parole - a project of gruppo a12, udo noll & peter scupelli
megastructure
author: Reyner Banham
related words:
surfurbia (publication)
echo: Megastructure had a great size; “was build of modular units; were capable of great, or even ‘unlimited’ extension; was a structural network into which smaller structural units (for example rooms, houses, or small buildings, of other sorts) can be built - or even ‘plugged-in’ or ‘clipped on’ after having been prefabricated elsewhere; a structural framework expected to have a useful life much longer than that of the smaller units which it might support” Reiner Banham (1976:2)
publication: Banham, Reyner. Megastructure : urban futures of the recent past 224 p. : ill., plans ; 26 cm. London : Thames and Hudson, 1976.
related links: http://parole.aporee.org/files/andre/megastructure.jpg
(megastructure book cover: bookcover)
definition: big building that givs a flexible structure in which to insert different linguistic and functiuonal elements that may be inserted. It is a ready skeleton to condesce all acivities of urban life in a single big constuction thus not finished, it allows for the eventuality of being expandible. The term was coined by R. Banham that saw in the project A for Algiers of Le Corbusier the true example of the megastructure. The sense of the term has been expanded, Françoise Choay, for example, indicates as megastructure the big containers of the extraurban peripheries: shoppinf centers, big sports centers, and the office centers.
related words:
autopia (definition)
echo: Fumihiko MakiThe MegastructureThe megastructure is a large frame in which all the functions of a city or part of a city are housed. lt has been made possible by present-day technology. In a sense, it is a human-made feature of the landscape. lt is like tile great hill on which Italian towns were built inherent in the megastructure concept, along with a certain static nature, is the suggestion that many and diverse functions may be beneficially concentrated in one place. A large frame implies some utillty in combination and concentration of functions.Urban designers are attracted to the megastructure concept because it offers a legitimate way to order massive grouped functions. One need only look at work in a recent Museum of Modern Art show on "Visionary Architecture" to sense the excitement generated among designers by megaform. While some of the ideas displayed in the show demonstrate virtuosity at the expense of human seale and human functional needs, others have a quality which suggests no divergence between compacted economic function and human use.That utility is sometimes only apparent. We frequently confuse the potential that technology offers with a compulsion to "use it fully." Technological possibility can be useful only when it is a tool of civilized persons. Inhuman use of technological advance is all too frequently our curse. Optimum productivity does not even depend on mere concentration of activities and workers.Paul Goodman says in Gommunitas:We could centralize or decentralize, concentrate population or scatter it... If we want to continue the trend away from the country, we can do it; but if we want to combine town and country values in an agri-industrial way of life, we can do that... . lt is just this relaxing of neces-sity, this extraordinary flexibility and freedom of choice of our techniques that is baffling and frightening to people... Technology is a sacred cow left strictly to (unknown) experts, as if the form of the industrial machine did not profoundly affect every person.... They think that it is more efficient to centralize, whereas it is usually more inefficient:Technology must not dietate choices to us in our cities. We must learn to select modes of action from among the possibillties technology pre-sents in physical planning.One of the most interesting developments of the megaform was done by Professor Kenzo Tange with M.I.T. graduate students when he was a visiting professor there. In a series of three artieles in the September 1960 issue of Japan Architect Tange presented a proposal for a mass human scale form that includes a megaform and discrete, rapidly changeable functional units which fit within the larger framework.Short-lived items are becoming more and more short-lived, and the cycle of change is shrinking at a corresponding rate. On the other hand, the accumulation of capital has made it possible to build in large-scale operations. Reformations of natural topography, dams, harbors, and highways are of a size and scope that involve long cycles of time, and these are the man-made works that tend to divide the overall system of the age. The two tendencies-toward shorter cycles and toward longer cycles-are both necessary to modern life and to humanity itself.2Tange's megaform concept depends largely on the idea that change will occur less rapidly in some areas than it will in others, and that the designer will be able to ascertain which of the functions he is dealing with falls in the longer cycle of change and which in the shorter. The question is, can the designer successfully base his concept on the idea that, to give an example, transportation rnethods will change less rapidly than the idea of a desirable residence or retail outlet? Sometimes the impact and momentum of technology become so great that a change occurs in the basic skeleton of the social and physical structure. lt is difficult to predict into which part of a pond a stone will be thrown and which way its ripples will spread. If the megaform becomes rapidly obsolete, as well it might it will be a great weight about the neck of urban society.On the other hand, the ideal is not a system in which the physical structure of the city is at the mercy of unpredictable change. The ideal is a kind of master form which can move into ever new states of equilibrium and yet maintain visual consistency and a sense of continuing order in the long run. This suggests that the megastructure composed of several independent systems that can expand or contract with the least disturbance to the others would be preferable to the one composed of a rigid hierarchical system. In other words, each system that contributes to the whole maintqins its identity and longevity without being affected by the others, while at the same time engages in dynamic contact with the others. When an optimal relationship has been formed, an environmental control system can be made. The system that permits the greatest efficiency and flexibillty with the smallest organizational structure is ideal. A basic Operation is necessary to establish this optimal control mechanism. lt is to select proper independent functional systems and to give them optimal interdependency through the provision of physical joints at critical points.Although the megastructure concept has its problems as outlined above, it also has great promise for several fields:1. Environmental engineering. Megastructure development necessitates collaboration between structural and civil engineers. Possibilities for large spans, space frames, light skin structures, prestressed concrete, highway aesthetics, and earth forming will be developed far beyond their present level. Large-scale climate control will be studied further. A new type of physical structure, environmental building, will emerge.2. Multifunctional structures. We have, thus far, taken it for granted that a building is designed to fulfill one specific purpose. In spite of the fact that the concept of multifunctionalism must be approached with caution, it does offer useful possibillties. Within the megaform structure we can realize combinations such as those in Kisho Kurokawa's project, Agricultural City.3. Infrastructure as public investment. Substantial public investment can be made in infrastructures (the skeleton of megastructures) in order to guide and stimulate public structures around them. This strategy can be further extended to a new three-dimensional concept of land use where public agencies will maintain the ownership and upkeep for both horizontal and vertical circulation systems.
related links: http://www.arch.hdk-berlin.de/projekte/metabolismus/archiv/o-texte/notesoncollective.htm
(notes on collective form: Essay from Fumihiko Maki, defining, among other themes, the concept of megastructure.)
bibliographical categories: LC Subjects: Megastructures. City planning. Metabolism in architecture (Movement). Utopias.