Atlantic Yards boundaries
The approval of the controversial Atlantic Yards development has renewed my interest in political and economic boundaries. At a pivotal point in Brooklyn, this project will dramatically transform the character of the area by drawing new business and creating economic growth. The development promises to create a sense of place from an urban void—the yards, which are inaccessible to the public, and currently separate four communities.
The world around us is defined by seams. Seams exist in transitional areas as spaces (however small) between objects, where objects lie directly adjacent to one another. Seams can reveal how objects and materials relate to their context. Looking closer at these transitional moments may give insight into intent: whether integration or contrast, attention to detail or the larger concept.
The urban environment is a container of information. Anything can be treated as information, in as far as it is quantifiable.
As Aldo Rossi points out in The Architecture of the City, the city consists of Urban Artifacts, the constants in the changing urban fabric. As an adaptive construct, the city contains both constants and variables. The constants, however large or small, tangible or intangible, provide a parametric framework through which the city defines itself.
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There are moments when a mundane street scene is interrupted in an unexpected way, and tension is created through the collision of disparate geometries. These are what I think of as punctuated moments. They happen when one intent collides with another intent or parameter, resulting in a manifestation of compromise.
Philosophically, I think of these moments as bumps in a smooth space (referencing Deleuze and Guattari). Smooth space is the space of the idea, while bumps may occur when the idea comes into contact with parameters: forces acting on or defining a conceptual space. I am interested in this space as a container of evidence—evidence of parameters, and of the idea.
Any reasonably dense urban area is filled with punctuated moments—from a highway overpass, to a construction scaffold, to a drainpipe, their scale is of little importance. It is the way these moments appear in context that makes them punctuated. They are what makes life in urban areas enjoyable and interesting.