Urbanisms

Steven Holl Urbanisms

Working with Doubt

Princeton Architectural Press

New York
This book is dedicated to Astra Zarina (1929–2008), passionate teacher of urban phenomena.
New York City Gymnasium Bridge    1977 40
Bridge of Houses    1979 42
Parallax Towers    1989 46
Storefront for Art & Architecture    1993 50
Pratt Institute Higgins Hall Insertion    1997–2005 52
World Trade Center Schemes 1 and 3    2002 58
Highline Hybrid Tower     2004 62
Hudson Yards    2007 68
USA Erie Canal Edge    Rochester    1989 76
Stitch Plan    Cleveland    1989 80
Spatial Retaining Bars    Phoenix    1989 84
Spiroid Sectors    Dallas-Fort Worth    1989 88
Chapel of St. Ignatius    Seattle    1994–1997 92
UCSF Mission Bay    San Francisco    1996 96
MIT Master Plan    Cambridge    1999 100
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art    Kansas City    1999–2007 106
School of Art & Art History    Iowa City    1999–2006 114
China Green Urban Laboratory    Nanning    2002 122
Museum of Art & Architecture    Nanjing    2002–2009 130
Linked Hybrid    Beijing    2003–2009 136
Xi’an New Town    Xi’an    2005 164
Horizontal Skyscraper    Shenzhen    2006–2009 168
Sliced Porosity Block    Chengdu    2007–2012 186
Ningbo Fine Grain    Ningbo    2008 196
South Korea World Design Park Complex    Seoul    2007 200
Japan Void Space / Hinged Space    Fukuoka    1989–1991 204
Makuhari Bay New Town    Chiba, Tokyo    1992–1996 210
The Netherlands Manifold Hybrid    Amsterdam    1994 218
Sarphatistraat Offices    Amsterdam    1996–2000 220
Toolenburg-Zuid    Amsterdam    2002 224
Finland Kiasma    Helsinki    1992–1998 230
Meander    Helsinki    2006 236
Italy Porta-Vittoria    Milan    1986 240
Lombardia Regional Government Center    Milan    2004 244
France Les Halles    Paris    1979 248
Île Seguin    Paris    2001 250
Lebanon Beirut Marina and Town Quay    Beirut    2002–2010 258
Turkey Akbuk Peninsula Dense Pack    Akbuk    2006–2010 262
 Foreword 10
Urbanisms: Working with Doubt 12

1 Geo-Spatial 14
2 Experiential Phenomena 16
3 Spatiality of Night 20
4 Urban Porosity 22
5 Sectional Cities 24
6 Enmeshed Experience: Partial Views 26
7 Psychological Space 28
8 Flux and the Ephemeral 30
9 Banalization versus Qualitative Power 32
10 Negative Capability 34
11 Fusion: Landscape / Urbanism / Architecture 36

Coda: Dilated Time 270

The Megaform and the Helix by Kenneth Frampton 272
Project Credits 276
Image Credits 286
Acknowledgments 287
Foreword
 

Steven Holl Chisel off the Our opportunities to work in China  

bolts of light have been focused on setting urban  
dusk has and environmental examples at large
the swimming word. scales. While at the microscale,  
—Paul Celan, “Force of Light” we might aim at shaping space, light,  
material and detail; at the macroscale
Micro-Macro broader aims have been the challenge.
This book is conceived as an accom­ Rather than monofunction buildings  
paniment to the book House: Black we have strived for new hybrid buildings
Swan Theory (Princeton Architectural with rich program­matic juxtaposition.
Press, 2007). While the microscale of   Rather than iconic object buildings,
the first book is juxtaposed with a vision   we have attempted to shape new types
of the preservation of natural landscape,   of public space. Reshaping the large
this book focuses on the macroscale   programs of private development  
of cities through the lens of architecture. to mold urban geometry for new public
The exploration of strategies to metropolitan experience has been  
counter sprawl at the periphery of cities a core aim.
and the formation of spaces rather than The fusing of landscape, urbanism,
objects were the primary aims of our   and architecture has become a new  
Edge of a City projects made between ground for exploration. As our interiors  
1986 and 1990. Each of these visions are often conceived as exteriors,  
proposed living, working, recreational,   so the relation of building to grounds  
and cultural facilities juxtaposed in new might be reversed or integrated. The
pedestrian sectors that might act as   potential to see landscape, urbanism,  
social condensers for new communities. and archi­tecture as a continued
Each site, each city requires a   crisscrossing experience proposed  
unique architectural response. In China, in 1993 for Helsinki's Kiasma was  
2003–2009, we have had the oppor­tu-  fully realized in the intertwined land­- 
­nity to realize unprecedented projects   scape of the Nelson-Atkins Museum  
as that country undergoes one of the of Art in Kansas City (2007) and  
greatest population migrations in human the Lake Whitney Water Treatment  
history. 500 million people will be Facility (2002). In 2007 this interlacing
The United States transplanted from rural areas to urban aim took on a new scale in the World
covers an area of zones over the next few decades, the Design Park Complex for South Korea.
3,537,441 square miles
environmental consequences of which   How the large urban scale is turned  
with a population of
304,686,000. With are catego­ri­cally global. The ambition   inside out to the microscale is central  
3,696,100 square miles, of Asian clients to realize new urban to our Micro-Macro allegory.
China covers a similar
area but its population
visions presents an urgency in contrast  
is 1,330,044,544. to our former vision studies.  

11
Working with Doubt

In every serious philosophical Today, working with doubt is una­void- 

question uncertainty extends   ­able; the absolute is suspended by
to the very roots of the problem.   the relative and the interactive. Instead
We must always be prepared   of stable systems we must work with
to learn something totally new.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1950
 
 
dynamic systems. Instead of simple and
clear programs we engage contingent  
and diverse programs. Instead of  
precision and perfection we work with
intermittent, crossbred systems, and
combined methods. Suspending disbelief
and adopting a global understanding
is today an a priori condition, a new
fundamental for creative work in science,
urbanism, and architecture. Working  
with doubt becomes an open position  
for concentrated intellectual work.
The research and preparation
required for any integrated urban success
is quite different from previous periods
that imposed classical styles or sought
to fulfill the absolute aim of modernist
functional clarity. We aim for a twenty-first
century architecture in contrast to the
empirical kitsch of the post-modern.  
We aim for an architecture that is integral:
landscape / architecture / urbanism, an
architecture of deep connections to site,
culture, and climate, rather than an  
applied signature style. Working with
openness and doubt at the outset of each
project can yield works engaged on levels
of both site and culture: many different
urbanisms, rather than a single urbanism.

opposite
Beijing: the Linked
Hybrid located just off
the second Ring Road.

13
 1
Geo-spatial

Reflection on the macroscale takes   Venus is Earth’s nearest planetary

us beyond the metropolitan present into neighbor and a close equivalent in size.
above
In 1899, less than deep historical time on one scale and Its greenhouse-effect clouds are made of
10 percent of the outward into the solar system on another. water and CO²—which maintain a surface
earth’s population
Archaeological and historical aspects   temperature of 860 degrees Farenheit.
lived in cities. In 2008
the 3 billion urban of a site and its former cultures might   Venus once had water but it is now steam.
inhabitants continues span thousands, if not millions of years. Venus is in retrograde rotation; the sun
to grow.
If we look at Earth from above rises in the west and sets in the east.  
opposite during the aurora borealis for example, It has no moon. My theory is that it once
Curtains of light; unlike our ancestors of northern cultures had a moon just as it once had water,  
electrons from the
solar wind rain down who attached mythical and religious both victims of greenhouse heat.
along the Earth’s significance to its appearance—we now When looking back at Earth from
magnetic field lines.
understand the phenomena as a colli­sion space—like our Edge of a City projects
Their color depends
on the type of atom of charged particles which originate   from 1989–1990—every architectural
or molecule struck by from the sun arriving to Earth via the solar action can be seen in some way as urban.
the charged particles.
Today these northern
wind. Yet, not all mysteries have been Every constructive mark on Earth’s  
lights—the aurora resolved—geomagnetic storms that   crust, in relation to natural landscape,
borealis, historically ignite auroral activity happen more often   should be scrutinized. There is nowhere  
poetic and mythical—
are full of new
during the months around the equinoxes—  on the planet today that is not subject  
meanings. a phenomenon still unexplained. to concen­trated human forces.

14
 2
Experiential phenomena

It is odd that few urban planners speak   In 1950, the poet Charles Olsen  
of the important phenomenol­ogical said, “The central fact of America  
characteristics determining the qualities   is Space.” Almost fifty years later, at  
of urban life—spatial energy and   the close of the twentieth century, Harold
mystery, qualities of light, color, sound, Bloom said, “Our central fact is Time.”  
and smell. The subjec­tivity of urban I propose that we are now at a turning
experience must be held in equal impor­ point. Just as we have now engaged deep
tance to the objective and practical.   time, we must engage equivalent dimen­
The right and left halves of the brain   sions of space. A deep space of the urban
which balance pragmatic facts and begins where interiors become exteriors
subjective art, respectively, should have and vice versa. The crisscrossing laticelike
a parallel in the macroscale of urban quality of new urban experiences open  
experiences. The music, art, and poetry   up a new spatial sense of wonder.
of urban experience should be given   The phenomenal qualities of the  
more force in balance within the capitalist- light and air of particular cities are  
driven climate of urban development. part of the important characteristics
Constructed in walls of glass, concrete,   determining the quality of life. Perhaps  
or brick, the city is as much a subjective city officials should employ poets for  
experience as it is an objective reality.   urban redevelopment projects in order  
This synthesis of subjective and objective   to bring the delicate phenomenal
ought to be central to urban design   properties of urban places into clear  
from the outset. Our focus is on the focus. The rational, statistical point  
immense richness full of contradictions of view is certainly not enough when
that is the urban experience. Just as   operating on a very complex body.  
the brain is embedded within the body   If modern medicine has finally acknow­
and just as the city is embedded in   ledged the power of the psyche as a  
its surrounding environment, we should factor in physical health, perhaps urban
work toward relational values. planners may realize that the experi- 
Large, privately initiated urban   ­ential and phenomenal power of cities
developments may have more   cannot be completely rationalized  
potential than master plans to shape   and must be studied subjectively.
new public space in the city. Civic   To think of the light and air in  
master plans, endlessly debated and   cities at 34° latitude for example, is not
politi­cally positioned, move too slowly   a completely scientific operation. The
to be effective and are, usually, either altitude and bearing angle of the sun,
altered beyond recog­nition or shelved. together with the number of rainy days  
Master plans should be conceived   per year and the mean temperature,
with inte­grated elements of architecture   cannot yield an accurate description  
as their initial catalyst. of the place. Think of moving in rapid

16
 succession during the first weeks   The polished pavement of the
of summer from Rome to Barcelona   Ramblas glows with reflections of
to Madrid to Lisbon. The astonishingly pedestrians walking past stands selling
unique qualities of place in each of   house pets, cats, live snakes, roosters,  
these cities is a wonder. and parrots turning somersaults in  
Rome in late June has a dry heat, their cages. Barcelona has a sense of
sometimes fanned with the breeze   surrealist humor—very particular and
of the Aviernos. The huge scale of the   irrational. Walking down the Portaferrisa
Roman monuments packed into the   we see pads for shoulders, buttocks,
ochre walls shapes the sky in slices and groins, hips, and breasts proudly displayed
wedges in a way that alters the light.   on bright red felt backdrops. The way
Light defines the urban walls and facades these elements are grouped together
in a particular way found only in Rome. and shown in the shop window seems to
Shiny black paving stones smoothly   project a particular brand of dark humor
join the bottom of each facade. After   appropriate to Barcelona.
a fresh rain, the streets of Rome have  
a particular magic in their reflections.
The Roman summer heat can be  
very still in a way that seems to reinforce
the slow movement of time. Time, light,
stone, history, and urban geometry
intermesh to form a unique impression.
The intermeshing of these phenomenal
aspects yields a visceral, intellectual,  
and physical experience that demands
descriptive words such as amazement,
wonder, poetic revelation; words not  
found in planning documents.
While Rome is known as the eternal
city, Barcelona turns rapidly in time.  
The beveled blocks of the Cedra Grid
whirl like a clock. They turn and turn
again at corner crossings repeated over
and over across the main urban geo­­
metry of Barcelona. The old crooked-
street city is surrounded by this modern
following spread whirling machine. Barcelona combines
Barcelona’s urban grid
and plastic shadows,
the salt air of the sea and the slice of blue
Ouro Preto, Brazil, 2007 Mediterranean across the distant horizon.

17
 3
Spatiality of Night

The luminosity of eighteenth- and by the structural glass planks of the  

nineteenth-century cities was radically lenses which bring light to the galleries
altered in the twentieth and twenty- below. At night the spatiality is reversed;
first centuries. The shocking joy of vast the lenses become blocks of light that
quantities of urban night light alters our dramatically backlight a sculpture by Tony
perceptions of the shape and form of Cragg, changing its reading to silhouette.
urban space. New York’s Times Square—  In a transformation of weight to light,
a crowded, dirty-grey intersection by a different spatiality is described: the
day, is an astonishing volume of glowing spatiality of night. At the Pratt Institute
light at night; space is defined by the School of Architecture in Brooklyn,
interrelationship of light, color, and shadows of students moving about in  
atmospheric conditions. In a slight mist the drafting studio can be seen from  
space is liquid. Dynamic color, reflected the glowing light of the entrance court.
in wet streets, blurs and multiplies the The projection of light in this new
exhilaration of this metropolitan space   courtyard is a soft wash rather than the
to intense, cinematic levels. The extreme regimented light of a streetlamp, a new
above left
contrast to this blast of urban color   urban courtyard with a golden penumbra.
Touching blocks of light, is felt in the mystery of a rural valley   Urban space at night may have a veiled
The Nelson-Atkins in winter, carpeted with a fresh powder   charm and mystery.
Museum of Art
of snow and bathed in moonlight. The A rural spatiality of night requires
above middle spatiality here is quite different from   restoring darkness. The suburban  
Communicative light, light pollution that is rapidly erasing the
the urban and it depends on surrounding
Simmons Hall, MIT
darkness for its primary effect. stars from our night skies negatively
above right The spatiality of night transforms affects animals and migrating birds.  
Painting light, the canal
the sculpture gardens between the glass An aim toward new urban space and its
with Sarphatistraat
offices “lenses” of the Nelson-Atkins Museum metropolitan vitality has its complement  
in Kansas City, Missouri. By day these in clarified rural landscape and the resto­
opposite
Liquid Light, Times
individual outdoor “rooms” for sculpture ration of the inspiring and mysterious  
Square offer a neutral white backdrop, formed   glow of the nighttime firmament.

21
 4
urban porosity

In Walter Benjamin’s Reflections there   from all sides leading into the central
is a description of the urban porosity   space are lined and activated with shops.
of the city of Naples. He observes porous A diagonal spatial porosity animates this
architecture in which “building and   “city within a city” connecting different
action interpenetrate in the courtyards,   layers of public activity.
arcades and stairways . .. to become a  
theater of new unforeseen constellations . ..  
Porosity is the inexhaustible law of the
life of this city, reappearing everywhere.”
Rather than a preoccupation with solid,
independent object-like forms, it is
the experiential phenomena of spatial
sequences with, around, and between
which emotions are triggered. There  
is a scale of distances walked and seen
and passages available in the area  
around rue du Bac in Paris which offers  
a gentle urban porosity of movement.  
The pedestrian can change direction  
in seconds; the pedestrian is not blocked
by large urban constructions without
entry or exit. This freedom of pedestrian
movement, championed by Jane Jacobs  
as the ideal matrix, is based on the  
case of Greenwich Village in Manhattan
and can be envisioned in different ways  
for the twenty-first century.
For larger urban projects made up
of several buildings, porosity becomes
essential for the vitality of street life.
Especially in the city of Beijing where  
the urban grid layout (inherited from  
the Hutong blocks) tends toward
above “superblock” dimensions, urban porosity  
The Linked Hybrid
is crucial. Our Beijing Linked Hybrid,  
in Beijing shapes
public space; twelve a project of eight towers ranging from
buildings for living /  twelve to twenty-one stories, linked
working / recreation / 
education are porous
by bridges with public functions, is an
from every edge. experiment in urban porosity. Passages

22
23
 5
SECTIONAL Cities
(Toward New Urban VOLUMES)

Instead of the nineteenth-century flat- Bars for Phoenix, Arizona (1989).

footed figure-ground space, twenty-  These projects offered new horizons of
first-century metropolitan space is experience not unlike Wolkenbügel (Cloud
more active in section. We rise and fall Iron) designed by El Lissitzky and Mart
in elevators and escalators while our Stam in 1926. However, we wanted to
points of view open and close in amazing avoid isolated objects in favor of urban
sequences. It is a change as dramatic   space shaped by urban connections. With
as the leap from horseback to automobile the real pressures of rapid urbanization
to aviation. Now we can sweep through   in Beijing, a bridge-linked assemblage of
our urban spaces birdlike from unprece­ hori­zon­tally developed skyscrapers was
dented and exhilarating perspectives. proposed and accepted in 2003. Hydraulic
Invigorated urbanism of the twenty-first   lift construction technology permitted  
century must move beyond the plani­ a public circulation of various functions
metric, and take new forms in section. including a cafe, bookstore, gallery,  
This “Z”-dimension architecture yields spa, and swimming pool. A new layer of
new experiences in space, light, and urban experience, an active urban pattern,  
perception. Increased spatial energy is mixed with the enchantment of deep
directly related to a high degree of urban views from the twenty-first floor.
sectional development allows for fresh Advanced structural technologies
dimensions of urban living. and construction techniques open up the
The “X” and “Y” dimensions, the imagination and potential for horizontal
planimetric, were once the urban planner’s skyscrapers and public function bridges
basic realm. Today the “Z” dimension   developing new dynamic experiences with
of the development of buildings in section cinematic spatial sequences.
has overtaken the planimetric. As urbanists All architectural works are in some  
and architects we must think first of the way urban works; they either deny or
urban sections in our cities. The section affirm the potential of the city. The metro­
can be fifty times more consequential   politan density of the twenty-first century
than the plan, especially in metropolitan asks for a further spatial affirmation in
centers such as Manhattan, Shanghai, the vertical and the diagonal. A diagonal
top Tokyo, and Hong Kong. rise by escalator through overlapping
Wolkenbugel, Moscow— spaces of a modern metro station yields
The Beijing Linked Hybrid  
El Lissitzky and Mart
Stam, 1925 inscribes layers of urban life in a loop   an open-ended spatial sensation. The
of eight bridges connecting at the   limited conditions of linear perspective
middle
highest floors of eight skyscrapers. Our (from planimetric projections) disappear
Spatial Retaining Bars,
Phoenix, 1989 experiments in the horizontally devel­-  as modern urban life presents multiple
oped skyscraper began in projects like   horizons and vanishing points.
bottom
Parallax Towers,
the Bronx Gymnasium Bridge (1977) in
Manhattan, 1990 New York City and Spatial Retaining  

