project overview

At its most basic level, urban design theory divides into utopian and natural models. The former relies on comprehensive vision and revision while the latter promotes incremental growth and gradual change. This study posits infrastructure as a means to regulate the two extremes. Infrastructure evades pro- and anti- rhetoric, suspends judgment, and tunes itself to forces at work in the urban environment. By harnessing infrastructure’s design potential, architects can assume a more active and effective position among planners, developers, and other agents of urban change.

My study analyzes infrastructure’s capacity as a design tool by assessing discrete architectural projects, such as Yokohama’s International Ferry Terminal and Stuttgart’s Galerie der Stadt; and by isolating complex urban conditions in cities such as New York, Paris, and Bogota. Not limiting my research to a conventional type (“subway” or “shopping mall”) and extending my analysis beyond the strictly architectural allows me to articulate intentional and incidental relationships on a range of scales.

In each locale, I will track contemporary infrastructural practices and trace historical infrastructural phenomena. My methods range from data collection (through visits to archives, foundations, libraries, etc.; and on-site via photography, video, and drawing) to ethnography (observations based on interviews and direct participation) to mapping (diagrams, notations, scores, scripts, and overlays). Although a base analysis will be applied consistently across all case studies, I will tailor more extensive strategies as appropriate.

In my analyses, infrastructural elements belong to—or can be broken up into—two generic components, termed corridor and patch by Stan Allen and armature and enclave by David Grahame Shane. Corridor/Armature refers to a linear configuration, ranging in scale from The High Line to the Panama Canal. Patch/Enclave denotes its nonlinear counterpart, manifesting in forms as diverse as Paris’ place and Tokyo’s depato.