open space and open form

METROPOLIS: OPEN FORM/CLOSED SPACE. In the diagram above, the upper RIGHT panel represents a Central Park within a gridiron of streets that characteristic of the Metropolis. It juxtaposes the open, infinitely extensible gridiron streets to the framed or closed space of the large urban park. The gridiron street infrastructure is open to the horizon. The counterpoint to this openness is the contained space of Central Park.

MEGALOPOLIS: CLOSED FORM/OPEN SPACE. In the diagram above, the lower RIGHT panel shows a transformation where the gridiron is cut back to the point that streets are no longer open and extensible but closed. On the other hand, the axes cut through the existing park have been significantly enlarged by the elimination of infrastructure. The urban space that emerges is now infinitely extensible.

OPEN FORM/OPEN SPACE. Some kind of “indeterminate stage.” is located in the space between the open form/closed space of the 19th century Metropolis and closed form/open space of the 20th century Megalopolis. This intermediate stage is presented in the digram below as an ideal that exists between two completely dysfunctional extremes.

UTOPIA. This diagram summarizes the relation between the open gridiron Metropolis and a closed cul-de-sac Megalopolis. Against two axes representing closed and open forms and spaces, four distinct environments are described in each of the resulting quadrants. In the lower right-hand quadrant, the gridiron Metropolis is constituted by open form and closed space. By open form I mean the open gridiron streets that extend infinitely to the horizon. By closed urban space I mean the framed space of an urban park such as Central Park in New York or Marquette Park in Chicago. In the upper left-hand quadrant, the cul-de-sac Megalopolis is constituted by closed form and open space. By closed form I mean the closed streets of cul-de-sac infrastructure that end in a terminal destination. By open urban space I mean the unframed space that emerges in the interstices of these closed terminal conditions. Often referred to as sprawl, this space is the product of open space planning, land banking, automotive infrastructures or simple neglect.

While Metropolis and Megalopolis emerge from the historical conditions of 20th century, the urbanism the other two quadrants can be obtained by design. The quadrant marked by closed form and closed space makes a prison. The remaining quadrant constituted by both open form and open space is an ideal which may ultimately allow Megalopolis to emerge as a fully formed design problem.

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