25
 6
Enmeshed experience:
partial views

Our experience of a contemporary city   as the perception of a built object is

is one of partial views, fragmented   altered by its relationship to near and far,
and incomplete. As we move through   solid and void, the sky and the street.
these partial views and overlapping A fantastic spatial energy resides  
perspectives our experiential qualities   not in the building as object in itself,  
are of enmeshed space; instead of distinct but in its relationships to the urban envi­
objects, we understand distinct fields as ronment. The partial views through  
a new type of whole. For example, when the urban frame of adjacent buildings  
walking on West Twelfth Street toward   to the curvilinear facade of the Kiasma
the Hudson River at sunset on an autumn Museum of Contemporary Art in  
day, the last orange light reflected in   Helsinki, Finland, for example, were  
the high windows creates white streaks   meant to be more inspiring than  
in the orange clouds in the distance.   that of a freestanding object. The
At a second glance, these white streaks predominance of partial views is an
move as if giant chalk lines are being argument for urban integration and  
drawn in the sky; a jet plane streams   the interrelation of urban space. Through
over Newark Airport as the setting   the phenom­e­nological study of cities  
sun becomes inextricably intertwined   we find new ways of incorporating this
with the urban perspective. The geo- aspect of perspectival space into our
­metric frame of the buildings, the orange vision and our fabrication of architecture.
light reflected in windows, the shine   A multiple perspectives approach to
of the cobblestones and the white chalk   planning is part of our aim to conceive
lines in the sky become one enmeshed urban spaces by incorporating percep­tual
experience. principles. A revalued understanding  
Unlike a static view or an image,   of the experi­ential dimensions of urban
the dynamic experience of our perception design moves beyond the norms of
develops from a series of overlapping individual archi­tectural intention, toward
urban perspectives which unfold according the indef­inite properties of urban assem­
to angle and speed of movement. While   blage. Enmeshed experiences merge  
we might analyze our movement along   fore­ground, middle ground, and distant
a specific path at a given speed, we   view through partial views.
can never enumerate all possible views.  
The partially described paths through
opposite urban geometries remain in doubt,  
Kiasma Museum
always changing. A series of views from  
of Contemporary Art
between the post a stationary position is constructed
office and the Helsinki between horizontal, diagonal, or vertical
Sanomat building,
Helsinki, Finland,
axes of movement. No single view of a
winter 2004 building or urban space can be complete,

26
 7
psychological space

Our thoughts are the shadows   totally new to us, a new desire. This  
of our feelings. is a core aspect of psychological space.
—Friedrich Nietzsche We developed the idea of psycho­
logical space as a dimension of our  
Meanings after all are invisible. 1986 triennale of the Milan Porta Vittoria
—Arthur Danto plan from the project Phenomena of
Relations. The spatial energy of the
As first-year students at the University geometrically inspired urban ensemble
of Washington in Seattle in 1967, our yields its vital energy as we move around,
assignment was to design an 8' × 8' × 8' through, and over its spaces. Circling  
cube of space to serve all aspects of daily in unfolding perspectival spaces, we are  
life; living, working, eating, sleeping. Most osmotically imbued with the joyous
tried to design a bed that could fold up freedom of new forms. The architectural
into a working desk, etc. I questioned spaces and surprises make us smile.  
the premise altogether and drew a cube The modern metropolitan soul is born.
with a dotted line to a curvilinear shape
indicating “psychological space” as a
necessity. The professors were offended,
but passed me.
On a macroscale, psychological
space expands to the psychological
field of urban space. The simultaneous
interactions of topography, program,  
lines of urban movement, materials, and
light come together to manifest the spirit  
of an urban place. The psychological
above
House of Nothing,
effects of sound must be considered as
Makuhari Bay New well as other temporal fragmentations.  
Town, Chiba, Tokyo, In this regard, architecture produces
1992–1996
desire. The exhilaration we find when  
Franz Kafka told the we walk into the space between or  
story of a nervous man
inside certain buildings produces a kind  
who was fishing in
a bathtub. Approached of psychological space. It can represent  
by a psychiatrist who an experience we never had before and
had a certain treatment
in mind for him, he
want to see more of. The recognition  
was asked, “Are they of spatial and material phenomena meets
biting?” to which the imagination. The power of changing
he replied, “Of course
not, you fool, this is
light, the spatial energy of the route of
a bathtub!” movement fuse together into something

29

above
Fiber-optic undersea
cables for telephone and
internet traffic
opposite
Whether at the scale
of dense city fragments,
or the rural landscape
with the solitary
house, a deeper, more
comprehensive vision
of humans and the
Earth is an urgent issue.
A fundamental change
of attitude, a revi­sioning
of values must take place.
8
flux AND the ephemeral
In a hyper-mobile population, the constant well-proportioned for light, space, and
flux of information, materials, and products flow, and constructed of lasting materials,  
dissolve and disperse. This malleability   is fundamental for a new ability to adapt  
of life in the metropolis, while changeable to the metropolitan flow and change. For
in its transient turbulence, need not   example, in order to persuade sponsors  
be so in an ephemeral architecture. Open to invest in an infrastructure of geothermal
archi­tecture which can adapt to change—  wells to heat and cool architecture,  
like a rock canyon in which material and a minimum building lifespan of fifty years
eometry is eroded by the river flow—  should be assumed. Currently most
calls for an architecture of duration rather American universities construct 100-year
than one of throwaway space. buildings for their campuses. A balance  
Of the millions of tons of solid   of receptivity to metropolitan flux and  
waste produced by cities each day, more the creation of enduring architecture sets  
than 50 percent is construction waste. a higher aim than assuaging arguments  
A culture of temporary, media-driven for ephemeral constructions and junk
consumerist angst propels architecture space debris.
toward impermanence. Architecture  
30
 9
Banalization Versus Qualitative Power

The fact that explosive urban growth   The artist Jurgen Partenheimer writes
yields banalization without architectural about his experiences from his apartment
quality is no surprise. What is surprising, on the 28th floor: “Copan is a philosophy.
however, is the attempt of the current With thirty-two floors and more than
generation of urban theorists to write seventy apartments on each floor,  
apologetically for this flattening banality,   the building is a veritable town in itself
as if we could be immunized to its   with five thousand inhabitants . .. The
effects via charts and data. extravagant sensuality of its undulating
Recently, rapidly constructed form and its majestic elegance and
developments in Asia have reached   grandeur rubs off on the people who live  
nerve shattering proportions whose here and fills all who work with it, its
lassitude yields brutal urban conditions. managers and caretakers, with pride.”  
Abrupt construction of back-to-back- Any student, urbanist, or architect visiting
to-front high-rise apartments continues São Paulo must visit the Copan Building  
regardless of intelligent critics in schools to see this dimension of qualitative power
of architecture advocating more density on a massive scale.
with a specious smile. This different  
sort of banality—the banality of the
detached critical argument—develops  
from a lack of firsthand observation.
Our aim is to realize at least  
some constructions of exemplary quali­­
tative power; as urban constructions,
these are vehicles of transformation.
Constructed with a plurality of meanings,
an intense urban architecture of quality
can be an instrument of abstract thought:
unforeseen, resistant to banalization,  
and capable of changing and shaping
urban life with phenomenal experiences.
As an example of large-scale  
intensity consider a 1953 project by Oscar  
above Niemeyer: Copan in São Paulo, with  
Hong Kong residential over 1,000 apartments. Treatises have
congestion
been written on the subject of how  
opposite people take pleasure in living there and  
Qualitative power how the detail of the shopping center
at Oscar Niemeyer’s
Copan Building,
underneath the building was carefully
São Paulo, 1953 worked out and still functions today.  

33
 10
negative capability

Time is dying on the moon  economies while waging unnecessary

I hear the minutes limping  wars. The first of these three issues can
round and round.  be directly engaged with urban projects
Forgive me this minute;  of vision. Architecture and urbanism
the hours are creaking  might have a ³⁄5 position in the potential
past these midnite bones to redirect and to shape the future. Urban
—Theodore Rothke,   examples of change, even if modest  
“Straw for the Fire” in scale, can lead to hopes and expec­
tations. They can serve as a positive
Several things dovetailed in   catalyst. Working with doubt and open­
my mind, and at once it struck me,   ness is, in essence, a form of optimism.
what quality went to form a Man   Regardless of how unfortunate and difficult
of Achievement especially in   elements accumulate in our daily lives,  
literature and which Shakespeare as architects and urbanists it is important
possessed so enormously—  to aim with optimism at a long-term view.
I mean Negative Capability, that  
is when man is capable of being  
in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts
without any irritable reaching after
fact & reason.
—John Keats in a letter  
to George and Thomas Keats,  
December 21, 1817

Negative capability is a positive capacity.

Negative capability is to be able to take  
in all the problematic aspects of the  
surrounding world, to see and acknowl­
edge, to entertain uncertainty and  
still be able to act: a modus operandi  
for the twenty-first century. As an archi­
tect you go to a site to study every angle
above
Beijing, March 2006 available—to feel in your body what  
dust storms needs to be done; intuitively you create.
opposite
Past and ongoing failures in this  
Beijing traffic 2003; world include: the deterioration of natural
one appointment per and built environments, discrepancies  
day is the maximum
achievable due to
of wealth and poverty, and the inability
delays. of capitalist democracy to manage

34
 11
Fusion: Landscape / 
Urbanism / architecture

The fusion of architecture / urbanism /   exhibits, including extinct Korean flora  

landscape can be realized in city and fauna. Here morphology and topog­
fragments when all aspects are con­ raphy have merged with architecture.  
ceived integrally. This integration should The netlike, reticulated fusion of  
carry over into texture, material, color, the WDPC project is a convergence  
translucency, transparency, and reflection. of landscape and architecture in an
Landscape design ordered as an after­ entirely new topology.
thought cannot effectively fuse with A more concentrated example  
architecture and urbanism. of fusing landscape / urbanism and archi­
The Zen gardens of Japan are   tecture can be experienced in our Nelson-
an inspiring example of the indefinite Atkins Museum of Art (1999–2007).  
boundary of architecture and gardens: From the arrival into the 500-car garage
bodies of water, illusions of distance,   skylit by “subaqueous moons” in the
and edifices floating on their own reflec­ plaza pool, to the overlapping sequence
tions are part of a tradition of slow   of museum spaces toplit by the iceberg-
devel­opment. Japanese culture merged   like glass lenses; this is an architecture
the arts of gardening, painting, sculpture,   of porosity where landscape and building
and architecture. aim at a dynamic integration and a new
Today’s context of speed, international experiential dissolve.
interconnection, and hypercontrol of
development requires rapid and flexible
design strategies. Too often an architect  
is expected to present a concept for a  
very large project with just a few weeks  
to prepare, and must conceptually
coalesce landscape and architecture to  
give direction to a public space. Fusing
landscape and public space in large
commercial urban developments requires
quick interdisciplinary conceptual work.
For the World Design Park Complex
(wdpc) project in Seoul, Korea, an  
inte­grated weave of park and infrastruc­
ture offers two layers of outdoor space  
in this dense metropolis. The fusing  
above and opposite of urbanism, landscape, and architecture
Weaving architecture, in a woven structural morphology is  
landscape, and
urbanism in WPDC,
folded up to become a partial vertical
Korea, 2007 park, which contains avian and scientific

37
New York City
Gymnasium Bridge South Bronx, New York 1977

The Gymnasium Bridge is a hybrid

building synthesized as a special
strategy for generating positive
economic and physical effects. The
bridge condenses the activities of
meeting, physical recreation, and work
into one structure that simultaneously
forms a bridge from the community  
to the park on Randall’s Island.
Along the bridge, community
members participate in competitive
sports and physical activities organized
according to a normal work day with
wages. The bridge becomes a vehicle
from which destitute persons can
reenter society, become accustomed
to a normal workday, and help gain
strength to develop their individual
potential. The form of the architecture
is a series of bridges over bridges.  
The small entrance bridges at each
end of the main span preserve the view
down Brook Street to the canal, and
from Randall’s Island up Brook Street.
The main span is aligned with this axis
and is crossed by a fourth and highest
bridge. In water rather than over water,
this bridge acts as a structural pivot
from which the turnbridge portion of
the main span rotates to allow future
ship passage in the waterway.

opposite right
Site plan of Beginning without
Randall’s Island clients: 1977
and South projects for urban
Bronx, 1977 transformation

41
Bridge of Houses New York City, New York 1979

The site and structural foundation   The new houses are built in an   reinforcing the street pattern.  
of the Bridge of Houses is the existing alternating pattern with a series of 2,000- The ornamental portions of the rail  
superstructure of an abandoned elevated square-foot courtyards (50 percent open bridge that pass over the streets  
rail link in the Chelsea area of New   space). All new houses align with the remain open.
York City. This steel structure is utilized   existing block front at the street walls,  
in its straight leg from West Nineteenth
Street to West Twenty-ninth Street  
parallel to the Hudson River.
In 1977, West Chelsea began to  
change from a warehouse district  
to an art district. The Bridge of Houses
reflects the new character of the area  
as a place of habitation. Reuse rather than
demolition of the existing bridge would  
be a perma­nent contri­bution to the char­
acter of the city.
This project offers a variety of housing
types for the Chelsea area, as well as  
an elevated public promenade connecting
with the Convention Center on its north
end. The structural capacity and width  
of the existing bridge determine the height
and width of the houses. Four houses have
been developed in detail, emphasizing  
the intention to provide a collection of
housing blocks offering the widest possible
range of social-economic coexistence.  
At one extreme are houses of single-room-
occupancy type, offered for the city’s
homeless; each of these blocks contains
twenty studio rooms. At the other extreme
are houses of luxury apartments; each  
of these blocks contains three or four flats.
Shops line the public promenade level
below the houses.

right above right

Study model Bridge of Houses
in steel, copper, shapes a public
and brass promenade, 1979

43
Sections    8'

opposite
West Twenty-first
Street toward
the Hudson River

44
Bridge of Houses
46
Parallax Towers New York City, New York 1989

In this proposal for Manhattan, the existing

Seventy-second Street train yards would
be transformed into a new city-edge park
in the spirit of Frederick Law Olmsted.  
The existing dense development to the
east looks out over this new open park,
which extends to the Hudson River’s edge.
On the river, ultrathin skyscrapers
bracket the view and create a new kind  
of framed urban space over water.  
Hybrid buildings with diverse functions,
the towers are linked by horizontal
underwater transit systems that connect
underwater parkside lobbies to high- 
speed elevators serving upper transfer
lobbies. Occupants are within walking
distance of the Seventy-second Street
subway entrance or express ferries to  
the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center,
Wall Street, and LaGuardia Airport.
In counterbalance to the ultrathin
towers, an ultrathick floating public space
is used as a concert stadium, large- 
screen movie theater complex, or grand
festival hall.

right
A proposed extension
of Riverside Park.
The site, former
railyards, were
later developed by
Donald Trump.

above right
Model in collection
of Museum of
Modern Art

47
Parallax Towers
Storefront for Art New York City, New York 1993
& Architecture

The Storefront for Art and Architecture

(designed with Vito Acconci) is situ­
ated on the corner of a block that
marks the intersection of three distinct
neighborhoods: Chinatown, Little Italy
and SoHo. The gallery itself is a limited,
narrow wedge with a triangulated
exhibition interior; the most dominant  
is the building’s long facade.
Using a material comprised of
concrete mixed with recycled newspapers,
we inserted a series of hinged panels
arranged in a puzzle-like configuration.
When the panels are locked in their open
position, the facade dissolves and the
interior space of the gallery expands out
on to the sidewalk. If the function of a
facade is to create a division separating
the inside from the outside space, this  
new facade, in the words of former
director Kyong Park, is “No wall, no
barrier, no inside, no outside, no space,  
no building, no place, no institution,  
no art, no architecture, no Acconci, no
Holl, no Storefront.”
In 2008 this project (temporary
in 1993) was restored to its original
condition.

opposite and this page

A triangular space
opening up to the city,
inside and outside

51
Pratt Institute Higgins Brooklyn, New York 1997–2005
Hall Insertion

The new Higgins Hall Center Section   increasingly as it moves vertically   Architecture under the direction of  
is an urban insertion which draws from   in section; on the first floors, the misa­ Dean Thomas Hanrahan. For the first  
the sections of the two adjacent historic lignment is ½ inch; on the second   time the north and south wings are
land-marked buildings. Floor plates   floors it is 1 foot 8 inches, on the third functionally connected, and the School
of the north and south wings do not align.   floors it is 4 feet 9 inches, and on the of Architecture gained a single, clearly
By drawing this misalignment into the   fourth floors it is 6 feet 7 inches. Thus, oriented entrance and central entrance
new glass section to meet at the center,   the dissonance moves from the detail court that becomes a meeting point  
a “dissonant zone” is created, which   thickness of a finger to human scale. in the neighborhood.
marks the new entry to the school. Rebuilding the center allowed  
The two masonry buildings together a new arrangement of the School of
with the new glass insertion form an  
“H” in plan. New courts facing east and
west are paved in the reused red brick
which was salvaged following the fire  
that took place in 1996. The east facing
court overlooks the green yards of the
inner block, while the west court is shaped
as the main front on St. James Place.
Rising from this red brick plinth, the
glass center is supported on six precast
concrete columns that were fabricated  
in Canada. Due to their precision, the  
thick beams and columns form stone-like
bones, while the U-shaped structural glass
planks with translucent white insulation
form a thick glowing skin. The thick  
skin is interrupted by clear glass at the
dissonant zone, which is aligned with  
the internal ramps, turning the circulation
north and south for views out.
The misalignment in floors can be  
seen in the dissonant zone which varies

opposite and right

The dense fabric of create a small urban
Brooklyn does not leave alcove that is being
much room for public used by students as
space. At Higgins well as the surrounding
Hall we were able to neighborhood.

53
 1 Skylight
2 Studio Beyond
3 Lobby Beyond
4 Gallery
5 Corridor
6 Lower Lobby 1
7 Lecture Hall
8 Public Outdoor Space

8 3 4 8

5 6 7

East–West Section    10' 

54
Pratt Institute Higgins Hall Insertion

55
First- and Second-Floor Plan    18' 
N
0 5 10 20'

opposite
The red brick plinth
forms a warm entrance
court. At night the 0 5 10 20'
N

building functions like

a lantern.

56
Higgins Hall Insertion
World Trade Center New York City, New York 2002
Schemes 1 and 3

As the World Trade Center tragedy took of what happened was felt far beyond   these forms become ceremonial gateways
many souls without bodies to bury,   the imme­diate site, the design does not   into the site. In their quiet abstraction  
this monumental new space “floats” with attempt to contain or divide the site.   as solids and voids, the buildings appear
the river water moving below. Strips of Rather it extends the site into the sur­ as screens, suggesting both presence  
sunlight animate the floors and walls from rounding streets through a plan that and absence, and encouraging reflection
light slots, which allow oblique views of contains a series of “fingers.” and imagination. Their cantilevered ends
the Hudson River. In a memorial hall each Instead of individual iconic buildings, extend outward, like the fingers of the
person lost has a photo portrait below   the creation of urban space in the spirit   ground plan, reaching toward the city  
a candle. of Rockefeller Center was our aim as   and each other.
The memorial ramps up to a new a team. The most visible signs of renewal
bridge over West Street, connected   are the proposed hybrid buildings, rising
to a “folded street” which ascends over   1,111 feet to restore the Manhattan skyline
the site. Along the ascending “street”   with geometric clarity in glowing white
are a number of functions: galleries, glass. The horizontal and vertical field of
cinema spaces, cafes, restaurants, a hotel, buildings sustain activities from a hotel
classrooms for a branch of New York and conference center to offices, cultural
University. Sheathed in translucent glass spaces, and residences.
the truss construction allows for grand Comprised of five vertical sections
public observation decks. and interconnecting horizontal layers,  
A new street level plan allows north- the two buildings represent a new typology
south and east-west streets to go through in skyscraper design. At ground level,  
the site while accommodating auditorium
halls for concerts and events.
The footprints of the original towers
are formed into 212' × 212' reflective ponds,
with thousands of glass lenses allowing
light to spaces below.

