November 2009 Archives
The Inversion Principal was really studied in depth by John Pickering (a nice small book is published by the AA on his work). The idea of using The Inverted City as a 5th ecology for Los Angeles, sited in the San Fernando Valley is bringing up so many intriguing questions I'm in a struggle to figure out what is useful and what is not.
I'm currently looking at three different scales to describe what the Inverted City is and what is it solving. I have to admit though, some guidance from anybody would be greatly appreciated!!!
The 'Four Ecologies' of Los Angeles as described by Rayner Banham, might be intriguing in the sense that they describe how a society functions of today through the architecture and city planning. There are no confines imposed on a society by an architecture that is no longer suitable. However, Los Angeles is now becoming a relic of its own past. It is imposing an architecture that will no longer be fit for a future society that we seek. This is where the 5th Ecology; the Inverted City comes to play.
City Inversion
The one square mile site at the head of the Los Angeles River is an inversion of the urban sprawl of the San Fernando Valley. Here, all programme and infrastructure is reverted inwards to a dense centre. The rural habitat in-gulfs the core of the city. Scale diminishes the further to the centre you go. City blocks become housing plots. Housing plots become dinner plates. The scale of these 'blocks' also dictates the programme. The importance here, is that growth is directed inwards. It's a self contained city with a clear boundary.
The line drawing below begins to illustrate this hopefully. I'm still thinking how to convert this into a 3Dimensional uber dense city, but one step at a time...
Block & Plot Inversion
At the smaller scale of a single Los Angeles Plot, another inversion will take place. The private interior of the house and plot will be inverted outwards, in essence revealing the contents to the public. Being outside this inversion, you'll see the private insides on display to the public outside. The outside will therefore become the inside. This shift will become fundamental in inverting the city at all scale. The image below was created by Daniel Piker and gives the idea of what I'm describing.
As a block, by moving these dense inverted plots together, the inners begin to face each other turning the city into something similar to Moroccan Souks. This inversion allows for the city itself to become a forum. The Inverted City.
I'm also quite keen to see how far through the scales and meaning I can take the inversion principal. For TS, I'd imagine it'll make a nice thesis, but beyond too. The principal is based on the use of imaginary numbers. Which I'm hoping to use to create an imaginary world (fictional world) where everything is inverted. The opposite of life as we know it. A parallel city running in opposite to the real city. This is why I'm getting stuck - mind boggling stuff. What I do want to do is to complete a set of three drawings for Friday, showing the three different scales I describe above?? Ahhh!
I'm currently looking at three different scales to describe what the Inverted City is and what is it solving. I have to admit though, some guidance from anybody would be greatly appreciated!!!
The 'Four Ecologies' of Los Angeles as described by Rayner Banham, might be intriguing in the sense that they describe how a society functions of today through the architecture and city planning. There are no confines imposed on a society by an architecture that is no longer suitable. However, Los Angeles is now becoming a relic of its own past. It is imposing an architecture that will no longer be fit for a future society that we seek. This is where the 5th Ecology; the Inverted City comes to play.
City Inversion
The one square mile site at the head of the Los Angeles River is an inversion of the urban sprawl of the San Fernando Valley. Here, all programme and infrastructure is reverted inwards to a dense centre. The rural habitat in-gulfs the core of the city. Scale diminishes the further to the centre you go. City blocks become housing plots. Housing plots become dinner plates. The scale of these 'blocks' also dictates the programme. The importance here, is that growth is directed inwards. It's a self contained city with a clear boundary.
The line drawing below begins to illustrate this hopefully. I'm still thinking how to convert this into a 3Dimensional uber dense city, but one step at a time...
Block & Plot Inversion
At the smaller scale of a single Los Angeles Plot, another inversion will take place. The private interior of the house and plot will be inverted outwards, in essence revealing the contents to the public. Being outside this inversion, you'll see the private insides on display to the public outside. The outside will therefore become the inside. This shift will become fundamental in inverting the city at all scale. The image below was created by Daniel Piker and gives the idea of what I'm describing.
As a block, by moving these dense inverted plots together, the inners begin to face each other turning the city into something similar to Moroccan Souks. This inversion allows for the city itself to become a forum. The Inverted City.
I'm also quite keen to see how far through the scales and meaning I can take the inversion principal. For TS, I'd imagine it'll make a nice thesis, but beyond too. The principal is based on the use of imaginary numbers. Which I'm hoping to use to create an imaginary world (fictional world) where everything is inverted. The opposite of life as we know it. A parallel city running in opposite to the real city. This is why I'm getting stuck - mind boggling stuff. What I do want to do is to complete a set of three drawings for Friday, showing the three different scales I describe above?? Ahhh!
Closer view of the Periphery of San Fernando inverted into the centre... You can see how the grid breaks up towards the centre.
The original line drawing of San Fernando urban sprawl. All of this has been inverted into my site (marked by the "black hole") giving the inverted city shown next...
