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Agents of Transformation and the "Death" of Urbanism Preeminence of the Decorated Shed Staging Uncertainty |
[3M1] WIRING THE CITY. 
The new interchanges within this distributed
network will be framed by two systems of transportation – roads and railways –
in addition to nearby water transportation. New train terminals will be constructed at
these sites within extended commercial complexes, in anticipation of future traffic. The
‘nervous system’ proposed for the entire port will similarly define the
structure of the terminal buildings, which will mediate the exchange between the different
networks.
While this concept of interchange has been conceptualized and tested within existing urban conditions, its potential within exurban contexts has been largely ignored. What has become clear, however, is that the ‘horizontal skyscraper’ typology of exurbia is an appropriate site for a new generation of interchange. The sprawling terminal complex projected for Kinjo Pier, for instance, presents such a possibility. Using a similar method of isolating movement systems, the Kinjo Pier terminal is represented by the densification and collision of networks. The vast scale of the building and arrival patterns make it possible to conceptualize the internal mechanisms as having little or no relationship to the building envelope; therefore, the envelope is not part of the study. Instead, the interior is shaped by the design of the infrastructure. Because the infrastructural system operates on all scales, the building is not conceived as being independent or separate from its context, but rather a spatiotemporal moment of heightened density within a distributed field.
An enclosed microcosm of the port itself, the terminal has its own microcosms, in the form of ‘hot spots’ or ‘ganglia’ which represent mini-interchanges, or mini-enterprise zones. These ganglia are the densest and fastest components of the entire scheme, designed to be engaged by the post-industrial subject. Inter-dependent of the terminal complex, they represent the culmination of complexity in program and engineering, and would require specialized development in parallel with the design of the ‘body’ of the building. In this way, the architect designing each ganglion would be collaborating with planners and developers throughout the entire process of building, and the ‘hot spots’ would take shape as moments of hyper-specificity within an otherwise generic shed.   
Plan of new logistics terminal with interior "nervous system" and "ganglia"; Logistics terminal model, looking south and north 128Jencks, Charles, Modern Movements in Architecture (London: Penguin, 1973) p. 336 129Ibid., p. 337 Images: 1. Port-wide infrastructural projection, 2. Kinjo Pier from the southwest, 3. Projected logistics terminal with interior "hot spots", 4. Louis Kahn, Plan for Philadelphia (1952), 5. Smithsons, Soho Route Building and Road Net (1959), 6. Richards and Chalk, Interchange (1966), 7. Joypolis, 8. Photo by Pico Harnden, 9. Photo by Pico Harnden
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Looking at Kinjo Pier
specifically, the West Nagoya Port Liner will run parallel to Mexico Boulevard, with a
station located across from the existing International Exposition Hall. Fronting the water
on the other side, the station will also provide access via jet foil and other water
craft. The long stretch of land on the east side of Mexico Boulevard will be filled by new
offices and commercial facilities, which will extend to the north as part of Kinjo Pier
Station. These facilities will include a center for port administration and commercial
enterprise, a convention hall, a hotel, and a shopping/entertainment center. Beginning
formal propositions for this .8 kilometer long, 1,110,000 square meter complex were
founded on infrastructural considerations, and design consisted of experimentation with
the internal mechanisms necessary to negotiate this vast, interior terrain. Thus, instead
of considering this building as a symbolic object to be perceived from the exterior, I
consistently treated it as an inverted urban landscape which would only be understood from
within.
My isolated
treatment of the ‘wiring’ as form-generator has many precedents, particularly
from the latter half of the twentieth century. In Louis Kahn’s proposed plan for
Philadelphia (1952), he isolated movement patterns in a kind of abstract system of
‘traffic architecture’, which he deemed a necessary first step towards
quantitative and qualitative solutions for existing traffic problems. His reductionist
focus on circulation patterns finds its origins in projects by the Futurists, who were the
first to consider flow to be an abstract, frozen element. In their Soho Route Building and
Road Net (1959), Alison and Peter Smithson
promoted a ‘net’ structure as the system of movement, which they
felt would best serve an urban environment with minimal interference and maximum
flexibility, connected to a ‘route building’ equipped with a system of internal
travelators. This dual system "was to provide ‘the structure for a scattered
city’ which was on a gigantic enough scale... to give urban identity."128
This concept led to a focus on the
‘interchange’, a complex problem of arranging different movement systems to
provide maximum efficiency and fluidity at their conjunction, exemplified by Richards and
Chalk’s project of 1966. Brian Richards’ Comparative Anatomy of Systems (1966)
and other such transportation studies "showed a shift in thinking away from the
Utopian and a priori approach. Instead of laying down a master plan dependent on a
few fixed variables, architects now began proposing flexible strategies."129
The Interchange project bears a striking resemblance to
existing train terminals in Japan, which are sprawling underground complexes that harness
the traffic flows of the city, and represent culminations of urban movement and
interaction. The Japanese terminal developed in the way proposed by Richards and the
Smithsons, where a variety of new movement systems were to be incrementally overlaid onto
existing networks within dense urban contexts. The interchange has reinforced the idea of
a polynuclear field within Japanese cities, where each station assumes qualities of a
small city in itself and defines a different district or locale within the urban whole. In
this way, the interchange defines a destination by means of the culmination and
interrelation of systems of mobility, and each destination is perceived to have its
own particular character and ambience.
A Master's Thesis in Architecture at Rice University by Blaine Brownell. Copyright © 1998 by Blaine Brownell. All rights reserved. |