Scheme 3
Our third proposal for the design of
the World Trade Center site was devel­
oped with Richard Meier and Partners,
Eisenman Architects, and Gwathmey
Siegel. As a reminder that the magnitude

opposite
New folded street
on an open trapezoid
plan ascends to 1300'

59
above and right
Third Scheme
developed with Richard
Meier and Partners,
Eisenman Architects,
and Gwathmey Siegel
& Associates Architects

opposite
First scheme folded
streets over Manhattan

60
Highline Hybrid Tower New York City, New York 2004

Envisioned as the north terminus of the

Highline this tower begins with a bridge
link to the north end of the Highline.  
The horizontality of the Highline Park here
turns upward into a Linear tower, with
multiple urban functions, marking the north
terminus of this new public space. Stores
along the bridge’s descending stepped
ramp and along the Tenth Avenue street
front are included as amenities for the new
inhabitants. The full service hotel occupies
several floors and shares its lobby with  
the condominiums.
The structure is a combination  
of “tap root” strong core with perimeter
columns. On the top floors a tuned  
mass damper is of the liquid (sloshing)
type in the form of a skyline spa and
swimming pool. The spa also includes  
a cafe with spectacular 360-degree  
views. The tower’s connection to the  
hori­zon­tal Highline orients pedestrians  
in Chelsea’s new public spaces. The  
aim is to make the greenest skyscraper
possible. It was calculated that two
30-inch-diameter pipes slung below the
north link of the Highline to the Hudson
River could provide all cooling for the
660,000-square-foot building.

opposite right
The Tower and First scheme with
the Highline tracks: “flare out” sections
the needle at the end and vertical rail
of a thread of park elements

63
above
2007 scheme, 63 floors

right
Bridge to Highline
dissolves into multiple
awnings over lobbies
Site Plan    50' 

64
 Highline Hybrid Tower

1 Mechanical
2 Lobby
3 Restaurant / 
Conference Center
4 Offices / G alleries
5 Hotel Amenities
6 Hotel
7 Residential

1 5

East–West Section    20'

Highline Hybrid Tower
Hudson Yards New York City, New York 2007

This last large, undeveloped Midtown

Manhattan site provides an unprece­
dented opportunity to create a new urban THIS
paradigm for the twenty-first century. FLEXIBLE SPACE FOR LIRR WITH NO
INTERRUPTIONS AND LIGHTWEIGHT
CONSTRUCTION
While offering a high mixed-use density
of 12 million square feet, the proposed
suspension-deck park design maximizes
public space and creates a porosity  
and openness for the site from all sides
and approaches. It connects Midtown,  
the Chelsea Arts District, and the
convention center with a grand public  
park open to the Hudson River. This NOT THIS
proposal provides 5 ½ acres of urgently CONSTRAINED SPACE FOR RAILYARDS WITH LIMITED
FLEXIBILITY, MAX RAIL CLOSURE, LONG ASSEMBLY TIME,

needed park space (two acres more  

RISKY CRANE LIFTING, HEAVY EXCESSIVE
CONSTRUCTION, THREAT RISKS WITH TRAINS BELOW
BUILDINGS

than competing proposals).

opposite right
Hudson Yards: one A cable-suspended
of the last possibilities park saves millions
for a large park space in unnecessary deck
in Chelsea construction.

69
Green Space and Circulation

right
The Hudson Yards
are a chance to
add much-needed
green space
to Manhattan’s
West Side.

70
 Hudson Yards

1 Exit to Highline
2 Residential Tower
3 Residential Amenities
4 Retail Space
5 Sculpture & Arts Park
6 Green Roof
7 Cafe
8 Lobby

2
6

1 3 5 7 8

Cross Section

71
 Water Recycling
1 Toilet Flushing
2 Landscape Irrigation
3 Roof Garden Irrigation
4 Pond Water Makeup
1 5 Storm Water
6 Retention Treatment

2 4 2

5
6

72
Hudson Yards

right
The entire 11.3 million
square feet of the
complex is geothermally
heated and cooled and
utilizes gray-water
recycling.

73
USA
Seattle

San Francisco

Phoenix

Dallas-Fort Worth
 Cambridge
Rochester

Cleveland

Iowa City

Kansas City
Erie Canal Edge Rochester, New York 1989

The Erie Canal, a grand work that   the dinner table. On the north side of   occurs via walkway beams analogous  
secured the growth of New York and   the canal, the houses form a contin­uous   to the former work-walks along the  
of cities along its route, is now an wall and an intermittent arcade; on   Erie Canal.
undis­­tinguished trench to the south the south, they are misaligned and open   Between the work building and  
of Rochester. This project is a cross- to the rural surrroundings. the canal houses are a series of social  
sectional study which redefines   The northern urban edge is and cultural facilities: a group of  
the canal and reinforces the city edge. characterized by a workplace building, cinemas, a music school, and housing  
Canal houses rest on the top and which anticipates new programs not for the elderly, with a connecting  
bottom of the embankment, like dogs at requiring horizontal floors. Operation cultural gallery.

opposite
Urban densities
with strips of
clarified landscape

77
above
View from the canal

right
Model

opposite
Detail of 1989 model:
The northern urban
edge contains a
workplace building
that anticipates
new programs not
requiring horizontal
floors. Operation
occurs via walkway
beams analogous to
the former work-walks
along the Erie Canal.

78
79
Stitch Plan Cleveland, Ohio 1989

Five Xs spaced along the inland edge  

of Cleveland (the northern edge is formed  
by Lake Erie) define precise crossover
points from new urban areas to a clarified
rural region. These newly created urban
spaces are girded by mixed-use buildings.
At one X the crossover is developed
into a dam with hybrid functions.  
The urban section contains a number  
of buildings including a hotel, a cinema,  
and a gymnasium. The rural section
contains public programs related to
nature, including a fish hatchery,  
an aquarium, and botanical gardens.
The artificial lake formed by the  
dam provides a large recreational  
area and extends the crossover point  
into a boundary line. Taken together,  
the Xs imply an urban edge, connected  
by light rail transit.

opposite right
Stitch Plan edge and Model of Hybrid
clarified landscapes dam and pedestrian
beyond sector

81
above
Stitch plan with
multiple functions
as a dam, pedestrian
sector, and clarified
landscape.

right
A new pedestrian sector
with clarified rural
landscape (connected
by rail transit)

opposite
Stitch Plan aerial view

82
Stitch Plan

83
Spatial Retaining Bars Phoenix, Arizona 1989

The most prominent aspect of the history  

of Phoenix is the mysterious disap­
pearance of the indigenous Hohokum
civilization after 1,000 years of continuous
cultivation of the valley with 250 miles  
of 30-foot canals. Sited on the periphery  
of Phoenix, a series of spatial retaining
bars infer an edge to the city, a beginning
to the desert. Each structure inscribes  
a 180' space while rising to frame views  
of the distant mountains and desert.
The loft-like living areas in the upper
arms hang in silent isolation forming a new
horizon with views of the desert sunrise
and sunset. Communal life is encouraged
by entrance and exit through courtyards
at grade. Work is conducted electronically
from loft-spaces adjoining dwellings.
Cultural facilities are suspended in open
frame structures.
The 30' by 30' building sections act
as reinforced concrete hollow beams.
Exteriors are of pigmented concrete with
the undersides of the arms polished to  
a high gloss. In the morning and evening
these undersides are illuminated by  
the red desert sun; a hanging apparition
of light once reflected by the water of
Hohokum canals.

opposite right
Phoenix with retaining Upward axonometrics
bars (red) protecting showing ground-level
the desert at the courts and polished
northwest, southeast, undersides of upper
and west. bars.

85
top left above
Sectional Flexible cultural
urbanism building frame

top right opposite

Retaining bars Protected desert
at horizon and landscape beyond new
reflecting sunlight urban edge compared
at sunrise to uncontrolled sprawl

86
Site Location
Spiroid Sectors Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas 1989

Protected Texas prairie land is framed

by new sectors condensing living,
working, and recreation activities. Future
inhabitants are delivered auto-free by  
high-speed Maglev transit from the Dallas-
Fort Worth Airport in minutes.
A new hierarchy of public spaces
is framed by the armatures which are
knotted in a continuous “holding together”
morphology. Various public passages  
along the roof afford a shifting ground
plane, invigorating the interconnected
experience of the sector’s spaces.
The looping armatures contain a
hybrid of macro programs; public transit
stations, health clubs, cinemas, and
galleries, with horizontal and vertical  
inter­connected transit. Micro-programs  
of domestic activities are in smaller  
adja­cent structures. The smallest spiroids
form low-cost courtyard housing in experi­
mental thin / thick wall construction.

Dallas-Fort Worth Airport

opposite right
Clarified landscape Maglev train connecting
bracketed by spiroid four proposed spiroid
sector connects sectors and new
to Dallas-Fort Worth landscape between
Airport to North Phase I Dallas and Fort Worth

89
right
Study models

opposite
Spiroid Sector:
With a high-speed rail
stop in each dense
cluster, suburban
sprawl is scraped
away for reconstituted
landscape.

90
Chapel of St. Ignatius Seattle, Washington 1994–1997

Within every being and every  A large reflecting pond was formed space within. The concept of the  
event there is a progressive  directly to the South of the chapel. The “seven bottles of light emerging from  
expansion of a mysterious inner  shallow water of this pond, the “thinking a stone box” are expressed in the  
clarity which transfigures them field” joins with a lawn to the South to form ground plan. A double entendre,  
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,   the forecourt for the chapel, providing the concept refers to a “gathering  
The Heart of the Matter a new campus space. At night the pond of different lights” in the over  
reflects a wash of light from the bell   sixty nationalities attending Seattle
Elements of the city and the university, are tower and emphasizes the geometry of University. The “seven bottles of light”  
each embodied in the building scheme of the space. After nightfall, which is the time also refers to the liturgical elements  
this chapel. The Seattle University campus when masses are offered in the chapel, of the program; narthex, blessed
was planned on existing urban blocks.   the light volumes become beacons shining sacrament chapel, choir, processional
We addressed the need for common green in all directions out across the university area, nave east / west, reconciliation  
space by siting the chapel in the center of campus. On certain occasions, these lights chapel and bell tower / reflection pool.
a former street and elongating the building shine throughout the entire night.
plan. New green campus quadrangles The elongated rectangular plan is
were formed to the north, west, and south especially suited to defining campus space
and to the east (future). as well as the processional and gathering

left right
Central urban location: Concept:
Seattle University Seven bottles of
Campus light in a stone box

93
 N
100ft
50
25
O
3

2 4

FF EL. 292.50

E
SL O P
RO C K
10

11
E

DN DN

16
SL O P

5
RO C K

15

6
GARRAND
BUILDING

12
7

13
14

Site Plan    30'  1 Department of   6 Campus Services 12 Garrand Building

Fine Arts Building 13 Casey Building
2 Student Union 7 Future Green   14 Kannan Building
Building Quadrangle 15 New “Thinking Field  
3 Lynn Nursing Building 8 Green Quadrangle with Pool”
4 Xavier Residence Hall 9 Pigott Building 16 Future Greenspace
5 Culture Student 10 Chapel of St. Ignatius
Housing 11 Administration Building

94
Chapel of St. Ignatius

95
UCSF Mission Bay San Francisco, California 1996
competition

The 2.65-million-square-foot program   at a datum of 85'. These structures  

for this competition included 1.2 million are of regulated material and color to  
square feet of laboratory space on   form the basic spatial fabric. The second
a vacant industrial site in the Mission   type, public pavilion structures, are  
Bay district of San Francisco. Our of variety and lightweight expressions,
proposal for this UCSF “Campus of adding a dynamic life to the overall
the Future” aims at building social and campus space-forming buildings. With  
community relations on the scales   the inter­ac­tion of these two basic  
of student to student, student to faculty, archi­tectures, unity is provided with
scientist to scientist, and the campus flexibility, balanced with free expression.
population to its surrounding community.  
The design is porous with interconnected
meeting places at several scales.

Campus Quadrangles
The interconnected open space  
of the seven quadrangles provides  
a strong definition of place for  
inter­action between faculty, students,  
and commu­nity. These seven large  
green spaces of public dimen­sions are
formed by the basic silent masses  
of the campus buildings. The seven  
quad­rangles offer a variety of spatial
experiences, views, and land­scape
gateways to the campus, comple­mented
by portals in the silent buildings that  
open onto the spaces within.
The plan is made up of two basic
building types with numerous variations.
The main spaces of the campus are
formed with silent mass structures set  

opposite right
Quadrangles and grid of The quadrangles
San Francisco: shape green chambers
A new urban campus on the campus

97
 1 Laboratory Interaction 3 Programs of Meeting   5 Wind, Water &  
Lounges & Free Architectural   Sunlight
Scientist to scientist Expression Controlled experi­
meetings are To catalyze orien­ ence of these
catalyzed by these tation and meetings, natural phenomena
intimate places such campus com­ characterizes
with outside terraces munity programs the urban and
1 2 that per­me­ate as cafes, libraries, archi­tectural plan.
the research labora-­ day care centers, Quadrangles
­tory plans. and student ser­vices open to the south
are given heightened receive sunlight,
2 Campus Quadrangles definition within the contributing to
The interconnected basic unity of the microclimates within
open space of campus quadrangles. the landscape.
the 7 Quadrangles
provides a strong 4 Portals of Porosity
definition of place The basic quadran­
for interaction gles of the campus
between faculty, are formed by
students, and buildings pierced
3 4
community. with numerous
open portals that
welcome the
community inside.

right and opposite

UCSF campus as
incubator for urban
development of the
Mission Bay area

98
99
MIT Master Plan
The site for the new dormitories at MIT
is a unique strip of land 90' wide and
over 2,100' long with a railroad at its
north side and Briggs Field and distant
river views at its south side. In 1903
Cambridge planned to divide the site
with four streets, and physically connect
the neighborhood to the river. The
Vassar Street Corridor master planning
process for the twenty-first century would
be an opportunity to realize these physical
and visual connections in conjunction
with the planned residential redevelopment
of Cambridge Port. However the new
master plan was based on a homogenous
seven-story brick structure all along
Vassar Street. Instead of a brick, urban
wall we envisioned this strip as a porous
membrane made up of four individual
buildings each with a different type
of permeability: vertical porosity, hori­
zontal porosity, diagonal porosity,
and all-over porosity.
The light, materiality, and trans­
parency of these buildings would loosen
them from the city fabric on both sides
and interconnect the city through them.
In a sense they are a “living front” for
the residential district to be built to
the north of them. As a front they should
be permeable. The urban planning of
the residential dormitories should support
above left
Concept sketch 1/12/99
above right
Simmons Hall
overlooking Briggs Field
along Vassar Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
their maximum potential as inspirational
spaces in which to live and study. Each
of the dormitories would be an individual
house with a particular identity.
Social spaces are planned to bring
people together, to provoke interaction,
friendships, and dialogues. The perme­
able openings between and within the four
buildings would be developed as meeting
places, terraces, lounges, and activated
passages. Porosity as a massing concept
might have programmatic potential for
the dormitory buildings. In the case
of the residence building, Simmons Hall,
individuation of the student’s room, indi­
vidual character of the cluster or collective
portion, and individuation of the overall
residential building can contribute to the
vitality and identity of the residents.
The Sponge concept for the new
Undergraduate Residence Hall transforms
a porous building morphology via a
series of programmatic and bio-technical
functions. The overall building mass has
five large-scale openings. These roughly
correspond to main entrances, view
corridors, and the main outdoor activity
1999
terraces of the dormitory, connected
to programs such as the gymnasium.
The next scale of opening creates vertical
porosity within the section of the block.
A ruled-surface system freely connected
to sponge prints joins plan to section.
These large, dynamic openings (roughly
corresponding to the “houses” in the
dorm) are like lungs of the building,
bringing natural light down and moving
air up through the section.
The “PerfCon” structure is a
unique design, allowing for maximum
flexibility and interaction. Each of
the dormitory’s single rooms has nine
operable windows over 2' × 2' in size.
The 18-inch depth of the wall naturally
shades out the summer sun, while
allowing the low-angled winter sun
in to help heat the building. At night
the light from the 9-window rooms
is magical; the architecture glows with
a mysterious scale.
101
 Site Plan 
  80' 
STREET

ER
IE
TRS
NW22

EE
T
NABISC
LAB RAT

N 2

EET
S TR
LIM
A NG

ST
.
W59
YS
RL
VE

CARR INDO

102
NNIS FA IL Y
W53

250’
CE

N
 H

East–West Section    20'

above left and middle opposite

Student lounges Master plan showing
connect “houses” different types of urban
on different floors porosity in four new
vertically. buildings

above right
Cafeteria activates
street

103
The Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art
competition 1st place
The fusion of architecture, urbanism,
and landscape was an aim of our compe­
tition entry for this project. The charge
to expand the 1933 museum offered the
chance to fundamentally transform
the museum toward an open relationship
with the city. During the competition
briefing we realized that the expansive
sculpture garden, open to the public
at all hours, could be the catalyst for
a new museum architecture, joined to the
original Temple of Art. The aim to fuse
architecture and landscape opened
up possibilities to shape interior space
in relation to landform rather than building
mass. The landscape is treated as a plane
extended over the galleries, a green
roof creased and pitched for continuity
with the adjacent grades. The landscape
grade to each side follows in and out of
sync with the floor levels, setting a varying
relation between interior and landscape;
one moves down into the landscape only
to unexpectedly arrive above it.
The new Bloch Building traverses
the sculpture garden with multiple entry
points. The gallery level opens to the
garden periodically as it steps down
into the landscape, the sculpture garden
in turn continues up over the galleries,
forming an indoor / outdoor museum open
to the surrounding cityscape.
An expanded field instead of an
object, the extent of the museum is
indeterminate from any single position.
opposite
Nelson-Atkins
campus site
Kansas City, Missouri 1999–2007
Visitors can experience the museum’s to another, from inside to outside.
exterior spaces, between the lenses The “meandering” path in the sculpture
and among the sculpture, at all hours. garden above has its complement in
At dusk the lenses are lit, transforming open flow through the continuous level
from daylight-gathering vessels for of new galleries.
the galleries to glowing lanterns for the
sculpture garden.
As blocks of light, the lenses shape
space. They are instruments of light—
filtering, diffusing, mixing, and intensifying
light’s variation to the interior during the
day and glowing in the sculpture garden
at night.
At the Nelson-Atkins a visitor’s
experience begins by opening the car
door within pools of natural light from
above. Above ground, the granite-paved
plaza has a serene reflecting pool
and a sculpture by Walter de Maria,
One Sun and 34 Moons.
The interior of the building, linked
by stairways and ramps, encourages a
natural flow throughout the long structure,
allowing visitors to look from one level
107
 4 4 6 6

3 5 5 7
3 3
3 3
2
2

12

Lower level    30' 

0’ 50’ 100’ 200’

1 Upper Lobby
2 Lower Lobby
3 Contemporary Art
4 Photography
5 African Art
6 Featured Exhibitions
7 Noguchi Court
8 Museum Store
9 Library
10 Stacks
11 Multipurpose Room
12 Parking
13 Mechanical
14 Service Level

opposite bottom
Precast concrete
“wave T” is pierced by
the natural light from
underwater “moons.”

108
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

8 2 12
10 13 12

Cross Section: Lobby and Garage    25'

11
1
2
3 3
14 3 4
14 6 6
14

Longitudinal Section 
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
  25' 200’
0’ 50’ 100’

1 Library
2 Upper Lobby
3 Event Room
4 Museum Store
5 Lower Lobby
6 Contemporary Art
7 Photography
8 African Art
9 FeaturedExhibitions
10 Noguchi Court
11 Art Service Level
12 Parking
13 Multipurpose Room
14 Executive Offices
15 Auditorium
16 Cafe

109
110
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

111
114
School of Art & Art History Iowa City, Iowa 1999–2006

The University of Iowa campus merges into the building. The dispersion and
with the urban Grid of Iowa City, which fuzziness of the edges is seen as a positive
has the old State Capitol of 1842 as way to embrace phenomena such as sun­
its symbolic center. Projected across the light reflected from water on the lagoon
Iowa River, the grid becomes distorted or the white light from freshly fallen snow.
as it meets the topography of ravines As an analogy for a “hybrid instrument,”
and hills descending to the river’s west Picasso’s 1912 Guitar sculpture provides
bank; there, a series of buildings for a planar open architectural language.
the arts are aligned: the theater, museum, Two levels of the library are pushed out
and the original 1936 School of Art into a cantilever keeping the building low
building. At the outset of the project, while engaging the pond.
a flat green space immediately to
the west of the museum was believed
to be the best site. Our site engages and
reclaims the Quarry Pond, brings the
new building closer to the existing and
frees the proposed site for the future.
The building’s fuzzy edges create
new campus spaces, pathways, and
connections: a campus porosity. On the
west, a double height reading room marks
a new campus gateway and opens to
a sunny deck suspended over the water.
On the north, a serene urban wall of
channel glass is set against open campus
space. On Riverside Drive, situated in
relation to a major path from the main
campus, the building’s principal entrance
occurs under the curving overhang
of the auditorium. Internally, this path
continues as a public route. Through the
multiple access points, campus is drawn

opposite
The campus grid
dissolves at a limestone
bluff and pond at the
building site.

