2019-2020 Xinyi Chen Pella Prize Finalist
Volume II: Analogous City
Thesis: Meandering in the city of God
doG fo ytiC eht nI gnirednaeM : sisehT
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The 21st Century Monastery In NYC
Volume IV
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City and Monastery
Table of Contents Prelude Street Typologies and Collective Memories City Collages of NYC and Rome Movements Urban Conditions and Possibilities The Synthesis of Studying a City An Ever-changing Field Words and Terms Readings and Thoughts Notes and Sketches
Volume III
Analogous City
Volume II
Sources and Inspirations
Thesis : Meandering In the City of God
Volume I
II : IV
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Volume II, Analogous City, aims to capture the scope of research and study in support and related to personal experiences. Through a variety of analogous studies, such as diagrams illustrating urban conditions, collages demonstrating two distinctive city histories, and simple design schemes informed by basic urban features, my appreciation of a city’s underlying structures was deepened in the aspect of order, diversity, and history. This volume is a stage that collects and applies architectural design as research, and thus fosters a recognition in who, where, and how one can relate to a given the context.
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Boundary
Vista
Network
The Typology of Streets Boundary
Alley
Standard Street Vista Boulevard
Network
Highway
Standard Street
Alley
Boulevard
Highway
Street: A road in a city, town, or village, typically comparatively wide I a. A paved road, esp. a Roman road; a highway. b. More generally: a road, way, path (literal and figurative). c. In alliterative association II a. A road in a city, town, or village, typically comparatively wide (as opposed to a lane, alley, etc.), and usually running between two lines of houses or other buildings; such a road along with the pavements and buildings on either side
A narrow lane or passage. 1. A passage between buildings; a narrow street or lane, esp. one wide enough only for pedestrians; a back lane. 2. a. A (private) corridor, hallway, or covered walkway. (Obsolete) 3. A walk or passage in a garden, park, wood, etc., usually bordered with trees or bushes. Also: a narrow space between beds or rows of flowers or plants. 4. A walk or passage in a garden, park, wood, etc., usually bordered with trees or bushes.
A broad street, promenade, or walk, planted with rows of trees. a. A broad street, promenade, or walk, planted with rows of trees. Chiefly applied to streets of this kind in Paris, or to others which it is intended to compare to them. Now frequently (esp. in U.S.), a wide or well laid-out street or avenue. b. North American. A dual carriageway; an arterial road, main highway, or freeway.
A public road; esp. the principal road forming the direct or usual route between one town or city and another. a. (gen.) A public road; esp. the principal road forming the direct or usual route between one town or city and another, distinguished from a local road or byway. b. The public road regarded as the realm of highwaymen or footpads; (hence, by metonymy) a career as a highwayman or footpad. Chiefly in to take (to) the highway: to become a highwayman or footpad.
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The Basics of Street Typology
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Standard Street
Alley
Boulevard
Highway
A standard street that provides circulation with different movements, as well as to facilitate people’s interaction.
An alley that allows for close interactions.
A boulevard divided with a central median with roadways along each side, designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, accompanied with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery.
A highway reserved for vehicular traffic between cities.
The diversity of urban streets were studied through three essential features: the boundary that marks a street’s limits; the vista of a distant view along a path; and the network composed by multi-purpose streets under specific needs. Streets,
such as alleys, standard streets, and boulevards, create different scalar paths for a diversity of orchestrated movement as well as adaptation.
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TIME
TIME
TIME
II : IV
subjec�ve line CITY
SPACE
SPACE
Objec�ve line
SPACE
Al ine of
on la� mu cu Ac
∞ Memory of the ac�vity ∞
∞ Memory of the place ∞
∞ TWO LINES OF MEMORY ∞
CULTURE
CITY
?
A Line Within The Order
A Collec�on Of Lines Within The Order
The Order Indicted By Collec�ve Lines
Our perception of a city is recognized and accumulated continuously through our experience within the city. Layers of human-made structures record and influence these interactions and so we experience something of a feed-back loop with our surroundings. The contingency between
space and time exists in constructed order, as well as a strollers’ framed urban meanderings. Collectively, two kinds of intricate memories interact with one another to create a totality of memory. We not only live in cities, but contribute to making cities through our living in them.
