As cities continually infiltrate the territorial landscape and urban population is overtaking the rural one, the fate of city and territory and their limits remain more uncertain than ever. Our cities today reach to the stage, which “is not easy to describe” and represent it (B. Secchi, 1989). While simultaneous depopulation and conurbation process constantly de/re-center the city, reflecting it as an amorphous and unstable entity, at the same time the volatile condition caused by constant flows of information generates an effect of delocalization, detaching the city from its geographical context. Thus, the city rather than a real and physical expressive unit becomes ‘virtual’: a “simulacrum city”(J. Baudrillard, 1994), which creates other matrices of urban relations in distance from context, and critically diminishes our ‘sense of place’. The current generic condition of city, repetition, sameness and sprawl is the result of this uprooted operation of urbanity and the lack of literal depth and contents within open territory. Identifying the new design paradigms, being perceptive to the inherent meanings and traces of territory, and taking those matrices as primary elements of intervention, become a matter of urgency. By this vision, the research primary investigates a new design concept, being capable to bridge and create a ‘collective’ meaning and whole between tangible or physical dimension of territory from one hand, and the dynamic or metaphysical dimension of city on the other hand. Intending this hybrid concept, the research adopts the hypothesis of ‘intermediate space’ or “third space” (E. Soja, 2009), aiming to turn the uncertain condition of city-territory into an opportunity for its future development. Describing the concept of ‘integrated urbanity’, the research within this part argues the "art of place” (P. Geddes, 1915) or manner of dwelling as a ‘path’ or ‘process’, departing from “extrapolation” (S. Marot, 2003) of ‘rich places’ in nature and history (F. Choay, 1993), following by ‘illumination’ or ‘intensification’ of evident characters in those captured places, and giving them a ‘figurative capacity’. On one hand, ‘to extrapolate’ describes a relation between the ‘continuity’ (duration) of city and its ‘creativity’ (difference), unfolding an extended ‘depth’ between the sub/hyper-strata of city (G. Deleuze, 1980). On the other hand, ‘to illuminate’ –those revealed places- describes an act of intensification and re-articulation between multiple and simultaneous values, which describes the ‘site’ as a meaningful and dense place: an “illuminated fragment” (P. Smithson, 2005). Therefore, the art of urbanity today due to the new rhythm and volatile condition of city primary to be “the art of collective memory” (M. Halbwachs, 1952; A. Rossi, 1966) is the art of ‘collective making’: a ‘cognitive path’ that entails an integration between geography of ‘mind’ and that of ‘earth’, or to say between city and territory. Adopting the outcome of theoretical foundation, which describes the act of ‘extrapolation’ and ‘intensification’ as the dual implication of ‘integrated urbanity’, then the research in two distinct parts investigates an art of ‘intermediation’ between the tangible and physical dimension of territory from one hand and ‘metaphysical’ dimension of city on the other hand. Focusing on territorial landscape, in the primary part of this section the research explains those “geographies of resistance”(M. Keith and S.Pile, 1997) as “genetic codes” of territory, which represent the “formative contents”(F. Clemente, 1974) of urbanity. These “applied geographies” (P. Geddes, 1915), are those “necessary basis for updating knowing how to inhabit and knowing how to construct”(F. Choay, 1995). The ‘memory’ and ‘geography’ due to their medium and syntactic essence are tow meanings, which are capable to support the project of architecture to occurs in-between the “theater of memory” and “theater of prophecy” (C. Row and F. Koetter, 1978). Therefore, reviewing several projects of urbanity, the research explains the multiple notions on both ‘memory’ and ‘geography’, and their intermediate value for the project of design to be realized at the intersection of diverse times and landscapes. This cross-scape character supports the architecture to find a third meaning in-between the sense of ‘autonomy’ and ‘total immersion’ in its territorial context. The second part in relation to the double mandate of ‘integrated urbanity’ describes the synchronic effect or ‘manner’ of city, as the art of ‘collective making’ or “re-assembling” (G. Deleuze, 1980), creating a field of possibility for an open-ended creativity. The thesis then addresses the concept of “cityness” and its “urban capabilities”, which enable a “collective production” at the intersection of “time/space/people/routinized practices.”