MArch Thesis Book

The Hien Line: The Architecture of Pedestrian Movement in the Urban FluxSteven Hien ArchMArch

2013

The Hien LineThe Architecture of Pedestrian Movement in the Modern Urban Flux

Steven Hien Wentworth Institute of TechnologyBoston MAM.Arch 2013

Submitted April 2013

My travels as an architecture student has greatly enriched my understanding and fostered my appreciation for cities. I have lived and grown up in the town of East Boston my entire life, so I was shocked when I left the country for the very first time for a semester abroad in Berlin, Germany in the Fall of 2011. I was amazed and overwhelmed by the different cities I visited, including Rome, Oslo, Helsinki, Dublin, and more. However, I couldn’t figure out what flabbergasted me so much until I did an internship in Beijing, China in the summer of 2012. In the density and structure of Chinese cities, like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, I realized that streets and pedestrians give cities their identity and character. Streets, I discovered, are one of the biggest component of a city because they reflect the city’s liveliness, character, and appearance. In China I finally understood that pedestrian movement and activity activate streets, which in turn defines the city. This variable and uniqueness in streets and pedestrians make cities different, yet great in their own ways. Shortly after China I traveled to Las Vegas and Barcelona, Spain with my newfound appreciation for cities. In perhaps the most peculiar of American cities, Vegas, and most lively of European cities, Barcelona, I confirmed that indeed pedestrian movement and activity define and characterize great cities.

This thesis questions how pedestrian circulation and activity can inform contemporary urban architecture to renew the idea of the street as a public pedestrian domain in the urban flux of twenty-first century. The term street simply represents a idea of the public realm. Sensitive to time and context, the concept of street continually changes and adapts to new meanings. This thesis identifies that in the twenty-first century transportation technologies reform and limit the concept of street. The urban streets of our mobile society have become less viable as a public pedestrian domain due to the development of higher speed vehicles. This shifts in conception causes a problem because public pedestrian movement and activity is a vital component to a lively city. I speculate that designing to accommodate the pedestrian may yield a new street form that can renew the idea of the pedestrian way in the urban flux of the twenty first century.

Abstract

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I wish to express my deepest gratitude to:

Bruce MacNellyCarol BurnsTerry MoorGuillermo VelascoIngrid StrongMary-Ann RayRobert MangurianFellow Studio MatesFriends + Family

Thank you all for the continual support and kindness through the years.

Acknowledgements

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Original WorkProject Frames Thesis Topic Representation Program SiteDesign ProbeFinal Site SelectionReflection

1 Introduction

2 Research

3 Methodology

4 Research Conclusion

5 Design

6 Conclusion

7 Bilbliography

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AbstractAcknowledgements

QuestionsDefinitionsRelevanceResearch Essay #1Research Essay #2Research Essay #3Blog + VisualsEvaluation of ResearchConclusion + Hypothesis

DiscoveriesSpeculative Questions

Process WorksFinal Products

Reflection + Conclusion

PrimarySecondaryAnnotations

Table of Contents

How can pedestrian circulation, interaction, and activity influence urban architecture to renew the idea of the pedestrian way in the urban flux of the twenty first century?

What might be the emerging forms of street in the fast-paced urban flux of the twenty-first century?

Questions

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Street A dynamic and abstract term which represents a constantly morphological idea of the public realm.

Urban FluxThe fast-paced movement of contemporary mobile cities, including movement of pedestrians and vehicles.

MobilePertains to the high speed, ready to be moved and morphological nature of city movement, whicih includes technologies, pedestrain and vehicular movement.

Definitions

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This thesis is concerned with accommodating the pedestrian in the fast-paced urban flux of the twenty-first century in search of a contemporary street form suitable for pedestrian experience, rather than vehicles. Advancing mobile technologies, particularly in transportation, have limited and reformed the concept of the street as a public domain for pedestrians. In most cases, the related infrastructure for automobiles confines the urban pedestrian way to merely a narrow sidewalk, a byproduct of road paving. I believe that the urban streets of our mobile society have become less viable as a public pedestrian domain with the interference of higher speed vehicles. Public pedestrian movement and activity give cities and their streets character and identity. The infrastructure for vehicles, however, have hinder the role of the street as a social condenser and locus for communication. Therefore, this thesis investigates and speculates on the emerging street forms suitable for pedestrians in contemporary cities. I strongly believe that modern architecture can inform and generate a new street form, which can accommodate and optimize pedestrian movement and activity in the flux and density of contemporary cities.

Relevance

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Evolution of Conception of the Street

Development in transportation technologies, notably the motorcar, has continually changed the concept of the street in cities. Before the interference of different transportation modes, such as the carriage, bicycle and automobile, the street was considered purely the public domain; while buildings were used for habitation, work, and essentially private activities. With popularization of the horse carriage (1750-1890) and later the bicycle (1877-1890), people have adapted to higher speeds of new vehicles. The concept of the pedestrian, or the walker, arises as a differentiation from faster wheeled vehicles. With new modes of transportation comes a public demand for road improvements for vehicles and the safety of pedestrians. Popularization of the motorcar following 1910 and its related infrastructure, of road networks, causes the street as public pedestrian domain to become less viable. By 1920, the motorcar has established its place as a necessity in human living, resulting in another shift in the concept of the street. The concept of street splits into two parts: the “sidewalk” and the “road.” The pedestrian way is now understood as an entity separated from the street, reduced and limited by the road. Soon the public pedestrian way will shift in conception to become part of building, blurring the public and private boundary. Comprehensive city planning, involving architects and planners, has over the years wrestled with this shift in conception to resolve the “chaotic environment of congestion and social unrest”2 caused by the automobile and its required

Introduction

Pedestrian movement and activity give cities and their streets character and identity. In cities, streets are a major component of the public realm and reflects the quality of city life. However, the evolution of transportation technologies has continually challenge and reform the concept of the street as a public domain for pedestrians. Contemporary cities’ constant state of flux due to advancements in technologies has caused the conception of the street to become twofold: the sidewalk (for pedestrians) and the road (for vehicles). The infrastructure for vehicles spatially limits the public pedestrian domain. Shifting conception of the public way has preoccupied architects, urban planners, and theorists alike since the mid-1930s, including modernist architects Alison and Peter Smithson. The term street, as the Smithsons point out, should “not to be taken as the reality but as the idea.”1 Indeed, they explain that the concept of street is not static, but dynamic and therefore morphological with time and context. The street in essence represents a constantly altering abstract idea, rather than a static definition, of the public realm. Professionals have continually wrestle with the challenge of redefining and adapting a new urban street form suitable for the pedestrian, but a single resolution remains unclear. The question perdures: what might be the emerging forms of street in the fast-paced urban flux of the twenty-first century? This thesis argues that bringing a sidewalk into a structure in an urban setting can provide a new architectural form to renew the concept of the pedestrian way by optimizing and accommodating pedestrian movement and activity.

Research Essay #1

Diagram of shift of conception of street.

