WTF Wal-Mart

seriously this is disgusting

“Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death“

the fascinating physics of foam

rules of foamspace

The architecture of foam according to Sloterdijk’s Foam City from the ‘carcass of a weblog maintained by Bryan Boyer while he was a thesis student in the architecture dept. at the Harvard Graduate School of Design‘ :

1. Foamspace must “enable both the isolation of individuals, and the concentration of isolated entites into collective ensembles of cooperation and contemplation.” It is both/and.
2. Foamspace is the recapitulation of previous spaces, rinsed and washed of their former structures but never completely evading them. It is historical.
3. Foamspace must allow “occasional assembly” even if society is so large that this assembly must always function as a synechdote. It is representational.
4. Foamspace creates the largest structures (“the masses”, “the nation”, or “the people”) only when the physical assembly is elaborate. It requires affect.
5. Foamspace must degrade gracefully: it should make sense to those who can read it, entertain those who simply look at it, and command the attention of those who may only gaze. It is layered.

what I presented yesterday (thesis statement)

THESIS INTRO

This project is primarily concerned with the redevelopment of an urban block as a catalyst for urban revitalization. The site is that of the former Montreal Forum, which is presently occupied by the multi-use Pepsi Forum.

This site occupies an interesting position within the city. Sites adjacent include educational, high-rise residential, small-scale residential, small-scale commercial, abandoned property, gas station, public park, hospital and a large shopping mall programs.

For 70 years, the temple of hockey arenas, the Montreal Forum, occupied this site. In 1996, the local hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens, moved to a new building, the Molson Center long after the Forum was no longer financially viable.

The Forum stood empty for several years before it was gutted and stripped of its facades to accommodate a big box style restaurant + conference + 22 screen cinema complex. The result is an almost entirely inward-looking urban block with two of its four street elevations completely blank.

MIXED-USE + FOAM THEORY

My interest in developing a mixed-use project lies in the multiplicity of spaces, functions and atmospheres that occur in a mix. It became interesting to conceptualize this multiplicity by means of Peter Sloterdijk’s theory of society as foam. Sloterdijk describes society as a network of co-isolated islands of individuals as foams that momentarily or chronically connect to other islands to create medium or large-sized structures.

This foam theory allows me to frame the site’s current problem in relation to its past performance. While the Montreal Forum practically foamed at the mouth at times, with peaks of destructive consequence, the opacity of the Pepsi Forum just doesn’t allow it to foam. The thesis question thereby becomes: within its particular context, how do you get this urban block foaming again?

INTERVENTION

A key precedent is Moshe Safdie’s unbuilt proposal for a mulit-use recreational center a new home for the Montreal Canadiens called the Molson Center in 1966. The wrapping of a large assembly space with a layer of apartment units from the Safdie scheme is opened up to create a large outdoor space contained within what is now a perimeter block. The form of an arena is imprinted into a grid of terraces and connected with openings to the surrounding four streets. In response to the different qualities of the four streets, the arena is offset to create a variety of deep and narrow spaces. The first three to four levels consist of commercial and fitness programs facing both the street and onto the terraces of the arena.

THESIS OUTRO

Considering the dimensions of the block and the thinness of the perimeter, what would have been considered a courtyard becomes much more of an urban room connected by moments of solid and void to the surrounding street edges. Balancing the a large open exterior program with an interior density of commerce, recreation, offices and apartments lining the perimeter is an attempt to both define the urban block and create enough porosity to make the building sufficiently foamy.

FOAM CITY – Sloterdijk

From issue 9 of Log:

Foam City