(S. Sassen, 2008). The concepts such as ‘shared spaces’ then would be regarded as those urban meanings, which represent the possibilities for those “collective productions”. The research next, addresses the “counter-spaces” (de Solà-Morales, 1995), as those marginal landscapes being external to the dynamic of city, and argues their shared and collective values for a ‘project of intermediation’: a process and path of urbanity for construction/transformation of city over time. At the end of this part, with a brief review on ‘Grand Paris’ project, the study traces some implications such as ‘imagability’, shared urban capabilities, and new urban and architectural ‘lexicons’, significant to the current territorial appearance of city. This review is intended to be supportive to the last part of thesis: an integrated design practice for Tehran territory. Following the outcomes and key concepts, the research in the last part aims to frame an integrated mode of design in which the art of urbanity has been defined as an interrelated process of ‘perception’, ‘representation’, and ‘project’. This in fact describes a collective relation between territory, landscape and public space. Accordingly, the contextualization of method in Tehran territory departs from ‘analytical reading’ of territorial strata (morpho-genetic/genesis and topological layers) and the comparative relation between those layers, which indicates the ‘fields with utmost level of relativity’ as those ‘places of plurality’. These meaningful and rich ‘fields’, as matrix elements, supports the design practice for a site-specific depiction of territory, and a communicative web of relation between those poetic sites, which facilitate the ‘imageability’ of Tehran metropolis. Lastly, the integrated method is progressing through a design project for one of the underlined sites, a strategic dismissed void: Qale-Morghi Airport. By this design project some spatial attributes and urban compositions are investigated, as those essentials to the urban project with/in new extended territorial context of city. Thus, the concept of ‘integrated urbanity’ in this research has be regarded as a project, a design manner, or a new way of seeing and approaching the current reality of city and its territorial urbanization, which takes the ‘dual mandate’ of city-territory as a possibility for an ‘intermediate’ project of urbanity that is capable to re-anchor the ‘manner’ of city (ethic) to its territorial ‘matter’ (space).
Mentre la città tende continuamente ad infiltrarsi nel territorio e la popolazione urbana sta sorpassando la rurale, il destino della città e del territorio, i loro limiti rimangono più incerti che mai. Le nostre città oggi hanno raggiunto una condizione che "non è facile nè descrivere ,nè rappresentare” (B. Secchi, 1989). Come il processo simultaneo di spopolamento e conurbazione costantemente decentra o riconcentra la città, che si presenta, allora, come un'entità amorfa e instabile, allo stesso tempo la condizione instabile causata dalla costanza dei flussi di informazioni produce un effetto di delocalizzazione, staccando la città dal suo contesto geografico. Così, la città, piuttosto che una reale e fisica unità espressiva diventa 'virtuale': una "città del simulacro" (J. Baudrillard, 1994), producendo altre matrici di relazioni urbane distanti dal contesto. Diminuisce così, profondamente, la nostra capacità di identificare il 'senso di un luogo'. La condizione attuale di una città generica, fatta di ripetizione, monotonia e sprawl è il risultato di questa operazione di urbanità sradicata di una letterale mancanza di profondità e contenuto all'interno del territorio vasto. Identificare i nuovi paradigmi di progettazione, i significati intrinseci alle tracce presenti nel territorio e legate alla percezione e prendendo queste matrici come elementi primari di intervento, diventa urgente. Da questo punto di vista, la ricerca innanzitutto indaga su un nuovo concetto di progetto, in grado di colmare e creare, in alternativa, un significato collettivo