115
above and right
A deck that functions
both as a connecting
path and sunny place
to study

116
 School of Art & Art History

Section    12'

Section    12'

Section    12'

3 2 3

5 1 6

1 Library 4
2 Main Stair
3 Sculpture Studios
4 Classrooms
5 Auditorium
6 West Reading Room
Section    12'

117
 8
1
6 5
2
7 7
3

Site Plan    25'  1 Entrance

2 Forum
3 Gallery
4 Administration
5 Cafe
6 Student Advisors
7 Art History Lecture Rooms
8 Office of Visual Material

opposite
A hybrid instrument
of weathering steel

118
School of Art & Art History

119
China

Xi’an

CHENGDU

NANNING
Beijing

NANJING

NINGBO

SHENZHEN
Green Urban Laboratory Nanning, China 2002
competition

Liusha Peninsula in Nanning was
once a beautiful rolling ridge of green,
which was likened to the “tail of a
dragon” whose head lay in Qingxiu
Mountain Park. The green dragon was
sliced by an aborted development
in the early 1990s leaving two muddy
flat plateaus. The overall shape of
the new town for this 1,865,000-square-
meter peninsula site results from
an organic link between idea and site.
A figure-8 plan takes its form from the
shape of the peninsula together with
the preservation of two large existing
green hills. The linear city loops back
over itself like nature’s cycles.
Two new central parks are contained
by the linear looped form. One offers
recreational and athletic activities;
the other has cultural elements such
as modern Chinese gardens, meditation
pavilions, cafes, and school playgrounds.
For this new town of approximately
27,000 residents and 9,000 units of
housing (of 120 square meters per unit
on average) are planned. The town will
also include schools, shops, hotel and
recreational facilities, as well as a Beiqiu
anthropology museum and the rebuilt
Tianning Buddhist Temple.
The project is divided in two parts: of seven of these hybrid buildings, which
low-scale housing and buildings as could be constructed in phases.
mountains. The main housing aims for A new light rail line is proposed to
maximum porosity with natural venti­lation connect the heart of Nanning with three
and shading. Precast concrete sections stops within the new town and continuing
with 50 percent wall and 50 percent to Qingxiu Mountain Park.
window are basic structural elements
forming porous architecture. Deep
set operable windows allow for natural
sun shading. Green roofs are hydro­
ponic vegetable gardens accessible to
the residents. Within a strictly defined
building envelope, the aim of indivi­duation
in housing is achieved through overlapping
spatial configurations.
On a higher scale, mountain buildings
of multiple stories (with a defined cubic
envelope of 60m × 60m × 60m) yield rich
urban experiences with multiple functions
and views over the garden city. The master
plan allows for the eventual construction

opposite
Liusha Peninsula The red line is the
New Town: The design proposed new tram
began with clear to the city center.
geometric relations
to the cut mountain right
landscape of the Sketch for living above
peninsula site. street-front shops

123
 FOLDED STRE
- THE STEPPE
SHOPS OF AL
HOTEL AND O
(TOURIST DES
EXHIBITION O

A 1
A Seven Mountains
B Dense Pack Town
C Urban Street
D Four Landscapes:  
two existing hills   CULTURAL M
- SCHOOLS
preserved two new   - BEIQIU ANTH
- MONASTIC C
parks

B ROCK MOUNT
(LOCAL ROUG
- RAIL STATIO
- OFFICES (TO
- COMMUNITY
- ROOFTOP O
3

KNOWLEDGE
- SCHOOLS / C
- AUDITORIUM
- FACULTY OF
C - OTHER OFFI

IMPLOSION M
- MEDIA CENT
- CINEMAS
- DIGITAL HEA
D - PARKING BE

SUBTRACTIO
- TRAIN STAT
- OFFICES, WO
- SCHOOLS AT

GATE MOUN
opposite and above - LUXURY APA
- HOTEL
The proposed - WORKSHOP
mountains are 7 - SCHOOLS A

described in order
of construction.

124
 Green Urban Laboratory

1 Folded Street   5 Implosion mountain

mountain With a media
This mountain center, cinemas,
provides space for health club,
shops connected and parking
by a stepped ramp, 6 Subtraction mountain
a 100-room hotel, At ground level
and a public schools adjoin
observation roof the playground; 6
with cafe. this mountain
2 Cultural mountain accommodates 1
With a museum a train station,
for Bieqiu offices, work, 3 7 8
10
anthropology, and studio space.
schools, monastic 7 Gate mountain 9 13
cells, and Tianning Schools are 14 16
Temple at top located at ground
3 Rock mountain level and the higher 11 12
4 15
In local rough-cut levels are used
2
stone, this houses for workshops, 5
bike and auto shops, luxury
garage, offices, apartments, and
a community a hotel.
meeting room, 8 Light Rail Train
and a rooftop 9 New Chinese Garden
observation deck 10 Cafe Pavilion
4 Knowledge mountain 11 School Playground
With schools, 12 Athletic Complex
auditoriums, 13 Gymnasium and Pools
faculty offices, 14 Tennis Courts
workspaces, 15 Basketball Courts
reading rooms, 16 Rowing and Lap Pools
and a rooftop
library

125
 9 9
DENSE PACK ENVELOPE
5 60 20 60 10
5 60 20 60 10

DENSE PACK ENVELOPE

60
DENSE PACK ENVELOPE

20
6060
60
15
2020

STANDARD URBAN MODULE

6060

1:1500
1515
5

Standard Urban Module

STANDARD URBAN MODULE
60

STANDARD URBAN MODULE

1:1500
1:1500
5205

STAIR COR

TYPE A: 1
The new city is to
6060

be a model of the TYPE B: 1

60

underlying principles
that govern natural STAIR
TYPECOR
15

C: 1
1020

STAIR COR
cycles. The most
20

TYPE D:
TYPE A: 1
advanced ecological /  TYPE A: 1
architectural systems TYPE B: 1
TYPICAL PLANS
6060

and techniques will TYPE B: 1

1:1500
be employed. Some
1515

TYPE C: 1
aspects include: TYPE C: 1
1010

TYPE D:
TYPE D:
Typical Plan
—Solar power by arrays
(30 percent more
TYPICAL PLANS
TYPICAL
OBLIQUEPLANS
VIEW
1:1500
efficient than current 1:1500
silicon cells).
5

RETA
—Natural ventilation
through natural passive
60

solar shading walls

OBLIQUE VIEW RESID
OBLIQUE VIEW
boosted by solar
205

powered fans PARK

5

RETA
HARD
RETA
—Geothermal cooling
6060

RESID
PARK
from river
60

RESID
MAIN
SERVI
15

—Recycled water PARK

1020

PARK
SECO
system using the latest
20

HARD
treatment technologies HARD
Ground Floor Plan
PARK
6060

—Ecosystem standards GROUND FLOOR PLAN PARK

MAIN
1:1500
MAIN
of non-polluting SERVI
1515

SERVI
SECO
transportation: light rail
1010

SECO
connection, electrical
hybrid cars, bike, and
pedestrian paths GROUND FLOOR PLAN
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
1:1500
1:1500

126
 Green Urban Laboratory

10

1
7 11
6

4
2 8 8

Sustainability Diagram 

1 Green sod roof to 8 Shading for

provide insulation and pedestrians
stormwater retention 9 Gray-water recycling
2 Maximum height system
limit of four stories 10 Concrete structure
eliminates elevators provides thermal mass
3 Riverbed to allow for natural radiant
for energy efficient cooling
evaporative cooling 11 Green roofs function
4 Precast concrete as terrace
panels by local fly  
ash concrete plants
5 Sunlight from high  
and low angles
6 Photovoltaic panels  
on roof
7 Hydroponic vegetable
gardens

127
CIPEA Site

visual link
to the city
Nanjing
Museum of Art Nanjing, China 2002–2009
& Architecture

Perspective is the fundamental historic a background to feature the colors and

difference between Western and Chinese textures of the artwork and architecture
painting. After the thirteenth century, to be exhibited within. Bamboo, previously
Western painting developed vanishing growing on the site, has been used in
points in fixed perspective. Chinese bamboo-formed concrete, with a black
painters, although aware of perspective, penetrating stain.
rejected the single-vanishing point The Museum has geothermal cooling
method, instead producing landscapes and heating, and recycled storm water.
with “parallel perspectives” in which
the viewer travels within the painting.
The new museum is sited at the
gateway to the Contemporary International
Practical Exhibition of Architecture in
the lush green landscape of the Pearl
Spring near Nanjing, China. The museum
explores the shifting viewpoints, layers
of space, and expanses of mist and water
that characterize the deep alternating
spatial mysteries of early Chinese
painting. The museum is formed by
a “field” of parallel perspective spaces
and garden walls in black bamboo-
formed concrete over which a light
“figure” hovers. The straight passages
on the ground level gradually turn into
the winding passage of the figure above.
The upper gallery, suspended high in
the air, unwraps in a clockwise turning
sequence and culminates at “in-position”
viewing of the city of Nanjing in the
distance. The meaning of this rural site
becomes urban through this visual
axis to the great Ming Dynasty capital
city, Nanjing. The courtyard is paved
in recycled Old Hutong bricks from
the destroyed courtyards in the center
of Nanjing. Limiting the colors of the
museum to black and white connects
it to the ancient paintings, but also gives

131
 1 Museum of Art &
Architecture at site
entrance
2 Conference Centre,
1
Arata Isozaki
3 Recreation Centre,
Ettore Sottsass 2
6
4 Reception Centre,
Jiakun Liu
5 Circle of Interaction,
Kazuyo Sejima / Ryue
Nishizawa
4 3
6 A Construction for
One Thousand Hands,
Hrvoje Njiric

(Among several others) 5

above
Site for Contemporary
International
Practical Exhibition
of Architecture
Site Plan    10m 

132
 Museum of Art & Architecture

1 2

East–West Section    3m

1 Main Entry
2 Exhibition 2
3 Model & Sculpture Gallery
4 Courtyard in recycled
brick
North–South Section    3m

133
 1 Main Entry
2 Exhibition
3 Model & Sculpture Gallery 3
4 Courtyard in recycled
brick

above
Looking from city back
to site, the museum
forms the entrance gate
to the site.
Ground-floor Plan    5m 

134
Museum of Art & Architecture

right
Lower gallery under
construction

above and far right

Bamboo-formed
concrete

135
Linked Hybrid
The 220,000 square-meter Linked
Hybrid complex, in Beijing, creates
a porous urban space, inviting and open
to the public from every side. As a
"city within a city" the new place has
a filmic urban experience of space;
around, over and through multifaceted
spatial layers. A three-dimensional public
urban space, the project has programs
that vary from commercial, residential,
and educational to recreational.
The ground level offers a number
of open passages for residents and
visitors to walk through. These passages
include “micro-urbanisms” of small-scale
shops which also activate the urban space
surrounding the large central reflecting
pond. On the inter­me­diate level of the
lower buildings, public roof gardens offer
tranquil green spaces, and at the top
of the eight residential towers private roof
gardens are con­nected to the penthouses.
Public functions on the ground level
include restaurants, a hotel, Montessori
school, kindergarten, and cinematheque.
Elevators displace like a “jump cut”
to another series of passages on higher
levels. From the eighteenth floor
a multifunctional series of skybridges
with a swimming pool, a fitness room,
a cafe, a gallery, connects the eight
resi­dential towers and the hotel
tower, and offers views over the city.
top right
Four main passage
routes create a
thorough urban
porosity.
Beijing, China
Programmatically this loop aspires to
be semi-lattice-like rather than simplis­
tically linear. We hope the public sky-loop
and the base-loop will constantly gener­ate
random relation­ships; functioning as
social condensers in a special experience
of city life to both residents and visitors.
Focused on the experience of passage
of the body through space, the towers
are organized to take movement, timing,
and sequence into consideration. The
point of view changes with a slight ramp
up, a slow right turn. The encircled
towers express a collective aspiration,
rather than towers as isolated objects
or private islands in an increasingly
privatized city. Our hope is for new “Z”
dimension urban sectors that aspire to
individuation in urban living while shaping
public space.
Geothermal wells (660 at 100
meters deep) provide Linked Hybrid with
cooling in summer and heating in winter.
The large urban space in the center
of the project is activated by a gray
water recycling pond with water lilies
and grasses. In the winter the pool
freezes to become an ice-skating rink.
The cinematheque is not only a gathering
venue but also a visual focus to the area.
The cinematheque archi­tecture floats
on its reflection in the shallow pond,
and projections on its facades indicate
films playing within. The first floor of
the building, with views over the land­
scape, is left open to the community.
The poly­chrome of Chinese Buddhist
archi­tecture was used in chance
operations of the I Ching to color
2003–2009
window jambs. The under­sides of the
bridges and canti­levered portions are
colored membranes that glow with
projected nightlight.
All water in the project is recycled.
Gray water is piped into tanks with
ultra­violet filters, and then recirculated
into the large reflecting pond and used
to water the landscapes. Re-using the
earth excavated from the new construc­
tion, five landscaped mounds to the
north support recreational functions.
The Mound of Childhood, integrated
with the kindergarten, has an entrance
portal through it. The Mound of
Adolescence holds a basketball court
and a rollerblade and skate board
area. In the Mound of Middle Age we
find a coffee and tea house (open to all),
a Tai Chi platform, and tennis courts.
The Mound of Old Age is occupied with
a wine tasting bar and the Mound of
Infinity is carved into a meditation space.
137
 1

right
Beijing 1900 (1) shaped the hutong courtyard 2
by the ancient rule: that typology. After 1980
new buildings could Beijing grew vertically
not be tall enough to and outward (2). With
look over the walls of isolated towers and
the Forbidden City. “gated communities”
Together with the giant (3) Horizontally con­
block size set in the nected and porous
grid, this gave birth to buildings. 3

138
 1 Cinematheque
2 Hotel
3 Pond (parking below)
4 Kindergarten / 
Mound of Childhood 8
5 Mound of Adolesence
6
6 Mound of Middle Age 7
7 Mound of Old Age 5
8 Mound of Infinity

2
3

1
4

Site Plan    10m 

opposite
Green public space on
three levels: the ground
level, on the roofs
of the lower buildings
for the cinema and
kindergarten, and
on top of the towers

140
 15F

14F

16F
13F

12F

17F
12F

18F
16F:POOL

17F

CINEMA ROOF: S8 ROOF: PUBLIC GARDEN

CHILDREN'S GARDEN

S3 ROOF: PUBLIC GARDEN ESCALATOR

ESCALATOR

CINEMA

HOTEL

right
Three public circulation
PEDESTRIAN CIRCULATION DIAGRAM
loops: at ground level,
on top of the lower
buildings, and the loop
PUBLIC GARDEN ACCESS & CIRCULATION
of skybridges
Linked Hybrid

1 2

8
10’

4
5

6
7

2 7 6

8
5 1 Entry
4 2 Bedroom
3 Master bedroom
1 4 Kitchen
5 Dining
6 Living
3
7 Multiuse space:
Study room / 
Guest room
8 Bathroom
Floor Plans    1m 

above top
Typical apartment with
diagonal views across
hinged space

above bottom
Typical apartment with
hinged space doors

right
Model apartment

143
Ground-floor Plan   10m

Typical Floor Plan    10m

144
Linked Hybrid

North–South Section    6m

East–West Section    6m

145
A variety of functions
in the semipublic bridge
loop connecting eight
towers via eight bridges
Linked Hybrid

DINING DECK

READING
ROOM

13F: ART GALLERY 13F: VIEWING PLATFORM

12F: EXHIBITION SPACE 12F: ART GALLERY

15F: DESIGN STORE 14F: ARCHITECTURE

GALLERY
ULTRA
14F: BOOK STORE SCULPTURE /
LOUNGE 12F: BAR / COCKTAIL
ARCHITECTURE
15F: COFFEE SHOP GALLERY LOUNGE

CAFE
SEATING

BOOK EVENT
SPACE SPORTS CLUB
LISTENING
LOUNGE
HEALTH SPA
TEA
SEATING
ENTRY POINT

16F: TEA STORE

COFFEE HOUSE / BAR
15F: GAMING SPACE
BOOK SHOP

EXHIBITIONS
VIEWING
PLATFORM

17F: BRIDGE ENTRY LOUNGE GROUP

EXCERCISE SPACE
16F: HEALTH FOOD STORE 3 LANE
SUSPENDED
17F: HAIR / NAIL SALON LAP POOL
CATWALK

18F: STRENGTH TRAINING

17F: FITNESS TRAINING

17F: MEETING PLACE 18F: PERSONAL TRAINER

17F: JUICE BAR /

BRIDGE ENTRY

18F: SPINNING ROOM

18F: SPA / MASSAGE 18F: OFFICE / MEN'S
LOCKER ENTRY 17F: MEN'S LOCKER ROOM
17F: WOMEN'S LOCKER ROOM
17F: MEN'S LOCKER
ROOM

16F: LAUNDRY / MECH

147
Linked Hybrid

right
Bridge interior

149
 1 5 5 1

above
Public reflecting pool
utilizing recycled grey-
water. The project
has been awarded with
the AIA NY Sustainable
Design Award 2008 as
well as with a Popular
Science Engineering 2 2
Award for Largest
Geothermal Housing
Complex in 2006.

above right
660 geothermal wells,
100 meters deep
3
right 3
Gray-water system: 4
1 Roof garden irrigation
2 Toilet flushing
3 Landscape irrigation
4 Pond water makeup
5 Gray water from 650
apartments

150
Linked Hybrid

151
152
Linked Hybrid

North–South Section Cinematheque    2m

opposite
The cinematheque
archi­tecture floats on
a shallow pond. Its
first floor is openly
constructed, leaving
space for the commu­
nity. It houses three
cinemas, with 94, 118,
and 218 seats. The
roof is a public garden. Upper-level Plan    2m 

153
right
Hotel plan Typical Floor Plan    1m 

154
Linked Hybrid

above and right

Five landscaped skateboard area.
mounds to the north In the Mound of Middle
contain recreational Age we find a coffee
functions. The and tea house open
Mound of Childhood, to the public, a Tai Chi
integrated with the platform, and tennis
kindergarten, has courts. The Mound
a tunnel through of Old Age is occupied
it. The Mound of by a wine tasting
Adolescence holds bar, and the Mound
a basket ball court, of Infinity forms
and a rollerblade and a meditation space.

155
North-South Section Kindergarten    1m

Typical Floor Plan    1m

156
Linked Hybrid

above
Construction:
skylights and courts in
the Montessori school
and kindergarten, which
will have a green roof.
Kindergarten Sections    1m

157
 Unfolded Elevation    2m

Section    2m

The Mound of Infinity

forms a space of
reflection and medi­ta­
tion. The mound
is sliced with an infinity
diagram-like incision
with the north section
carved out in concrete
with a stone floor.
The large circular
opening for the main Plan    2m
entry is scaled to
match the disc-shaped
geometry of the Milky
Way galaxy 100,000
light years across,
10,000 light years thick.
The other elliptical
openings refer to the
many other galaxies.
In Chinese cosmo­-
logy the square is
a symbol of the earth
and daily life, the circle
that of the heavens
and beyond.