The Space-time of the City
CITY
NYC - the Grid and Monumentality
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The history of New York City starts with the structure of grids. The collage shows five layered maps of NYC at different times and suggests strength, power,and ambition through a grid’s use to conquer the untamed nature of extensive, unbounded land. Over time, the restricted size of each urban grid-plot
prompts architectural spaces to be stacked vertically and so lead to taller and taller buildings. On the other hand, the buildings, portrayed as monumental objects on postcards, reinforce the notion of autonomous block and promote a vision of NYC as a an aggregation of isolated islands of buildings.
In Rome, maps are a symbolic art representing human awareness of space. They reflect physical space through the positioning of objects, but also socio-cultural spaces. The collage emphasizes the idea of "Insturatio Urbis" meaning literally the installments of the city, but referring to the combined presence of artifacts
and experiences. Unlike the scientific method and figure-ground technique used in Nolli’s map, this collage reveals Rome as a collection of individual architectural structures juxtaposed with the surrounding pictorial renderings. "Insturatio Urbis" tries to suggest a scenic experience as we meander through the city.
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Rome - “Insturatio Urbis” - the Installments of the City
II : IV
10 Scale & Textures Addition & SubtractionHierarchy & Sequence Internal & External Order Action
Typology
Necessary,optional & ”Resultant”Physical, social, visual, physiological & functional aspect
Determinant
Determinant
Action
Standing Ac�on
Sea�ng Walking
Boulevard
Parallel
Encounter
Boundary
Standard
Motion
Streets
Alley Parallel
Typology
Intersect
Traffic Intersec�on Network
Plaza
Smiling Par�cipants
Conversa�on
Framework
Trends & fashions
Perpendicular
Gree�ng
Exchange
Program Built Form
Gathering
Public Realm
Sports
Land
“Line on a walk”
Intersection
Line of the city
Intersect
Emo�on
Social Interaction
“ Take a Line for a Walk " in the City - Inspired by Paul Klee
Character
The Spirit of the city
Vista Lane
Perpendicular
Line of the memory
Line on a walk
Line of the city
We are city strollers. The route we take is consciously informed by underlying structures which holds the integrity of a city. A city that narrates its past and foretells its future through layers of structuring lines. When we are experiencing the order of interactive lines,
planes, arrows, and waves, our senses are stimulated by information from all directions. We walk, pulse, wonder, and talk, thus forming the orchestra of active lines which reinforce the order of a city.
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A section of A Thousand Lis of Rivers and Mountains (千里江山图）
A section of Die Walküre, Prelude to Act 3 and Ride of the Valkyries(Piano Score) Wagner
The rhythmic movements are prevalent in artworks. The Chinese painting of a Thousand Lis of Rivers and Mountains, a handscroll of 39 feet, suggests a reading of landscape either as compositional scenes or a continuous panorama. As well, the masterpiece of
Wagner’s music composed of rhythmic movements reveals scenographic stories, as the essential piano score is strengthened through the repetitions and iterations.
Rhythmic Movements in Artworks
Ximeng Wang （王希孟） 11.9 meters scroll in total, color on silk
UP
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The Diversity of Urban Conditions
wn Do
The series of diagrams is listing a variety of urban conditions of streets, corners, intersections, and network, such as : a street bordered with lines of deciduous trees, an avenue constructed with diversified building facades, a deadend-alley terminated with a wall
with a half-hidden object behind it, or an intersection marked with a central monument. The collection of urban conditions, as they differed with geographical location and social conditions, are contributing to the uniqueness of a city.
II : IV Vertical Structures
Rotating Doors
Glass Panels
Frameworks of Boxes
The series of diagrammatic space investigates how a city is structured for the occurrence of a variety of activities. Each diagram started with the establishment of an orthogonal grid, which is interpreted with basic architectural elements. By intervening in the neutral conditions of the order, a
set of hierarchical, dynamic, temporary, and phenomenal urbanistic spaces is suggestive for people to interpret through their experience. Gradually, a systematic collection is established with the relationship between architecture and people, underpinning the order that sets forth possibilities.