Early (Modernist) Architectural Responses to Shift in Conception of Pedestrian Way

Architects and planners, Alison and Peter Smithson, struggled with the shift in conception of the pedestrian way in attempt to resolve the tension between the sidewalk (the pedestrian sway) and the road (the vehicular way). Alison and Peter Smithson, a pair of English Modernist architects, focus their work in the 1930’s on urban patterns of movement to analysis and understand city structure. They acknowledge the growing permanence of the automobile and its implications to pedestrian movement and activity. Their urbanism is “both a homage to the idea of the motorcar, and a reaction against the reality of the car.”2 The Smithsons, with their sensibility of the car and pedestrian experience, develops the architectural ideas they coin “street-in-the-sky” and “conglomerate ordering.” The concept of “street-in-the-sky” stems from the Smithson’s understanding of cities and landscapes through the point of view and experience of the pedestrian. The idea refers to a network of elevated pedestrian ways that act as an extension of social space and connectors to different places of pedestrian activities. These elevated streets were demonstrated in their proposed Golden Lane project in 1952 and executed in their Robin Hood Gardens project in 1966. Peter Smithson points out that terms like street are “not to be taken as the reality but as the idea and that it is our task to find new equivalents for these forms of association for our non-demonstrative society.”1 In our fast-paced, mobile society the problem of identity is prevalent on many scales, from the human scale to the urban scale of streets. Alison and Peter Smithson argues that there lacks a solid identity and street

Photo collage of “skys-in-the-sky” by Peter Smithson.

Diagram of “sconglomerate ordering” by Alison and Peter Smithson.

form in modern cities. For them the elevated street deck embodies their interpretation of the contemporary street form. The concept represents the Smithson’s attempt to discover a progressive and popular form appropriate for the pedestrian. A larger, more urban, idea that Alison and Peter Smithson coin is the concept of “conglomerate ordering,” a sensed naturalness in an ordering of a built fabric. The Smithsons again demonstrate this idea in their unrealized project Golden Lane. Their rationale assumes that “new methods of production, new forms of transportation, and new ways of life demanded new forms of habitation, and that in turn cities would be transformed.”1 The concept of conglomerate ordering suggests that new forms of habitation, including streets-in-the-sky, can “multiply to form a network of overlaid on the existing city.” The growth of the urban network happens not in a superimposed grid, but a “random or scattered aesthetic drawn from science, molecular and geometry to distribute housing blocks linked by pedestrian walkways.”1 The Smithsons’ work points toward a form and system focused on the pedestrian as a response in technologies, particularly in transportation.

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Research Essay #1 Cont.

Critique of Modern Urbanism and Push for Pedestrian Oriented Design Approach

Richard Untermann, in his article “Changing Design Standards for Streets and Roads,” criticizes street design in the last twenty-five years, claiming it can hardly be called design “in the sense of exploring different options, needs, and approaches in search of the best solution.” He argues that the current approach ultimately limits public use of the street because design standards “by and large cater to the private automobile.”3 Untermann asserts that streets should be designed primarily for the pedestrian, rather than a byproduct of road placement. Furthermore, the sidewalk should be considered before the road for it is “sine qua non of pedestrianism.”3 He argues that public use standards should require a continuous sidewalk network, just as road network is required for cars and buffers to separate traffic and pedestrian. Untermann’s push for an alternative street design approach revolves around ideas of pedestrian flow and experience. Untermann, in his book Accommodating the Pedestrian: Adapting Towns and Neighborhoods for Walking and Bicycling, elaborates on aspects of the pedestrian experience and criteria for streets which should be considered in design. He emphasizes the pedestrian and encourages travel on foot to allow “improved transportation options and true accessibility to life within our communities.”4 Untermann claims that by accommodating the pedestrian the possibility of new life in our community can be enlarged. Safety, convenience, pleasure and activities of streets enhances the walking experience. Untermann introduces the concept of territory bubble in his understanding

Diagram of Untermann’s concept of territory bubble.

of how people pedestrians move. The territory bubble explains that every person has an invisible territorial space in which s/he feels comfortable in. The bubble naturally varies in size according to the situation. For example, it may be very small at a public event such as a large concert. Untermann ultimately argues that the pedestrian, including their experience, safety, comfort, and their territory bubbles, should be central in street design rather than vehicles.


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Street as Social Condenser and Locus for the Pedestrian

Architectural historian and theorist Stanford Anderson, in his book On Streets, poses that “the street is where space is converted into place”5 by permitting a certain range of social interaction and pedestrian activities. Similarly, architectural historian and critic Joseph Rykwert, traces the history and notion of the word and idea of the street. Rykwert believes that the role of the street as a “locus of personal exchange and communication” should transcend the obvious functions, such as carrying traffic and the exchange of goods. Although the literal definition of the word street simply denotes a delimited surface, “the manner in which the notion of street is embedded in human experience suggests that it has reference to ideas and patterns of behavior more archaic than city building.” Rykwert cites primitive pilgrimage routes, specifically in western Australia, to prove that the conceptual origin of the street suggests “metamorphic notion.”6 Indeed, streets or pathways carry more meaning than a simple route of traffic. Streets therefore play different roles in different eras of human existence. Moving to the present era, Rykwert argues that the street has become a“three-dimensional phenomenon, [which] translates into terms of built forms, transforming services and surface into built form.”5 Rykwert implies a new street form may emerge by using the street as a locus of common interest, personal exchange and communication. Likewise, architect and urban designer Victor Caliandro, in his essay “Street Form and Use: A Survey of Principal American Street Environments,” echoes the same understanding of the role of the street as Rykwert. With

precedents of a series of American streets, Caliandro establishes that the street should be used as a social condenser and a locus of common interests. He claims that the automobile rights-of-way has reduced the public pedestrian way and consequently usurped the “principal role of the urban street - that of promoting an open setting for communications and exchange.” Caliandro argues this function of the street “is transferred [and] extend deep to building interiors, as in the case of stores and churches.”7 He proposes the idea of the interior street defined as an activity setting, strictly for group activities, which pushes the public-use boundary. These activity settings can transform the street surface to “redress imbalance between pedestrian needs and those of the automobile demands.”6 Caliandro counters the idea of the city as “an agglomeration of buildings and highways” with his concept of activity settings and interior streets. He believes that a contemporary concept of the street may arise, “one that is capable of accommodating an urban lifestyle dependent on contact and interchange and of fostering an urban structure amenable to intense pedestrian life.”7

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Street as Continuous Built Form

Architect and historian Kenneth Frampton, in his article “The Generic Street as Continuous Built Form,” criticizes modernist urbanism, particularly the works and ideas of Le Corbusier. He argues that Corbusier’s antistreet attitude “oppresses the spirit” of the street. Furthermore, Frampton claims that “tabula rasa planning, namely abstract idealism and opportunist pragmatism suggests the urgent need for alternative piecemeal strategies.”8 Like Alison and Peter Smithson, Frampton recognizes the sociocultural vitality of the street and thus supports the theory and idea of the generic street: “a street that may not be recognizable as such but would have, nonetheless, many of the psychosocial attributes of the traditional street.”8 Although Frampton acknowledges the Smithson’s appreciation and understanding of the street, he criticizes them in their failure to discover a form that is capable of “sensing the existential and phenomenological limits of the street.”8 Frampton proposes the concept of the “generic street,” a continuous built form, as a device for urban intervention.

Frampton defines the generic street as a building that “automatically engenders active street space, either adjacent to its perimeter or within its own corporeal form.”8 He provides three generic street types: the perimeter block, the linear arcade, and the multilevel megastructure; abstractions of point, line, and plane respectively. In the study, he uses Spangen Housing in Rotterdam to represent the perimeter block, Royal Mint Square Housing in London for the linear arcade, and Frankfurt-Romerberg Center for the multilevel megastructure types. Frampton concludes that there is rationale andpotential of the generic street as an urban intervention, if it follows the criteria: continuity, interface, hierarchy and enclosure. He suggests that although one cannot hope to “revoke the loss of the traditional street at a global level,”8 the generic street may be a viable solution for promoting urban living and society by maintaining physical continuities.

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Diagram of Frampton’s idea of street as a continous built form.