158
Linked Hybrid

159
Linked Hybrid

161
Xi’an New Town
competition
The concept for Xi’an New Town is based
on a twenty-first century reading of the
ancient grid of Chang-An, the ancient
capitol and the beginning point of the Silk
Road. Chang-An, which means “forever
peace,” had a grid based on walking steps
with blocks proportioned in 100 strides
by 60 strides. This idealized grid became
the inspiration for plans of many later
cities such as Beijing and Kyoto.
In Xi’an New Town, a new grid
city, the dimensions are all related
to human measurements. Compared
to auto­mobile-driven urbanism, which
segregates programs into zones,
our plan seeks to create an integrated
fabric serving the moderate and low
income residents of the city. No matter
the social status of the resident, housing
is always within walking distance to
shops, parks, schools, cultural programs,
and libraries.
Four quadrants of a low-scale
residential fabric are complemented by
a group of taller structures placed on the
north. Each quadrant is a self-sufficient
neighborhood. Park voids are “cut”
from this fabric employing the enlarged
calligraphy geometry from a poem
by Chang-An’s great ancient poet Tu Fu
(713–770). Each one of the four quadrants
of the main town fabric can be built
separately; each contains a large green
park and recycled graywater pond
opposite above right
Ancient grid of Concept Sketch;
Chang-An Calligraphic cuts
Xi’an, China 2005
with water plants and wildlife. Aspects
of Feng Shui were followed for the
placement of buildings and landscaping.
The 2–4 story residential fabric
of Xi’an New Town for low-cost housing
is developed from prefabricated, air-
entrenched concrete elements which
set the geometry of the garden and
passage spaces. Within these frames,
individually developed floor plans, room
configurations, details, wall tile work,
finishes, and colors allow the house
owners individualized expression. The
prefabricated walls contain the structure,
insulation, wiring links, and rough
plumbing. All roofs will be covered with
sedum planting.
Whereas the town center houses
the largest public facilities, primary
and secondary schools will be located
in the residential quadrants. These
buildings will be designed individually
to add to the unique character of
the parks.
The towers in the town center are
conceived as a spatial group, bracketing
a public space for the new town with
a centrally located library, museum, and
cultural center. These towers are of
mixed use; some contain offices, some
hotels, some residences with splendid
views across the green roofs and gardens
of the new town.
Using permeable ground surfaces
(porous concrete, grass pavers, and
gravel) allows for greater ground water
retention and minimizes erosion. The gray
water ponds provide evaporative cooling in
summer months.
165
Site Plan 

opposite
View from residential
area to CBD

166
168
Horizontal Skyscraper Shenzhen, China 2006–2009
(Vanke Center)
competition 1st place

Hovering over a public tropical garden, As tropical strategy, the building

this horizontal skyscraper—as long and the landscape integrate several
as the Empire State Building is tall— new sustainable aspects: A micro­climate
is a hybrid building including apartments, is created by cooling ponds fed by
a hotel, and offices for the headquarters a gray water system. The building has
for Vanke Co. A conference center, a green roof with solar panels and
spa, and parking are located under the uses local materials such as bamboo.
large green, tropical landscape which The glass facade of the building will
is characterized by mounds containing be protected against the sun and wind
restaurants and a 500-seat auditorium. by perforated louvers. The building
The building appears as if it were is a tsunami-proof hovering architecture
once floating on a higher sea that has now that creates a porous microclimate of
subsided; leaving the structure propped public open landscape.
up high on eight legs. The decision to
float one large structure right under the
35-meter height limit, instead of several
smaller structures each catering to a Vanke Center
specific program, generates the largest
possible green space open to the public
on the ground level.
The underside of the floating structure
Shenzhen
becomes its main elevation—the sixth
elevation—from which Shenzhen windows
offer 360-degree views over the lush
tropi­cal landscape below. A public path
beginning at the “dragon’s head” connects
through the hotel, and the apartment
zones up to the office wings.

above right
A horizontal sky­- In twenty-seven
scraper as long years, Shenzhen has
as the Empire State developed from a small
Building is tall fishing village into
floats under the a modern city of over
35-meter height 10 million residents, Hong Kong
limit, elevated one of the most rapid
to allow a public urbanizations in
tropical landscape. world history.

169
 35m
height
limit

ocean view

this page and opposite

The decision to float
the structure under
the 35-meter height
limit, instead of
covering the ground
plane, generates
the largest possible
green space open
to the public on the
ground level, as
well as providing
views to the South
China Sea.

170
172
Horizontal Skyscraper

Hotel, residences, and

offices in one unified
building hovering over
a maximized public
landscape of tropical
gardens and cafes

173
 2

14 16

1 15
4

5
3
13 17
6

12
7 11
8
9

10

Site Plan    10m  1 Truck Entrance 8 Vanke Entrance 5 Spa

1
2 Car Exit 9 Cafes 16 Hotel Entrance
3 Vanke HQ Drop Off 10 Bar with Kitchen 17 Restaurant
4 SoHo Entry 11 Condo Entrance
5 Vanke Entry 12 Hotel Pool
6 Light Court 13 Pool Falls
7 Shops 14 Auditorium

174
Horizontal Skyscraper

Sections    6m

Sections    6m

1
2

A Vanke Headquarters
B SoHo
C Apartments
D Hotel
3
1 Gym
C 2 Business Center
3 Vanke Cafe
A

175
opposite top
Auditorium mound
in construction

opposite bottom
A public path connects
through the hotel,
and the apartment
zones up to the Vanke
office wings.
Horizontal Skyscraper

1 Semipublic Interior
Path
2 Exterior Path
connects all entrances

177
 SUN PROTECTED OUTDOOR SPACES

Shenzhen 360-degree
window: a suspended
panorama dropping
down from the “6th
facade”; Public space
viewed from a new
angle
SEA BREEZE

178
Horizontal Skyscraper

179
above
The landscape,
inspired by Roberto Landscape Plan    12m 
Burle Marx’s gardens
in Brazil contains
restaurants and cafes
in vegetated mounds
bracketed with pools SITE VANKE CENTER LANDSCAPE
and walkways. At night SITE VANKE CENTER LANDSCAPE
a walk through this
landscape of flowering
tropical plants will mix
the smell of jasmine A
with the colorful
SWAglow
PLAN
of the undersides of
the structure floating
above.

right 60000 m 32000 m 28000 m

Previous master plans
(A) only had 28,000
square meters of
green space. The
SHA master plan (B)
B

+ =
adds 15,000 square
meters moreSHA’S DESIGN
than was
originally available
on the site—by adding
a green roof. The total
green space is now
75,000m2 open to
the public. 60000 m 75000

180

最 大 化 的 地 空
above
Earthquake model with
Chief Engineer Dr. Xiao
Congzhen, loaded with
forty tons and tested
to withstand maximum
earthquake forces

right and opposite

A new urban layer to
Shenzhen: Suspended
on eight cores, as
far as 50 meters
apart, this structure
is a combination
of cable-stay bridge
technology merged
with a high-strength
concrete frame.

182
Horizontal Skyscraper

183
top bottom
Winning competition Construction view,
model, July 2006 2008
185
Sliced Porosity Block
The Sliced Porosity Block is a hybrid
of different functions, like a giant chunk
of a metropolis. It will be located just
south of the intersection of the First Ring
Road and Ren Min Nan Road in Chengdu.
Its sun-sliced geometry results from
required minimum sunlight exposures
to the surrounding urban fabric, pre­
scribed by code and calculated by the
precise geometry of sun angles.
The large public space framed
by the block is formed into three valleys,
inspired by a poem by Tu Fu. In some
of the porous openings chunks of different
buildings are inserted.
opposite and right
Located in proximity inhabited cities
to the center of in China (Chengdu
Chengdu, one of the is over 2,000
oldest continuously years old)
Chengdu, China
Our microurban strategy will
create a new terrain of public space;
an urban terrace on the metropolitan
scale of Rockefeller Center. This
new terrain is sculpted by stone steps
and ramps, with large pools that spill
into stepped fountains. Trees, plantings,
and benches are flanked with cafes,
and escalators soaring up to suspended
pavilions. Roof gardens are cultivated
through their individual connections
to condominiums or hotel cafes.
At the shop fronts there will
be luminous color, neon, backlit color
transparency—like the wash of color
2007–2012
that suddenly appears in the great black
and white films of Andrei Tarkovsky.
The aim for the Sliced Porosity
Block is to form new public space and
to realize new levels of green construction
in Chengdu. The complex is heated
and cooled geothermally by four hundred
and eighty wells. The large podium
ponds harvest recycled rainwater with
natural grasses and lily pads creating
a cooling effect.
187
 Six design strategies: 1 2
1 Integral urban functions
shape public space
2 Porosity
3 Microurbanism
4 Super-green
architecture
5 “Three valleys” inner
gardens
6 Spatial geometry
lit via pond skylights

3 4

The three plaza ponds

are inspired by a poem
by Tu Fu (713–770),
in which he writes:
“This fugitive between 5 6
the earth and sky,
from the northeast
storm-tossed to
the southwest, time
has left stranded
in three valleys.”

opposite
Sun angles precisely
slice the block to allow
the code-required
two hours minimum
of sunlight to the
adjacent residential
buildings.

188
Sliced Porosity Block

189
 2

3
1

Site Plan    12m  1 Office

2 Hotel
3 Serviced Apartments

190
Sliced Porosity Block

above
Maximum porosity:
three of the six
different entries
to the public plaza

191
 LE

Section through Hotels Looking West    6m

192
 Sliced Porosity Block

1 Office
2 Hotel 3
3 Serviced Apartments
4 SoHo Office / Residence
5 Retail 1
6 Circulation

1 SOHO
OFFICE / RES

Level 11 Floor Plan    10m 

LEGEND

11

6 5

SOHO
OFFICE / RES

LEGEND

Level 2 Floor Plan    10m 

193
 A A B C D

18 4 18 4
18
7 20 18 18 4
8 8
8
6
9

8
1 8 3

5 2 5
11 13 15 12
8 10 7
16
6
15
14 E

19
17

Diagrammatic section showing public loop in red  A Office
B Hotel
C Serviced Apartments
D SoHo Apartments
E Retail
1 Site History Pavilion 7 Fitness 4 Business Center
1
2 High Tech Pavilion 8 Mechanical 15 Lounge
by Lebbeus Woods 9 Conference Center 16 Ballroom
3 Tu Fu Pavillion 10 Cinema 17 Basement / Parking
4 Event Space 11 Gallery 18 Roof Garden
5 Public Circulation 12 Auditorium 19 Subway Connection
6 Restaurant 13 Ceremonial Space 20 Swimming Pool

right
488 geothermal
wells now in place
under the first
basement level

opposite
View at main ramp
to public plaza
with shop fronts
along street

194
A

B
 Ningbo Fine Grain Ningbo, China 2008
competition

Our proposal for Ningbo consists
of a twenty-first century “water town”
based on five strategies:
1. Ecological Urbanism
Transportation by solar-powered
water taxis minimizes dependence
on auto­mobile transportation. Parking
is located at perimeter areas with a
typical walking distance of 200 meters.
There is geothermal cooling and heating,
supplemented by solar panels at roof
garden terraces, and complemented
by green sedum roofs and a storm-water
and gray-water recycling system.
2. Integration of Functions
for 24-hour life
Live / work / shop / entertaining functions are
integrated across the site in a gentle mix.
via a computer program (www.random and concert halls. Unique parks such
.org). This allows for maximum variety as the park of solar pergolas (powering
of spatial experience and variety fountains) shape spaces inside the
of new water-edge archi­tecture. overall fine grain.
The chance-based process allows for
maximum functional flexibility and
program adjustment within a fine grain.
4. Reflection Phenomena
We envisioned the architecture with the
reflection in the canal water from its
inception. Color and light in reflection
are a unique urban experience here.
5. Unique Parks and
Cultural Architecture
Marking the main north-south axis
connecting this new sector to the larger
master plan, we envision a unique
grouping of architecture housing cinemas

3. Fine Grain Morphology / 

Water Edge Architecture
Aimed at close integration to the unique
Gateway District
water edge character of this new
Ningbo sector, a special fine grain urban
morphology is invented. Based on the
typical spacing in construction of
Old Ningbo
10 meter by 10 meter bays, the entire
site is gridded. A chance-based process
aimed at achieving the build out area
of 500,000 square meters is intro­duced

A Ningbo 2
New Exhibition Area,
Large Grain
B Ningbo 1
New “21st Century Eastern New Town
Watertown” Gateway,
Fine Grain

197
South Korea
Japan

SEOUL

FUKUOKA
Chiba, tokyo
 World Design Seoul, South Korea 2007
Park Complex
competition

The “weave” concept for this project the relocation of a vertical section of
refers to four strategies: (1) a double the Park. The tri-axial structure is open
level and Vertical Park in the form with an open-air carbon-fiber weave
of a weave, (2) a relation to the old curtain. On the upper level, elevators
historic morpho­logy of Seoul’s Kangbuk serve a sky bar and cafe, public obser­
district with its intricate weave of vation deck and visitors information
streets, historic structures and gardens, centre, while a large below grade public
(3) the new role of the surrounding lobby joins all public circulation to
fashion district and textiles, and the subway stations and underground
(4) a 21st century aspiration to fuse shopping malls.
landscape, urbanism and architecture.
The site’s historic trace of the
ancient castle wall is envisioned to be
reconstructed in cast glass blocks which
are the same size and dimensions of
the original stones. At night, these glass
blocks will glow and add a special
quality to the new landscape.
The basic morphology of the
macro­scale “weave” is based on a tri-
axial fabric which yields six-sided voids.
These spaces take on various config­u­
rations—skylights, gardens, water ponds,
fountains—as the phase change of the
“weave” responds to variations over the
landscape. At the site’s southwest corner,
the “weave” suddenly turns vertical,
forming an open porous framework for

A Vertical Park
as landmark
B Convention and
Exhibition Centers
C Double layered
park as maximized
green space
D Castle wall as
historical root.

201
202
 A
B

C
D

G
H

A Sky Bar & Park G Convention Hall

Observatory H Special Exhibition
B Office I Exhibition
C Vertical Open Park J Collection Storage
D Park Information K Underground
& Open Exhibition Shopping Mall
E Education Center L Underground Annex
F Design Information
Center

203
Void Space /  Fukuoka, Japan 1989–1991
Hinged Space

From hinged space to the silence of void

space; four active north-facing voids
inter­lock with four quiet south-facing
voids to bring a sense of the sacred into
direct contact with everyday domestic
life. To ensure emptiness, the south voids
are flooded with water; the sun makes
flickering reflections across the ceilings
of the north courts and apartment interiors.
Interiors of the twenty-eight apart­
ments revolve around the concept of
“hinged space,” a development of the
multiuse traditional Shoji and Fusuma
taken into an entirely modern dimension.
One type of hinging, diurnal, allows
an expansion of the living area during
the day, reclaimed for bedrooms at
night. Another type, episodic, reflects
the change in a family over time: rooms
can be added or subtracted to accomo­
date grown-up children leaving the
family or elderly parents moving in.
An experiential sense of passage
through space is heightened in the
three types of access, which allow all
apartments to have exterior front doors.
On the lower passage, views across
the water court and through the north
voids activate the walk spatially from side
to side. Along the north passage one
has a sense of suspension with the park
in the distance. The top passage has
a sky view under direct sunlight.
The building, with its street-aligned
shops and intentionally simple facades,
is seen as part of a city in its effort to form
space rather than become an architecture
of object. Space is its medium, from urban
to private, hinged space.

205
 1 Structure
Concrete bearing
walls with second­
ary columns at
midslab. West
elevations of the
courts are infill
curtain walls, east
elevations are
concrete bearing
walls. To the
passerby headed
west, the compo­
sition of the building
1 is planar; to the
one headed east
the building appears
volumetric.
2 Passage between
voids / public
walk-ways;
Each apartment
has an outside
front door. Each
of the three
2 passages develops
a different spatial
relation: inside,
above, or beside
the courts.
3 Spatial extension
4 Hinged space
The plan of
each unit can
be reconfigured
to accomdate
2 3 diurnal and
episodic changes.

opposite
Exploded axonometric

following spread
2007 view: project
happily inhabited
for fifteen years
4

206
Void Space/Hinged Space

207
Makuhari Bay New Town Chiba, Japan 1992–1996

The new town of Makuhari is sited on Inspired by Basho’s The Narrow Road
dredged fill at the northeast rim of Tokyo to the Deep North, the semipublic inner
Bay. The urban planners had set rules gardens and the perspectival arrangement
for building height limits, tree-lined of activist houses form an “inner journey.”
streets, and areas for shops. Each city
block was to be designed by three or
four different architects.
We realized their strategy would
result in a poor spatial definition
(four different architect facades). We
proposed to shape the whole block
and let three other architects design
apartments within.
Our concept proposed the inter­
re­lation of two distinct types: silent
heavyweight buildings and active light­
weight structures. The silent buildings
shape the forms of urban space and
passage with apartments entered via
the inner garden courts. The concrete
bearing wall structures have thick
facades and a rhythmic repetition
of openings (with variation in window
or deck). Slightly inflected, by sun
angle calculations they gently bend
space and passage, interre­lating
with movement and the lightweight
structures.
Miniature and natural phenomena
are celebrated in the lightweight activist
force of individual characters and
programs. These individuated “sounds”
invade the heavyweight “silence” of
the bracketing buildings.

opposite right
Site in the center of the Sun inflection
new town of Makuhari; diagram
shaping public space

211
 6
2

above
Axonometric
diagram: silent and
activist buildings 3

212
 Makuhari Bay New Town

6 5

Activist Buildings
1 East Gate: Sunlight
Reflecting House
2 North Gate: Color
Reflecting House
3 North Court: Water
Reflecting House
4 South Court: Public
Meeting Room / House
of Shadow
5 West Gate: House
of Fallen Persimmon
6 South Gate: House
of Nothing 4

213
 Makuhari Bay New Town

3 4

Site Plan    3m 

1 East Gate: Sunlight

reflecting house 1
2 North Gate: Color
reflecting house
3 North Court: Water
reflecting house
4 South Court: House 3
of Shadow 4

Section    3m

left
House of Shadow

215
The Netherlands
Finland

AMSTERDAM
HELSINKI
Manifold Hybrid Amsterdam, 1994
The Netherlands

In mathematics, “the way to get adds a unique dimension to the

a geometrical manifold is to take a
polyhedral chunk from a geometrical
space and identify its faces pair-wise
with each other.”
—George Francis, A Topological
Picture Book
interiors. Just as the interior is a harbor
of the soul, the “U”-shaped building
is itself a harbor, with a section of a small
city surrounding it on three sides.

