joshua david lynch:

“I think about the events of that day again and again and somehow, I know that Winnie does, too, whenever some blowhard starts talking about the anonymity of the suburbs, or the mindlessness of the TV generation, because we know that inside each one of those identical boxes, with its Dodge parked out front and its white bread on the table, and its TV set glowing blue in the falling dusk, there were people with stories.  There were families bound together in the pain and the struggle of love.  There were moments that made us cry with laughter, and there were moments like that one of sorrow and wonder.”

The Wonder Years

“A breath opens operatic breaches in walls,-blurs the pivoting of crumbling roofs,-disperses the boundaries of hearths,-eclipses the windows.”

Arthur Rimbaud, Common Nocturne, Illuminations

“Ordinary things contain the deepest mysteries.”

Robin Evans, Figures, Doors and Passages

Moloch! Moloch! Robot apartments! invisible suburbs! skeleton treasuries! blind capitals! demonic industries! spectral nations! invincible mad houses!..
Dreams! adorations! illuminations!”

Allen Ginsberg, Howl (II)

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With Clare Johnston, Martin Abbott & Zana Wright

Focusing on the emancipatory potential of the speculated High Speed Rail network linking countries in the Mediterranean Union – We ask the question, what are the transformational effects of this infrastructure on the city of Beirut?  A resilient, heterogeneous city poised at the cusp of new development.

As the train line is essentially a conveyor, a diversity machine – how can you evolve successful existing urban strategies with enough suppleness to encourage change and social innovation, as well as prolonged economic growth for the city using multi scalar approaches to open interaction, while increasing the potentiality of its discreet program elements?

High Speed Rail as Diversity Machine

def. An apparatus which enables and increases connections to a specific place from a variety of discrete sources.
effect. The affordability of the new High Speed Rail network, in relation to present air travel costs, will create increased connections and produce greater access at a certain scale, reducing the inhibition (and inability) to travel within the Mediterranean
Union, which increases access and in turn diversity.

Transnational travel and its diverse passengers are brought into a new relationship with the city and its inhabitants, intermixing for a duration they become a collective of potential.

Resilience through Redundancy

def. Resilience – Capability of a system to creatively change and respond to a shock.
Redundancy – Duplication or repetition of elements, to provide alternative channels in case of failure.

effect. New patterns emerge after the shock – redundancy as a result of conflict. Optimum resilience comes from a de-consolidated urbanism, self reliant cohesive networks share extrinsic relationships in an heterogeneous city.

There is need for resilience within any system in an area of conflict.

We see this resilience in the current urban condition of Beirut being enabled by a system which encourages redundancy within small city networks. This redundancy allows for flexibility in the system, allowing it to creatively respond to obstructions and shocks caused by conflict.

What are the generative opportunities of the Diversity Machine meeting a system of urban resilience?

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With Daniel Jaramillo

We are interested in exploring the architectural and structural opportunities which arise from deconstructing the core. Splitting up its main components and using the parameters associated with them as generators of, structural, spatial, and formal, systems within the building.

Our three main areas of exploration are:

1. The core as the main force for the structure

2. Different ways to implement parametric design within the services and circulation of the building

3. system that will connect the core and the lateral structures of the building

Incorporating issues related to circulation, multiple programs, non-uniform structural systems, public space, amenities, and green space within tall buildings.

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Regenerating Town Hall

erosion-expansion-regeneration

existing ground plane is eroded, the new ground plane is then inhabited and expanded through the placing of program, this new topography then goes through a process of regeneration & re-inhabitation.

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