With the early phases of North American urban dispersal buildings seemed to repel each other with maximum entropy producing a scattered urban form. Car use obviated the need for physical coherence between buildings, helping to produce a built form that spread out like confetti (figure 2a). Over the last thirty years, though, buildings have clumped together, gathering around significant structures such as malls. What has long been lamented as an amorphous land- scape of loose objects and self interest, now shows signs of figural order and moments of collaborative organization. This research speculates that such volun- tary collectivism2 offers architects cause to reevaluate contemporary theories on urban architecture and market-based urbanization.
Citation TBD, ACSA conference 2015
by Michael Piper