GROUND(ing) Architecture

In dense urban centres, public space is confined to the streets which are striated in nature: sharp boundaries that define buildings as a separate entities from the ground. For the public, this relationship makes their experience of the city with architecture single dimensional: limited to that of viewing buildings from a distance.

If the building and ground begin to merge, boundaries of the city and architecture can also be blurred and the experience of the city and the building is fused as one that is smooth. By manipulating the striated and smooth, the public can be engaged with both the qualities of architecture and the city while creating a new public realm in a dense environment.

Yokohama Ferry Terminal, Foreign Office Architects

Olympic Sculpture Park Seattle, Weiss/Manfredi

Readings:

1. Deleuze and space: The smooth and the striated
2. The Oblique Function by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio
3. Megaform and Urban Landscape by Kenneth Frampton
4. Cities without Ground