tra qualità tangibili del territorio da un lato e la dimensione dinamica e metafisica della città. Prendendo le mosse da questo concetto ibrido, la ricerca adotta l'ipotesi di una nozione di luogo 'liminale' o "terzo spazio" (Soja E., 2009), con l'obiettivo di trasformare l'incerta condizione di città-territorio in un'opportunità per il suo sviluppo futuro. Decodificando il concetto di 'urbanità integrata', lo studio nella sua seconda parte sostiene il concetto di "arte del luogo" (P. Geddes, 1915) o modo di abitare un territorio come un 'percorso', partendo da un processo di 'estrapolazione' (S. Marot, 2003) di 'luoghi ricchi' tra natura e storia (F. Choay, 1993), seguito da una 'illuminazione' o intensificazione del carattere visivo dei luoghi che conferisce loro una «capacità figurativa». Da un lato, per estrapolare si determina una relazione tra la 'continuità' (durata) della città e la sua 'creatività' (differenza), investigando l’estesa profondità tra i sub/hyper-strati della città (G. Deleuze, 1980). D'altra parte, l’operazione dell’illuminare – i luoghi rivelati - descrive un atto di intensificazione e ri-articolazione tra molteplici significati e forze simultanee nel campo tale da generare un luogo intense, un “frammento illuminato" (P. Smithson, 2005). Pertanto, l'arte di urbanità non solo è "l'arte della memoria collettiva" (M. Halbwachs, 1952; A. Rossi, 1966), ma anche l'arte di un 'fare collettivo', un percorso conoscitivo di urbanità che comporta un'integrazione tra la geografia della 'mente' e quella della 'terra', ovvero, tra città e territorio. Assumendo come esito di questa fondazione teorica il duplice aspetto di estrapolazione e intensificazione, che determina il concetto di 'urbanità integrata' la ricerca poi avanza con due parti distinte e indaga un'arte di 'intermediazione' tra la dimensione fisica e tangibile del territorio da un lato e la dimensione 'metafisica' della città d'altra parte. Concentrandosi sul paesaggio territoriale, in una prima parte di questa seconda fase, la ricerca si occupa di quelle "geografie della resistenza" (M.Keith e S.Pile, 1997) intese come "codici genetici" del territorio, che potrebbero rappresentare il "contenuto formativo" (F. Clemente, 1974) di una urbanità, integrata ovvero una "base necessaria per saper abitare e saper costruire" (F. Choay, 1995). La 'memoria' e la 'geografia' a causa della loro essenza come medium sintattico hanno due significati, essendo in grado di sostenere il progetto di architettura che si attua tra il "Teatro della memoria" e il "Teatro della profezia" (C. Row e F. Koetter, 1978) in città. Pertanto, esaminando diversi progetti di urbanità, la ricerca spiega le nozioni di 'memoria' e 'geografia' e il loro valore intermedio per il progetto che si realizza all'incrocio tra i diversi tempi e paesaggi. Viene poi discussa ina seconda fase di una seconda implicazione del concetto di ‘urbanità integrata’ si associa all'effetto sincronico o della 'maniera' della città, come l'arte del fare 'collettivo' o "ri-assemblaggio" (G. Deleuze, 1980), che crea un campo di possibilità per una creatività open-ended. La tesi affronta quindi il concetto di "cityness" e le sue “capacità urbane", che consentono una "produzione collettiva" all'intersezione tra "tempo/spazio/persone/routinized pratiche."(Sassen S., 2008). Concetti come 'spazi comuni', poi, possono essere considerati come queli significati urbani, che rappresentano la possibilità per le "produzioni collettive". La ricerca affronta, successivamente, il concetto di "contro-spazi" (de Solà-Morales, 1995), come quei paesaggi marginali esterni alla dinamica della città, e sostiene i loro valori collettivi e condivisi per un progetto' intermedio' di urbanità. Alla fine di questa parte, con una breve disamina sul progetto 'Grand Paris', lo studio ripercorre alcune implicazioni dei concetti di 'imagability', funzionalità urbana condivisa e nuovi 'lessici' urbanistici e architettonici, significativi per l'attuale aspetto territoriale della città. Questa critica è destinata a essere di supporto per l'ultima parte della tesi: una pratica di progettazione integrata per il territorio di Teheran. In seguito ai risultati e ai concetti chiave, la ricerca nell'ultima parte mira a inquadrare una modalità integrata di progettazione, che descrive il concetto di urbanità come processo interconnesso della 'percezione', 'rappresentazione' e 'progetto'. Così, la contestualizzazione del