Situated on reused shipping quays

overlooking the water, this housing block
of 182 apartments is part of an urban
plan for housing that calls for three large
super blocks in a lower urban field
of garden row houses. The new eighteen-
story block is envisioned as a section
of a new city with several functions:
offices, a small art gallery, a restaurant,
a boat house, a deli, and a health
club. Eleven different apartment types
are accessed by very different paths.
As a fifty-six-meter cube, the rotations
and translations of this manifold building
are seen from below as colored folds.
The heart of the block is a huge water
court that can accommodate visiting
houseboats in the Amsterdam tradition.
The penetrating stain on the concrete
is of black, blue, and yellow colors guiding
visitors on the multiple routes within.
The horizon view of Amsterdam is an
important asset to these apartments, and
the interlocking geometry of the sections

opposite
Manifold Hybrid in the
horizontally oriented
urban plan of Borneo-
Sporenburg

219
220
Sarphatistraat Offices Amsterdam, 1996–2000
The Netherlands

In Amsterdam, on the Singel Canal, this The complex is entered through

renovated building is the former federal the original twentieth-century brick
medical supplies warehouse. The main courtyard. Passing through the interior
structure is a four-story brick “U” merging reveals gradually more porous spaces
internally with a new “sponge” pavilion until reaching the Menger sponge pavilion
on the canal. Although the exterior expres­ overlooking the canal. While the major
sion is one of complementary contrast portion of the 50,000 square-foot project
(existing brick adjacent to new perforated is workspace for the social housing
copper), the interior strategy is one of company’s employees, the large sponge
fusion. space is open for all uses, from public
The porous architecture of the gatherings to performance events. Giving
rectangular pavilion is inscribed with back to the community, the immediate
a concept from the music of Morton canal edge has a new boardwalk.
Feldman’s Patterns in a Chromatic Field.
The ambition to achieve a space of
gossamer optic phenomena with chance-
located reflected color is especially
effective at night when the color patches
paint and reflect in the canal. The layers
of perforated materials, from copper
on the exterior to plywood on the interior,
contain all services such as lighting,
supply, and return air grilles. The
perforated screens developed in three
dimensions are analogous to the Menger
sponge principle of openings continu­ously
cut in planes approaching zero volume.
“Chromatic Space” is formed by light
bounced between the building’s layers.
At night, light trapped between screens
sometimes appears as thick floating
blocks of color. At other times the passing
sun creates a throbbing color wash or
moving moire patterns.

opposite above
1835 map with Menger Sponge
site in red

221
 1

5
2

Ground Floor Plan    3m

1 Main Entrance
2 Entrance
3 Main Lobby
4 Offices
5 Lobby / Exhibitions
6 Conference / 
Restaurant
7 Outdoor Seating
Area
8 Boat Landing
9 Canal

222
Sarphatistraat Offices

above
The canal “painted”
at night

right
Morton Feldman’s
score for Patterns
in a Chromatic Field

223
Toolenburg-Zuid
competition 1st place
The competition-winning scheme for
Toolenburg-Zuid was based on three
principle planning concepts.
20 Percent Water
The polder is returned to 20 percent
water in the form of a large calligraphic
cut. The earth displaced for the water
calligraphy is used to create a topol­o­gical
earth calligraphy.
Ascending Section
Like the distant ascending jets, an
ascending section moves across the site
at a 5 degree angle, reaching a total
height of 80 meters in the Cactus Towers,
which overlook the adjacent site’s lake
recreation area. This sectional ascent,
with the bearing angle from north to south,
maximizes sunlight in all sections.
Six Housing Types for
Twenty-first Century Living
This series of six different building
types present a diversity of programs
on a large scale. The range of variables
in each basic type is digitally stretched
to the point of transforming (almost
morphing) into other types: Cactus
Towers, Polder Voids, Co-Housing Arms,
Floating Villas, Checkerboard Villas,
and House-Factories.
opposite
Toolenburg Zuid
at the intersection
of the global and
the local (Schiphol
landing patterns
in white)
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Five Ideals for the
Twenty-First Century
1. Space-Time-Information
Toolenburg-Zuid is envisioned as a hybrid
zone oriented toward world citizens.
As a global site, home owners will be able
to remain virtually connected to their
homes across space and time.
2. Combinatory & Crossbred Living
Toolenburg-Zuid is designed as a site
for programmatic hybridization,
allowing for varied lifestyles and living
arrangements. The project provides tower-
lofts for the global commuter, courtyard
houses for the family commuter with
two children and a dog, and the house
factory for the young sculptor in need
of workspace. The variety of specialized
housing types, such as co-housing for
groups of single-parent families,
celebrate the vital and dynamic resi­
dential community that results from
2002
the contemporary diversity of family
arrangements.
3. Live-Work-Leisure
The integration of working, living, and
recreation is an ideal.
4. Global Living without
Automobile Dependency
Minutes by train from Amsterdam Airport
Schiphol, the new housing is connected
by an inner tram loop, allowing for life free
of the automobile.
5. Ecology & Metonymy
Ecological goals of each part of the
project relate to the environment of
the whole, with each part designed to
optimize its particular design. Throughout
the project, maximum use is made of
passive solar, natural ventilation, and other
renewable forms of energy. Recycling and
composting facilities provide nutrients to
the landscape.
225
 1 Cactus Towers
2 House Factory
3 Polder Voids 1 2
4 Co-Housing
5 Floating Villas
6 Checkerboard
Garden Houses

Site Plan 

1 2 3 4 5 6
Toolenburg-Zuid
228
Toolenburg-Zuid

229
 2

3
Kiasma
competition 1st place
The site for Kiasma lies in the heart of
Helsinki at the foot of the Parliament
building to the west, with Eliel Saarinen’s
Helsinki Station to the east, and Alvar
Aalto’s Finlandia Hall to the north. The
challenging nature of this site stems from
the confluence of the various city grids,
from the proximity of the monuments, and
from the triangular shape that potentially
opens to Töölö Bay in the distance. The
concept of Kiasma involves the building’s
mass intertwining with the geometry
of the city, landscape, and the northern
lights. An implicit cultural line links
the building to Finlandia Hall while it
also engages a “natural line” connecting
to the back landscape and Töölö Bay.
The landscape was planned to extend
the bay up to the building in order
to provide an area for the future civic
development along this tapering body
of water. The horizontal light of northern
latitudes is enhanced by a waterscape
that would serve as an urban mirror,
thereby linking the museum to Helsinki’s
Töölö heart, which on a clear day,
in Aalto’s words, “extends to Lapland.”
This water extension from Töölö Bay
intertwines with and passes through the
museum. The gentle sound of moving
water can be heard when walking through
the cusp of the building section which
remains open for passage year-round.
opposite above
1 Parliament The original concept
2 Finlandia Hall sketch: a fusion of
3 Central Station architecture, urbanism,
and landscape
Helsinki, Finland 1992–1998
The ponds are not intended to be drained. the architectonic equivalent of a public
Instead, they are allowed to freeze in invitation. The interior refers to the
winter according to a detail first devised landscape and a line of movement through
by Eliel Saarinen for the accommodation the site that, in this special place and
of the expansion of water during freezing. circumstance, is a synthesis of building
During the early evening hours of the and landscape . .. a kiasma.
winter months, glowing light escaping
from the interior of the building along
the west facade invites the public inside.
Kiasma serves as an art forum, open
and flexible for staged events, dance
and music performances, and seminars.
Placing the cafe at ground level—open
to both the garden and the lobby—makes
it adaptable to informal events. With
Kiasma, there is a hope to confirm that
architecture, art, and culture are not
separate disciplines but are all integral
parts of the city and landscape. Through
care in development of details and
materials, the museum provides a dynamic
yet subtle spatial form, extending the city
toward the south and the landscape to
the north. The geometry has an interior
mystery and an exterior horizon that,
like two hands clasping each other, form
231
 Site Plan    8m 

100’
above
Kiasma in context:
crisscrossing urban
geometry.

opposite
Mannerheim statue
with cafe activated
public space

232
Kiasma

233
 13

11

+11.82 0
6

CORRIDOR
+12.780

Section    2m

1 Info 8 Mechanical Room

2 Bookstore 9 Lobby
3 Coat Check 10 Library
4 Cafeteria 11 Permanent Galleries
5 Bar 12 Offices
6 Auditorium Lobby 13 Temporary Galleries
7 Auditorium

234
Kiasma

8
8

13

10

5
11 12
4

Floor Plans    6m 

235
Meander Helsinki, Finland 2006
competition 1st place

This residential project is located in

Helsinki’s cultural and historical district
Taka-Töölö along the Taivallahti Bay.
The site is enclosed by the Taivallahti
Barracks, two apartment buildings, and
an office block. Out of the bounded inner
block the 8,886-square-meter Meander
rises in section toward the sea horizon,
providing breathing space to the historic
barracks, and maximizing views and
sunlight to the forty-nine apartments
in the new building.
The 180-meter-long concrete, wood,
and glass building, with a height varying
from two to seven floors, meanders across
the rectangular courtyard like a musical
score, shaping garden void spaces within
the block. Meander is carried by concrete
walls, and glazed with horizontally hinged
panels of intelligent glass to maximize
control of light and solar gain.
This glass skin of the building slightly
varies in shade from transparent to opaque
with thermal elements and functions
like chameleon skin. Among the public
spaces for residents is a rooftop sauna
with sea views.

opposite
New energy to an
enclosed Helsinki
perimeter block

237
Italy
France

PARIS
MILAN
Porta-Vittoria Milan, Italy 1986

The site for this project is a disused spaces are drawn and projected of optimism. To affirm the joy of the
freight rail yard, bordered by blocks of backward into plan fragments. With present, to find lines of escape, to
housing of different types. The site fronts the help of a sectional “correlation subvert an overall urban plan from within—
onto Largo Marinai d’Italia, a ragged chart” these space fragments are via architecture—is part of projecting
park on land reclaimed from a poultry adjusted to form a whole city sector an open future as a source of freedom.
and vegetable market in the nineteenth- where independently characteristics
century gridded portion of Milan, outside of programs and building sections
the historical center. The conviction are intensified. Diverse building sections
behind this project is that an open work— and program relations form a prepo­­-
an open future—is a source of human sitional chart suggesting the intrinsic
freedom. To investigate the uncertain, intersection of programs as a bonding,
to bring out unexpected properties, fastening, or disjunctive force. Of
to define psychological space, to allow these specific ideas, several might
the modern soul to emerge, and to be realized, and yet the overall strategy
propose built configurations in the and intention depends on none of them.
face of major social and programmatic They serve only as examples for
uncertainty: this is the intention for the figure in the landscape of this city
the continuation of a “theoretical Milan.” for which the unknown is a source
From a dense center, Milan unfolds
in circles ringed by a patchwork grid
that finally sprawls raggedly into the
landscape. Against this centrifugal
urban sprawl (from dense core to light
periphery), a reversal is proposed:
light and fine-grained toward the center,
heavy and volumetric toward the peri­
phery. This proposal projects a new ring
of density and intensity, adjoining the
rolling green of a recon­stituted landscape.
A new strategy for urban morpho­logy
is explored; instead of an a priori plan
projected later into perspectives, perspec­
tive views of overlapping imagined urban

opposite
Milan’s canals: past
and present with project

241
above
Porta Vittoria: light and
fine-grained toward
the center; heavy and
volumetric toward the
periphery

opposite
Urban correlation chart:
Beginning with the four
primary relations of
architecture—under
the ground, in the
ground, on the ground,
and over the ground,
a prepositional chart
of relations is developed
as a planning tool.

242
 Porta-Vittoria

1 2 3 4
A G

B H 5 6 7 8

C I 9 10 11 12

D J 13 14 15 16

E K 17 18 19 20

F L 21 22 23 24

A Primary Relations 1 Under within a within 5 Through atop (on)

1
B Near (below) 16 Within atop (on)
C Over 2 Over within a within 17 From a within through
D Atop (below) (on)
E Under 3 Atop an under (below) 18 Atop a between (on)
F Within 4 Atop a from (below) 19 Above near from
G Against 5 Over a through (in) a within (on)
H Between 6 Against an under (in) 20 Within a from beside
I Through 7 Under a between (in) (above)
J Across 8 Across (on) over 21 Over an against (on)
K Beside a through (under) 22 Against an over
L From 9 Atop a vertical through (above)
(in) 23 Across against a from
10 Through a beside (in) (above)
11 Across an atop beside 24 Under an across
(on) (above)
12 Atop an across (in)
13 Within a through (on)
14 Through a from (on)

243
Lombardia Regional Milan, Italy 2004
Government Center

The Lombardia Regional Government to the parking below. The highest levels that day from the roof’s photovoltaic cells,
Center forms a new Civic Piazza for of the complex are crowned by a public yielding different qualities of light by night
Milan: a twenty-first century urban space. observation deck and the president’s depending on the previous day’s sun.
As opposed to conventional practice, offices. These mark the “prow” of the new
which tends to restrict public space to urban composition, aligned urbanistically
ground level, a new public openness on and geometrically with the Pirelli tower.
the part of the regional administration At night the special glowing walls of the
will be expressed by placing major public complex radiate the sunlight captured
spaces in an upper frame with magnificent
views encompassing the city and the
Alps. While the new piazza has public
functions and cafes activating the ground
level, ceremonial functions such as press
conferences, exhibitions, and debates
will take place on the upper level with
a regional rather than a local backdrop.
The dual condition of the local (urban)
and regional (landscape) aspects of
the Lombardia center will be emphasized
by the new Civic Piazza and the upper
level alpine views.
Offices in the supporting towers
maximize functions in their openness
to air and light. Circulation is facilitated
by horizontal connections between
verticals at grade, midpoint, and upper
levels. The piazza paved in red Porfido
Lombardian stone has arcades with
shops and cafes with entrances on the
street side as well as the piazza side.
Water from the canal is filtered and utilized
in three “Canals of Milan” fountains,
located centrally in the piazza with glass
lenses on their bottoms, bringing light

opposite
Public space defining
architecture of Milan

245
right
Public spaces
on the upper level
with dramatic
views over Milan

opposite
View from the Pirelli
Tower Site Plan    15m 

246
Lombardia Regional Government Center

247
Les Halles Paris, France 1979

In our scheme for the Les Halles compe­ though to Centre Pompidou, our proposal
tition, 1980, a compressed account of is an international place. Bustling with
the site’s history gives form to the grand activity from the subterranean complex on
urban place. Marble slabs mark the Place Beaubourg, this vast opening is,
rectangles where the Les Halles pavilions at certain times, a place of crystalline
of Baltard once stood. Trees may be silence. At night, with the frosted arcades
planted in place of the iron columns. glowing, the splendor of a great capitol
The white marble slabs are inlaid with can be fully felt. The site has a memory
stone patterns demarking streets and of its own.
buildings displaced by consecutive devel­
opments on this ancient site. The new
place, of a volume on the order of the
Palais Royale, the Place des Vosges, and
the Place du Carrousel, has no aristo­cratic
program of palatial residences to form
its boundaries. Here instead is a chance
for a twentieth-century place. The walls
that surround it are lined with arcades
made entirely of sandblasted glass.
These translucent walls echo the events
of this site since the destruction of the
stone fortress of 1853 and the subsequent
creation of a new architecture of glass.
Houses of traditional color, with their
backs to the arcade, face the city outside.
The wall of housing is made up of two
alternating building types, individually
and vertically accessible, typical of the
houses in this quarter. Each building
contains approximately ten large apart­
ments and has its own character of
fenestration, roof, and color. Sitting
on the opposite end of a new axis cut

opposite above
Les Halles—creating A night view with a
an urban space marking slice through to Centre
the history of the site Pompidou

249
Île Seguin Paris, France 2001

The transformation of the Renault Factory activities of the sitting and moving brackets of the simple galleries, the outer
site, which built out Île Seguin would crowds loop the site and are near the edges wrap the foundation in spaces
have a social / public ideal equal to a new water’s edge, while the heart of the that provide glowing facades reflected
proposed Art Foundation’s ideals. In Foundation is a spiritual refuge,  a place in the Seine both day and night.
reflection of the great social history of of personal reflection , and a place
the site (factory worker’s labor history, free of the noise and smell of automo­biles.
Paris 1968, etc.) the northeast majority Moving from the deep “shaped voids”
of the island is envisioned as a free at the heart of the Foundation to the
global university. Talented students from
any nation (especially those countries
presently working on various Renault car
elements) will win scholarships.
The morphological form of the
university is envisioned as a flipped
outline of the southwestern third
of the island. This “hinge and flip” form
produces a large park and sculpture
gardens along the southern and sunny
edge of the transformed Île Seguin. Five
“Thrown Voids” connect its form to the
Foundation’s geometry.
The concept for the Pinault
Foundation on Île Sequin, Paris is a
salute to Stephane Mallarme’s epic poem
Un Coup De Des (A Throw of the Dice).
Simple rectangular galleries in a range
of sizes in fine proportions and light
are joined around five “thrown” armature
spaces. These shaped voids form a vast
internal spatial sequence. Around the
Foundation at the edge of Île Seguin are
located cafes and terraces connected
by a continuous electric tram. The

Concept sketches:
hinge and flip “thrown
blocks” and “shaped
voids”

251
 17 12

1 Reception
2 Tram Station
3 Bookstore
4 Conveniences
5 Library
6 Television Station
7 Offices
8 Educational areas
9 Video Cafe
10 Management
11 Offices
12 Gallery and
breathing space
13 Ticketing UPPER GALLERY PLAN

14 Children’s area 1 Gallery and Breathing Space

2 Salon Café 0 5 10 20 40

15 Library Salon 16 3 Library Salon 1

16 Bookstore 13 12
17 Salon Cafe

15 14

1 Gallery and Breathing Space LOWER GALLERY PLAN

2 Reception
3 Ticketing 0 5 10 20 40
4 Childrens' Salon 1
5 Library Salon 2

3 6 Library Salon 3

7 Bookstore + Île Seguin Orientation

4 1 2 5
7 8

8
11

right 10
First, second,
and third floor plan
9
opposite
Building at night
and building section Site Plan    15' 

1 Reception
2 Tram Station
3 Bookstore/Boutique GROUND FLOOR PLAN
4 Conveniences
5
6
Library
Television Station
0 5 10 252
20 40

7 Offices (Communications, Multimedia)

8 Educational Workshops
9 Video Cafe
10 Shared Services for Management
Île Seguin

12 12

12 7

Section    5'

253
 Upper Gallery Level

Lower Gallery Level

Plaza Level

Service Level

above right
Galleries shape
outdoor public space
topped by slices of
the sky

right
Passenger ferry stop

opposite
An urban vessel;
museum and free
university—five
“thrown voids” join
“thrown” armature
spaces.

254
Lebanon
Turkey
AKBUK

BEIRUT
Beirut Marina Beirut, Lebanon 2002–2010
and Town Quay

The Beirut Marina building takes its Celebrating the sea horizon, the
shape from strata and layers in forking terraces are sculpted in local stone. The
vectors. Like the ancient beach that was simple geometry of the upper platforms
once the site, the planar lapping waves is in contrast to the colorful activity of
of the sea inspires striated spaces in restaurants below. The building roof forms
horizontal layers. The horizontal and the a public observation platform for the
planar become a geometric force shaping sea horizon.
the new harbor spaces. The form allows
a striated organization of public and
private spaces which include restaurants
and shops, public facilities, harbormaster,
yacht club, and apartments above. The
apartment building bifurcates to create
a “Y.” The form produces a high amount
of exterior surface area offering a maxi­
mum amount of views, and rises to form
a public observation roof to the sea.
The building is situated along a
new fabricated terrain that is extended
from Beirut’s Corniche, the seaside
promenade, to create an “urban beach”
of public spaces overlooking the Marina.
Stairs and ramps are integrated to
provide access to the waterfront level.
The syncopated rhythm of platforms
is achieved by constructing the overall
curve of the Corniche in five angles
related to the five reflection pools.
Due to the variations in height along
the Corniche, the platform levels and
pools vary slightly in height, allowing quiet,
gravity-fed fountains to connect each
pool level.

opposite and right

A new series of public
spaces along the
Corniche overlooking
the Marina

259
 Third Floor Apartment Plan    5m

opposite
A public viewing
platform overlooking
the sea Site Plan    15m

260
Akbuk Peninsula Akbuk, Turkey 2006–2010
Dense Pack

Overlooking the Aegean Sea, a new radiant-slab system supplies all heating
eco-reserve of small town fragments, and cooling. Solar water heating and
like islands in a preserved landscape gray- and storm-water recycling via
of cultivated natural vegetation, will ponds and cisterns further minimize
be characterized by advanced techno­ the ecological footprint.
logies in sustainability, while also
anchored in the poetic reverie of this
ancient site. The nearby ancient Greek
town of Miletus inspires a compact
gridded plan. Three dense-pack “islands”
are strategically located in relation
to the site’s topography, maximizing the
natural landscape and minimizing roads,
surface parking, and infrastructure:
under the ground, a spa and town­houses
cut into the earth; in the ground;
courtyard villas with pools; and over
PRIENE
the ground, a dense pack precinct
with apartments around courtyards
on a platform over a parking and cistern
level below. This main urban “island”
has a special assembly space shaped by
three solstice spiral skylights. Courtyard PRESENT SHORELINE
OLD SHORELINE

houses in two-story-high dense-pack

construction in white concrete (mixed (LADE)

with local stone) have solar shades of

MILETOS

Turkish chestnut, prefabricated in North BAFA GOLU

Turkey by local craftsmen continuing

ancient woodworking traditions.
With optimized solar shading, natural SACRED WAY

ventilation, thermal rock storage, and

thermal mass construction, a seawater PANORMOS
AKBUK

DIDIM
AEGEAN SEA

opposite top right APOLLON TEMPLE

Miletus—the oldest Concept and sketch
gridded city in western
civilization; twenty right AKBUK PENINSULA
DENSE PACK SITE
minutes from the site Site map

