The Architecture of Simultaneity

 An exploration of “possibilities of an architecture of simultaneity – an architecture that does neither exist in the past the present or the future, but in all timelines at once.”[1] The aim of this project is to create a continuum of parallel and multi-dimensional living where the collective desires of the city are projected and formed creating new pathways based on emergence, bridging the disparity between the socio economic zones of the Metropolis of Manhattan. These connections in time project near future speculations of how New York City will emerge.

Current infrastructural methodology built upon Modernism and the efficiency of the grid will be replaced by the collective intelligence of the people in the city to behave and form in organic clusters. Inspiration was derived from theories in Swarm Intelligence (Kokkugia) based on principles of cohesion, separation and alignment, which eludes towards natural tendencies of self-organisation within cities.

Through simulation utilizing various scenarios and conditions, pathways are formed from major transit areas to sites of interest within the city. Relationships between clusters of people movement are established. Within these zones of activity, the connections are formed. Disparity in cultural and socio economic divisions of districts and boundaries are annihilated between past and future. Instead a new global and unified society forms where the nature of the architecture is defined by natural behaviour and formation. This system is constantly evolving and adapting to various scenarios and conditions.

The project illustrates the juxtaposition of the rigidity of the ‘concrete jungle’ to the organic flow, movement and growth of a naturally formed organisation reflecting simultaneity of life.  It can also represent the intersection of the advancement in technology with the natural world and presents opportunity for the multiplication of individual existences, “parallel existences where the individual will not be limited by Space Time anymore. A future scenario, that will today we sense by some contemporary attitudes (but still primitive) that will give us the chance to live both in the past and the future.”[2]

By allowing the natural growth of the city through its organic life forms and adopting principles of self-organisation to urban development, this consequently results in a natural regression towards past primitive ideals of existence. This is also the projection of the future, where the city has used up its resources resulting in outsourcing and has to implement new sustainable life support systems currently found in natural systems. The superposition of timelines, past, present and future, redefines the boundaries of space and time and ultimately enables one to experience life in multiple dimensions.