world building
(NOTE: I will be re-editing this entry as the idea develops)
I am interested in megastructure-type architectural utopias/dytopias, as imagined by the likes of Archigram, Archizoom, Superstudio, Constant ad others from the mid-50's through the mid-70's. Pictured below is an image of Superstudio's so called Continuous Monument, a project for a mega-structure that was to engulf Manhattan.
The ideas of these Supermodernists (as Reynar Banham called them) were intended largely as a provocations. In the case of the Continuous Monument, for example, the "big idea" has to do with the ascendancy of technology in creating a kind of wireless, nomadic space, where a inhabitants could plop down at any point in the grid. (This idea also, as a lineage in architectural imaginings what i would be interested in tracing if time permitted).
With a design of my own, I am interested in envitioning a similar megastructural space superimposed over parts of Los Angeles. For this, I am considering to use Google Earth and KML as Julian Bleecker did for his Battleship project this summer, pictured above. Perhaps, as Julian did, I can add a wireless locative dimension to the project as well, where cell phone users could somehow access this megastructural space from within 1st life (as Julian calls it).
For an 'actual' location in the 'real' world, I'm looking at the LA river, which runs by my current house. A potential jem of wildlife and greenery that bisects LA, in my mind, the river is one of the most poorly planned sections of the city. So I am considering proposing an 'imaginary' plan, for a giant project of mixed use modular architecture to span the river and continue along its length. I would visualize through a variety of architectural mock-ups. The interactive dimension still needs some more thought.