The Possibilities of Urban Grids
S3. Disrupt the Order
S2. Interpret the Order
S1. Establish the Order
Architectural Columns
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Take a line for a walk in the city
“An active line on a walk, moving freely, without goal. A walk for a walk’s sake the mobility agent is a point, shi�ing its posi�on forward.” - Paul Klee
Unfolding Structure
Scale & Textures
Phenomenon
Line of the city
Typology
Urbanis�c Ac�vity
Addition & Subtraction
Action
Parallel
Intersect
Perpendicular
Typology
Alley
Standard
Lane
Boulevard
Traffic Intersection
Plaza
Boundary
Determinant
Vista
Character
Network
Internal & External Order
Land
Program
Built Form
Public Realm
Trends & fashions
Hierarchy & Sequence
Streets
Intersection
Framework
Example
Genius Loci
Typology
Walking
Seating
Standing
Smiling
Greeting
Necessary,optional & ”Resultant”
Determinant
Action
Emotion
Participants
Encounter
Motion Parallel
Action
Intersect
Social Interaction Perpendicular
Physical, social, visual, physiological & functional aspect
Conversation
Exchange
Gathering
Sports
“Line on a walk”
Manifolding
The Synthesis of a City
“the act of pu�ng different representa�ons together, and grasping what is manifold in them in one cognition.” -Immanuel Kant
Synthesis
The diagram suggests an approach in examining the city through a systematic approach, which refers to the six lessons taught by Igor Stravinsky's Poetics of Music: the phenomenon, the structure, the example, the typology, and the activity. This synthesis
logic can be applied to study a city, which Stravinsky explains as "to explain .. to unfold, to develop - is to describe something, to discover its genesis, to note the relationship of things to each other, to seek to throw light upon them."
II : IV
Middle Ages
Age of Discovery
Modernism
Postmodernism
5th - 4th Century BC
5th - 15th Century
15th - the mid-17th Century
1930S - 1960S
Mid-late 20th Century
Complex and Chaotic The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Le Corbusier Radiant City
The Renaissance Vitruvian Man and The Ideal City
The Christianity The City of God
Plato’s The Republic The Ideal City
Human Revolution
Urban theory evolves with technical inventions and social revolutionaries. From ancient civilizations relying on geographical location till today's digital age representing the city with a mega database, we examine, shape, question, and reform the place we are inhabiting as
Concurrent
T���
the city reciprocally influences us. As the inconsistency between visions and realities always exists in these studies, none of the theories can provide an optimum structure for us to live within.
The Lineage of Urban Theory
Classical Greece
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Prehistory 3.3 million - 5300 years ago
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Figure Column Column Pavilion
An ever-changing ďŹ eld -where order is reconstructed through the contingency between nature, architecture and people.
Tree Trunk Column
An Ever-changing Field Constructed with Column
Magnolia Tree Column
A city is an ever-changing, ever-growing field, of which the condition is revealed through interactions between people and space. The order of the city prescribes our activities in certain ways, while still provides opportunities for us to act
upon it. The design of the field constructed with the idea of columns is trying to demonstrate this contingency across time.
II : IV
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What happened to the field in hundreds of years?
Gathering
SPA CE
Occupying xut r
ure
xt
e
Engaging
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S1.Design The Field
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Discovering Overlooking
gh tfi
S3. Waiting
The idea in this study proposed a field that varies across the season, which consists of a set of pavilions anchored through columns, rows of deciduous magnolia trees, and people who would participate in the site. Over the years, the pits of rotting trees would be slowly
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r, yea 1st Mar.
S4. Maturing
, ear dy 2n Dec.
r, yea 3rd Mar.
r, yea 4th Dec
r, yea 5th Mar.
r, yea 6th Dec
S5. Replacing
r, yea 7th Mar.
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S6. Field of Land
replaced with light fixtures. In the end, the land would become a garden filled with lights on the ground.
An Ever-changing Field Constructed with Column
A li
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•Movement
•Rhythm
•Direction
•Process
•Stroll
•Meander
NOUN - Procession 1. A number of people or vehicles moving forward in an orderly fashion, especially as part of a ceremony. - ‘A funeral procession’ a. (mass noun) The action of moving forward in an orderly way. b. A relentless succession of people or things. 2. Theology (mass noun) The emanation of the Holy Spirit.