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Conclusion

The pedestrian way was originally conceived as the entirety of the street and presently considered as only the sidewalk, and sometimes building interiors. This shift in conception calls for a new resolution to the interference and reduction of the public pedestrian way caused by vehicles and its accompanying infrastructure. The automobile has caused the biggest shift in the conception of the pedestrian way since its advent. As Untermann, Anderson, and Frampton argue, the pedestrian, rather than the motorcar, should be central in the understanding and planning of urban settings. Streets, accordingly to Untermann, should accommodate the pedestrian in terms of protection, comfort, delight, and activity. In that sense, Anderson, Rykwert, and Caliandro claim that the role of the street should be a social condenser and locus for the pedestrian. Caliandro asserts that a renewed concept of the street may emerge in considering the interdependence between pedestrian life, building form, and street. By the same token, Frampton suggests the idea of the generic street, which engenders active street space around or within a continuous building form, may be a viable solution to redress the imbalance between pedestrian needs and those of the automobile demands. Perhaps the architectural resolution to the shift in the conception of the pedestrian way comes in the form of a piecemeal strategy, rather than the utopian abstract idealism of modernist urban thinking and theory. Opposed to a grand, large-scale scheme, an appropriate response to the shift in the conception of the pedestrian way may be single, smaller interventions which continually happen over time.

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1 Smithson, Alison and Peter. The Charged Void: Architecture. New York: Monacelli, 2001.

2 Eisenman, Peter. “From Golden Lane to Robin Hood Gardens. Or If You Follow the Yellow Brick Road, It May Not Lead to Golders Green.” In Peter Eisenman Inside Out: Selected Writings 1963-1988, 40-56. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

3 Untermann, Richard K. Changing Design Standards for Streets and Roads, in Public Streets for Public Use, Moudon, Anne Vernez. New York: Columbia UP, 1991.

4 Untermann, Richard K., and Lynn Lewicki. Accommodating the Pedestrian: Adapting Towns and Neighborhoods for Walking and Bicycling. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984.

5 Anderson, Stanford. On Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1986.

6 Rykwert, Joseph. “The Street: The Use of Its History,” in On Streets, Anderson, Stanford. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1986.

7 Caliandro, Victor. “Street Form and Use: A Survey of Principal American Street Environments,” in On Streets, Anderson, Stanford. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1986.

8 Frampton, Kenneth. “The Generic Street as Continuous Built Form,” in On Streets, Anderson, Stanford. Cambridge, MA:


Essay #2 Making as Being in Contemporary Terms: Dwelling, Thinking, Technology.

Introduction

In the twenty-first century it holds true that making is a crucial cultural driver of human lives of experience and consumption. The making of Things, particularly with means of modern technology, has the potential to motivate people as a whole to aim higher and achieve greater in contemporary life. It cannot be forgotten that to build, as Martin Heidegger asserts in Building Dwelling Thinking, is really to dwell or to be. If dwelling and being is defined by the act of building or making, then dwelling and making is a form of thinking. Humans craft Things as a way to communicate ideas and assertions that reveal our thinking. In the twenty-first century crafts take form beyond rudimentary weaving, pottery, and farming. Today material, technology, and therefore product are processes and Things which contribute to our technologized culture. The Things we make through the means of technology, including but not limited to computers, cars, and spaceships, are representations of our thinking. Yet danger lies in the obsession and engagement with materials and Things. Sociologist Richard Sennett claims that material culture, which refers to the relationship between material and social relations that bind a people, “too often slights the objects worthy of regard in themselves . . . instead of treating the shaping of such physical things as mirrors of social norms, economic interests, religious convictions - the thing in itself is discounted.” Material and technology, however, is an

indispensable part of the twenty-first century’s technologized reality. We cannot stop it and we certainly cannot reverse it. But perhaps more important than both of those fact is that we cannot fear it. If we can correct the warped perspective of Thingness in our contemporary technologized material culture, then making, even through means of technology, indeed remains within the purview of an absoluteness of being. The making of Things, through processes of technology, is a force operating on our technologized culture and reality, which enable greater thinking understanding, and therefore being.

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Essay #2 Cont. Technology as Revealing

It is delusional to deem modern technology as an invalid way to make, and therefore express, understand and reveal the essence of being. Truth, as Martin Heidegger explains in his article The Question Concerning Technology, lies in what he coins “revealing,” that is to accept and embrace ways in which we relate to other Things. There are different ways of revealing and all ways are true because revealing is truth. Thus, we cannot discount technology as a way of being because it is a way of revealing. Science, particularly modern physics, opens up the world to us for “it is the realm of revealing.” It grants us understanding of the workings and materials of our surrounding and hence our being. However, it is important to realize that technology is only one of many ways of revealing. Heidegger reminds us to embrace other means beyond the limitation of known knowledge and facts. Cultural complications arise when technology becomes a means to an end and the single, absolute truth.

Unfortunately, conflicts do often emerge because people of a technologized reality naturally equate truth with knowledge. Humans are inherently hungry for information and knowledge, as exhibited in the story of Adam and Eve. Sennett claims, in the Prologue to The Craftsman, that “the thirst for knowledge leads human beings to harm themselves.” We must know so we imagine and manufacture ways to know and to gather information, as with modern physics. In a technologized culture and reality it is tempting and arguably logical to believe that truth equals scientific knowledge, putting aside feelings, personalities and opinions of people. The products and effects of scientific knowledge appear blatantly and instantaneously self evident. For example, Sir Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravity (note adjective universal) proves to hold true in every scenario of our everyday lives. Yet deep down inside we feel there must be more that comprises of a human, beyond numbers, facts, and general knowledge. One of those defining attribute of a people is culture. If we consider technology, material and product, like Sennett describes, as mirrors of “social norms, economic interests, religious convictions” rather than objects of only themselves, then making through technology falls into the purview of an absoluteness of being. Under that premise, technology plays the role of a cultural driver in revealing rather than an undeserved monopoly of truth. Moreover, we, the maker of material Things must become the master of our own house to ensure that material Things do not control us.

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Essay #2 Cont. Transportation Technologies as Objects of Thingness

The evolution of transportation technologies, such as carriages, automobiles and trains, stands as an example of objects worthy of regard only in themselves. The street traditionally and symbolically plays the role of social condenser. It is a cultural locus where people meet, interact, and live with others, strangers and friends. In turn, streets give settlements character and identity for they reflect the quality of life. However, the evolution of transportation technologies has continually challenge and reform the concept of the street as a public domain for pedestrians. Before the interference of different transportation modes, such as the carriage, bicycle and automobile, the street was considered purely the public domain; while buildings were used for habitation, work, and essentially private activities. With popularization of the horse carriage (1750-1890) and later the bicycle (1877-1890), people have adapted to higher speeds of new vehicles. The concept of the pedestrian, or the walker, arises as a differentiation from faster wheeled vehicles. With new modes of transportation comes a public demand for road improvements for vehicles and the safety of pedestrians. Popularization of the motorcar following 1910 and its related infrastructure, of road networks, causes the street as public pedestrian domain to become less viable. By 1920, the motorcar has established itself as a necessity in human living, resulting in another shift in the concept of the street. The concept of street splits into two parts: the “sidewalk” and the “road.” The pedestrian way is now understood as

an entity separated from the street, reduced and limited by the road. The street no longer belongs to pedestrians as it is seen as a void, rather than a place, between built structures. The invention and acceptance of technology, such as the automobile, clearly plays the role as a means to an end and represents an object that we have lost control of. Enframing, as defined by Heidegger, means “the gathering together of setting-upon that sets upon man, i.e., challenges him forth, to reveal the actual, in the mode of ordering, as standing-reverse.” Modern transportation technologies, such as the automobile, do not enframe because they hold no sway in the essence of technology. Technology is “itself nothing technological,” while standard parts of an automobile, such as rods, pistons, and chassis fall into the sphere of the technological. According to Heidegger, assemblies that we make, such as cars, “merely response to the challenge of enframing, but never comprises enframing itself or brings it about.” Today, thousands of people drive miles into and out of cities, each in possession of a two ton metal box on wheels causing, what architect Peter Eisenman describes as a “chaotic environment of congestion and social unrest.” The usage of the car and its necessitated infrastructure drains life from pedestrian street life and resultantly the culture of a place for the technology does not reveal or take on the challenges of enframing. Instead, the car hinders the street’s ability to act its role as social condenser and locus for communication of people. Yet Heidegger retains that where there is danger, there is saving power also. Perhaps we haven’t dug ourselves into too big of a hole with the machine of the automobile.

