FIRST SETTLEMENT: above. The Northeast Sector covers approximately 132 acres. The new construction is conceived as a complex assemblage [network of actants] held together by the Unit of Aggregation. In this regard, it was conceived as a Megastructure. [Call this megastructure a subdivision, call this subdivision a megastructure.] It is, however, a megastructure that has qualities unknown to its predecessors. First, it is a megastructure that is an aggregate unit that takes part in a larger aggregate field. Insomuch as traditional megastructures are isolated and autonomous, this particular megaform is not. A second unique quality is that it is not a megastructure that privileges [its own] form. It is a megastructure that privileges space, like the Megalopolis in which it sits. Owing to the configuration of unit 2.14, it bends around the spatial void that constitutes the conglomerate ordering of the sector. Finally, it possesses a clear hierarchy described by the unit and the subgrid. IT is the subgrid that attempts to balance open form and open space and thus attempts to transcend the terminal distribution [excessive individuation] inherent in Megalopolis today.
PROGRAMMING SPACE: above left. This mat is the base of all following megastructure diagrams. It represents the collective programs areas of the Fifth Ward that are dominated by space. The overall plan projects space as the matrix of a conglomerate ordering. The adjacent diagram represents that portion of the spatial matrix that exists in the Fifth Ward and serves as the primary influence on unit 2.14 and the new megastructure it supports. It is space that binds the greater aggregate field of units together.
SWITCHES: above right. The switches in the Northeast sector of the Fifth Ward show the distribution of megastructural form within the spatial matrix. Switches that overlap onto the spatial map are one-way switches that terminate movement while providing access to the open areas. The cluster of switches indicates a residential area. Switches that border the mat are generally three-way switches or “T” intersections that form invisible walls that separate programmatic areas without material boundaries.
SUBGRID: above left. The subgrid creates the finest grain of organization in the megastructure. More than any other level of formal organization, the subgrid gives the megastructure its characteristic quality. The subgrid rents form, creating the appearance of separate buildings. It is an appearance. The contemporary subdivision is a megastructure and the megastructure is a contemporary subdivision. It is the attempt to construct a megastructure that possesses both open space and open form and so mitigates individuation.
TOPOGRAPHIC CELLS: above right. The Northeast Sector is almost flat with less than a ten foot drop from corner to corner. While largely outside the hundred year flood plane, variations in elevation give rise, more often than not, to instant wetlands that, if left undisturbed for even a few years, grow into rich ecosystems. As disuse and neglect have overtaken the Fifth Ward, these isolated wetland patches have become more commonplace giving way to a more primitive relation to the natural than is normally found in suburbs or cities.
UNIT OF AGGREGATION: above left. While the Northeast Sector is dominated by open space, that space is defined by Unit 2.14. The unit is colossal measuring 4,500’ east to west and 3,000’ east to west. The unit threads its way through and around the primary spaces serving to structure the built masses that occur in the adjacent program areas. It forms the armature for two large residential grouping that exist at either end of the unit. In between, it structures a large commercial area in the north. First and foremost, however, it provides fast and ready access to the open territories that shape the area.
BUILDING FOOTPRINTS: above right. With the completion of the infrastructure proposal we faced a critical juncture in the redevelopment of the Fifth Ward. Having stressed the decisive role of new infrastructure in urban rehabilitation, it would be possible to announce that the process is complete by simply turning over this new infrastructure to the forces of market development. This was an appealing option. Bringing a diverse set of players into the project at this point would not only be practical, but desirable. By opening up the plan at this point, the architecture of the Fifth Ward would be built over time by many agents each with a unique conception of the city. Furthermore, the outsourcing of building design would eliminate the specter of a uni-dimensional or totalizing environment where the architecture and infrastructure together are delivered as a singular design environment. Such totalizing urban ambitions recall the spectacular failures of modern urbanism that, fifty years after its demise, continues to haunt the modern urban project.
In our subsequent development, however, turning over the new infrastructure to external forces was ultimately rejected in order to instigate a series of alternative trajectories for the Fifth Ward. There are three instigations. First, the introduction of three new building types — the pavilion, the slab and the tower — to add diversity to a district totally defined by the single family house. Second is the introduction of urban density into an area whose present urban forms are radically evanescent and dispersed. The benefits of densification run from the economic [economies of scale] to the environmental [energy conservation], to the political [coherent communities]. The combination of the first two trajectories introduce a third, the positing of collective subjectivies that here-to-fore have not existed in the Fifth Ward but that grow out of its existing potential....
It should be noted that the discontinuities encoded in the infrastructural plan of the Fifth Ward work against a collective subjectivity. Closed or semi-closed urban systems are largely characterized by the isolating nature of terminal distribution. The panoply of “urban” devices inherent in modern architecture — skip-stop elevators, roof gardens, streets in the air — are proof enough of the new demands made by discontinuous infrastructure. In light of the creation of closed urban systems, modern architecture must now work to create a subjectivity that had heretofore been supplied by an open infrastructure. To that end, the design of specific new buildings in the Fifth Ward compensate for discontinuous infrastructure with the introduction of new types and the population densities that they create. The pavilion, slab and tower each provide opportunities for the construction of distinct collectivites within the framework of a radically discontinuous plan...FIRST FIVE INCHES. Stressing the infrastructure that occupies the first five inches above grade is another way to affirm what Aldo Rossi called the "Permanence of the Plan."
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