MILAS BODRUM
AIRPORT

263
right
Concept sketch

far right
Site mockup: white
concrete and Turkish
Chestnut sun-screen

264
Akbuk Peninsula Dense Pack

Site Plan    12m  1 Assembly Space

2 Hammam
3 Over the Ground
(apartments)
4 Under the Ground
(townhouses)
5 In the Ground (villas)

265
Precinct Section    5m

opposite top
Assembly space based
on “Solstice Spirals”
Precinct Plan    5m 

266
Akbuk Peninsula Dense Pack

1 Summer Solstice
2 Equinox
3 Winter Solstice

1 2 3

267
Coda: Dilated Time
Steven Holl Travelling at 600 miles per hour over
the North Pole at 37,000 feet en route
from Beijing to New York City, below
me the Earth is rotating east to my right
while we are orbiting around the Sun
at 67,000 miles per hour. Even if it is
micro-incremental, I am now occupying
the phenomenon of “dilated time”—
an elastic, individual, relative time distinct
from absolute time. I have often looked
out midway on this trip to see large
cracks of open water. This year scientists
predicted the polar ice cap will melt
through for the first time in human history.
A feeling of flux and urgency combines
with curiosity and wonder.
Just as we can imagine degen­erative
forces working on our atmosphere and
climate as a gigantic centrifugal force, like
the second law of thermodynamics, with
the result being entropy and degra­dation,
we can also imagine human inventiveness
as a centripetal force. Its anti-entropic
inventions have a counteracting potential,
unforeseen in a system where unpre­
dictable events and phenomena reshape
evolution. The turning of certain aspects
of science, is overlaid with a counter-
rotation of invention powered by intuition
and energy of human imagination.
Theory, especially in regards to urban
issues—must be constantly corrected—
it should be governed by critical reflections
testing life experience and perception
while aiming for innovation. In the history
of doubt and theoretical inquiry, one of the
most forceful ruptures regarding science
and philosophy was Cartesian Doubt.
Georges Canguilhem writes: “Cartesian
Doubt refused to comment on prior
claims to knowledge. It not only rejected
the legacy of ancient medieval physics,
but erected new forms of truth in place
of the old.” Of course these ideas
have long been superseded by others,
which have critically corrected them.
If the many practical aspects of urban­­isms
push it closer to science, perhaps
it should be subject to similar critical
scrutiny. Canguilhem continues, “Only
contact with recent science can give
the historian a sense of historical rupture
and continuity . .. the history of science
is always in flux. It must correct itself
constantly.” Today, the biosciences
experience accelerated developments
and yet there are no absolute causal
relations between effects and genetics.
Doubt and flux prevail. We cannot
completely predict all outcomes.
Arguments for adjustments to
urban strategies predicated on site and
circumstance are comparable to those
within molecular biology. Mistakes occur
when general theories are applied in the
wrong place or in wrong environmental
relationships. The trial and error variations
in situated biological science are analo­
gous to site, climate, and cultural context
in urbanism. Working with doubt—accept­
ance of error and acknowl­edgment of
necessary correction is not just a condition
of the process—it is now fundamental.
We need new ways to yield the information
and the questioning fundamental to an
“always in flux” correction.
Rule-making in master planning
blocks correctability, especially over long
270
Coda: Dilated Time
intervals. Rather, the city is built up
of architectural urban interventions of
a consequential scale which can be lived
and experienced, tested in living context
and adjusted in phases. Certainly large-
scale plans for rapid transit across
cities must follow a larger plan and
vision—as well as grand scale environ­
mental works such as reclamations
and restorations. It is on the scale
of spatial and material experience that
we propose an urbanism of working
with doubt. Emphasizing experience and
new concepts of urban life, this strategy
could at once embrace the potentials
of twenty-first century developments
in many technologies and knowledge
without demanding a moralizing position.
Working with doubt on an urban scale
can allow for action, construction,
experimentation, and enable all involved
to think, experience, and rethink the
new problems and challenges.
Especially in rapidly urbanizing
cultures such as China, whole city
sectors containing everything needed
for living, working, recreation, and
education can be realized at once.
This multiple building construction is
something beyond architecture—but
not quite urban planning—it is something
in between. Distinct from collaged
or intentionally fragmented design, these
new city fragments aim to be coherent
wholes, linked to larger urban circu­
lation systems. The twenty-first century
metropolis shouldn’t aspire to be
master-planned, rather it should be a
connected system of inspired fragments.
The potential to fuse architecture,
urban­ism, and landscape architecture
together with the most advanced energy
and environmental techniques is given
unprecedented potential in such projects.
New types of twenty-first century density
can counter suburban sprawl. Rather than
spreading out, cities can build up and
simultaneously preserve open rural land,
thereby sustaining ecosystems.
Anticipation of a future in which
present polluting tendencies are reversed
should include a future aimed at the poor
and the rich, in an integrated humanity,
on a planet of renewed air and purified
water. Proceeding toward an international
civili­zation, landscapes should be refor­
ested and restored while ultra-modern
urban constructions are realized. Macro-
focused plans can fuse landscape and
archi­tecture while simultaneously restoring
natural landscapes. Rather than becoming
categorical or moralistic, experimen­tation
and innovative action should accompany
exploration of unprecedented techniques.
Today we may be at a paradigm shift
in time; a time-dilation. Like Thomas
Kuhn’s concept of “incommensurability”
or “discontinuities,” the moment we
occupy can be seen without ideological
or positivist bias.
An echo from deep time of the
ancient past thrust out to the unknown
time of the distant future puts the
plane of the present in what Henri-Louis
Bergson termed “duration.” Bergson’s
frame of reference was the temporal—
not only the spatial sense of being.
As urbanists, architects, and landscape
architects this temporal philo­sophical
frame is as crucial to our plastic spatial
creations as it is to music, philo­sophy,
or any of the visual arts. The unforesee­
able, the specter of doubt, sets us in
an inconclusive circle in regard to larger
durations. We have the charge to work
with doubt creatively and enthusiastically.
We need to put in question every crucial
aspect of our present: to question global
capitalism in reflective comparison of
unparalleled environmental degradation.
Discontinuities can be opportunities
for real innovation. The first decade
of the twenty-first century has presented
threats and chaotic unknowns. Denial
and condemnation of these discontinuities
are a predictable response. Possibilities
are not an a priori category. Possibilities
are something we create for ourselves.
Where there is a threat, a chaotic unknown,
we insert continuous creation; dislodging
ourselves from stasis and driving the
unknown limits of discovery and invention.
I remember reading in Jorge Luis
Borges’s “Garden of Forking Paths”
(1941) that “it is not space, but time which
forks.” For all the rich urban schemes of
the past we cannot completely predict the
cities of the future. We can only imagine
architectures and urbanisms as a “function
of becoming” and with that becoming,
the unending need for innovative social
juxtaposition, explorations in new energy,
and new material concepts. Just as
environ­mental and social innovations are
introduced, so the spatial and material
sense of these new constructions may yield
unforeseen pleasure and experiential joy.
271
The Megaform and the Helix
Kenneth Frampton While discriminating between a megaform
and a megastructure may border on
the pedantic, one may readily discern
the difference when one compares
the L’Illa Block in Barcelona of 1992 to
the Centre Pompidou realized in Paris
some twenty years earlier. Where as the
former impacts the city at an anthrogeo­
graphic scale, the latter puts a rhetorical
emphasis on the structure itself, in a
similar way as such eminent nineteenth-
century works as the Eiffel Tower and
the Brooklyn Bridge. Where a megaform
tends toward being a unifying gesture
at a large scale, a megastructure
is primarily a structural invention that
however much it may transform the
topography and contribute to the sense
of place, is still primarily a free-standing
object. One may witness the difference
between these paradigms from a slightly
different standpoint when one compares,
say Utzon’s Sydney Opera House to
the Sydney Harbor Bridge (1) as these
landmarks confront each other across
the mouth of the harbor.
The megaform first seems to rise
in the modern imagination with the
emergence of the tentacular city although
we may trace a germ of this concept in the
Palais Royale, built at the time of Louis
Philippe. It truly takes hold at a mega-
scale with Henry Jules Borie’s Aerodomes
projected for Paris in 1865. In the next
century it comes to be adopted as a
normative paradigm in a series of urban
expansions during the first decade,
of above in such gargantuan megaforms
as Karl Ehn’s Karl Marx Hof (2), Vienna
of 1927, where it comes into being as
the result of a socialist policy to colonize
the suburbs with worker’s housing in
the form of blocks.
Steven Holl first broaches the
megaform in his serial Pamphlet
Architecture publications, featuring such
hypothetical mega-proposals as his
Gymnasium Bridge for the South Bronx
of 1977 or his Bridge of Houses of 1979
where the time-honored element of
a bridge comes to be fused, as in the
Ponte Vecchio, with a cellular form
designed for human habitation.
There was already an awareness,
however unconscious it may have been,
that when it came to the prospect of
significant urban intervention, conven­-
tional picturesque stratagems were
largely unable to constitute the basis
for effective remedial action. Although
we know that Holl’s Neo-Tendenza
proposals were extremely schematic,
they nonetheless led him to the bolder
and more realizable proposals that
he made for Les Halles, Paris in
1979 and for the Porto Vittoria area
of Milan seven years later, both of
which were subsets of the megaform
idea, conceptually related to the
peri­meter block.
Three years later, in 1989, Holl
re-casts the megaform concept at the
heroic scale of the American Continent,
in a series of regionally inflected, geo­
graphical proposals, initially projected
for the magazine, Design Quarterly.
Each of these self-generated projects
issued from the exuberance of his
272
The Megaform and the Helix
imagination with a boldness that even
now is nothing less than startling:
the Spiroid Sectors, projected for Dallas-
Fort Worth; the Stitch Plan designed
for Cleveland, Ohio; the Erie Canal Edge
for Rochester, New York; the Spatial
Retaining Bars for Phoenix, Arizona;
and, finally, in 1990, the Parallax Towers
projected for the Hudson River Front
in Manhattan. It is more than likely that
El Lissitzky’s audacious, anti-skyscraper
1 Wolkenbugel (3) project of 1924 was
the initial inspiration behind these
proposals; the idea of an aerial megaform
that was capable of bracketing the
wide-open American landscape, with
its boundless horizons. Proposals
at this scale recall the civic works of
the TVA in the New Deal period, although
today we are barely able to desire, let
alone to achieve, interventions at such
2 a breath-taking scale.
Holl would have to wait for the
booming architectural culture of the
Far East for his megaformal aspirations
to come to fruition. I have in mind his
Hinged Space Housing, Fukuoka and
his Makuhari Perimeter Block develop­
ment, Chiba, both built in Japan between
1991 and 1996 and, more recently,
his largest megaform to date, his 780-
unit Linked Hybrid, comprising eight
3 high rise towers linked by aerial bridges
containing amenities of various kinds
from a swimming pool to a health club.
To this achievement we may now
add his “horizontal” mixed-use sky­
scraper built for the Vanke Corporation
in Shenzhen, China, accommodating
residences, a hotel, and offices built
in the spring of 2009 and the spiraling
“spheroid” of his Museum for Art and
Architecture, completed in Nanjing, China
in 2009. It is somehow sobering to realize
that none of these privately financed
proposals could have been realized in
the so-called First World, which today
is being rapidly displaced from its former
economic and cultural supremacy.
Despite the limitations of the North
American scene, Holl has been able
to come up with buildings that are
essentially pitched at the scale of being
topographic megaforms, even if the
megalopolis as a whole is not directly
implicated. Within this genre we may
cite two recent works of the office where
this is the ultimate outcome if not the
driving force of the form; the Art and Art
History Building at the University of
Iowa, Iowa City of 2006, and the Nelson
Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
of 2007. In the first instance we are
confronted with a fractured, quasi-pin
wheeling complex, rendered in core-ten
steel, which, both within and without,
displays a markedly topographic character.
This is inserted into a largely man-made
landscape, comprising a park, a lake,
a nearby river, and a loosely charged
inner suburban street grid. In the second
instance, we are set before an exten­-
sively subterranean museological
megaform, which mostly makes itself
manifest in the form of large, irregular,
luminous glass prisms rising above
the undulating hump of its subterranean
galleries, connected underground to
273
the existing Neoclassical form of the
Nelson Atkins Museum. This extension
is a tour de force of earth, light, and
water, focused upon the sub-aqueous
moons of a foreground reflecting pool,
designed with Walter de Maria.
The other underlying impulse
informing Holl’s work from the end
of the 80s has been the concept
of intertwining, which would constitute
the title of the second of his illustrated
theoretical texts published in 1996.
However uncon­sciously it may have
been, one cannot help thinking that
the ultimate origin for this mythical /  The building assumes a highly topo­graphic
topological concept in Holl’s imagination
remains the double helix of the genetic
code first formulated as a scientific
hypo­thesis by Crick and Watson in 1953.
This scientific model reworked archi­
tecturally via the ramped circulation
of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye of 1929,
resurfaces as an impulse in Holl’s work
in different introverted and extroverted
ways; introverted as in such works
as the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Helsinki (1993–98) and extroverted
as in his Spiroid Sector project of
1990 in which labyrinthic orthogonal
mass-forms lock over each other to
create that which Holl would characterize
as an integrated morphology that with
“looping armatures containing hybrid
macro programs, public transit stations,
health clubs, cinemas, and galleries,”
exactly the kinds of programs that will
occupy the rooftop aerial bridges of
his Hybrid building now near completion
in Beijing.
The idea of helical intertwining
also serves as a point of departure in
Holl’s project for the Museum of Modern
Art, New York of 1997 and for his Y-House,
completed in the Catskill Mountains,
New York, in 1999. It arises in a less
literal form, in the spiraling stairs at the
heart of the University of Iowa Art and
Art History Building finished in 2006.
In this instance the internal spatial energy
of the circulation, together with the
heuristic parti pris of Picasso’s Guitar
sculpture of 1912 engenders the plastic
cacophony energy of the overall mass.
character, which spread-eagles out across
the site to engage first one feature and
then another; running from the original
foundation building of the university to
the lake and its tree-lined park, to ricochet
off the eroding contours off an adjacent
limestone bluff and so on. This work
may be considered to be a megaform
in as much as it serves as an activating
and unifying catalyst for a whole series
of features, which hitherto had no
relationship to one another.
Holl’s anti-object concept of
a building fusing into a landform with
potentially civic connotations (as
set forth in his essay “Fusion Landscape / 
Urbanism /A   rchitecture”) has perhaps
never been more dynamically formulated
than in his aforementioned Horizontal
Skyscraper, projected for Shenzhen, due
for completion in 2009. In addition to
the conceptual metaphor of “a building
floating on a higher sea that has now
subsided,” we might think of the overall
figure as a giant origami repre­sentation
of a “helix” that has now been partially
unfolded, its disengaged extremities
fanning out in such a way as to implicate
different contingent topographic features,
such as the oceanic views to the south,
while turning its back on alpine vistas
to the north. Raised in part on giant
occupied pilotis and in part on artificial
ground covering lecture halls etc., or
alternatively opening up within the site
to embrace courtyards, retaining ponds,
water gardens, and swimming pools,
etc. A similar, fragmented, megaform
exfoliated vertically, makes up the caco­
phonic glacial void of a giant orthogonal
megablock in Chengdu (4), taking
its place within Holl’s ever-changing,
unprecedented urban syntax under
the somewhat outlandish title of “sliced
porosity.” In a subsequent proposal
for Ningbo (5) in China this obsession
with porosity is atomized into a multi-
leveled matrix, alternating between built-
form and voids. This ultra-rationalistic
gesture, both the megaform and the
helix are mutually vitiated and uncharac­
teristically replaced by a layered grid
totally removed from the habitual
exuberance of Holl’s plastic vision.
274
The Megaform and the Helix

275
Project Credits

Bronx Gymnasium Bridge Parallax Towers (Edge of a City) Pratt Institute Higgins Hall Insertion
1977 1989–1990 1997–2005

location location location

South Bronx, New York, USA New York, New York, USA Brooklyn, New York, USA
program program program
Bridge to Randall’s Island Alternative proposal for Manhattan’s Lobby gallery, studios, auditorium,
design architect Seventy-second Street rail yards digital resource center, review room,
Steven Holl including offices, apartment, gallery terrace, and workshops for
hotel rooms, and the extension of architecture school
Riverside Park client
design architect Pratt Institute
Bridge of Houses on Elevated Rail Steven Holl size
1980–1982 project team 22,500 sf
Peter Lynch, Romain Ruther design architect
location Steven Holl
New York, New York, USA associate-in-charge
program Tim Bade
Housing, elevated public promenade, and Storefront for Art and Architecture project architect
convention center designed for 1992–1993 Makram el Kadi
the abandoned elevated railroad project team
on Manhattan’s west side location Martin Cox, Annette Goderbauer,
size New York, New York, USA Erik Langdalen
147,500 sf program associate architect
design architect Facade renovation for small Rogers Marvel Architects
Steven Holl architecture gallery structural engineer
project team design architects Robert Silman Associates, P.C.
Mark Janson, Joseph Fenton, Steven Holl, Vito Acconci mechanical engineer
Suzanne Powadiuk, James Rosen project team Ove Arup & Partners
Chris Otterbine curtain wall consultant
R.A. Heintges & Associates
lighting consultant
Arc Light Design
construction manager
F.J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc.

276
Project Credits

World Trade Center Collaboration associate-in-charge Survey, traffic, geotech,

2002 (competition) Jay Siebenmorgen environmental & civil engineer
project architect Langan
location Marcus Carter MEP engineer
New York, New York, USA project team ICOR Associates
program Justin Allen, Tim Bade, Lesley Chang, site sustainability consultant
mixed use tower with offices and retail Frank-Olivier Cottier, Rodolfo Dias, Transsolar
client Peter Englaender, Ayat Fadaifard, Nick
Lower Manhattan Development Gelpi, Rúnar Halldórsson, Jongseo
Corporation Lee, Maki Matsubayashi, Ernest Ng,
design architect Gyoung-Nam Kwon, Gabriela Pinto, Erie Canal Houses (Edge of a City)
Steven Holl Dominik Sigg, Ebbie Wisecarver, 1989–1990
project architect Noah Yaffe
Makram el Kadi location
project team Rochester, New York, USA
Simone Giostra, Mohammed Ziad program
Jamaleddine, Irene Vogt, Hudson Yards New urban sector at canal edge,
Christian Wassman 2001 providing housing and retail
collaborators location design architect
Richard Meier & Associates, New York, New York, USA Steven Holl
Eisenman Architects, Gwathmey program project team
Siegel & Associates Architects Mixed use tower with offices Bryan Bell, Pier Copat, Ben Frombgen
client
Extell Development Company
size
Highline Hybrid Tower 11,130,000 sf Stitch Plan (Edge of a City)
2005 design architect 1989–1990
Steven Holl, Chris McVoy
location project architect location
New York, New York, USA Nick Gelpi Cleveland, Ohio, USA
program project team program
Mixed use tower with offices, hotel, Sofie Holm Christensen, Ayat Urban planning project providing living,
and condominiums Fadaifard, Rúnar Halldórsson, working, recreational, and cultural
size Rafael Ng, Ebbie Wisecarver, facilities
746,000 Christina Yessios design architect
design architect landscape architect Steven Holl
Steven Holl Olin Partnership project team
partner-in-charge construction Bryan Bell, Patricia Botsch, Pier Copat,
Chris McVoy Bovis Lend Lease Janet Cross, Ben Frombgen, Peter Lynch

277
Spatial Retaining Bars (Edge of a City) Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University MIT Campus Master Plan
1989–1990 1994–1997 1999

location location location

Phoenix, Arizona, USA Seattle, Washington, USA Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
program program program
Proposal for a new city edge, buildings Jesuit chapel for Seattle University Campus master plan
providing residential, office, and client size
cultural facilities Seattle University 639,764 sf
design architect size client
Steven Holl 6,100 sf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
project team design architect design architect
Pier Copat, Janet Cross, Ben Frombgen, Steven Holl Steven Holl
Peter Lynch project architect associate-in-charge
Tim Bade Tim Bade
project team project team
Jan Kinsbergen, Justin Korhammer, Mohammed Ziad Jamaleddine
Spiroid Sectors (Edge of a City) Audra Tuskes
1989–1990

location The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Dallas, Texas, USA UCSF Mission Bay Master Plan 1999–2007
program 1996
Proposal for a hybrid building sited location
in the partly settled area between Dallas location Kansas City, Missouri, USA
and Fort Worth San Francisco, California, USA program
design architect program Museum addition and renovation
Steven Holl Invited master plan competition client
project team for new biomedical research campus Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Laura Briggs, Janet Cross, Scott Enge, size size
Tod Fouser, Hal Goldstein, Peter Lynch, 1,600,000 sf 165,000 sf
Chris Otterbine design architect design architects
Steven Holl Steven Holl, Chris McVoy
project architect partner-in-charge
Martin Cox Chris McVoy
project team project architects
Pablo Castro-Estévez, Martin Cox, Richard Tobias
Annette Goderbauer, Katharina Hahnle

278
Project Credits

project team School of Art & Art History, civil engineers

Masao Akiyoshi, Gabriela Barman- University of Iowa Shive-Hattery
Kraemer, Matthias Blass, Molly Blieden, 1999–2006 general contractors
Elissavet Chryssochoides, Robert Larson Construction
Edmonds, Simone Giostra, Annette location
Goderbauer, Mimi Hoang, Makram Iowa City, Iowa, USA
el Kadi, Edward Lalonde, Li Hu, program
Justin Korhammer, Linda Lee, Fabian Art and Art History Building Green Urban Laboratory
Llonch, Stephen O’Dell, Irene Vogt, including facilities for sculpture, 2002 (competition)
Urs Vogt, Christian Wassman painting, printmaking, graduate
local architects studios, administrative offices, location
BNIM Architects gallery, and library Nanning, China
structural engineers client program
Guy Nordenson and Associates University of Iowa 9,000 residences, schools, shops, and an
associate structural engineer size anthropology museum
Structural Engineering Associates 70,000 sf size
mechanical engineers design architects 6,118,766 sf
Ove Arup & Partners, W.L. Cassell Steven Holl, Chris McVoy, client
& Associates Martin Cox Guangxi Runhe estate Development
glass consultant associate-in-charge Co., Ltd
R.A. Heintges & Associates Martin Cox design architect
lighting consultant project architects Steven Holl
Renfro Design Group Li Hu, Gabriela Barman-Kramer project team
landscape architect project team Li Hu, Ziad Jamaleddine, Makram el Kadi,
Gould Evans Goodman Associates Arnault Biou, Regina Chow, Elsa Anderson Lee
artist Chryssochoides, Hideki Hirahara,
Walter DeMaria Brian Melcher, Chris Otterbein,
Susi Sanchez, Irene Vogt, Urs Vogt
associate architects
Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck
Architecture
structural engineers
Guy Nordenson and Associates
associate structural engineers
Structural Engineering Associates
mechanical engineers
Alvine and Associates
curtain wall consultants
WJ Higgins & Co.

