Architecture and Its Dissonant
Sadie Wegner
How does one account for the undesirable parts of a city? Where are the coffee table books dedicated to the exposed conduit, neglected side elevations and illicit condenser units that make up so much of our shared urban experience? A majority of the built environment remains untouched by architects – yet it’s the territory that exposes the desires and hidden mechanisms that keep our buildings at work. This project proposes a taxonomy of such unseemliness, which at its root, challenges the architect’s natural impulse to see space as fundamentally abstract and malleable. Through this documentation of episodes of indecision, misalignment, error, the urgency of utility, and disavowed historicism, this project aims to accurately portray the authenticity of an evolving metropolis.
Will they keep growing?
metro-polyptic accretion
ⓒ original image by Mark Yankus
ⓒ original image by Mark Yankus
thoughtful mistake.
Identification
Facade corner detail.
The light fixture illuminates an egress stair.
EWR check-in illumination.
Poorly designed intersection.
Mistake or value engineered?
material intersection.
Bauhaus style.
Bauhaus style
Unique masonry.
Concrete and steel framed window corner detail.
The structure is lying to us!
Monochromatic masonry.
Rare masonry.
Eroding column base.
3 steps 3 materials.
urgency of utility.
Someone pass the wire trimmers.
JFK Terminal 4. Renovation completed 2019.
Growing pipes.
Everything above finished ceiling datum exposed.
Aging process with additive utility.
Planned for.
Operable window opens to air conditioner unit.
Side door.
Bodega exhaust.
Exposed with intention.
Historic subway tile meets 2000’s security door.
coded stories.
Mechanical building atop a building
“Modern” addition.
“Affordable” housing building entrance.
Zoning diagram.
Unveiling corner.
Cantilevered capitalism.
Modified zoning diagram.
the ‘big’ move.
Soft facade for public engagement.
Subtle inset detail.
Tetris facade.
No one can execute the curve like her.
Undulating facade.
Waterproofing failure.
Preservation.
Passive solar strategy? Or wow factor?
Rounded corner softens its presence.
Creatives live within.
Master of the curve.
Odd angles carve an entrance.
2020 - grateful for a balcony.
What is its purpose other than catching ones eye?
Unité d'Habitation meets public housing.
additive nature of an evolving metropolis
Bauhaus style steel-framed windows and concrete in a cold climate calls for additive air conditioner in the summer months.
The famous SHED. Louvre’s appear after years of public gatherings indoors without efficient exhaust locations.
Stealing power, 1970’s style.
blocks - geometric platonic primitives. Pure, yet tainted by the pressures and undesigned corners of an evolving metropolis
Exposing the concealed network.
Pure form.
Cities with the largest populations in 2020
Source: World Population Density Lumino City 3D
Tokyo, Japan - 37m
Sao Paulo, Brazil - 22m
Cairo, Egypt - 20m
Osaka, Japan - 19m
Istanbul, Turkey - 15m
Lagos, Nigeria - 14m
Delhi, India - 30m
Mexico City, Mexico - 21m
Beijing, China - 20m
Karachi, Pakistan - 16m
Buenos Aires, Argentina - 15m
Kinshasa, DR Congo - 14m
Shanghai, China - 27m
Dhaka, Bangladesh - 21m
Mumbai, India - 20m
Chongqing, China - 15m
Kolkata, India - 14m
Manila, Philippines - 13m
subtractive analysis
Expose.
Isolate.
When the architecture is removed, the ‘non-architecture’ suggests its existence.