I've been trying to find ways in which I can literally Invert the City of Los Angeles into a unified dense centre. The method of bringing the periphery to centre can go much further. The idea of creating an inverted city can be shown at different scales. I want to try and create a fictional world; and Inverted City, where the very fabric of the city is turned inside out. Privatisation is inverted into Publicisation, Urbanism is inverted to Ruralism, the private dwelling is inverted inside out to become a space in which the user now lives amongst everyone else in the city.
To achieve this inversion, I've been looking into The Inversion Principal. A three dimensional device that inverts an infinite number of objects from outside a sphere to within it, so that the inverted points become more compact, the near they are to the centre. In doing so, the urban sprawl of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley in particular can be inverted and densified into a compact new city; a transformation of the old city to new city. A complete inversion of both physical and social conditions....
Its a bit of a mind bender too, so I've been trying to get my head around how this tool can be used to best affect in achieving an Inverted City. So far its looking promising. I've inverted the whole of San Fernando into a new centre as an experiment. The black centre is within the 1 square mile of my site - San Fernando inverted WITHIN the site. The white centre is the country beyond (the ingredients for a Forum). The red is the existing site inverted OUT of my site...
The rest of the day will be spent using this technique to build up a plan that clearly illustrates (I hope!!!), the inversion of the physical old city, into the new Inverted City, but also shows how everything else is inverted such as private to public etc.... Then I'll have to go into 3D!
To achieve this inversion, I've been looking into The Inversion Principal. A three dimensional device that inverts an infinite number of objects from outside a sphere to within it, so that the inverted points become more compact, the near they are to the centre. In doing so, the urban sprawl of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley in particular can be inverted and densified into a compact new city; a transformation of the old city to new city. A complete inversion of both physical and social conditions....
Its a bit of a mind bender too, so I've been trying to get my head around how this tool can be used to best affect in achieving an Inverted City. So far its looking promising. I've inverted the whole of San Fernando into a new centre as an experiment. The black centre is within the 1 square mile of my site - San Fernando inverted WITHIN the site. The white centre is the country beyond (the ingredients for a Forum). The red is the existing site inverted OUT of my site...
The rest of the day will be spent using this technique to build up a plan that clearly illustrates (I hope!!!), the inversion of the physical old city, into the new Inverted City, but also shows how everything else is inverted such as private to public etc.... Then I'll have to go into 3D!
I'm sure these will have to change over the next few weeks...
I'm sure this has already been seen by all. Los Angeles is actually one of the densest cities in America. The Americans reliance on the Automobile as led to endemic urban sprawl, resulting in enormous quantities of C02.
Their proposal for Canoga Park; something I reject in favour of a 5th Ecology: The Inverted City
A site has been chosen out the periphery of Los Angeles. An area of urban sprawl on the scale of a city itself. San Fernando is comparable in size to London, but only houses a fraction of the population. The Los Angeles River Revitalization Project has a clear objective to unite this suburb with the centre of LA using the river than runs between each. The scheme proposes a green ribbon, but in addition also proposes new housing on an enormous scale. At the head of the river project, lies Canoga Park (no park exists anymore), at the centre of the San Fernando region. Here proposed, is another sprawl of a development. It will be here that I propose to site my project as an alternative to this proposal.
In addition to this, Rayner Banham described LA as having four distinct Ecologies; Surfurbia, Foothills, The Plains and Autopia. All distinct and fundamental in characterising the attributes to LA. He also described the people of LA stating that 'Everything is possible'. The Inverted City will become a 5th Ecology, sited in Canoga Park.
I'll post a few more images in a few more hours/early tomorrow.... :-)
Red Marks Canoga Park in the obvious urban sprawl of San Fernando.
In addition to this, Rayner Banham described LA as having four distinct Ecologies; Surfurbia, Foothills, The Plains and Autopia. All distinct and fundamental in characterising the attributes to LA. He also described the people of LA stating that 'Everything is possible'. The Inverted City will become a 5th Ecology, sited in Canoga Park.
I'll post a few more images in a few more hours/early tomorrow.... :-)
Red Marks Canoga Park in the obvious urban sprawl of San Fernando.
Manifesto: Inverted City. Uniting the Periphery with Centre to create a hyper dense multi-dimensional knowledge metropolis.
Context: A city is a virus; spreading a global plague of consumption on a planet unable to react. This year, half of the world's population live in a city. Based on consumerist economies, they devour three quarters of the world's resources from beyond the city and defecate the waste back again. A figure, which is set to increase over the next 40 years.
Conflict: These worldwide consumerist economies have led the city away from networked societies in equilibrium with their external environment. There has also been an increase of segregation of internal city sectors, eliminating community cohesion. By far the largest sector is the growth in urban sprawl; the growth of periphery over centre. These low-density suburbs consume more land, and the occupants consume more resources, than the city itself.
Strategy: To concentrate on three specific agendas that begin to create an Inverted City. A new type of City that is based on knowledge exchange with the Public Forum as its constituent part. City sectors will still thrive; living, entertainment, commerce and public services etc. However, these three agendas will begin to change the very notion of how they function.