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Essay #2 Cont. Aeronautical Technologies as Mirrors of Being

Now take for instance the advancements in aeronautical technologies, particularly in space, which act as mirrors of social norms and economic interests, and resultantly a cultural driver. Perhaps the paradigm of such technology is the spacecraft which enabled humans to break Earth’s orbital pull and land on the moon for the very first time in the history of the species. The making of spacecraft Apollo 11, through means of technology, represents not an object of Thingness but a way of revealing and enframing the essence of being. Space technologies, as opposed to automotive technologies, are not a means to an end but an extension of human thinking and innovation. Not only does it satisfy our innate desire to explore and discover, but it culturally enriches and drives the human species. Pushing a space frontier of scientific discovery stimulates a people’s thinking and understanding of being. We look beyond the Thingness of the apparatus, devices and vehicles, and appreciate them as mirrors of ourselves. For example, from the Apollo 8 spacecraft we received the first images of Earth seen as a marble floating in space, untainted by colors and borders of nations as our maps show. As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson claims, “we went to the Moon and we discovered Earth.” The famous photograph titled “Earthrise over the Moon” featured our planet as it was meant to be seen by nature. It revealed to us a deeper understanding of togetherness and being. In addition, aeronautical technology leaves room for imagination, craft and improvisation for innovation is intellectually seductive and inspiring, particularly in our contemporary material culture. Space

innovations certainly serve as proof that technology is way of revealing and a craft. Furthermore, space technology challenges Sennett’s claim that cooperation reigns superior to competition in getting good work done. In particular, Sennett believes that competition hinders progress, quality and resultantly craft. Perhaps his assertion is too bold for cooperation and competition both enable craft, as proven by our investment and exploration in space. Landing on the moon, one of the greatest feats of humankind, was made possible by competition, distinctly between America and the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik rocket in 1957, people in America freaked in fear that the Soviet Union will claim higher space. As a response, John F. Kennedy in the early 1960’s made the speech which promised that America will have a man on the moon by the end of the decade and NASA was founded. Driven by pure competition, America landed a man on the moon in 1969, beating the Soviet Union in the international space race. With the moon landing as example, competition clearly does not disable good, quality-driven work as Sennett claims. Nevertheless, it is not to say that cooperation isn’t as effective as competition as a motivator of craft. Again, we look to space technology for precedence, specifically the International Space Station. America and Russia came together in the late 1990’s, this time in cooperation, to make and launch the first habitable satellite in Earth’s orbit, marking another milestone in human achievement. In sum, both competition and cooperation prove to be valuable in crafting in out technologized reality and culture. It is audacious to claim one is superior to the other.

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Essay #2 Cont. Conclusion

All in all, the making of Things, through processes of technology, remains within the purview of an absoluteness of being for it plays the role of cultural energizer and driver in our technologized reality. Technology without a doubt is a way of revealing and enframing, which enable greater thinking, understanding, and therefore being. We cannot ignore or reject technology as a means of making because it is ingrained in our contemporary technologized culture and thinking. Heidegger views technology as a way of revealing, but warns of the danger when material culture renders Things as worthy of regard in themselves rather than as mirrors of social norms, economic interests, and religious convictions. The automobile stands as an example of such object, which only embodies the Thingness of itself; it does not reveal or enframe. Be that as it may, technology has great potential to be a cultural driver and revealer in our technologized reality, as proven by our aerospace achievements. The craft of the technologies, which brought humans to the moon and enabled the habitable International Space Station, attest that technology culturally enriches and drives the human species. Our space technologies expose to us a deeper understanding of togetherness and being and therefore is a way of revealing and expressing our thinking. Ultimately, we can be slaves to your craft of technology, or we be masters of it. The latter has proven more advantageous for human culture and our understanding and revealing of the essence of being.

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Martin Heidegger, “Building Dwelling Thinking” in Basic Writings: From Being and Time. (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Thought, 1927).

Martin Heidegger, “The Question Concerning Technology” in Basic Writings: From Being and Time. (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Thought, 1927).

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013).

Peter Eisenman. “From Golden Lane to Robin Hood Gardens. Or If You Follow the Yellow Brick Road, It May Not Lead to Golders Green.” In Peter Eisenman Inside Out: Selected Writings 1963-1988, 40-56. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).

Richard Sennett, The Craftsman. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).

Essay #3 Anthropology: Semiotics and Perception of Modern Urban Assemblies

Introduction

The automobile stands as a symbol of prosperity and freedom in the common perception within the American culture, consequently shifting and demoting the concept of travel. Within such a powerful symbol and its perception, there is a process of making and accordingly a line of products. The symbol of the motorcar yields traffic lights, roads, highways, tunnels, city grids, basically infrastructure, which great metropolises, such as New York City, are built upon and around. Despite the seemingly successful and progressive product of the modern city, there is a fundamental fault on which everything is fragilely built, physically and perhaps more importantly conceptually. The motorcar and the modern American city works through the mode of what anthropologist Tim Ingold calls transport, rather than wayfaring. In Up, across and along, Ingold describes wayfaring as a trace or free moving line which walks and develops on its own time. By contrast, transport is tied to specific locations and works more like system of point-to-point connectors. Obviously, the distinction between the walk and the connector underlies a fundamental difference in the dynamics of movement, but more importantly, in the integration of knowledge and perception. This paper aims to show, in the course of history and technological innovations, the fragmentation and demotion of the concepts of travel through modern urban assemblies, namely the American automobile and the built environment of New York City.

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Essay #3 Cont. New York City: A Line of Transport

Two modalities of travel exist according to Ingold: wayfaring and transport. Wayfaring can be described as a drawn gestural line (figure A), which is “free to go where it will, for movement’s sake” and that “goes out for a walk.” On the other hand, transport is comparable to a line, which strings together a scatter of dots (Figures B and C). A line of transport hurries and only wants to move from one location to another. To connect the scattered dots “is not to take the line for a walk but rather to engage in a process of construction or assembly, in which every linear segment serves as a joint, welding together the elements of the pattern into a totality of a higher order.” In the process of transport, all movement in the spaces between the dots cease and the traveler cannot sustain himself. The journey, Ingold claims, from place to place – with all its twists and turns – forges our knowledge of the world about us. In sum, wayfaring, from place to place, allows people to obtain and integrate knowledge along a path of travel to discover and understanding their surrounding.

