Knowledge

City Fall Semester 2012 Third Year Studio Columbia GSAPP Frederic Levrat Professor: Frederic Levrat Teaching Assistants: Tom Shea, Mazdak Jafarian Theory: Knowledge City Site: Columbia 125th Street Campus NYU Houston and Mercer Community center Program: An interface between the urban community and the campus Schedule: Fall 2012

Theory - Knowledge City

It is projected for the beginning of the XXI century that over 50% of the world population will be living in urban centers. But what is the actual purpose of a high density City at the beginning of the XXI Century? With the advent of new technologies the storage, transmission and management of information has become quasi spaceless. So, with a brutal contraction of time and space, not to say a complete disappearance of the notion of distance for data transmission in the Information Age we have arrived again to the notion of Delocalization. So why are we paying so much rent to live in the center of cities like Paris, New York, Tokyo, Mumbai or Kyoto? What is the city of the XXI century offering to us that we believe is so valuable? And in that regard, what is the model of the new city of the XXI century? My fascination for this semester subject comes from two consolidating poles: 1. What is the relationship between the stored Knowledge of the Virtual and the constructed Physical environment? 2. How do we strategize the development of fast growing cities? If the future of the city is the Knowledge city what form and shape does such a city takes? Is it a human oriented Network, or an information oriented network? It brings us back to the initial question, regarding the relationship between the Virtual and the Physical in architecture. If the main raison dtre for a city is its production of immaterial information, how does the physical constitution of the city encourage and enhance this non physical production? There is a paradoxical relationship between the build environment and its attempted finality. On the other hand we all accept this condition, as our current experience of the city is a condition of "interface where the build environment allows us to understand better abstract information. Personal experiences and shared experiences in the city becomes a decoder of the artificially produced information and Architecture finds a new role as an Interface between the Virtual/ Immaterial and the human body. This is where we need the city; as a physical interface contextualizing Virtual information into a Physical space, negotiating between dimensions, and in return producing information and knowledge. The future of the city in the information age is not the dissolution of the physical space into the ether of digital bits, but rather an essential tool to understand and interface information: It is what I call the knowledge city. The City should be considered as an interface between stored knowledge and active users, as well as between active users themselves, and between active users and the surrounding space. It is the place for the possibility to exchange knowledge, to learn from each others. It is the place for chance encounter, the un-programmed, the unexpected. So how do we design it? Can we enhance a city to improve its knowledge capital? Is Paris, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Mumbai, Shanghai, Beijing, New York or Tokyo better suited to become the next leading Knowledge city?

Knowledge City Third Year Studio Columbia GSAPP

Fall Semester 2012 Frederic Levrat

Project Site: New York Campuses Columbia 125th Street + NYU

Most of the major urban campuses of New York City are currently growing rapidly. The trend is impressive as all the learning centers are colonizing and expending, in the very competitive real estate market of Manhattan and Brooklyn. NYU Mercer & Houston th In Manhattan, Columbia University is developing a new large campus on 125 street and Broadway, while the School for Visual Arts, City College and Cooper Union are also expanding rapidly. NYU has already a fairly large footprint on the East and West Villages, sharing large public spaces such as Washington Square park. NYU is planning to expand by operating a densification of its existing locations and the current athletic building at the corner of Mercer Street and Houston Street is planned to be demolished and reconstructed. Just a block from SoHo, next to Angelika film center, this location could become a new entrance point to NYU Campus, connecting the surrounding activities of the pedestrian city with the campus research centers.

Columbia University New Campus 125 Street and Broadway Columbia has purchased five blocks of Manhattan for their new campus in Manhattanville. Located th th th between 125 Street and 130 Street, between Broadway and 12 Avenue, the huge site will allow th Columbia University to double its size in an almost contiguous way. The triangular site at 125 Street offer an interesting hinge between the campus and the rest of the city.

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Knowledge City Third Year Studio Columbia GSAPP

Fall Semester 2012 Frederic Levrat

The projects will address a multiplicity of scales, from the Urban Network strategy to the specific interface th scale. The Subway stop at 125 Street is also part of the adjacent facilities, as well as the network of th streets such as Broadway and 125 Street. In this regard, does culture exist only in designated areas or is it a network culture? Can major influx of money create knowledge and culture?

Program - Knowledge City Center - Architecture as an interface.

