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The City of Morphologies

Part 1 Project 2015
Alessandro Magliani
Architectural Association London | UK
My project investigates a possible exchange between real cities and their disciplinary projections.
I offer an alternative to splintered contemporary models, and restore a broader discussion of the city as a totality and a formal project.

I exaggerate the vision of a disciplinary city driven by morphological principles rather than social or political forces. The project is deeply rooted in Berlin and its peculiar formal history. Subjected to constant disciplinary projections and revisions, Berlin faces an identity crisis and a formal alienation. My project proposes to accommodate Berlin's multiple personalities and conceptual models into a new total yet heterogenous model.

My city is a result of sampling, abstraction and reconfiguration of the real city blocks through the use of morphological themes. From the 'continuous interruption' to 'absorbed juxtaposition', the themes become the key channels connecting the two cities.
I combine retroactive readings with the speculative ones, while introducing new forces such as the 'swamp' – a destabilising entropic quality able to challenge the rigidity of the themes.

The thematic blocks and infrastructures are collapsed into one paradoxical urban map, lthat allows for the previous oppositions, contradictions, and schisms to relate to each other and create new unexpected associations.


Tutor(s)

2015
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