A Nonlinear Case for a New Type of Urban Intensification in Irwindale, California

The historical transformations of large cities around the world, from modern metropolises to postindustrial megacities, have radically altered our urban environments and how we live within them. Globally networked markets have produced new economic and political realities leading to unprecedented forms of regulatory frameworks, urban growth, and densification. Infrastructural and technological innovations have changed the ways we build, move, and communicate in the city. Ecological pressures are expanding our understanding of design as an organic and symbiotic endeavor that must consider and include nonhuman actors and agencies. Current crises triggered by infectious disease and social unrest alert us to the dual meaning of the term “city” as both a physical place and a body of citizens. The architecture of the city is always also the staging ground for individual self-expression and collective political action.

Each studio section of 701 focuses on a design problem in a domestic or international urban area. Research includes travel and detailed study of the specific circumstances of the chosen city and the design problem. While this studio is concerned with the future of cities, it is not an urban design or a planning studio. The projects are chosen to function on a large architectural scale such as mega-building, city-block, infrastructure, park, et cetera. The future of cities rests on our ability to create robust visions that promote new forms of societal participation, ecological collaboration, technological innovation, and ultimately inspire and excite through exemplary architectural design.