279
Museum of Art & Architecture Linked Hybrid Mike Fung, M. Emran Hossain,
2002–2008 2003–2009 Gyoung-Nam Kwon, Jongseo Lee,
Eric Li, Tz-Li Lin, Maki Matsubayashi,
location location Giorgos Mitroulas, Daijiro Nakayama,
Nanjing, China Beijing, China Olaf Schmidt, Judith Tse, Clark
program program Manning, Li Wang, Ariane Wiegner,
Museum complex with galleries, 689 apartment units totaling of 135,000 Lan Wu, Noah Yaffe, Liang Zhao
tea room, bookstore, and a curator’s m2, cinematheque, kindergarten, associate architects
residence galleries, shops, gym, cafe, and 1,000-car Beijing Capital Engineering Architecture
size underground parking garage Design Co. Ltd.
30,000 sf size structural engineer
design architect 221,462 m2 Guy Nordenson and Associates + China
Steven Holl, Li Hu Site Area: 6.18 hectares Academy of Building Research
associate-in-charge client mechanical engineer
Hideki Hirahara Modern Group Development Co., LTD. Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH +
project architect Beijing, China Cosentini Associates + Beijing Capital
Clark Manning, Daijiro Nakayama design architect Engineering Architecture Design Co. Ltd.
project team Steven Holl, Li Hu landscape
Joseph Kan, Jongseo Lee, Richard Liu, partner-in-charge Steven Holl Architects + EDAW Beijing
Sarah Nichols Li Hu + Beijing Top-Sense Landscape Design
associate architects project architect Limited Co.
Architectural Design Institute, Hideki Hirahara interior designer
Nanjing University assistant project architect Steven Holl Architects + China National
structural consultant Yenling Chen Decoration Co., LTD
Guy Nordenson and Associates: technical advisor lighting
Matthias Beckh, Guy Nordenson, Tim Bade, Chris McVoy L’Observatoire International
Brett Schneider project designer curtain wall
lighting design Gong Dong, Peter Enlaender, Jiang-He Curtain Wall Co., LTD + Front
L’Observatoire International Garrick Ambrose, Edward Lalonde, Inc. + Xi’an Aircraft Industry Company
James Macgillivray, Young Jang, LTD + Yuanda
Richard Liu, Rodolfo Dias, general contractor
Guido Guscianna, Matthew Uselman Beijing construction engineering group
project team
Jason Anderson, Lei Bao,
Christian Beerli, Johnna Cressica
Brazier, Cosimo Caggiula, Kefei Cai,
Guanlan Cao, Yimei Chan, Shih-I
Chow, Sofie Holm Christensen,
Frank O. Cottier, Christiane Deptolla,

280
Project Credits

Xi’an New Town project manager Sliced Porosity Block

2005 Gong Dong, Yimei Chan 2007–2010
project architect
location Garrick Ambrose, Maren Koehler, location
Xi’an, China Jay Siebenmorgen, Christopher Brokaw, Chengdu, China
program Rodolfo Dias program
Urban planning project for a new town assistant project architect five towers with offices, serviced
of 50,000 inhabitants including housing, Eric Li apartments, retail, a hotel, cafes,
cultural spaces, offices, public services, project team and restaurants
school, and commercial spaces Jason Anderson, Guanlan Cao, size
size Clemence Eliard, Forrest Fulton, Nick 3,000,000 sf
7,742,782 sf Gelpi, M. Emran Hossain, Seung Hyun client
design architect Kang, JongSeo Lee, Wan-Jen Lin, CapitaLand Development
Steven Holl Richard Liu, Jackie Luk, Enrique Moya- design architects
project architects Angeler, Roberto Requejo, Jiangtao Steven Holl, Li Hu
Li Hu, James MacGillivray Shen, Michael Rusch, Filipe Taboada associate-in-charge
project team project team, competition phase Roberto Bannura
Garrick Ambrose, Nick Gelpi, Giorgos Steven Holl, Li Hu, Gong Dong, Justin project architect Beijing
Mitroulias, Lan Wu Allen, Garrick Ambrose, Johnna Lan Wu
Brazier, Kefei Cai, Yenling Chen, Hideki project architect New York
Hirahara, Eric Li, Filipe Taboada Haiko Cornelissen, JongSeo Lee
associate architects project designer
Floating Horizontal Skyscraper CCDI Christiane Deptolla, Inge Goudsmit,
(Vanke Center) climate engineers Sarah Nichols, Maki Matsubayashi,
2006–2009 Transsolar Martin Zimmerli
structural engineer project team
location CABR, CCDI Justin Allen, Jason Anderson, Francesco
Shenzhen, China mechanical engineer Bartolozzi , Yimei Chan, Sofie Holm
program CCDI Christensen, Esin Erez, Peter Englaender,
Mixed-use building including hotel, landscape architect Ayat Fadaifard, Mingcheng Fu, Guanlan
offices, and condominiums, public park Steven Holl Architects, CCDI Cao, Rúnar Halldórsson, M. Emran
size curtain wall consultant Hossain, Joseph Kan, Suping Li, Tz-Li
863,266 sf Yuanda Curtain-wall Lin, Jackie Luk, Daijiro Nakayama,Pietro
client lighting consultant Peyron, Roberto Requejo, Elena Rojas-
Shenzhen Vanke Real Estate Co L’Observatoire International Danielsen, Ida Sze, Filipe Taboada, Ebbie
design architect Wisecarver, Human Tieliu Wu, Jin-ling Yu
Steven Holl, Li Hu associate architects
partner-in-charge China Academy of Building Research
Li Hu

281
 mep and fire engineer World Design Park Complex Makuhari Bay New Town
Ove Arup & Partners 2007 1992–1996
leed consultant
Ove Arup & Partners location location
structural engineer Seoul, Korea Chiba, Tokyo, Japan
China Academy of Building Research client program
quantity surveyor Seoul Metropolitan Government 190 units of housing, retail, and
Davis Langdon & Seah (DLS) design architect public facilities
traffic consultant Steven Holl size
MVA Hong Kong Ltd associate-in-charge 27,601 sf
Noah Yaffe client
project architect Mitsui Fudosan Group
JongSeo Lee design architect
Ningbo Fine Grain project team Steven Holl
2008– Ayat Fadaifard, Gyoung-Nam Kwon, project architect
Chris McVoy, Woosik Min, Quang Truong Tomoaki Tanaka
location local architect project team, master plan
Ningbo, China Samoo Architects & Engineers; Mario Gooden, Tom Jenkinson,
program Jungyoun Choi, Inho Jeong, Insoo Kim, Janet Cross, Terry Surjan
Mixed-use development with retail, Jungmin Lee project team, design development / 
entertainment, cultural, offices, hotels, construction
and residential Anderson Lee, Sumito
size Takashina, Sebastian Schulze,
total area: 31 hectares; total floor area Void Space / Hinged Space Gundo Sohn, Justin Korhammer,
above ground: 400,000 square meters 1989–1991 Bradford Kelley, Lisina Fingerhuth,
client Anna Müller, Jay Kinsbergen,
Ningbo Yaxin Investment Consultants location Hideaki Ariizumi
Co., Ltd. Fukuoka, Japan associate architects
design architect program Kajima Design (project team:
Steven Holl, Chris McVoy, Li Hu Mixed use complex with 28 residential Toshio Enomoto, Masahiro Shimazaki,
project architect apartments Kazuhiko Funo, Akihito Morino,
Human Tieliu Wu size Yashushi Ninomiya), K. Sone
project team 14,000 sf & Environmental Design Associates
Nikole Bouchard, Sofie Holm client (principal: Konichi Sone; project
Christensen, M. Emran Hossain, Fukuoka-Jishu Co., Japan architect: Tomoko Watanabe;
Joseph Kan, John Lam, Eric Li, design architect project team: Yoshihiro Kanamaru,
Gabriela Pinto, Clare Smith Steven Holl Hisakazu Ishijima)
project team engineer
Hideaki Ariizumi, Pier Copat, Peter Lynch Kajima Design

282
Project Credits
block design coordinator
Konichi Sone
block architect
Toshio Enomoto, Kajima Design
landscape architect
JUKA Garden and Architecture
lighting consultant
L’Observatoire International
Manifold Hybrid
1994
location
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
program
182-unit housing block
size
254,351 sf
design architect
Steven Holl
project architect
Justin Korhammer
project team
Martin Cox, Anderson Lee
Sarphatistraat Offices Toolenburg-Zuid
1996–2000 2001
location location
Amsterdam, The Netherlands Schiphol, The Netherlands
program program
new headquarters for housing developer planning competition for new residential
size community
3,500 sf (addition), 50,000 sf (renovation) design architect
client Steven Holl
woningbouwvereniging Het Oosten associate-in-charge
design architect Martin Cox
Steven Holl project architects
project architect Gabriela Barman-Kramer, Martin Cox
Justin Korhammer project team
project team Molly Blieden, Makram el Kadi,
Hideaki Arizumi, Martin Cox, Jason Frantzen, Mathew Johnson,
Annette Goderbauer, Yoh Hanaoka, Chris Otterbine
Heleen van Heel
associate architects
Rappange & Partners Architecten b.v.
structural engineers Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art
Ingenieursgroep Van Rossum 1992–1998
electrical & mechanical engineers
Technical Management location
building services consultants Helsinki, Finland
Technical Management program
general contractors Art museum including galleries, theater,
VOF Van Eesteren, Koninklijke cafe, shop, and artist workshop
Woudenberg size
lighting consultants 130,000 sf
L’Observatoire International client
artists Finnish Ministry of Public Building
Matt Mullican (fencing), Maria Roosen design architect
(sculpture forecourt) Steven Holl
project architect
Vesa Honkonen
project team
Tim Bade, Molly Blieden,
283
Stephen Cassell, Pablo Castro-Estevez, Meander Porta Vittoria
Janet Cross, Bradford Kelley, Justin 2006 1986
Korhammer, Lee Anderson, Chris McVoy,
Anna Müller, Justin Rüssli, Tomoaki location location
Tanaka, Tapani Talo Helsinki, Finland Milan, Italy
local architect program program
Juhani Pallasmaa Architects: Offices and mixed use: 49 apartments, Urban planning proposal including
Juhani Pallasmaa, Time Kiukkola, 500 m2 rental space, garage, rooftop park and botanical gardens
Seppo Mäntylä, Heikki Määttänen, Timo sauna, and running track design architect
Ruusuvuori, Seppo Sivula, Merita Soini size Steven Holl
structural engineer 29,146 sf project team
Insinööritoimisto OY Matti Ollila & Co. client Jacob Allerdice, Laurie Beckerman,
HVAC engineer City of Helsinki & Senate Properties Meta Brunzema, Stephen Cassel,
Insinööritoimisto Olof Granlund OY design architect Gisue Hariri, Paola Iaccuci, Peter
electrical engineer Steven Holl Lynch, Ralph Nelson, Ron Peterson,
Tauno Nissinen OY Consulting Engineers project architect Darius Sollohub, Lynnette Widder
mechanical & structural engineer JongSeo Lee
Ove Arup local architect
lighting consultant Vesa Honkonen
L’Observatoire International project team Lombardia Regional Government Center
fire technical consultant Anja Hämäläinen, Mari Koskinen, 2004
Markku Kauriala Ltd. Tina Olli, Jaana Tiikkaja,
glass consultant Erika de Martino location
Engineering Office Aulis Bertin, Ltd. structural engineer Milan, Italy
theatre technical consultant Tero Aaltonen, Matti Ollila & Co., program
Teatek Consulting Engineers Ltd. Offices, public plaza, press conference
acoustical consultant and exhibition and debate facilities,
Arkkitehtitoimisto Alpo Halme cafes, and public observation deck
general contractor size
Seicon OY 1,076,391 sf
design architect
Steven Holl
project architect
Martin Cox
project team
Garrick Ambrose, Guido Cuscianna,
Makram el Kadi, Gian Carlo
Floridi, Simone Giostra, Young Jang,
Ariane Weigner

284
Project Credits

Les Halles mechanical engineer Akbuk Dense Pack

1979 (competition) Ove Arup & Partners 2006–
engineer
location Jacobs Serete location
Paris, France Akbuk, Turkey
program program
competition for housing and Mixed-use master plan including
meeting place on the site of the Beirut Marina and Town Quay apartments, townhouses, villas,
Les Halles pavilions 2002–2009 hammam, and assembly space
design architect size
Steven Holl location 355,209 sf
project team Beirut, Lebanon design architects
Stuart Diston, Joseph Fenton, program Steven Holl, Chris McVoy
Ron Steiner Apartments, restaurants, outdoor public associate-in-charge
spaces with site specific art installations, Olaf Schmidt
specialty stores, harbormaster, yacht project team
club, and public facilities Francesco Bartolozzi, Lesley Chang,
Île Seguin size Esin Erez, Nick Gelpi, Gyoung-Nam
2001 (competition) 220,000 sf Kwon, Maki Matsubayashi, Ernest Ng,
client Dominik Sigg, Ebbie Wisecarver,
location Solidere Christina Yessios
Paris, France design architect
program Steven Holl with LEFT
Invited competition for the associate in charge (design phase)
Foundation François Pinault Tim Bade
including galleries, university, project team
cafes, and public amenities Masao Akiyoshi, Edward Lalonde,
client Jongseo Lee, Brett Snyder
Pinault Foundation associate architect
design architect Nabil Gholam Architecture and Planning
Steven Holl
project architect
Annette Goderbauer
project team
Asako Akazawa, Jason Frantzen,
Li Hu, Matt Johnson, Chris McVoy,
Brian Melcher, Aislinn Weidele
structural engineer
Guy Nordenson & Associates

285
Image Credits

All images are the author’s unless 14, C. Mayhew & R. Simmon 143 (left), Andy Ryan
otherwise indicated. (NASA / GSFC), NOAA / NGDC, DMSP 143 (right), Paul Warchol
Digital Archive 146, Iwan Baan
15, World Perspectives / Taxi /  148 – 51, Shu He
Getty Images 152 (left and bottom right), Shu He
17 (bottom), Matthew Hintz 154 (top left), Iwan Baan
20, Mitchell Funk / Stone / Getty Images 155 (left), Shu He
21 (right), Paul Warchol 157 (top), Iwan Baan
23, Carlo Bavagnoli / Time & Life 160, Iwan Baan
Pictures / Getty Images   3, Shu He
162 –6
25 (top), El Lissitzky 171, Fancheng Kong
28, StockTrek / Photodisc / Getty Images 181, Iwan Baan
31, Stephen Wilkes / Stone / Getty Images 183, Iwan Baan
33, Sing Nian 184 (bottom), Iwan Baan
34, Wang Zhan Guo 187, Iwan Baan
51, Paul Warchol 189, Iwan Baan
52, Leah Meisterlin 191, Iwan Baan
54 (top left & right), Andy Ryan 195, Iwan Baan
55, David Sundberg / Esto 197 (bottom), Ningbo City Planning
56 (bottom), Andy Ryan Bureau / EDAW, Ningbo Eastern New
57, David Sundberg / Esto Town Master Plan and Core Area
62, Leah Meisterlin Urban Design
93 (top), Paul Warchol 208, Iwan Baan
95, Paul Warchol   4, Paul Warchol
212 –1
96, Leah Meisterlin 215 (left), Paul Warchol
100
  , Leah Meisterlin 221 (bottom), Paul Warchol
101
  , Michael Moran 222 (right), Paul Warchol
103
  (middle), Andy Ryan 223 (top right and left), Paul Warchol
104
  , Andy Ryan 231 (bottom), Paul Warchol
106
  , Leah Meisterlin 233, Paul Warchol
107
  (top & bottom), Andy Ryan 234 (left), Paul Warchol
110 
  – 12, Andy Ryan 273 (bottom), El Lissitzky
115
  (bottom), Tom Jorgensen 274, Iwan Baan
116
  (top & bottom), Eric Dean
118
  (left), Christian Richters
119
  , Christian Richters
132
  (top), CIPEA
135
   (top), Iwan Baan
141, Shu He

286
Acknowledgments

Architecture is the most fragile of

arts: These works depended on great
collaboration of all the energetic and
creative people listed with each of
the projects of this book, from clients,
and consultants to the architects in
our office.

Special thanks to: Solange Fabião,

Lei Bao, Michael Bell, Janine Biunno,
Molly Blieden, Tei Carpenter, Nikki
Chung, Margot Dirks, Kenneth Frampton,
Wendy Fuller, Nick Gelpi, Hideki Hirahara,
Yunsung Hong, Li Hu, Katarina Kristic,
Eric Li, Kevin C. Lippert, Chris McVoy,
Leah Meisterlin, Adam Michaels, Lauren
Nelson Packard, Alessandro Orsini, Larry
Rouch, Yehuda Safran, Julia van den Hout,
David van der Leer, Christina Yessios

287
Published by
Princeton Architectural Press
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New York, New York 10003

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Visit our web site at www.papress.com.

© 2009 Steven Holl and Princeton Architectural Press

All rights reserved
Printed and bound in China
12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 First edition

No part of this book may be used or reproduced

in any manner without written permission from the
publisher, except in the context of reviews.

Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify

owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be
corrected in subsequent editions.

Book design by Project Projects

For Princeton Architectural Press

Project editor: Lauren Nelson Packard
Production editor: Wendy Fuller
Special thanks to Nettie Aljian, Bree Anne Apperley,
Sara Bader, Nicola Bednarek, Janet Behning, Becca
Casbon, Carina Cha, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Carolyn
Deuschle, Nancy Eklund Later, Russell Fernandez,
Pete Fitzpatrck, Jan Haux, Clare Jacobson, Aileen Kwun,
Linda Lee, Laurie Manfra, John Myers, Katharine Myers,
Dan Simon, Andrew Stepanian, Jennifer Thompson,
Paul Wagner, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of
Princeton Architectural Press
—Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

For Steven Holl Architects

Edited by Steven Holl, David van der Leer,
and Janine Biunno

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Holl, Steven.
  Urbanisms : working with doubt / Steven Holl.
   p. cm.
  ISBN 978-1-56898-679-1 (alk. paper)
1. City planning—Psychological aspects. I. Title.
  NA9050.H66 2010
  711'.4—dc22
                  2009014423