DESIGN STUDIO ws 2015/16

PATTERNS OF GROWTH: MICROCITY

This volume presents excerpts from the work in the Design Studio entitled PATTERNS OF GROWTH:
MICROCITY conduced during the winter semester of the academic year 2015/2016 with the students from
the ninth semester at the Faculty of Architecture, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje.
Content

01 PATTERNS OF GROWTH: MICROCITY Introduction to the studio theme

02 MICROURBANISM: another perspective for building microcity

04 URBAN VILLA: an alternative architectural type for microcity

06 STUDIO PATTERNS OF GROWTH: MICROCITY Pedagogical steps

09 The Architecture of URBAN VILLA as a Form of Social and Cultural Critique

43 MICROCITY concept 1: PLUG-IN HOUSE

55 MICROCITY concept 2: A HOUSE IN/ABOVE A HOUSE

71 MICROCITY concept 3: SECOND HOUSE

95 MICROCITY concept 4: A YARD WITHIN A YARD

119 MICROCITY mass models

145 APPENDIX Descriptive register of spatial situations

Patterns of growth: MICROCITY
Introduction to the studio theme

The Design Studio Patterns of Growth: Microcity investigates the transforma-

tive specifics of urbanity in condition of continuous quantitative change of the
city of Skopje. The focus is on the phenomenon of growth in terms of size, vol-
ume and density, seen through the dichotomy between the city fragment and
the city as a whole. Over the last two decades Skopje has witnessed rapid in-
crease in the construction of housing developments mainly located in the res-
idential areas around the city center. The part of Debar Maalo and Bunjakovec
has been chosen for the purposes of the Patterns-of-Growth-projects as para-
digmatic example of the process of rapid densification. This area of Skopje is
epitome for the transformation that has marked the transitional post-socialist
period of urban growth in Macedonia reflecting the ongoing socio-econom-
ic and political conditions in the country. Following the development of the
urban planning and the building practices in the recent history, we can sum-
marize that the city that used to be conceived as a concept of collective effort
in the socialistic period, today is treated completely as an individual act - not
01
so much in terms of ideology, but predominantly depending on the financial
power of the individual. Despite the general urban regulations, the actual city
building starts in a single parcel and very often the architectural project as an
idea for a city is limited -and thus it ends- within a single parcel. Such a situa-
tion clearly depicts the uneven financial statuses as well as an absence of so-
cial cohesion. In terms of morphology, the urban tissue of Debar Maalo district
has gone through profound changes: through the years, single family houses
with gardens are being upgraded with additional floors or by adjunction room,
with upgrading that goes as far as complete replacement of the single family
house by multi-apartment buildings. Not only that the buildings have raised
in height, but they also tend to occupy and fulfill most of the land. The studio
work acknowledges current highly speculative aspects of the urban growth,
but takes on the principal of adaptation as a methodological tool in the inter-
ventions within an existing built context, following the essential and ethical
values in the dichotomy of architecture and city. This session the patterns of
growth are being traced through the spatial and programmatic complexity of
the specific dwelling type of the urban villa. The urban villa is taken as a test-
ground where cultural, spatial and social domains meet in the current urban
condition. The goal of the Studio Patterns of Growth is not to design a building
per se, but rather to instigate/pose relevant questions and concepts informed
by the design itself.
 MICROURBANISM: another perspective for building
Could the city grow differently?

The recent urban planning and the current building activities in Skopje show an overall ten-
dency to generate urban growth by building maximum every plot available. Following the
building practices already on scene, we can anticipate decline in the quality of living with ten-
dencies of intense privatization of space affecting also the public realm of the city. As a result,
this has led to a degradation of the neighborhood as a social instigator for urban life.
Embracing the urban growth as an inherent and vital feature of the city, the Studio work de-
parts with the question: Could the city grow differently? The concept of microcity changes the
perspective and instead of looking at one (singular) parcel, starts to observe a group of par-
cels as an initial unit for a common ground. Looking at several parcels simultaneously would
expand the zone of interest outside the limits of a particular parcel to a larger scale, but still
smaller that the urban block. The grouping of plots is not actual merge, as in the case of small
and irregular-shaped plots, in order to form appropriate shape and size that could meet the
maximum of the planned quantity. That would be a developer’s logic. Contrary to that, mi-
crourbanism pursuits growth and densification as qualitative rather than mere quantitative
change. The growth does not have to be manifested on each and every parcel in particular,
but can be generated on a wider area of several parcels as a fragment of an urban block, on
the territory of a whole urban block, or even on a territory of several blocks. For that reason,
four urban blocks (approx. 500m x 500m) comprising of 75 parcels, are extracted for studio
02 investigation. The parcels are not taken in their singularity, but grouped in 12 ensembles thus
creating authentic socio-spatial relations. The studio work is informed by the current highly
speculative aspects of the urban growth, but takes on the principal of adaptation as a method-
ological tool in the interventions within an existing built context.
This sort of micro-urbanism substitutes the typical hierarchy of the agents involved in the
city-building: the owner, the developer, and the municipality (in that specific order), with a
rhizome structure that involves the owners (plural), municipal authorities, and if necessary
joined by a developer. The focus here is on the meshwork of owners as a first instance where
the negotiations are being steered by the common interest for a qualitative improvement of
the living, further developing on the next level through the negotiations between the

Debar Maalo: four urban blocks urbanism based on differentiation of plot demarcation
 city

owners and the municipality that share the common interest to produce growth.
Once the common ground is acknowledged, the negotiation between the agents can be under-
stood better as a collaboration which is adaptive and highly contextual.
Overtaking the conditions of the buildings in situ, fed by in-depth analyses, the studio devel-
oped new architectural designs based on the various tactics relative to the condition and po-
tential of each plot and in the favor of growth and new urban development of the whole- the
group of parcels, or/and the urban block. Operational tactics range from preserving -due to
the historical/cultural value or the recent activities that have reached the limits of growth and
density on certain plot, through extending –either/both by additional floors or/and additional
room around the existing building, to replacing and displacing insufficient samples in material,
spatial and social terms.