Private Erasure; the inversion from private to public. Cities of today are swelled with private ownership; the society we live in. Through inverting this obsession, all programmes will be brought to the realm of the public, a new society will be created where information is exchanged freely and rapidly. The Public Forum is the space for companies to trade. It is the space to be entertained. It is the space to live.
Extreme Networks; inversion from planar to volumetric. A neural network of knowledge can only be established through a neural networked city; a hyper dense multidimensional city that unites the urban sprawl into the centre.
Programme Unity; inversion of programme segregation. Programmes and professions will unite and be distributed throughout the Inverted City. Networked together, they will also feed from information gathered around them.
Context: A city is a virus; spreading a global plague of consumption on a planet unable to react. This year, half of the world's population live in a city. Based on consumerist economies, they devour three quarters of the world's resources from beyond the city and defecate the waste back again. A figure, which is set to increase over the next 40 years.
Conflict: These worldwide consumerist economies have led the city away from networked societies in equilibrium with their external environment. There has also been an increase of segregation of internal city sectors, eliminating community cohesion. By far the largest sector is the growth in urban sprawl; the growth of periphery over centre. These low-density suburbs consume more land, and the occupants consume more resources, than the city itself.
Strategy: To concentrate on three specific agendas that begin to create an Inverted City. A new type of City that is based on knowledge exchange with the Public Forum as its constituent part. City sectors will still thrive; living, entertainment, commerce and public services etc. However, these three agendas will begin to change the very notion of how they function.
Private Erasure; the inversion from private to public. Cities of today are swelled with private ownership; the society we live in. Through inverting this obsession, all programmes will be brought to the realm of the public, a new society will be created where information is exchanged freely and rapidly. The Public Forum is the space for companies to trade. It is the space to be entertained. It is the space to live.
Extreme Networks; inversion from planar to volumetric. A neural network of knowledge can only be established through a neural networked city; a hyper dense multidimensional city that unites the urban sprawl into the centre.
Programme Unity; inversion of programme segregation. Programmes and professions will unite and be distributed throughout the Inverted City. Networked together, they will also feed from information gathered around them.
Believe it or not, but I've been head-in-the-work for the majority of the weekend and have one miserly plan to show for this time. Very frustrating. I'll blog the manifesto in a bit, but here's the non-plan plan so far. Obviously work in progress.
I've been looking at how to make the key principals of the Ideological ReBrief stand out a little more. The below includes specific photoshop insertions. In a sense it's the additions that will be rich in colour and filter through the line drawing of the old and fragmented. Not sure if this comes across? Here's a segment:
To help update the Re-Brief Plates and figure out what this Plan will look like for next Tuesday, I've been revising my Manifesto. I know it's far from clear, but hopefully there'll be some good criticism from the Jury - I'll need the direction! Anyhow, here it is (I'll post the revised Re-Brief tomorrow);
The Inverted City. Folding the Periphery to Centre to create a hyper dense, three-dimensional metropolis and reverse the growth of urban sprawl.
Context: A city is a virus; spreading a global plague of consumption on a planet unable to react. This year, half of the world's population live in a city, consuming three quarters of the world's resources from beyond the city and defecating the waste back again. A figure, which will only increase over the next 40 years.
Conflict: A key contributor, is the growth in urban sprawl; the growth of periphery over centre. These low-density suburbs consume more land, and the occupants consume more resources, than the city itself. The complete failure to unite programme segregates community cohesion, prohibiting tolerance. The sprawl also creates a barrier, segregating the urban habitat with the rural habitat. A segregation that only promotes consumerism and a failure for mutual understanding between these habitats.
Strategy: To fold the periphery to centre and create a dense, three-dimensional metropolis and reverse the growth of urban sprawl. Infrastructure will be local, not distant. Programmes will be united, not segregated. The rural and urban habitats will be fused, not isolated. Growth will be reversed; the rural will envelop the periphery, returning the land to a virgin state. The City will be Inverted. A model that will thrive throughout the World
Solution: A Generic City will be identified with prolific urban sprawl. Potential centres throughout the sprawl will be located. The radial sweeping of all programmes in the infected area around this new centre, will result in a reduced ratio of density between centre and periphery. This strip will then be folded inward, creating a new hyper dense centre. The planar city of old will become the volumetric city of new. Programme will be rearranged. New adjacencies will emerge. Micro communities will form. The Centre of this Inverted City will be a Forum, that will proliferate its influence throughout this new city; bonding the programmes into a unified single centre. The Inverted City.
Raymond Hood, Rockefeller and their team had a vision for
their time. A vision to help solve
the crisis of Manhattan, and the World then. Now, the Conflicts and Context have shifted. Manhattan has evolved. The World has evolved. Now is the time to Re-Brief what the
Rockefeller Center can do for us.
As in 1930, we must readdress how Rockefeller can create a solution to
the crises of today. We must be
brave and bold. A new city beckons.
The Inverted City.