A line of transport rather than wayfaring more accurately characterizes the way in which New York City is filled, leveled, laid out, travelled and experienced. New York City’s monotonous street grid system proves that the city is a product of the transport. Its city blocks and public spaces are residual spaces leftover after the streets and avenues have been paved for vehicles. Its dwellers move from destination to destination, regulated by the street pattern that is dictated by the movement of the automobile. As architect and historian Bernard Rudofsky claims, “at best, streets serve as abscissae and coordinates for stringing together the expensive products of the building industry.” New Yorkers as a whole ultimately occupy their environment through the mode of transport, rather than inhabit it through the mode of wayfaring. By contrast, travelling is a way of life for the indigenous Inuit people of the Arctic. For them, as soon as a person moves he becomes a line and life happens while travelling. The traveler’s movement, orientation and pace “are continually responsive to his perceptual monitoring of the environment that is revealed along the way.” Novelist Robin Jarvis calls this experience a “progresssional ordering of reality,” or the integration of knowledge along a path of travel. New York travelers then are more accurately heedless transported passengers who do not inhabit place, but occupy a placeless space. They arguably do not themselves move, but are moved from destination to destination engulfed by routine of their lives, whether by foot or by vehicle.

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Essay #3 Cont. Story as Narrative of Wayfaring

Drawing a line on a sketch map, as Ingold suggests, is much like telling a story. Similar to a line of wayfaring, a story carries a narrative and offers “moments of ongoing activity.” More specifically, stories present topics, each “identified by its relations to the things that paved the way for it, that presently concur with it and that follow it into the world.” To tell a story is to then relate in a narrative the past, present and future, much like the line that goes for a walk. In the story, as in life, there is always somewhere further one can go. Similarly, in story telling as in wayfaring, “it is in the movement from place to place - or from topic to topic - that knowledge is integrated.” Consider for a moment the city as a collection of singularities which form a comprehensive story, to be augmented and discovered. Scholar Michel de Certeau, in his book The Practice of Everyday Life, considers walking to be a language. Walkers as blind as lovers in each other’s arms write the “urban text,” but cannot read it. Their paths, de Certeau holds, resemble unrecognized poems that compose a manifold story. However, what cannot be traced and observed in the “chorus of footsteps,” can be recounted and remembered in the narrative of a singular story. American scientist Albert E. Parr, in his magazine article “The Child in the City: Urbanity and the Urban Scene,” nostalgically reminisces his childhood in his Norwegian hometown. Through his account, Parr allows his readers to peer through the frame of mind of a European child inhabiting his environment. For him as a child, the street was “an open book, superbly illustrated, thoroughly familiar, yet inexhaustible.” As his hometown was a seaport town of seventy-thousand people, Parr often fished and ran

errands outside of the house where he explored and discovered the town, its streets and its places. In other words, Parr travelled and experienced the environment through the mode of wayfaring rather than transport. One of his responsibilities was shopping “not as a chore,” he writes, “but as an eagerly desired pleasure.”“I was fairly regularly entrusted with the task of buying fish and bringing it home alone. This involved the following: walking to the station in five to ten minutes; buying ticket; watching train with coal-burning steam locomotive pull in; boarding train; riding across long bridge over shallows separating small-boat harbor from ship’s harbor, including small naval base with torpedo boats; continuing through tunnel; leaving train at terminal, sometimes dawdling to look at railroad equipment; walking by and sometimes entering fisheries museum; passing central town park where military band played during mid-day break; strolling by central shopping and business district, or, alternatively, passing fire station with horses at ease under harnesses, ready to go, and continuing past centuries-old town hall and other ancient buildings; exploration of fish market and fishing fleet; selection; haggling about price; purchase and return home.” He was four years old, an age when the American child is often depicted as a helpless baby. The streets and places of Parr’s European hometown allowed even a child to wander and explore because it was safe, but more importantly, it was sensationally stimulating thus enhancing travelers’ ability to read and do math. Much like the travels of wayfaring, a child has the freedom to drift, meander, and develop freely on his own time. The very act of travelling integrates the

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information obtained and cultivates what Ingold calls the inhabitant knowledge. In the journey to buy fish for the family, the child reads train signs, shop signs, street signs, advertisements and symbols. He communicates with other people, haggles prices, and exchanges goods and information. As Rudofsky claims, "no other environment - least of all the classroom - tickles the senses as much as the street." Books will only get one so far; firsthand information and experience is necessary to excel. That is not to say that it is impossible for a child in New York City to a share similar experience of wayfaring. In New York City, however, travelling is experienced through the mode transport, from destination to destination. Children are warned not to talk to strangers. And fish is prepackaged, frozen and price tagged at a chain supermarket. There is no haggling or journey. It proves difficult even without considering the issue of safety for the child. A four year old child roaming the streets of New York City alone would be a strange and concerning occurrence.

Essay #3 Cont. Conclusion

It remains evident that modern assemblies, such as the automobile and the metropolis of New York City, have fragmented and demoted the concepts of travel to a mode of transport. The question perdures: how does this fragmentation affect architecture and public spaces of the built environment? "One prominent casualty of the fragmentation of lines of movement, knowledge and description," Ingold claims, "has been the concept of place." He states that place has been reconfigured in modernity as a nexus within which all life, growth and activity are contained. Place is no longer a moment of rest along a path of moment, but a artificial container of destination-oriented minds and bodies (Figure D left). In the left diagram, an enclosed circle represents place while the straight lines of static point-to-point connectors, or transport, radiate out. By contrast, in the diagram on the right, a knot represents place, defined and characterized by the wayfaring lines of living inhabitants. It is vital for the integration of information and experience that the model of wayfaring is embraced rather than the enclosed model of transport. Regrettably, there exists a fundamental flaw in the very idea of city planning. If the city is an autonomous organism and therefore a reflection of life, then it cannot be planned. Thus, the term city planning conceptually makes no sense. It stands as an ironic and paradoxical term and process by which New York City has been turned into a wasteland of streets and a developer’s paradise (e.g. Donald Trump). Colonial New York was a town of canals, as useful and as beautiful as the ones of

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Essay #3 Cont. Amsterdam. An American believes that progressiveness (whatever it stands for) is attained only at the price of breaking with the past. This cultural perception is exhibited in New York’s filling of its canals, stripping of its natural landscape, leveling of its topography, and adopting of the gridiron plan. Where are the great canals now? Who even remembers them? Only a meager pond remains in Central Park, accompanied by an original but petty boulder formation. “New York was simply left to prosper in its own inglorious way,” states Rudofsky, “and prosper it did.” In order to reconsider and engage this predicament urban dwellers must travel as wayfarers rather than transported passengers, because wayfarers are successful inhabitants. In short, “an ecology of life,” Ingold submits, “must be one of threads and traces, not of nodes and connectors.” Perhaps it is impossible to reverse the deed of city planning and the assembly of New York City. However, having accepted the persistence and perhaps permanence of New York City’s street gridiron layout, there exists an opportunity for architecture to allow wayfaring lines, movement and stories of individuals to entangle in order to create a place.

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Tim Ingold, “Up, across and along” in Lines: A Brief History. (London: Routledge, 2007).

Bernard Rudofsky, Streets for People: a Primer for Americans. (New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., 1969).

Michel de Certeau, “Walking in the City” in The Practice of Everyday Life. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).

Albert Eide Parr, “Urbanity and the Urban Scene.” (Landscape magazine, Spring, 1967).

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For a complete collection of images check out my blog at:

www.mARCHienz.wordpress.com

This blog is a documentation tool that tracks the discoveries and development of my architectural thesis throughout the academic year. It features all images, thoughts, reflections, and writing for my project since its beginning. I hope that one can browse through, follow and understand my process and where the project has taken me since Fall 2012. For Thesis Prep II, I mostly worked in the form of large-scale digital collages and matrices. They help in gathering my thoughts and understanding of the subjects. Featured here on this spread are images that have been most important in my thesis exploration.