NOUN 1. A short leisurely walk. - ‘We took a stroll in the garden’ 2. A victory or objective that is easily achieved. - ‘Their supporters can barely rouse themselves for regulation home league wins achieved at a stroll.’
Words and Terms - Credited to OED
NOUN 1.An act of changing physical location or position or of having this changed. - ‘a slight movement of the body’ a. An arrival or departure of an aircraft. b.(Movements)The activities and whereabouts of someone during a particular period of time. c. The general activity or bustle of people or things in a particular place. d. The moving parts of a mechanism, especially a clock or watch. 2.A change or development. 3. (often with modifier) A group of people working together to advance their shared political, social, or artistic ideas.
VERB (no object, with adverbial of direction) 1. Walk or march in procession. - ‘they processed down the aisle’
NOUN 1. A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. - ‘Ruth listened to the rhythm of his breathing’ a. The systematic arrangement of musical sounds, principally according to duration and periodic stress. b.2A particular pattern formed by musical rhythm. c. (mass noun) A person’s natural feeling for musical rhythm. 2. (mass noun) The measured flow of words and phrases in verse or prose as determined by the relation of long and short or stressed and unstressed syllables. - ‘the rhythm, pattern, and cadence of words’ 3. A regularly recurring sequence of events or processes. VERB 1. (no object, with adverbial of direction) Walk in a leisurely way. - ‘I strolled around the city’ 2. (no object, with adverbial of direction) Achieve a sporting victory without effort.
NOUN 1. A course along which someone or something moves. - ‘She set off in the opposite direction’ a. The course which must be taken in order to reach a destination. b. point to or from which a person or thing moves or faces. c. A general way in which someone or something is developing; a trend or tendency. d. (mass noun) General aim or purpose. 2. (mass noun) The management or guidance of someone or something. - ‘under his direction, the college has developed an international reputation’
VERB 1. (of a river or road) follow a winding course. - ‘A river that meandered gently through a meadow’ a. Wander at random. - ‘Kids meandered in and out’ b. no object (of language, thought, etc.) proceed aimlessly or with little purpose. - ‘A stylish offbeat thriller which occasionally meanders’ NOUN 1. winding curve or bend of a river or road. - ‘the river flows in sweeping meanders’ a. in singular An indirect or aimless journey. b. An ornamental pattern of winding or interlocking lines.
•Town
•City
•Urban
•Order
•Synthesis
•Analysis
NOUN 1. The arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method. a. A state in which everything is in its correct or appropriate place. b. A state in which the laws and rules regulating the public behavior of members of a community are observed and authority is obeyed. c. The prescribed or established procedure followed by a meeting, legislative assembly, debate, or court of law. 2. An authoritative command, direction, or instruction. 3. A particular social, political, or economic system.
NOUN 1.A large town. - ‘one of Italy's most beautiful cities’ a. North American An incorporated municipal center. b. (informal with modifier) A place or situation characterized by a specified attribute.
1. Detailed examination of the elements or structure of something. - ‘statistical analysis’ a. The process of separating something into its constituent elements. b. The identification and measurement of the chemical constituents of a substance or specimen.
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ADJECTIVE 1.In, relating to, or characteristic of a town or city. -‘the urban population’
NOUN 1. The combination of ideas to form a theory or system. - ‘The ideology represented a synthesis of certain ideas’ b. (Linguistics) The use of inflected forms rather than word order to express grammatical structure. 2. The production of chemical compounds by reaction from simpler materials.
Words and Terms - Credited to OED
NOUN 1. An urban area that has a name, defined boundaries, and local government, and that is generally larger than a village and smaller than a city. - ‘They were organized around an exporting economy, and as a result, the major cities dwarfed other towns within the tributary area.’ a. The particular town under consideration, especially one's own town. b. The central part of a neighborhood, with its business or shopping area. c. British dated The chief city or town of a region. d. A densely populated area, especially as contrasted with the country or suburbs. e. The permanent residents of a college town as distinct from the members of the college.
II : IV
Readings and Thoughts
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• Stan Allen - Working
•Poetics of music in the form of six lessons
•NYC - The memory of the city ory
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Readings and Thoughts
•Rome - Instauratio Urbis
Notes and Sketches
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Notes and Sketches
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