a spatial choreography of motion.: SPEED, MOTION, AND SPACE: Wintersession in Review

Motion happens in a traceable path that is seldom repeated in the same way or at the same speed. My Degree Project will explore the spatial effects of the convergence of these speeds and paths as well as their deflections.

THE BEGINNING

Thresholds and transitory moments between objects of varying speeds were the original interest manifested in last semesters DP Probe. The probe was a conceptual exercise in transitioning a knit fabric into a highway interchange system. More specifically, my interest was in transportation systems (in this case the Houston highway), and how they integrate into the city, what I termed the City Knit. A knit fabric is made of one piece of continuous yarn that serves as both structure and infill. The study presented two ways to move forward with the project: to inhabit the highway infrastructure, or to step back and study transition zones.

RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

For the first study I chose to look at Houston, Texas- the 4th largest metropolitan city in America. The city has very informal zoning laws so that I could study the spatial ramifications of building a highway through a largely residential city center. There is nearly an anything goes policy with zoning, so it is such a product of it's surroundings. Houston highways operate through two concentric rings, with a third one under construction. The density of the city disintegrates as urban sprawl takes hold further away from downtown. The following graphic compares the scale and highway systems at work in Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, Chicago, and Portland. Los Angeles operates with a grid overlaid on the city, Boston with one primary thoroughfare (now below ground), Chicago with a finger-system, and Portland with a loop-esque system.

Possibly because of the devastatingly hot and humid weather that occurs 9 months out of the year, or just because of Houstonian's reliance on their vehicle, the car culture that occurs there is quite different than other cities. In fact, the highway operates more as a thick wall than as an interruption. There are certain neighborhoods where neighborhoods continue on both sides of the highway, while some do not break through the barriers of large commercial streets or shopping centers.

I chose to study the inner loop, Loop 610, as it encompasses the Port of Houston, the Galleria (huge high-end shopping district), downtown, and Memorial Park.

Motion in a city relies on two different grains, often opposing but sometimes operating in tandem. On a highway, there is the path which the vehicle moves. It is directional and at points it must transition from fast to slow to stopped. In the other direction there are the spaces adjacent to the highway, directly affected by this motion corridor. The following study demonstrates the program adjacent to the highway.

While the colors indicate the different zones, such as commercial, residential and industrial, they also demonstrate speed. The darkest blue (residential) demonstrates a slow pace. The act of moving through a residential neighborhood is deliberate and intentional and the act of getting there is separate from the act of being inside. In addition, the streets are narrower and the nature of the space calls for you to move slower. The streets are organized based on space maximization and efficiency with a rigid structure that is characteristic and often iconic of a residential neighborhood. This color indicates a destination.

The lightest blue (commercial) demonstrates a quick pace. There is a constant flux in activity at varying speeds. This zone is important as it does not mark a final destination. It is an ephemeral space where the space between is just as important. There is a spectacle involved with moving through commercial zones. This color indicates sequence.

The above image also diagrams the highway transition zones (when a road passes under/over and the highway edge at those moments- raised with hill/raised with wall/on ground/raised for passage *see sections below) The graphs below demonstrate where these transitions occur with the most frequency.

Looking at these conditions as sections and figure ground drawings, you notice the different treatments of the highway as an edge and how each zone reacts to it. In each setting there is somewhat of a "buffer zone".

The most interesting was the final section (corresponding with figure ground E) where the highway breaks into a lesser, but still large and quick road. The space between this road and the highway is just large enough to fit a few large commercial buildings into the space. In this specific condition, the building is only 55 feet from the edge of the highway. However, the highway at this point has broken apart into several pieces and layers. This fragmentation and dispersion of speed/density is what allows the building to remain so close.

The following chart demonstrates the distance from the highway edge. Surprisingly, residential neighborhoods were consistently built the closest to the edge of the highway. These numbers are directly relational to the way each zone uses the highway or the roads that feed onto it. Both commercial and industrial zones use these corridors heavily for both access and transport of materials. There is also generally a thick band of parking along this edge. Residential zones treat the space completely different, however, as there is a barrier of trees and/or fences before the backyard begins. Access to these homes is not from the highway or feeders. There is a sequential order that one must experience before arriving, generally a series of roads descending in both speed and size.

CASE STUDIES

Glass Video Gallery, Bernard Tschumi:
The first three diagrams demonstrate view. Regardless of destination, path or intention in the gallery, the view remains constant--the shared "path" (visible yet uninhabitable) unites each inhabitant. The visitor can choose to stray from this view. Vision is mapped through cones and angles rather than the specific lines of destination. This implies that it is possible to inhabit the project visually before physically moving through the space.
The second set demonstrates path. Similar to the Houston study, there are two specific types of inhabitants in a building. There are those who are visitors (curious, timeless) moving at a slower pace, and there the constant frequenters of the space (determined, intentional) moving much quicker.

Parc de La Villette, OMA (competition entry):
As mentioned in an earlier post, there are two types of circulation, the Boulevard and Promenade. These paths represent the two types of inhabitants mentioned above, but at a park scale. The Boulevard connects with the rest of the city and serves as an urban thoroughfare. The two paths are joined by a riverside ambulatory, so that the circulation system forms a figure 8. To meander on the promenade, one will be recycled back into the larger path in order to reinvigorate his pace.

Parc de La Villette, Bernard Tschumi
The circulation of this version of the park is not as clearly defined as the previous. In fact, it is similar to the layout of an actual city. A city is divided into several different types of roads and paths.
Primary (highways, expressways)- high speed, control of access
Secondary (arterial roads)- somewhat control of access
Tertiary (local roads)- leading off a main road, smaller scale, slow paced
Quaternary (alleys)- pedestrian use, fills in-between space.

Carpenter Center, Le Corbusier
As displayed by the "Pure Geometry" diagram, the building mass is articulated by three major geometric forms. The cube in the center serves as a mixing ground between the two, while the other two forms belong to their corresponding street, Prescott or Quincy. In the "Axes" diagrams, the crossover between the two outer forms is very deliberate as the interior of the building is incredibly lacking in corridor space. The circulation is open and free until you transition to another mass.
Le Corbusier transitions the inhabitant into his building by:

offset (from the streets. Subtle and moving in the same direction)
shift (change from an urban orientation to building orientation)
incline/decline (gradual slope of the ramp)

FEEDBACK FROM THE REVIEW:

Fabric: In the initial studies, there was a misstep: the city is actually analogous to a woven fabric as there are many different parts that are constantly changing.

Consider a double or triple weave, where the fabric pulls apart and you build up the space between.
What you pull to the surface is what determines the condition of the fabric. There are convergent systems that are somewhat dependent. Fabric looks like it is overlaid but there are intersections.
In a knit, if you break one piece, the whole thing will fall apart. In a weave, when altered it morphs and adjusts.

Consider deflection vs. transition.
Transport systems- analogous to fault lines
All movement systems are connective- the richness is in the moment of overlapping. At what point is our movement opportunistic?
Start occupying space: splitting apart, splitting open?
Drawings: more sections (zoom in) and photographs. Hierarchical readings of levels and analytical drawings.
Moving forward: create diagrams of the site to show the intersection of the different systems.

Cut into the ground.
Study water and electricity and how they are treated in different zones (industrial v. residential).
Spend more time on the sections.