City. Order. Chaos.
The city is an economic/political structure that is overlaid on geography. I’m interested in the rebellious nature of emergent orders that work within (and contradicts) the machine life and urban order/logic of these structures. They instigate a concept of chaos (not anarchy) that fights to retain the ‘organic’ness of the ‘human’ and breaks the rules of the machine (economic model) city. These are systems that fluctuate, have no fixed boundaries, evolve and constantly improvise.
Melbourne. Emergent Systems.
I question the notion of liveability in Melbourne. We have pre-defined the concept of liveability (how we live, work and play), and then built structures that churn out our idea of ‘liveability’. While I believe the need for structures, I’m relieved that the ‘human’ within the city has improvised. It is this improvisation that I believe calls us away from the prosaic nature of rigid systems that belies the limitless human condition. It serves as the ‘human’ variable within the equation of the city
Within the finite (rigid) nature of planning, organic relationships have emerged, forming urban collectives (communities) that begin to usurp the logic of structure. Innovation is happening at grassroots level- food courts have become study spaces, the State Library lawn- a haven for nappers, street intersections become meeting places, Myers becomes a thoroughfare. The ‘life’ that structures seek to define, charts its own territory and navigates its way emergently.
Communities are evidence of this life. They emerge and engage organically with a scenario that is so divorced of the human condition. The city understands retail, economic and net-letable-area modalities but it has conveniently forgotten the communal model. Has this role been left to suburbia?
International Students. Transient Eco-system.
International students account for 16% of the population living in the Melbourne CBD, with 17,700 studying in the city. The collective uniqueness of being overseas sets it apart as the largest community in the city. I’m interested in the transient nature of this community with a rapid, regenerating life cycle of 3-4 years (duration of academic life).
This transient eco-system has reordered (and re-ordered) the city within the same ordered grid. An organic order has been introduced within a rigid system in a very short time frame. The city has evolved/improvised the best way it knows how to- opportunistically, with inner city developments of housing, retail, entertainment (structures).
We see here a collision of two models, a parasitic co-existence- the economic model of the city feeding off the communal model. The city knows no better; it has no precedent to follow. It is perhaps time we question the opportunity for a symbiotic (balanced) collaboration. Can the city feedback into the communal model (socially, physically, culturally)? Can the project for the city include a healthy communal model? Innovation needs to take place.
The future communal modal, a new typology of an urban village that is no longer bordered by mountains or rivers but thrives amidst the structures of the city and skyscrapers.
