Inspired by Ridley Scott’s 1982 “Blader Runer”, Patrick Soares and Indra Alam, students at the Florida International University in Miami, envisioned a future plagued by after affects of war and corruption, for their master thesis. The context is of climate change, global dimming, pollution and de-population. In order to establish an architectural strategy for this scenario they looked into Deleuze’s idea’s of Nomadology, Archigram’s the Plug-In City + the Walking City, along with Mat-Urbanism.
Their thesis is about testing post-apocalyptic urban strategies through interface. Interface of human and machine and architecture and machine, aiming to negotiate friction between mechanical components and organic landscape. The landscape and the mechanical have a symbiotic relationship through which one is reliant upon the other for the system to thrive. The user physically plugs into the structure, while the structure itself plugs into existing infrastructure. The site is the old Santa Fe freight yard in downtown Los Angeles.
Analysis derived from research on the circuitry and motherboard of a computer, and the components within it, was used to inform the architecture on the site. The “capacitors” on the motherboard were interpreted as the existing structure on the site. The HUBS will eventually fragmentarily detach and plug into the next station to serve a different purpose from site to site, essentially becoming nomadic themselves. The authors state that the most important aspect of this project that people should be aware of is that this future is dark and dystopic. The architecture responds to that by developing nomadic qualities. Meaning it unplugs itself from its HUB, moves by use of the railway, and expands the network.
