City as Collage

Thesis, SCI-Arc Graduate Studies

Year 2, 2017

Academic Project

Mentor - Florencia Pita

Proposed Site - San Francisco Mission District

Scale - Masterplan

Tools Used - Maya, Rhino, KeyShot, 3dsMax, Adobe Suite

City as Collage is not a new urban type , Instead it is all types.

It does not aim at discovering new typologies but rather to collect all available urban typologies.

It is an assemblage of a whole range of ideas and content.

The overall Image plays with different scales, profiles and morphologies to create a noisy image one that is unfamiliar and unique and is a mixture that provides diversity. It appears awkward but is yet precise. This project proposes a possible urban condition through collage technique and assembles existing urban types to create a new definition for the city.

San Francisco mission district happens to be a site currently undergoing district planning.

The influences of the CERDA GRID is seen where streets are divided, one for cars and the other for pedestrians.
It helps open up space within each block almost like a compact GARDEN CITY model envisioned by Corbusier for Chandigarh.
The METABOLIST GRID exists as an extension from the existing city streets as elevated pathways.
The Historical Roman Map of NOLLI is seen more as an EXPRESSION when within each block.
The MODERN MEGA STRUCTURE, a concept popularised by ARCHIGRAM is seen where smaller buildings are encased within a single large building and are connected via a built network.
The ICONIC MEGA FORMS exist breaking the grid as large raised expansive plazas each hosting relevant public programs and large parking structures.
The Expansive organisation of the structuralist MAT BUILDING as a typology is seen within the grid
Event Structures like PARK FOLLIES are seen as ICONS while some land in courtyards and pockets within the city

// City Grid analysis, vibrations in the existing grid based on the movement of people and activity on streets. The ‘vibrations’ denote everyday discipline

along streets temporary or permanent.

// San Francisco CITY BLOCK STUDY- Study of movement and activity within a city - shows the shift in the change of the block and its inl uences on the movement within the city

// DifFerent permutations of the vibration patterns seen to create a bufFer for the ‘everyday’ between the street and the building block

// This series is beginning to explore and also show how walls can become Floors, interior can become exterior, private can become public and this way everything within the discipline of the everyday has a purpose.

// These are some of the Elements REINVENTED and INTERPRETED within the CITY AS COLLAGE. City as Collage uses figure ground to its advantage to ABSTRACT FORM. This form unlike any IDEAL CITY MODEL uses layers and elements from existing city models. Within a single design for a city, the city as collage redefines relevant elements while using them in its collage.

Its image is no longer DISTINCT but simply a REINVENTION.