Blog

left“6 PM” by Richard Sloat

rightDiagram and timeline of the history of

street use as it pertains to the pedestrian, or walker. 20

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topCollage of site conditions

• Identified a field of a research and interest in urbanism, particularly street architecture.

• Defined and discovered a problematic situation in the contemporary concept of the pedestrian way.

• Found supporting literature by acknowledged authors like Stanford Anderson, Alison and Peter Smithson, and Richard Untermann.

• Question and speculate possible resolutions to shift in conception in the pedestrian way.

• Formulate my own hypothesis according to my research and new understanding

Evaluation of ResearchAccomplishments

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Through my research essay and visuals, I conclude that architecture can resolve conflicts that exists between the pedestrian and vehicular way in contemporary cities. I believe that a design primarily based on pedestrian needs and experience, as Richard Untermann pushes for, can be employed to create a higher standard of living and more efficient movement in cities. As I have demonstrated in my writing and graphics, the related infrastructure of vehicles have reformed and limited the street as public domain for pedestrians. Streets should be designed to play the role of social condenser and locus for communication, rather than byproducts of road pavement. Like Caliandro and Frampton, I strongly believe that a new street form, that accommodates and optimizes, may emerge to renew the concept of the pedestrian way. I postulate that a continuous built form can not only be defined by pedestrian pathways but embody it, to create an active space suitable for pedestrians. I believe an architectural intervention of this type is an appropriate response to the shifting conception of the pedestrian way due to advancing vehicular technologies.

In the fast-paced urban flux of twenty-first century cities, the adaptation of a pedestrian way into a structure can yield a new street form to renew the concept of the street as a public domain for pedestrians, by accommodating and optimizing pedestrian movement and activity.

Conclusion

Hypothesis

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This is a collection of early collages I produced in the very beginning of my thesis exploration, which ponders different ideas and questions. The featured images represent observations and thoughts inspired by my experience with elevated pedestrian ways in dense Chinese cities, particularly Hong Kong and Shanghai.

topHow can the larger context be

considered? How can one built form contribute to an entire city? Can it?

bottom leftHow can designed pathways improve

urban jams and quality of living?

bottom rightHow can architecture (built forms)

promote social, human interaction?

Original Work

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This page features a studio project I worked on during the Spring semester of 2011. I am interested in how continuation of pedestrian pathways can define an architectural form, that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

Original Work

topdiagram of pathways and connections

bottomfinal model of design

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topThis diagram represents my thinking concerning this thesis project as it pertains to pedestian ways.

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topThis collage captures pedestrian movement on an busy urban street. It portrays the dynamic and varied nature of the flow of pedestrians. Although it is often is fast-paced and eager, streets should allow for pauses or breaks for social interaction. This collage also demonstrates the liveliness of pedestrian activity and interaction without the interference of vehicles.

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This collection of diagrams and matrices are tools that help me understand my thesis topic, specifically about streets. What is a street? What makes a successful street?

rightThis diagram and timeline of the history

of street use as it pertains to the pedestrian, or walker. It demostrates

the shift in conception of the pedestrian way due to advancing technologies,

particuarly in transportation. I am curious: what might be the emerging street forms of contemporary cities?

leftA matrix which catalogs the fifteen

qualities that make a successful pedestrian street. The matrix is

compiled from the thinking and writing of Jan Gehl, Richard Untermann, and Jane Jacobs. Subcategories include

protection, comfort, delight and activity.

Project Frame 1thesis topic

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The two previous images are photographs of sectional relief models which investigate streets in a purely physical sense. The street, if considered nothing beyond its physical attributes, can be simplified into defining character: height of surrounding and its width.

This study examines a collection of different types of successful streets around the world. Small streets like in Yokohama, Bologna, and Italy show that the buildings which define the street does not have to be solid. There can be pass-throughs, lobbies, arcades, and other architecture of human scale.

Wide streets tend to have an awing effect on its users. This catalog includes La Ramblas in Barcelona and two wide streets in Berlin to demonstrate that a third and wider sidewalk can be created in the center. This sidewalk becomes a place, rather than just a transit route, because shops, restaurants, and activities can be held on it.

The last two examples, from New York and Beijing, shows that vertical elements that define streets do not have to be buildings. In fact, they can be trees, benches, stands, and even a park.

Catalog of Great StreetsA Physical Anaylsis

Territory Bubble

The concept of the territory bubble explains that every person has an invisible territorial space in which s/he feels comfortable in. The bubble naturally varies in size according to the situation. For example, it may be very small at a public event such as a large concert.

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topArtwork of Richard Sloat

bottomArtwork of Zaha Hadid

Throughout this thesis project I strived to find an appropriate medium to express my ideas of movement. This is a collection of artworks and mediums I looked at in my journey to find my very own. I aim to discover methods and mediums that can capture the abstract and morphological nature of urban flux.

Project Frame 2Representation

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top leftSpace Syntax: Computer Simulation

top rightTime-lapse Photography

bottomVideo

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This frame is concerned with possible program of the thesis project. Given that my project is based on pedestrian movement, I believe that program must be a place for the gathering of people, a civic place. There also needs to be a larger network to which the architectural intervention can connect to, in order to promote pedestrian movement through and within (show in diagram below).

The precedent study on the opposite page features architectural designs that intentionally allow the pedestrian way to snake into the building. The pathway which penetrates the building is connected to a larger network. Program of the precedents include civic centers: museum and school.

Criteria• Proximity to Urban Street• Part of larger network• Program should be a place for gathering of people• Social, cultural, civic center

Possibilities• museum/gallery• cultural center• laboratory• transportation• library• convention center• train station• education (student center)• courthouse• rowing boathouse• recreation center/pool• community center

Project Frame 3Program

33**The project eventually

became a library.

ICA, Boston Carpenter Center, BostonDiller + Scofidioprecedents

Le Corbusier

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Kunsthal, Junior Year, Spring Rem Koolhaas Steven Hien (me)precedents

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topThis collage illustrates the criteria I use to choose sites. Firstly, the site must be located in a dense urban setting, so that it is viable to intervene with an architecture that accommodates and promotes pedestrian movement. The site requires an existing clash or conflict in movement between the pedestrian and other modes of transportation. Lastly, the site must have potential to become a lively place for pedestrian activity and social interaction.

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I started my site selection by tracing and examining existing pedestrian systems in Boston, such as the Emerald Necklace, Boston Harbor Walk, Freedom Trail, Southwest Corridor and Rose Kennedy Greenway. I explored in search of situations in which there is a conflict between pedestrian and vehicular movement. These conflicts tend to happen where there exists a break in the existing pedestrian system, which causes a clash between pedestrians and vehicles. I pondered and questioned if an architectural intervention can help resolve the problem to select tthe sites.

Emerald Necklace

Boston Harbor Walk

Freedom Trail

Southwest Corridor

East Boston Greenway

Existing Boston Pedestrian Systems

Legend

Project Frame 4site

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Rose Kennedy Greenway

All of the sites on the right present a conflict, or wrinkle, between the

pedestrian and other modes of transportation, mainly the automobile.

They are all adjacent to a larger pedestrian system, so it makes sense to connect the site as a continuation of the

existing pathway. The Chelsea Bridge site is unique because of its proximity

to a body of water. Also, the Wood Island Station stands out because many

systems, including a bike trail, the i-90 interstate, and blue line subway tracks

converge there.

