Urban Fabric

By Vince Burdi

Design Problem: Urban landscapes are wasteful in nature. The architectural community is promoting a design that that ultimately responds to conserving and supplementing energy to and from the grid. Urbanites are surrounded by weak infrastructure which ultimately leads to unhealthy living conditions. Our attention is deserved to recreate or repurpose the city fabric at a human scale to initiate a social environment where people can begin to interact and potentially thrive. People are not interacting anymore on their everyday routines. It is a cultural phenomenon that is spreading like wildfire. People are too involved with their own personal computers that they forget their surroundings. Scared of contracting diseases, people keep to themselves isolated; creating more waste and show less concern towards issues that concern us all.

Design Proposal: Irony of the situation is that Digital Media has kept individuals from interacting, but can digital facades spark human activity. Can architecture redefine social and cultural interaction between urbanites in the close proximity of the building facade and pedestrian traffic?

This is my thesis topic for the M. Arch program. Please feel free to respond with any questions or comments below.