metodo, sviluppato nella prima parte della tesi, nel territorio di Teheran prende l’avvio dalla 'lettura analitica' di strati territoriali (morfo-genetica/genesi e topologici strati) e dalla relazione comparativa tra quegli strati, che individuano i “campi con livello massimo di relatività' come 'luoghi di pluralità'. Questo sguardo supporta, allora, la pratica di una progettazione per la rappresentazione site-specific del territorio e una rete per la comunicazione delle relazioni tra i “siti poetici”, significativi per 'immaginabilità' della metropoli di Tehran. Infine, il metodo integrato procede attraverso un progetto di design per uno dei siti prescelti,un spazio vuto dismesso strategico per la città: Qale-Morghi airoport. Attraverso questo progetto vengono studiati alcuni attributi spaziali le composizioni urbane, intese come quelle essenziali per il progetto urbano con/nel nuovo contesto territoriale esteso della città. Perciò, il concetto di 'urbanità integrata' in questa ricerca è stata considerata come un progetto, un modo del disegno, o un nuovo modo di vedere la dimensione urbana che si avvicina alla realtà attuale della città e la sua urbanizzazione territoriale, che prende il mandato' doppio' della città-territorio come una possibilità per un progetto 'intermedio’ di urbanità che è in grado di riancorare la 'maniera' della città (etica) con la sua 'materia' territoriale (spazio).
Third-scape and integrated urbanity. City territory as a whole and its design methods
GOLKAR, NARGES
Abstract
As cities continually infiltrate the territorial landscape and urban population is overtaking the rural one, the fate of city and territory and their limits remain more uncertain than ever. Our cities today reach to the stage, which “is not easy to describe” and represent it (B. Secchi, 1989). While simultaneous depopulation and conurbation process constantly de/re-center the city, reflecting it as an amorphous and unstable entity, at the same time the volatile condition caused by constant flows of information generates an effect of delocalization, detaching the city from its geographical context. Thus, the city rather than a real and physical expressive unit becomes ‘virtual’: a “simulacrum city”(J. Baudrillard, 1994), which creates other matrices of urban relations in distance from context, and critically diminishes our ‘sense of place’. The current generic condition of city, repetition, sameness and sprawl is the result of this uprooted operation of urbanity and the lack of literal depth and contents within open territory. Identifying the new design paradigms, being perceptive to the inherent meanings and traces of territory, and taking those matrices as primary elements of intervention, become a matter of urgency. By this vision, the research primary investigates a new design concept, being capable to bridge and create a ‘collective’ meaning and whole between tangible or physical dimension of territory from one hand, and the dynamic or metaphysical dimension of city on the other hand. Intending this hybrid concept, the research adopts the hypothesis of ‘intermediate space’ or “third space” (E. Soja, 2009), aiming to turn the uncertain condition of city-territory into an opportunity for its future development. Describing the concept of ‘integrated urbanity’, the research within this part argues the "art of place” (P. Geddes, 1915) or manner of dwelling as a ‘path’ or ‘process’, departing from “extrapolation” (S. Marot, 2003) of ‘rich places’ in nature and history (F. Choay, 1993), following by ‘illumination’ or ‘intensification’ of evident characters in those captured places, and giving them a ‘figurative capacity’. On one hand, ‘to extrapolate’ describes a relation between the ‘continuity’ (duration) of city and its ‘creativity’ (difference), unfolding an extended ‘depth’ between the sub/hyper-strata of city (G. Deleuze, 1980). On the other hand, ‘to illuminate’ –those revealed places- describes an act of intensification and re-articulation between multiple and simultaneous values, which describes the ‘site’ as a meaningful and dense place: an “illuminated fragment” (P. Smithson, 2005). Therefore, the art of urbanity today due to the new rhythm and volatile condition of city primary to be “the art of collective memory” (M. Halbwachs, 1952; A. Rossi, 1966) is the art of ‘collective making’: a ‘cognitive path’ that entails an integration between geography of ‘mind’ and that of ‘earth’, or to say between