Scale : the next jump in architectural production

Abstract

As a result of macro-economic trends as well as extensive support from the Chinese central government and its 'Go West' initiative Chongqing has become the fastest growing large city in the world, with annual GDP growth of 15% and a continued economic expansion that has facilitated the conditions for unprecedented urban development both in terms of size and speed. In the year 2013 half an Empire State building was constructed in the city every day, an equivalent of 182 Empire State buildings in one year, a massive amount of architectural production for a single city. Chongqing has followed the default growth paradigm of isolated multi - tower - in - the - park developments located at the periphery of the city that are, by default, conceived in isolation; this paradigm fails to envision the concurrent architectural production within the city as a possible force that can be focused and utilized to shape the urban experience, reduce overall transportation time, reduce energy consumption and make evident the reality of the scale at which the city is growing. Scale, The next jump in architectural production proposes an alternative development model that capitalizes on the opportunities embedded within the unprecedented scale of concurrent development taking place in Chongqing. By understanding this development as a confluent force Scale proposes a system through which buildings previously thought of as single use become multi - use infrastructural parts of a much larger architectural object, a single "building made of buildings". Typical generically designed housing and office towers become the columns supporting city blocks turned elevated beams that assemble to form a new infrastructural object. Such an object fulfills the immediate programmatic requirements of the city below; education, housing, offices and public space as well as transportation are embedded within, giving the new architectural object the ability to intensify the gravitational pull of the city towards itself and serves as a marker showcasing the unparalleled scale of architectural production that the city of Chongqing is currently able to generate.