Urban Networks

The latent reorders the apparent

Columbia University . Studio Sequence 1
Reinhold Martin Studio . Fall 97

01 . An Alternative Calibration of Time
An analysis of New York City traffic reports reveals a system of alternative indicators which is used to recalibrate and resequence linear time.

Three news radio stations were scanned to collect data: WINS, WCBS, Bloomberg. each plugged their sponsors with every traffic report. these call-signs, identical and repeated, are used as a unit of time measurement. overriding the calibration of time into minutes, each traffic report is reconstituted according to the call-signs.

latent increments are made apparent by a process of dissection. the original graph is rearranged in both axes to dismantle the found system and to extract units of a new logic.

A set of parameters activate the units with behavioral characteristics such as direction, scale, repetition, and translation. the units are deployed into a field where new relationships emerge. the result is a notation diagram coded with formal behaviors.

02 . A Relationship of Co-Dependency
From the notation diagram three dimensional relationships are sought. Wire stitches and surfaces of extruded entities act as each other’s prosthetics to be sewn into a new system of fragments.

03 . The Curb
The regulartory devices of the street, curb and paint stripes, are deployed to redraw the boundaries they define.

Manhattan consists of multiple layers of underground infrastructure which are manifest on the street surface as utility covers. They demarcate zones to erase and reconstruct the curb on Canal Street in Lower Manhattan.

These control points are assigned behaviors to question how various programs occupy the street within the existing logic of paint stripes and 4” curbs.

Curb Erosions / Reappropriations / Topographic Disturbances

Crosswalk transitions to a cafe on an inclined surface / paint stripes, demarcating lanes, are given a height to discourage car traffic. the sidewalk expands / crosswalk into a sunken sidewalk. subway entrance screens the
sidewalk from congested canal street.

Curbs are eroded and redrawn, paint stripes are raised to act as physical barriers, sloped street surfaces rise up to become taxi stands and seating areas.