Commonwealth Ave, Boston Haymarket, Boston

Chelsea Bridge, East Boston

Kneeland St, Chinatown Landmark Center, Fenway

Wood Island Station, East

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My design probe is the first attempt in materializing my ideas in an architectural form. My thesis is concerned with accommodating and optimizing pedestrian movement and activity in the fast paced urban flux of the twenty-first century, which includes vehicles such as automobiles, trains, and bicycles. Therefore, I sited my design probe at a location in East Boston where there is a clash and conflict between the pedestrian way and vehicular way. The East Boston Greenway bike trail, the Boston Harbor Walk, the Blue Line subway tracks, the I-90 interstate, and local pedestrian pathways all meet at this one point. This junction of pathways creates an inconvenient and unnecessary discontinuity in the pedestrian way. In the design probe I experimented with how pedestrian pathways, and their origin and destinations, can be optimized by and define an architectural form. The architectural intervention is a result of making necessary pedestrian connections and then letting the pathways form the building.

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The design probe was successful in translating my ideas to a physical and architectural form, but I discovered flaws in the execution. The biggest flaw is the literalness of the design. I literally extended pedestrian ways so form the edges of the resulting architectural form. I do not intent to simply let pathways define the building. Instead, I strive to merge and accomodate a pedestrian pathway in an architectural form. The buildling should be container a which holds and supports the pathway that move within or through it. In my next iteration, I aim to shift my design approach from a literal translation of my ideas of movement to a more experiential and functional one, particularly the pedestrian. I would also like to consider othet sites, perhaps ones with more topographic change and closer to the city.

Design Probe

rightmodel of design probe

Final Site Selection

**The final site chosen for this project is above the undeveloped Northern spur of the High Line Park in New York City. The site is more suitable than any site

in Boston because New York is a much denser city. The High Line fulfills my site

selection criteria: it has heavy pedestrian traffic and it provides a system which

transport people from point A to B, allowing my project to intervene in the

middlescape.

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The work produced so far is a solid foundation to continue to work off of. I am excited to begin to solve the problem of urban pedestrian flux that I have identified in my work. After completing this documentation of my collection of work I feel confident in my thesis topic, problem, and hypothesis, although there is always room for improvement. I am enthusiastic to begin exploring other representational techniques beyond digital collages and perhaps move out of strictly architectural tectonics for a while.

Looking back, I particularly value the matrix and diagrams that I created in the initial research phase of this project. I believe they will help guide and inform the upcoming design phase. Perhaps the most difficult part of this entire process was putting ideas into words. I found it challenging to precisely convey the thesis problem, claim, and hypothesis. However, I think I have overcome the obstacle and am ready for the next steps. Overall, it has been a trying but valuable learning process.

Reflections I have framed the project with four different phases that I feel are appropriate but still incomplete. There remains an ambiguity in the frames, like site and program, that needs to be explored and figured out. I would like to investigate different sites, in different mediums such as modeling. I think program will follow site, depending on its location and context. This uncertainty is what drives and intrigue me. I now understand that ambiguity is part of the process and I am satisfied with the road I have paved with my works thus far. I know it will lead me to more questions and uncertainty, but the end will be rewarding.

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Topics of significance that emerged in discussion:

Density and JamsTraffic jams of pedestrians are not always conflicting and unfavorable. In fact, pedestrian experience can sometimes enhanced by large groups, like at a concert or market. Crowds are successful as long as the pedestrians’ territory bubbles are uncompromised.

Pedestrian Way IndoorsThere are many reasons to bring the pedestrian way, or sidewalk, into enclosed structures. Examples of elevated skywalks can be seen throughout dense cities of China and in hot cities like Minneapolis. Bringing the pedestrian throughout dense cities of China and in hot cities like Minneapolis. Bringing the pedestrian way indoors can also allow for shared program and functionality between buildings and places. Instances of situations in which sidewalks literally enter structures include parking garages, train stations, and skywalks.

DiscoveriesDisconnected CommunitiesThe idea of accommodating pedestrian movements to make connections can be applied to a large-scale of the city. Using a building as a street has the potential to reconnect disjoint neighborhoods that are separated by vehicular infrastructure, which includes highways and train tracks. It may be a viable resolution to discontinuities in the city.

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Below is a list of speculative questions about ideas for future research.

The accommodation of pedestrian movement is a key design criteria, but how is pedestrian perception, experience, and culture incorporated into the design and thinking of the project?

The thesis proposes to bring a pedestrian way, a public entity, into a building, a generally private entity. How does this blurring relationship between public and private work in the project?

What are the emerging street forms in contemporary cities? Do they belong to a type? Is there more than one type? Or is there just one?

How does this type of intervention or form relate to the larger context of the city? Can it be a resolution to the conflicts between the pedestrian and vehicular way in the urban context?

Questions

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Process Worksphotograph

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This photograph explores the idea of an “inside-out building.” Rows and rows of RVs together create a pedestrian street

within a structure.

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abstract paintings

The following watercolor paintings express how I view the pedestrian realm, represented in white. Although there are many forces that interrupts and intrudes

the pedestrian way, such as buildings, cars, and streets, it remains the most

outstanding entity in cities, as the white is in the paintings.

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site plan

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The High Line Park in New York City.

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digital collage

This collage is an expression of how ridiculous and irrational our love and

dependence of vehicles are. The thesis project uses the silly parking lift systems

found in many New York parking lots underneath the High Line to make a

statement about the misuse of streets.

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process model

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process models

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collage models

A library is not only a symbolic institution that conserves and distributes information, it is also an extension of the

public realm itself.

watercolor painting

The abstract painting on the right is the exploded and pierced plan of the traditional New York Central library. It shows the broken walls of the library,

the leakage of information, and the integration of people spaces shown in

white.

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process model

The walls of the traditional and exclusive setting (concept) of the library is broken by marked and marketed public domain

and the internet. In many ways the library has become an appendage of the public

space. As a result, the public library is still a symbol of the power and potential of citizens and it is still a location where

people come together and cultural identity is created.

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process model

process model

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working site plan

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working plan

working plans

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60

61

process model

working watercolor plans

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The following watercolor plan paintings are part of an exercise to allow movement

and intuition to define architecture. Such a fluid medium allows for a more natural and spontaneous way of making space.

working watercolor plans

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site model

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site model

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site model

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final design

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Project Description

What I became intrigued by after my travels in Europe and China are urban streets. They reflect the liveliness, character and appearance, of the city, which in turn defines the city. The street is socially important because it is where we encounter the "outside" world of strangers, friends, and society; basically others.

This thesis works under the premise that modern American cities, like New York City, are assemblies of streets which cater to motor vehicles rather than pedestrians (i.e. New York grid). Streets consequently cannot fulfill their roles as social condensers and locus of communication and exchange for people. My belief is that given the irreversible layout and investment in the motorcar in modern cities, architecture has the potential to recapture and reclaim the traditional role of the street as extensions of the public realm. In other words, I imagine that there can be a mergence between a structure and pedestrian pathways, which enriches the experience and function of both.

The project is a branch library on top of the High Line Park in New York City, which allow the movements, lines, and stories of individual to entangle in order to create a collective place.

Design Goals

• Create is a continuous spatial experience from the sidewalk to up above.

• Find the balance between separation and continuity, where the two conditions each strengthen or reinforce the essential qualities of the other.

• Create an active and vibrant pedestrian realm in the city without isolating it from the flow of the life on the street.

• Create a place that defined by and embodies pedestrian street life of movements and activity - an interactive communal place.

