DOMINION Prof. Wendy W. Fok | Abhay Narasimhan | August - December 2024
‘Dominion’: Video
Abhay Narasimhan
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COURSE DESCRIPTION:
ARCH 202a: Architectural Design II
This course introduces architectural design principles and processes related to urban design. Students will explore design issues at various scales in the urban context through a sequence of interrelated exercises. The exercises will introduce students to methods of analysis and research; new generative drawing, diagramming, and modeling techniques; and architectural and disciplinary conventions associated with urban design work. Overall, the course presents a comprehensive idea about the city as a cultural and physical generator of architectural and urban form.
CONTEXT
In the early 1970s, Reyner Banham proposed a new, radical understanding of Los Angeles, one based not on a customary academic comparison to the historic capitals of Europe but instead on the unique attributes of the city itself. Considering the “extraordinary mixture of geography, climate, economics, demography, mechanics and culture”1 of the city, Banham identified four urban conditions, or ecologies, as the defining forms of Los Angeles—the beaches and beach towns of Surfurbia; the residential enclaves of the Foothills; the instinctual flatlands of the Plains of Id; and the once famous, now infamous, freeway system of Autopia. Each of the four ecologies represents an integration of the built and natural environments into a pattern of development distinct to the greater Los Angeles region. Although proposed more than fifty years ago, this reading of the city in many ways still represents the typical urban forms of Los Angeles. As a result, Banham’s construct of the four ecologies continues to influence our comprehension of the city. The ecologies are not static, however, but evolve and transform to keep pace with changes in climate, population, and culture while maintaining their identity and character.
1 Reyner Banham, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971), 6. 1 | 13
In this studio, we will utilize the representative urban conditions of the four ecologies as an underlying scaffolding for the design of a city of the future. Our proposals will be both ideal—full of ambition and possibility—and responsive to the significant pressures on our current urban environments. We want to explore architecture’s potential to craft provocative speculations as a response to real concerns and constraints. A few facts and figures offer us an insight into the design considerations to which our future cities must respond.
● The world’s population continues to migrate toward urban environments; urbanists, economists, and other experts are quite fond of noting that more than half of the world now lives in cities.
● An immense amount of new construction will be necessary to accommodate this influx of new citizens. Worldwide, the area of constructed buildings has grown by over 31 percent since 2010, with a global total of over 2.7 trillion square feet. Estimates predict that an additional 430 billion square feet of new building floor area will be constructed globally by 2030.
● Based on current institutional structures, the involvement of the architectural profession in much of this new construction will come only after critical decisions about most project parameters, including site, program, and scale, have already been made. As a result, our capacities as architects to address important social and environmental issues are greatly diminished.
Taken together, these facts and figures add up to an inevitable and dramatic transformation of our cities. Urban environments must adapt to absorb the very real demands created by such a surge in population while addressing issues of climate change, access, and affordability. All aspects of cities are sure to be impacted; housing, infrastructure, and public space, in particular, will need to be reconsidered. But what role will the architect play in the next act of the city? How will we as a profession and a discipline assert an active and expanded position in determining the form and organization of the cities of the future? We want to find out. By beginning with Banham's four ecologies, we seek to move quickly beyond typical notions of the city as we address the pressures of the future. Much like Banham’s reading of Los Angeles, our future cities cannot simply follow the models that have come before. We must eschew complacency and challenge convention, choosing instead to encourage innovation and celebrate the fantastical We need to rethink the urban environment by imagining the potential of the city as a Super Future. We’re interested in a Super Future city that is both considered and radical, one that tackles questions of sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion with diligent and hopeful provocations. We want to define the possibilities of the Super Future city as both an idea and a place of more—a city that is more environmentally and socially just, more inspirational, more delightful, and ultimately more humane.