INFRATECTURE. Eye of the Storm.

[3S2] EYE OF THE STORM.

In their design for the central sector of the Lille complex, OMA proposed an architectural intervention which was not an addition but a subtraction: "at the point of greatest infrastructural density, an absence of building reveals the highway, railway, three levels of parking, and the metro, which dives underneath the whole complex, in one overtly metropolitan moment – Espace Piranesien."¹³³ OMA - Lille Map In the effort to reveal the infrastructural complexity of the project, OMA decided to carve out a void within the most congested area; the eye of the storm. This void represents a much-needed breathing space within the post-industrial megastructure. It is the medieval courtyard transformed for our time; the next iteration of Portman’s atrium. OMA’s void is actually a simple, rectangular space punched out of an otherwise complex matrix, adjusted to the vast scale of the building (roughly 50m by 50m). Like the Paris Library project, the space is volumetrically pure, and does not relate to the formal qualities of the circulation it was intended to reveal. Richard Ingersoll has noted that the void is not the success its designers intended it to be, perhaps because truly Piranesian space is not possible at such a large scale and with such a simplistic volume. Nevertheless, OMA had a good idea.

On the Move For architecture to be the next interface, it must engage the subject. Engagement requires a sensibility to scale and attention to operational mechanisms not found in architecture today. The time has come for design of the second machine age. Such design is informed by complex program and the articulation of unprecedented configurations of spaces based on scenario projection. One-dimensional, object oriented spaces give way to overlapping zones of activity ("the city is not a tree"); design between proprietary lines is at last freed to ‘ride the diagonal.’ The circuit usurps the predominant position of the cell; the circuit at last becomes the cell.

The small ‘hot spot’ of maximum density within the distributed field is what I call the Business Substation Prototype. The BSP is a telework center which responds to the itinerant production/consumption models projected in the previous scenarios. The various necessary programs are conflated and interconnected within one seamless experience. The BSP inhabits an interior section of the terminal, anchored to minor roads which run perpendicular to the terminal axis. In this configuration, several BSPs occupy space along the terminal complex, marking larger programmatic thresholds; each one varies in form and use based on independent contextual adaptation. The ganglion is actually the BSP circuit – its form is determined by the specific character of each infrastructural system and the interrelation of the systems – it is an interchange at the human scale. Because the circuit defines the cell, the traditional distinction between servant and served spaces becomes blurred. The servant spaces also serve.

The BSP frames a hole within the terminal complex. At the center of congestion – the height of programmatic climax – appears a spatial denouement. Unlike its precedents, the BSP void is both subtracted and ‘added’ – its form is not derived from pure geometries but rather from the intricacies of the networks that frame it – it is an operational volume.

The BSP is designed to be engaged by the post-industrial subject: within the atomized, psychasthenic landscape of the megalopolis, the BSP provides reorientation, accessibility, and accountability. It is a destination defined by a space of mobility. Steven Holl presages the spatial experience of the BSP in his description of the yet-to-be-built city:

Consider the city as it might appear in a series of cinematic images: zoom shots in front of a person walking, tracking shots along the side, the view changing as the head turns. At the same time, the city is a place to be felt. Notions of space, shifting ground plane, plan, section, and expansion are bound up in passage through the city...

In the modern city the voids between the buildings, not the buildings themselves, hold spatial inspiration. Urban space is formed by vertical groupings, terrestrial shifts, elongated slots of light, bridges and vertical penetrations of a fixed horizontal. Urban space has a vertical Z dimension equal to, or more important than, the X-Y plane. This perpendicular spatial order is amplified by a range of viewpoints from various levels. From a roof terrace, a subway platform, the upper floors of a tower, or an underpass, vertical urban perspective is experienced on a shifting ground plane.¹³⁴

BSP Looking Down

In this way, the BSP represents the insertion of a new kind of urbanity within the exurban megalopolitan field. Unlike the proliferation of projects which are based on traditional urban imagery ("architectural necrophilia"), the BSP is shaped by the conflation of diverse activities into a vertically-oriented, perpetually shifting spatial experience. The design of the BSP recognizes that "processes and events have shapes of their own."¹³⁵ The BSP subverts the vestigial dermophilic tendencies of architecture; the façade is turned inside-out. At an urban level, the BSP operates from within the circuitry of the distributed network, shaping the macrocosm with the microcosm.

In the spirit of technological advancement, the BSP is an effort to "digitize, synthesize, and miniaturize" architectural form.¹³⁶ Necessary activities are arranged according to a logical procession: [level 0] rail platform; [level 1] loading, parking; [level 2] orientation, preparation, storage; [level 3] production, meeting; [level 4] relaxation, consumption; [level 5] roof – helipad. Taking organizational cues from airport layouts, the main public entrance is located on the second level, accessible via elevated roadway. Secondary public entrances, as well as secured private entrances, are located on all other levels. Logical processional routes are organized such that the occupant is constantly oriented to the building; electronic message boards and video screens augment streamlined circulation systems. This conscionable experience of the "shifting terrain" of the building ultimately empowers the subject; hence, the promenade is reinserted into the language of architecture.

1. Exploded Views, 2. View from subway looking up, 2. View from level 2 balcony

1. Sectional Perspective looking north, 2. Sectional Perspective looking west

Floor Plans, Levels 1-4

Model Plan Views, Levels 0-5

1. View from subway platform, 2. View from level 2 walkway, 3. View inside level 3 conference room, 4. View from level 4 balcony, 5. View from level 4 capsule, 6. View from above, 7. Aerial View of exploded BSP

1. View from level 0 looking up, 2. View from subway platform, 3. View from subway platform, 4. View from level 1 entry, 5. View from level 1 walkway, 6. View from level 2 entry, 7. View from level 3 balcony, 8. View from level 4 balcony

1. Model View, 2. Model View from subway, 3. Model View from level 0 looking up, 4. Model View from level 4 walkway, 5. Model View from above, 6. Model View from above, 7. Model View: Section looking east

1. View of BSP from the northeast, 2. View from roof level, 3. View from subway looking up, 4. View from level 0 platform looking up, 5. View from roof level stair looking down, 6. View of BSP from the southeast

¹³³Koolhaas, Rem, "Quantum Leap" in S,M,L,XL (New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995) p. 1200

¹³⁴Holl, Steven, Edge of a City (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1991) p. 12-13

¹³⁵Kwinter, Sanford, "The Reinvention of Geometry" in Assemblage 18, p. 84

¹³⁶Adler, Jerry, "Three Magic Wands" in Newsweek Extra: The Power of Invention (Winter 1997-98) p. 8-10

A Master's Thesis in Architecture at Rice University by Blaine Brownell.