Forum Superblock
Roman Forum within a campus
Boethius and His Wheel
The Roman civilisation practiced democracy and republic by using the urban platform called The Forum. The speculative educational campus was designed with this roman tool and on top of this, to make this campus as whole, I’ve used the technique of Superblock. The Picturesque Artifice, meaning that it is a closed form segregated from the rest of the world, by Rowe in Collage City was the main theme driver for this project. This campus is essentially a theme park, where students as citizens and translating public buildings as Urban Artefact, mentioned by Aldo Rossi. In the contrast, classrooms and faculty buildings become private area flexible for transforming into needed function.
Key Words
Education campus, Roman Forum, History of cities, transforming 2D city planning into 3D building, Public vs Private, Superblock, Urban Artefact, Picturesque Artifice
PLAN OF THE FORUM SUPERBLOCK
My intension in this design studio is not to find the mediating point between Roman Planning and Islamic Irregular streets but bringing the two extreme ends into one space by using the design technique called ‘Superblock’. This design strategy was influenced by the Chinese walled dwelling called ‘Fujian Tulou’, where they kept the important buildings in the centre and residential rooms into the walls. Also the technique of OMA’s ‘Casa Da Musica’ was implemented where I treated this superblock as one extrusion that was then carved away which is shown by different colours, white: original, Grey: cut, Blue: interior space, Orange: forum buildings
VIEWS OF THE FORUM SUPERBLOCK AND COLOUR CODING:
ORANGE IS FORUM/PUBLIC BUILDING, WHITE IS ORIGINAL, GREY IS CUT AND BLUE IS INTERIOR SPACE
This campus is essentially a theme park, where students grow in a safe environment. The campus treats students as citizens and translating public buildings like library, auditorium, sporting facility as ‘Urban Artefacts’. In the contrast, classrooms and faculty buildings are private area transformed from the original grid as Nablus did for Roman Grid.
TRANSFORMATION FROM ROMAN GRID TO ISLAMIC ADAPTATION, CITY OF NABULUS TO RIGHT
Roman planning was the cornerstone of urban-design, this was not due to beautiful buildings but because they were one of the first civilisation to focus on people and public buildings via the system called ‘Forum’. The Islamic nations that took over Nablus (former Roman City) used the existing grids and layouts into developing into their lifestyle instead of razing to start from scratch. This was the point that intrigued me as this means there are design qualities in both systems.
TECHNIQUE OF SUPERBLOCK WHERE SPACE IS EXCAVATED FROM EXTRUDED FORM
Aldo Rossi’s ‘Architecture of the City’ emphasises on the importance of ‘Urban Artefact’ where it is not only a building, but a fragment of the city. The ‘Urban Artefacts’ should be understood not only as a physical object in the city but all of its history, geography, structure and connection with people. I have considered the forum buildings as these ‘Urban Artefacts’
From the literature ‘Collage City’, Rowe mentions Disney World as ‘Picturesque Artifice’ meaning that it is a closed form segregated from the rest of the world, a theme park.
BOOLEAN TECHNIQUE AND 3D COAT PAINTERLY TECHNIQUE TO GENERATE FORM
PLANNED CITY VS UNPLANNED CITY
The lineage of this line of enquiry can be traced back to week 1 where I had to combine two polar cities ‘Citadel of Lille’ and ‘Old Shanghai’ together. Week 2 the Boolean operations allowed me to think about inside/outside space. Later the Planned city was based on 400m rule which was then evolved into the unplanned city by draping over the planned city.