The language of the architecture is a response to the pedestrian circulation and communal spaces. Facades, interior walls, ground planes, and roofs peel up to define and reveal space. So, just like when you peel open an orange, you get a zest of enjoyment, energy and flavor. The same happens when you open a book. So, the library walls physically peel open, as they do conceptually.

Final Products

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final plan

22x30 watercolor paintingplan

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final plans

22x30 watercolor paintingplans

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final plans

22x30 watercolor paintingplans

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final elevation + detail

22x30 watercolor paintingshort elevation + facade detail

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final elevation + section

22x30 watercolor paintingcross section + long elevation

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final section + detail

22x30 watercolor paintinglong section +

handrail and bookcase detail

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final exterior view

22x30 watercolor paintingexterior view

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final building model

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Conclusion

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Thesis Topic Conclusion

The thesis topic, architecture of pedestrian movement, has been challenging and engaging throughout the year. I have answered some of my questions, but many still remain unanswered. I recognize that there exists a kind of paradox at the heart of my thesis: how to create an active and vibrant pedestrian realm in the city without isolating it from the flow of life in the street. In a way, the challenge of creating an urban architectural form for pedestrians and not vehicles is impossible. We, in the twenty-first century, will continue to depend on technology and vehicles. This thesis exploration ponders and attempts to discover what the architectural form for and by pedestrians in the city might be. It is fascinating that there are so many individual stories, movements, and lines that entangle to make up a place such as city. I named my project “The Hien Line” because it is only one of many architectural responses to the topic, but it is my own. I only hope to contribute to the bigger discussion of the working of cities. Without a doubt, cities, streets and pedestrians will continue to intrigue me.

Thesis Process Conclusion

Overall, the thesis project process has been consistent and smooth for me, despite the times of struggles. Thesis Prep I and II in the fall semester certainly helped me establish a strong foundation for the work to come. The transition from Thesis Prep to design studio was fluid because I knew exactly what I wanted to accomplish and it was only a matter of figuring out how to do it. I have to admit that I struggled to discover how to go about the project. Choosing the site on the High Line in New York and the program of a library definitely helped me get over the bump. I was finally able to begin addressing the thesis question and topic by using the site and program as a vehicle. Of course, I had to be careful not to get tunnel vision making a library for the High Line, and losing sight of the thesis. Using the medium of watercolor also greatly aided me in forwarding the project. It allowed me to free up my mind and design approach. As a result, I was able to break my rational and rigid design mind and embrace a more intuitive and spontaneous method. The entire process has challenged me to think differently than how I have approached design as an undergraduate. All in all, it has been an enjoyable and enlightening learning experience inside and outside of the design studio. I look to apply and further what I have discovered about my own methodology in my work to come. This is of course not the end.

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Caliandro, Victor. “Street Form and Use: A Survey of Principal American Street Environments,” in Frampton, Kenneth. “The Generic Street as Continuous Built Form,” in On Streets, Anderson, Stanford. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1986.

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Frampton, Kenneth. “The Generic Street as Continuous Built Form,” in On Streets, Anderson, Stanford. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1986.

Gehl, Jan. Cities for People. Washington, DC: Island, 2010.

Jacobs, Allan B. Great Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1995.

Rykwert, Joseph. “The Street: The Use of Its History,” in On Streets, Anderson, Stanford. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1986.

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Alan Powers. “Robin Hood Gardens Revisions,” The Twentieth Century Society, 2010, pp. 21-42.

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Tim Ingold, “Up, across and along” in Lines: A Brief History. (London: Routledge, 2007).

Vicente Guallart. “Mix Land by Manuel Gausa,” Sociópolis, Project for a City of the Future. Barcelona: Actar, 2004. 110-127.

W. J. H. “Street-Architecture. No. 1,” Bulletin of the American Art-Union, No. 3 (Jun., 1850), pp. 36-38.

Bibliographysecondary

83

Anderson, Stanford. On Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1986.

This book claims that the physical environment, including streets, is a structurally integral part of society, simultaneously a support for literal needs and activities and a cultural system. Anderson backs his claim up by featuring a collection of articles that elaborate on the role of the physical environment as a cultural system and streets as social condenser and locus of communication for people. Anderson’s purpose is to remind and emphasis the architect’s responsibility to the public space of the city, beyond individually building projects. Given the focus and language used in this book, Anderson is writing to a well-educated audience, architects, and planners.

Eisenman, Peter. “From Golden Lane to Robin Hood Gardens. Or If You Follow the Yellow Brick Road, It May Not Lead to Golders Green.” In Peter Eisenman Inside Out: Selected Writings 1963-1988, 40-56. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

This article asserts that most buildings are simply a mode in shape making because few architectural ideas have been built. Eisenman uses Alison and Peter Smithson’s ideas and their project Robin Hood Garden as a precedent in demonstrating the dialect between ideas and forms can exist. The purpose of the article is to specifically investigate the relation between the Smithson’s ideas and intentions for Robin Hood Garden and the physical built form of the project. Given the focus and language used in this article, Eisenman is writing to a well-educated audience with knowledge of Modernist architecture.

Jacobs, Allan B. Great Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1995.

This book asserts that the contemporary streets do not need to be the same as the old, but they should be modeled after the old. Allan supports his claim by analyzing a series of great streets around the world with line drawings: plans, sections, and perspectives. The purpose of the book is to highlight qualities and physical attributes of old streets in order to emphasize the fact that streets are a key component of a city and they have profound effects on its users. Given the simple language and abundance of images in the book, Allan is writing to a general audience, including architects and urban designers.

Annotations

84

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Modern Library, 2011.

Jane Jacob’s book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” proclaims that present day urban planning and development is superficially understood and practiced. Jacobs supports her claim by examining many American cities, including the North End in Boston, and Greenwich Village, emphasizing the importance of safe, lively sidewalk and street communities. Jacobs’ purpose is to attack and spotlight modern urban planning in order spark a change in the understanding and planning of cities. Given the simple language used in the book, Jacobs is reaching out to the general public, which includes architects and city planners.

Smithson, Alison and Peter. The Charged Void: Architecture. New York: Monacelli, 2001.

This book documents and explains Alison and Peter Smithson’s ideas on architecture through photographs, drawings, and writing. The Smithsons use minimal writing, and black-and-white photographs and drawings to explore and convey these ideas. The Smithsons’ purpose is to showcase and share their life-work in architecture in order to engage, provoke, and inspire new thoughts and solutions in the field of architecture, in terms of circulation and what the Smithsons coin “conglomerate ordering,” the idea of buildings as circulation routes with chucks of accommodation. Given the Smithsons’ preference of images over text in the book, they are speaking to an audience with architectural background – enthusiast, student and architect – that learns visually and has interest in the Smithsons’ contribution to modern architecture.

Untermann, Richard K., and Lynn Lewicki. Accommodating the Pedestrian: Adapting Towns and Neighborhoods for Walking and Bicycling. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984.

This book claims that the cities follow a “conglomerate ordering,” or a sensed naturalness in the ordering of a built fabric. Alison and Peter Smithson back up their claim by introducing and executing in their architectural works the idea of “streets-in-the-sky,” or elevated decks. The Smithsons’ purpose is to demonstrate that buildings can be seen as circulation routes that hold chucks of accommodation, rather than individual objects, in order to promote a change in city understanding and planning. Given the Smithsons’ abundance of images and minimal writing, they are speaking to an audience with architectural background – enthusiast, student and architect – that learns visually and has interest in their ideas and comprehension of the city.

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Annotations Cont.

be water my friend