In an age where technologies and global economies develop at unfathomable rates, the flux and migration of human populations grow exponentially. With this flux comes new pressures; spatial, economic, socio-political. As the fabric of major developing cities change, the aforementioned pressures test the limits of our urban infrastructural systems. Emergent conditions of spatiality and socialism proceed to spring forth from the inefficiencies of existing urban structures. Space, program, and its’ limits are redefined as the rules of organization are re-written.

SuperCity tests the interstitial condition between the formally planned city and the ad-hoc expansion of squatter developments. Responsive kinetic systems become catalysts in a fringe condition. Advanced architectural machines mitigate conditions of top-down as well as bottom-up urban structures. Therefore, producing a sensory space that adapts, absorbs, and releases the pressures of the geo-economical gap between these urban typologies.

Very early in the projects development there was a strong interest in extreme interstitial conditions. It was the discovery of a video recording of a market in Bangkok that shaped the projects eminent direction. It was in this video that I saw a living responsive kinetic space. A marketplace where people are buying goods that is completely transformed with the arrival of a train. The marketplace retracts, changing its’ physical dimensions and presence to accommodate a changing condition. The market disappears and the latent circulation railway emerges as active. Within seconds of the trains departure the market literally unravels back into its’ active state.

Following the discovery of this market condition, I began a series of experiments developing kinematic machines using the Maya animation software. At first the experiments were very attached to conventional architectural components, in essence, things that already existed; sliding doors, shutter components, etc. To free myself up from convention and bring some headroom into an exploratory phase in the project, I developed a generative algorithm in Maya that would produce unconventional variations of machines. This proved to be incredibly helpful in unlocking the potential of architectural machines, as it brought about different perspectives on structure, skin, and spatiality.

The site for the project, Bombay, India, was chosen for its’ extreme contrast in behavior and status; with Dharavi, Asia’s second largest slum on one side of the site, and a relatively well planned affluent neighborhood directly opposite. From previous experiments developing architectural machines, a critical concept that arose was that of latching on to an existing infrastructure. The responsive kinetic environment would need a host/support structure. Thus the interstitial zone separating the two areas being an active railway would provide that infrastructure.

Through several iterations of machine development and site analysis, the proposal became more specifically sited in between two neighboring train stops. Within this zone the transfer logic of the rails were intensified to allow machines to move laterally within smaller distances. This also enabled for the subdivision of a hard and soft landscape within the market space. The machines themselves, called P.A.M’s, or ‘Polar Adaptation Modules’ developed an elemental behavior, taking on a corridor or canopy configuration. The complexity and richness is generated through their organization, which is driven by market activity and the presence of users. The P.A.M’s are equipped with lighting and misting systems, thus changing the environment both spatially and thermodynamically by providing cooling zones.

Sited on a railway separating Asia's second largest slum from an affluent neighborhood in Mumbai, SuperCity is proposal for a responsive kinetic marketplace. Advanced architectural machines equipped with sensory capabilities create and reconfigure informal spaces for the commercial exchange of goods. Thus what was once a socio-economic boarder is transformed into dynamic threshold driven by activity and exchange.

Intro footage from Wes Anderson's 'The Darjeeling Limited'(2007)