A city is a folded substance. A substance where the aggregation of intricate connections tie local conditions together superficially. The irritation of surfaces connect every consecutive layer. There are no internal connections made, only topical ones. The city becomes a fine, heterogenous and supple mixture. A layered mixture. There are no overall characteristics by which to define the mixture, as it can only be understood by studying the relationships between its parts. This is the mat-city.
Agadir - OMA
Kanazawa - SANAA
Free University Berlin - Candilis, Josic, Woods
Mat-buildings are characterized by their noticeable lack of hierarchy and centrality. “The promise of mat-buildings is of things happening in the voids, outside of architecture’s explicit envelope of control.” - Stan Allen The Thick 2D: Mat-Building in the Contemporary City
I will borrow the term “flat-landers” to describe the inhabitants of each layer in the mat-city. Flat-landers are 2D beings that can not perceive the third dimension, yet they are still affected by its forces (just like we, 3D people, can’t see gravity or magnetism). Since the layers of the mat-city do not make internal connections but only interstitial ones, how do the flat-landers interact with other layers outside of their own understanding? How do they navigate between realities? Which natural forces keep them tied to their own reality and which strategies can they use to break free?
interstitial urban connections or wormholes?
My project will come into contact with the real world by studying those individual parts that represent layers of the mat-city, not the city as a whole. I will zoom into particular areas of current urban fabrics where interstitial connection/inter-dimensional travel is occurring and real-life flat landers are exploring new worlds.
Flat-lander, is that you?
“[on mat-building] Its job is not to articulate or represent specified functions, but rather to create an open field where the fullest range of possible events might take place. This requires a degree of restraint established as an initial condition from which differentiation occurs over time: ‘The systems will present, in their beginning, an even over-all intensity of activity, in order not to compromise the future.’ ” [Allen]
The mat-city is a field of potentials. It is the stem cell containing all possible variations. It is ripe with a dormant destiny, and immaturity will be the nested qualifier for all future growth! The initial pre-bias that Allen references will be the base-line for differentiation: a threshold that I can build in and use to determine which areas grow and which don’t. The successes and failures of the flat-landers as they explore will measure the mat-city’s growth.
The argument . . . Is stunted growth a necessity in a mat-building/city? Can a mat-city achieve an identity? I’m not sure where the argument lies, but I feel I’m not too far away.
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