by Pedro Fonseca Jorge
‘Interdisciplinary Themes – The City: Culture, Society, Technology’, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canadá, Novembro de 2009
http://www.interdisciplinarythemes.org/journal/index.php/itj/index
Identifying the City
Rule/Exception: The city defined by a constant that celebrates the difference: housing as... more
Identifying the City
Rule/Exception: The city defined by a constant that celebrates the difference: housing as its “rule”. Void/Filling: The city as mass (rule), interrupted by its lack (exception); the “void” as a deviation of the “rule”, but not of urbanity. Useful/Useless: “Rule” and “exception” as “useful” if they promote continuity in the urban fabric, and “useless” if they are opposed.
Past/Present
Continuous/Discontinuous: “continuity” as the transition between past and present; “Discontinuity” as the absence of transition. Typology/Model: To promote continuity is to use preexisting typologies; Typology as a search for a repertoire of solutions. General/Specific: New relationships with the street, new shapes, new housing cells, but not the total eradication of the original typology.
Utopia/Reality
Surroundings/Background: The object wants to be “city” and “rule”: a gable or rafter, a urban typology. Shape/Content: In the “Gable Module” his longest facade is also the more important: it replaces a blind wall. It defines the “city” by its external image and everyday life that leads inside. Ethics/Cosmetics: The aesthetic solution as the Significant and Sign: their loss as Cosmetics with no Ethics.
Public Virtues/Private Vices
Feasibility: regulations, construction process and comfort factors; Private willingness and urban regulations.
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