of New York will be the first city to be transformed.  A city that will become the worlds first 'Inverted City'.  He concluded his closing speech by stating: "No longer will our cities be vehicles for climatic devastation.  No longer will our cities be virus' infecting a dieing planet. No longer will we turn a blind eye to the effects urban sprawl and our ignorance of the facts".  Obama explained this meteoric plan of an Inverted City. 

Through the insertion of a city within a city, the periphery of New York, the devastating urban sprawl will be folded into this new, dense, Micro City.  The Inverted City will have the critical mass and flexibility to evolve within and include all services required for a Micro City.  This City will become a utopian center and attractor to the population of New York.

It has already been reported that 1.2million New Yorkers have signed an expression of interest to invest in this Inverted City and live there.  If this number continues to swell, further micro cities have been proposed.  However for the first, a site has been bought by the Government.  Eight square blocks in lower Manhattan approximately 300m by 300m, the proposed Inverted City maybe higher than a mile.

The edifice will be built utalising the granite beneath. Excavation will begin almost immediately, and the granite cut to shape to create the building blocks for the city.  All other materials such a timber will be from renewable sources and combined with the granite.  Most importantly the inhabitants of the Inverted City will live in a habitat that is fully in balance with the habitat around them.  Both the Old City of Manhattan and the rural districts beyond. 

Due to the death of the suburbs, the periphery of New York will be reclaimed by the ruralites.  Nature will crawl back into the city, and the Inverted city will become a model and influencer to New York and on the World stage on how a city can live in symbiosis with its environment.

We will be getting more details from The Presidents Office when further announcements are made. End of news bulletin.

The first draft of the first Plate was looking at one of the key successes of the Rockefeller Center and exaggerating the success across a square mile of Manhattan.  The result is a patchwork of augmented gardens.  A timid start however.  A micro city it is not.  A mere extension to the existing urban fabric it is.  Time to revisit the re-brief (comments from previous tutorial were a little more direct!!)

 

I came across this City today.  An amazing compact city called Shibam in Yemen.  It was built and grew within the city walls due to conflict.  However it is a dieing city - only 7000 inhabitants who are fighting to keep the city going due to its crumbling structure.  Its made from mud. This is presumably why the city has not grown since.  There is no need for it to grow.

The first of many editions for this years manifesto:

Conflict. A city is a virus; spreading a global plague of consumption on a planet unable to react. This year, 50% of the world's population of 6.8 billion live in a city, consuming 75% of the world's resources from beyond the city and defecating the waste back again.

By 2050, it has been estimated that 75% of the world's population of 9 billion will live in a city consuming over 90% of the worlds resources and spreading its domain far.  With this current rate of growth, the requirement to consume will strip the planet of all resources.  The influence of the city will be far reaching.

Kyoto, Co₂penhagen and other influencers will do little to change the inevitable growth of this virus.  A plaster on a gaping wound.  A decisive approach is required to reverse the trend.  A new model of a city must be built to create a centre for the population explosion, and to create a city that is in symbiosis with the environment.

 

Strategy: Through the design of a micro city, a seed will be sown; a utopian punctuator that will fold the periphery of the Generic City into its centre.  "The Inverted City" will be a utopian centre in symbiosis with the world beyond its boundary.  The overwhelming attraction of the Inverted City will see a mass exodus of the Generic City.

The exodus will be unstoppable. The Inverted City will spread, replacing the Bad with the Good.  Cities as we know it will become relics of the past.  Unoccupied.  The death of the suburbs will be first.  The environment will envelop the periphery, returning the land to a virgin state.

The Inverted City will be an exemplar.  Generic Cities throughout the world will duplicate its success.

After many many years, the Inverted City will be the only city to exist. The virus on the world's resources will cease, and a new symbiosis between city and environment will prevail.

The weekend has been spent re-visiting the re-brief.  To ensure a concise story is told of re-briefing the Rockefeller Center in the words of Exodus "Exodus to the Mountain", I've looked at five key successes of the Rockefeller Center, and the principals Raymond Hood had in building this micro city. These five successes will become five plates.  Each plate will show one square mile of Manhattan reconfigured to allow for the particular success to grow within; transforming that square mile into a micro city of the whole.  Each square mile will be positioned around an existing center relating to it. These five micro cities will grow within their notional boundary, forming a clear distinction between the New and Old; the Good Half and the Bad Half.  The overwhelming attraction of these micro cities will see a mass Exodus of the Old Manhattan.  And so the journey begins.

1. Grid Erasure; insertion of the plaza
2. Programmatic Schism; stacking programme and congestion
3. Factory of Indulgence; the power of a craze
4. Infrastructural AntiGrid; connections against the grid
5. Augmented Gardens; hanging gardens of Manhattan

Each plate will be a perspective showing part of the whole square mile. A montage of the Good Half.