The design methodology employed in the case of the Micro-city studio project proves the com-
mon association of architecture in the modern urban complexity with the cinematography. The
applied actions of adaptation and contextualization could be related to the artistic techniques
of collage or montage, where different forms and materials not generally associated with one
another are composed in a new form based on editing as an art of creating programmatic, so-
cial and special sequences. Furthermore, such a juxtaposition in terms of origin, material and
program can be much easily seen as an assemblage that arises from the operation of assem- 03
bling different elements/fragments in a coherent system while each of them maintains their
independence and separate identity as a means that add attention and meaning to the whole.
Perusing the micro-city on the example of Debar Maalo in Skopje the individual needs and
interests are being integrated in the narrative of the urban neighborhood. The microurbanism
implemented in the studio work oscillates between the scope of the architectural building as
a singular object and the territory that is a city-fragment that contains the notion of city-ness
in itself. In that manner the micro-urbanism links city-planning with architecture, where ar-
chitecture is a strategic tool for city-building coding the architectural object as a true engine
of urban life.

Microurbanism: fragments | assemblages

 URBAN VILLA: an alternative architectural type for
The dichotomy of the city and the building

Studio Patterns of Growth: Microcity aims to establish dialectics

between the city and the architectural object by investigating
specific architectural typology. Hence the effort to formulate, de-
ploy and test the type of the urban villa within the context of Sko-
pje central residential area (Debar Maalo). Regarding the size,
the urban villa is, simply said, bigger than a house, but smaller
than an apartment block, while on the level of the qualitative
measurements it has the advantages of both. Thus, it might be
said that it is a house and an apartment building at the same time.

Our studio research references the concept of urban villa in Oswald Mathias Ungers’ studies
on the valences of architecture and the city. His pedagogical work at TU Berlin and Cornell
SoA during the 1970s is considered highly relevant, as it goes beyond the academia convey-
ing a projective theory for the city considered an open and uncompleted cultural project in a
constant need for reformulation, based both on its historical continuity and the metropolitan
complexities of the current reality. Thus in Ungers’ pedagogical work the city was used as an
architectural laboratory that already contained the seeds for its own recovery. Ungers propos-
es the concept of Urban Villa as a form of housing that offers the advantages of the detached
04 home while avoiding the disadvantages of the apartment block.

The first Summer Academy on the topic of the Urban Villa, organized by Cornell University
in 1977 used Berlin as a laboratory for testing design strategies, where the valences of the
singular architectural gesture were reloaded into the specific fragments of the city. His work
on Berlin makes the urban villa typology for contextualization of the ongoing urban dynamics.
The above stated goes even more the same for the current situation: in our contemporary so-
ciety the individualization and improvement of the quality of life have been the gene premises
leading the processes of expanding the cities and colonizing valuable recreational and agricul-
tural areas on the outskirts of the city with detached houses.

In that sense, the type of urban villa is rather an integrative than

a substitutive urbanistic element. Although based on individually
designed living space, the type of urban villa can fit much more
easily in the urban fabric which is especially convenient for his-
toric parts of cities, such as Debar Maalo in Skopje. In the urban
vision for the new collective on the case of Debar Maalo as con-
ducted in the our design studio, the urban villa is further defined
as a housing type that accommodates four to seven units with
different ground plans relative to different lifestyles as a crucial
feature in the diversity of today’s postmodern society.
The specific case of Skopje urban villa is not limited to strictly
residential purposes. On the contrary it includes other functions
related to urban life as well.
 city

The actual fragments of the city of Skopje, sim-

ilarly to Ungers’ projects for Berlin, are used
as a laboratory for testing the possibilities of
the micro-urbanism (Debar Maalo) reflecting
dialectical relationship between the building
and the city through deployment of the archi-
tectural type of urban villas –in each project
representing distinctive architectural/spatial
character that creates urban atmosphere. The
laboratory of the Studio opens various possi-
bilities from upgrading the existing buildings
to completely replacing the old with a new
one. As a result, we have a series of architec-
tural interventions in the existing built envi-
ronment that challenge the current planning
and building practices on this specific area of
the city.
The pedagogical discourse of Microcity studio within the turmoil of our current condition has
at least two substantial objectives: firstly, to bridge the gap between the academia and the 05
practice by formulating and testing new urban visions for the growth of the city, based on lo-
cally specific occurrences and tendencies exploring new and improved realities; and secondly,
to engage architecture as a tool that is critical and resistant to political, social, and cultural
condition in the contemporary city.
The aim is not to create a unitary image as a general prescription, but a union of fragments
assembled in a living collage. In that manner, we believe the architectural project is capable to
go beyond the self-referential image of the building as an autonomous object, thus becoming
a city-fragment with the city-ness embedded in its spatial and formal architectural language.