The program for the knowledge city center is an interface, between stored knowledge such as written information, digital information and the human body. It is a mix between an interactive library, a public space and a museum. Some sort of a cultural Times Square grafted on the Seattle Library and the Pompidou center; basically, an urban condenser. The first part of the semester will be oriented toward the different types of urban interfaces, from public libraries to campuses and public squares. The question of the different forms of densities digital, multimodal, pedestrian and vehicular will raise the notion of the current formula for a culture of congestion, so well developed and embraced by OMA. The second part of the semester will involve designing the specific building or Network mdiatheque, cultural center, caf, city square - as well as its relation with the outside space surrounding it. A special emphasis on the membrane of the envelop, separating/connecting the inside and the outside of different environment and its potential hypersurface quality, as a vehicle to transmit and potentially generate information/ knowledge.

Knowledge City Third Year Studio Columbia GSAPP Collaboration

Fall Semester 2012 Frederic Levrat

Previous Knowledge City Studios have been conducted at Columbia University, Osaka University and Tonji University and generated an important set of data. In addition, I organized an international Symposium in Osaka, Japan, with the participation of Mark Wigley, Beatriz Colomina, Preston Scott Cohen, Fumihiko Maki, Xu Weigo, Takashi Yamaguchi and I. We will be able to analyze their point of view and their lectures.

Project references:
Interface: Knowledge Physicality Body Pompidou Center Paris France Rogers+Piano Graz Kunsthall Cook + Fournier Times Square Conde Nast- Nasdaq Building Times Square Reuters Building Times Square ABC Studios Seattle Library Rem Koolhaas OMA Wexner Center for the Arts Eisenman Architects Sendai Library Toyo Ito

Knowledge City Third Year Studio Columbia GSAPP

Fall Semester 2012 Frederic Levrat

Studio Readings
Henry Bergson Guy Debord Robert Venturi Marshal Mc Luhan Marshal Mc Luhan Bernard Tschumi Jean Baudrillard Rem Koolhaas Paul Virilio City of Bits Jonathan Crary e-topia Me++ Matter and Memory Society of the Spectacle Learning from Las Vegas 1896 1967 1972

Understanding Media-the extension of Man 1964 the Medium is the massage Architecture and Disjunction Simulacra and Simulation Generic City S,M,L,LX Speed and Politics William Mitchell Suspension of Perception William Mitchell William Mitchell Technicum blog 1967 1980 1995 1995 1993 1996 2000 2000 2003 2010

The Google way of science

Schedule F2012
1 Wed Fri 2 Mon Wed Fri 3 Mon Wed Fri Studio Presentation Sep 05 Studio Presentation Sep 07 Studio Introduction Knowledge City + Precedents + Texts Precedents + Readings Sep 10 Presentation: City Presentation Precedents - Buell 200 Sep 12 Presentation Texts strategies Sep 14 Presentation: Mapping Campuses NYC - room 412 Mapping Campus-City Sep 17 Remapping NYC Campus- City Sep 19 Desk Crit: Chance Encounter Machine Sep 21 Desk Crit: Chance Encounter Machine

Knowledge City Third Year Studio Columbia GSAPP

4 Mon Wed Fri 5 Mon Wed Fri 6 Mon Wed Fri 7 Mon Wed Fri 8 Mon Wed Fri 9 Mon Wed Fri 10 Mon Wed Fri 11 Mon Wed Fri 12 Mon Wed Fri 13 Mon Wed Fri 14 Mon Wed Fri

Fall Semester 2012 Frederic Levrat

Chance Encounter Machine Sep 24 Pin-up: Chance Encounter Machine Sep 26 Desk Crits Sep 28 Desk Crits Programmatic Encounter Oct 01 Cross programming Oct 03 Desk Crits Oct 05 Cross programming pin-up Site Strategy Oct 08 Desk Crits Oct 10 Desk Crits Oct 12 Site strategy pin-up Project proposal Oct 15 Desk Crits Oct 17 Desk Crits Oct 19 Project proposal pin-up Mid term review Oct 22 Desk Crits Oct 24 Mid term Review Oct 26 Desk Crits Project development Oct 29 Desk Crits Oct 31 Desk Crits Nov 02 Project development pin-up Structure / Circulation Nov 05 Desk Crits Nov 07 Desk Crits Nov 09 Structure / Circulation pin-up Project development Nov 12 Desk Crits Nov 14 Desk Crits Nov 16 Project development pin-up Project development- interior spaces Nov 19 Desk Crits Nov 21 Desk Crits Nov 23 interior spaces pin up Project development Nov 26 Desk Crits Nov 28 Desk Crits Nov 30 presentation pin-up Final Review Dec 03 Desk Crits Dec 05 Desk Crits Dec 07 Final review