A page from The White Book.  Still formulating ideas for the next step.  Tomorrow will be a long day putting the re-brief of Rockefeller into a concise strategy.

The microCities of Rockefeller and Exodus

The Rockefeller Center became a punctuator in New York.  An entertainment and commercial center that attracted the attention of New Yorkers and the world over in a time of economic depression.   Its success to attract the great and good and New Yorkers of all classes there from, did something more. In times of depression, where queues for food are long, contrasts are great. 

Hypothesis.

A division occurred between the rich and poor.  The Good and the Bad. The greater the center attracted the wealthy the more successful it became.  More wealth came.  And through this fashion, the center became more successful. An icon to the success of America.  But for the poor, the centre was simply an iconic dream. A dream that for many was unattainable.  A view from the Deck of the tallest building was described, once build, as resembling an ocean linear.  An ocean linear ploughing it's way through a sea of economic turmoil. A microCity of Good in a sea of Bad. 

Rem Koolhaas speculated a new microCity metropolis for London. Exodus was theorised in 1972.  A new city divided into parts that tapped into the senses of a dismayed generic city of old London.  Creating a strip, an attractor that divided the city into a Good Side and a Bad Side.

The strip being an attractor, its success created growth.  The Good Side grew.  The influence of the centre to act as a punctuator succeeded.  In Exodus a wall was built by the Bad Side to stop the mass migration.

For the Rockefeller Center, there was no wall. There is no wall.  Instead the success of it as a microCity, also saw the center grow.   The Rockefeller Centre has arguably lost its physical identity as an iconic structure in the relentless expanse of the New York skyline.  However, the growth of the Rockefeller Center has occurred. Not physically, but influentially.  The growth of New York was always on the cards. But the model created by the Rockefeller Centre as an icon has certainly ensured the Good Side has prevailed. The 'Good' of the Rockefeller Center has achieved its incredible ambition to grow.

This weekend has been consolidating the last two presentations. Making sense of them, and reformatting for The White Book.  As a precursor to re-brief: Exodus to Rockefeller, Rockefeller described in the language of Exodus (Rem Koolhaas and team, 1972).

The Rockefeller Center when built instantly became an icon.  A status that hasn't faded with time.  It's success as an icon has arguably been due to four primary reasons:

1. Aesthetic and Scale. 

New York was still in its infancy in the 1930's. Great swathes of Manhattan were relatively flat.  The stage was set for a grand development, both in scale and detailing. Rockefeller foresaw the project to last as an icon beyond its inception.  The Great Depression of 1929 created a climate where Americans needed a symbol of hope.  This hope came in the form of a vision by Rockefeller to build a grand statement of hope for the hope starved America.  By building large and detailing the building with lavish and outrageously glamorous materials, Rockefeller succeeded in giving those in New York a hope of a brighter future.  A clear and brave statement of confidence in the American future. Seduction of Glamour.



2. Programme and Infrastructure. 

The development of the Rockefeller Center was unique in terms of the role of the Architect. Instead of Raymond Hood gaining full control of the design development of the build, a consortium was founded with Hood as an equal member.  The design of the center evolved ensuring that all aspects of the design such as programme adjacencies, structure, mechanical services, as well as scale and aesthetics were addressed. This collaboration minimised the risk to the investor and ensured the Rockefeller Center remained a success and an icon beyond its initial opening sensation subsided.



3. Global Stage. 

The Great War had just past and Rockefeller saw an opportunity in the Rockefeller Center to bring key countries from across the world together.  An ambitious attempt to prevent another drawn out and deadly war.  Rockefeller also saw a financial opportunity in improving trade relations and to effectively sell off parcels of real estate to countries directly for them in turn to lease them to local companies.  The conglomeration of nationalities and mixture of companies still exist today and has become a key factor in ensuring that Rockefeller Center has remained an icon on the world stage.

4. Media and Advertisement. 

In a time of Depression, Americans were desperate for a bright future. Through ensuring an outrageously glamorous aesthetic to the project, Rockefeller saw the magnetism of fashion.  An attractor for the great and good that inevitably filtered down through all classes. The Rockefeller project began it's path as a new location for New York's Opera House. Even though the Opera House was abandoned during development, the concept of shifting New York's entertainment center did not. The concept of an entertainment center as an attractor succeeded.  The Rockefeller Center maintains its presence in New York for housing numerous theatres, including Radio City in addition to companies such as NBC.

First entry and an intro to Brief 1. Cities within a City is the theme so far.  The world is facing some BIG questions which will involve BIG answers. Before treading further, here's an image of a micro city jointly designed by Raymond Hood and team under the guidance and ownership of J. Rockefeller between 1929 and 1939. The Rockefeller Center, New York. Photo taken before the center was completed.