city and territory. Adopting the outcome of theoretical foundation, which describes the act of ‘extrapolation’ and ‘intensification’ as the dual implication of ‘integrated urbanity’, then the research in two distinct parts investigates an art of ‘intermediation’ between the tangible and physical dimension of territory from one hand and ‘metaphysical’ dimension of city on the other hand. Focusing on territorial landscape, in the primary part of this section the research explains those “geographies of resistance”(M. Keith and S.Pile, 1997) as “genetic codes” of territory, which represent the “formative contents”(F. Clemente, 1974) of urbanity. These “applied geographies” (P. Geddes, 1915), are those “necessary basis for updating knowing how to inhabit and knowing how to construct”(F. Choay, 1995). The ‘memory’ and ‘geography’ due to their medium and syntactic essence are tow meanings, which are capable to support the project of architecture to occurs in-between the “theater of memory” and “theater of prophecy” (C. Row and F. Koetter, 1978). Therefore, reviewing several projects of urbanity, the research explains the multiple notions on both ‘memory’ and ‘geography’, and their intermediate value for the project of design to be realized at the intersection of diverse times and landscapes. This cross-scape character supports the architecture to find a third meaning in-between the sense of ‘autonomy’ and ‘total immersion’ in its territorial context. The second part in relation to the double mandate of ‘integrated urbanity’ describes the synchronic effect or ‘manner’ of city, as the art of ‘collective making’ or “re-assembling” (G. Deleuze, 1980), creating a field of possibility for an open-ended creativity. The thesis then addresses the concept of “cityness” and its “urban capabilities”, which enable a “collective production” at the intersection of “time/space/people/routinized practices.”(S. Sassen, 2008). The concepts such as ‘shared spaces’ then would be regarded as those urban meanings, which represent the possibilities for those “collective productions”. The research next, addresses the “counter-spaces” (de Solà-Morales, 1995), as those marginal landscapes being external to the dynamic of city, and argues their shared and collective values for a ‘project of intermediation’: a process and path of urbanity for construction/transformation of city over time. At the end of this part, with a brief review on ‘Grand Paris’ project, the study traces some implications such as ‘imagability’, shared urban capabilities, and new urban and architectural ‘lexicons’, significant to the current territorial appearance of city. This review is intended to be supportive to the last part of thesis: an integrated design practice for Tehran territory. Following the outcomes and key concepts, the research in the last part aims to frame an integrated mode of design in which the art of urbanity has been defined as an interrelated process of ‘perception’, ‘representation’, and ‘project’. This in fact describes a collective relation between territory, landscape and public space. Accordingly, the contextualization of method in Tehran territory departs from ‘analytical reading’ of territorial strata (morpho-genetic/genesis and topological layers) and the comparative relation between those layers, which indicates the ‘fields with utmost level of relativity’ as those ‘places of plurality’. These meaningful and rich ‘fields’, as matrix elements, supports the design practice for a site-specific depiction of territory, and a communicative web of relation between those poetic sites, which facilitate the ‘imageability’ of Tehran metropolis. Lastly, the integrated method is progressing through a design project for one of the underlined sites, a strategic dismissed void: Qale-Morghi Airport. By this design project some spatial attributes and urban compositions are investigated, as those essentials to the urban project with/in new extended territorial context of city. Thus, the concept of ‘integrated urbanity’ in this research has be regarded as a project, a design manner, or a new way of seeing and approaching the current reality of city and its territorial urbanization, which takes the ‘dual mandate’ of city-territory as a possibility for an ‘intermediate’ project of urbanity that is capable to re-anchor the ‘manner’ of city (ethic) to its territorial ‘matter’ (space).| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/89591