TRIAD published on DESIGNBOOM
U R B A N S C E N E
The city and the built space, real and symbolic, as a forced arena for the construction and staging of self-image.
T H E ( O T H E R ) L I N E
on the NEOM website THE LINE was presented like a cognitive city stretching across 170 kilometers A mirrored architectural masterpiece towering 500 meters above sea level, but a land-saving 200 meters wide that redefines the concept of urban development and what cities of the future will look like.
No roads, cars or emissions, it will run on 100% renewable energy will eventually accommodate 9 million people and will be built on a footprint of just 34 square kilometers will also have access to all daily essentials within a five-minute walk, in addition to high-speed rail – with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes.
Focusing on the data, we discover that the approximately 300,000 people expected in the 2.4 km to be built by 2023 would be sufficient to entirely accommodate the so-called ultra-high-net worth individuals (UHNWI), i.e. the 243,060 individuals (2022 data) with higher investable assets to 10 million dollars or that 0.005% that controls 5.5% of the world's wealth.
Referring overall to the overall population envisaged by the initial project (9 million), the construction of 6 The Line could entirely accommodate the 59.4 million people (1.1% of the world population who control 45% of global wealth (for a total of approximately 208 trillion dollars).
Securing citizenship in this city of the future designed by the most exclusive names in international architecture will be a privilege reserved for a few, but even more interesting are the indications that come from observing its design.
All the elements underlying the experiments of the early 20th century to respond to the housing needs of the working class and the efficient and democratic development of the city are overturned in this ideal city of luxury.
The intensive use of land which was supposed to guarantee the maximization of collective and recreational space instead becomes extreme privatization and control of the same, transported within the line, delimited by the 2 skyscraper walls and removed from public function and ownership.
Outside, only the desert remains to guarantee the inaccessibility of this oasis of modernity and happiness to the many who will remain excluded from it.
But then where will those 2.8 billion people (53%) live who have only 1.2% of the world's wealth?
But then where will those 2.8 billion people (53%) live who have only 1.2% of the world's wealth?
THE (OTHER) LINE is the counterpart, the reversed image of the first.: A congested and busy infrastructural line, punctuated along its route by elements of concentration and representation of the administrative authority, which acts as the only glue and connection to an infinite city spread without interruption across the territory.
As much as the former is mimetic, sophisticated and aims to hide its true nature behind the technological precision of a mirrored facade, as much as the latter is brazen and cannot help but show itself by replacing the natural landscape.
As much as the former celebrates 100% renewable energy, the absence of machines and polluting emissions, the latter will not be able to give up fossil fuels, traffic and pollution in order to support its development and survive.
R E F L E C T I O N S
The REFLECTIONS series is focused on the theme of the relationship between private and public space as a physical and perceptual boundary and as a metaphor for existence in the continuous cross-reference between self-perception and the "other's gaze."
Through the windows, reflections and chiaroscuro effects of light at sunset, the boundaries between these real and mental spaces blur, returning a complex imagery as the staging of existence in the context of social relations within the urban context in which 55 percent of the world's population is confined and will reach 70 percent in the next 10 years.
Through the windows, reflections and chiaroscuro effects of light at sunset, the boundaries between these real and mental spaces blur, returning a complex imagery as the staging of existence in the context of social relations within the urban context in which 55 percent of the world's population is confined and will reach 70 percent in the next 10 years.
R O M A G R A N D T O U R
Starting from photographs taken to document the urban development of the city of Rome, the relationship between natural and urbanized landscape is represented by reworking the pictorial iconography of nineteenth-century grand tours. The image of the ruins of the architecture of ancient Rome isolated in the magnificent landscape of the Roman countryside is replaced by that of an unstoppable urbanization crossed today as then by grazing flocks.
T R I A D
Excluding extreme natural events such as fires and storms, volcanic activities that solar and long-term geological processes, human activity remains the sole cause of climate change and pollution on Earth.
This activity is mainly concentrated in urban areas from which about 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and 60 percent of total energy consumption is generated. This is because, while occupying no more than 3 percent of the habitable area on earth, about 55 percent of the world's population is concentrated there, with a forecast of 70 percent in 2050.
Human activity, urbanized land and the natural environment form the inseparable triad for long-term sustainability and shaping the future of our species.
The images in the triad series isolate these three elements in the same scene from a distant, objective vantage point that always portrays humans as a group, depriving them of an individual dimension to highlight their species membership and collective behavior.
F L O O D
A WORLD THAT ADAPTS TO LIVING ON WATER IN WHICH THE TRADITIONAL IMAGE AND STRUCTURE OF BUILDINGS HAS STARTED TO UNDERGO A MUTATION AND TO INTEGRATE NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL ELEMENTS TYPICAL OF AN AQUATIC WORLD SUCH AS ALGAE, MOSS AND NETS. A WORLD PARTLY DYSTOPIAN BUT SOMEHOW CAPABLE OF TRANSMITTING THAT SERENITY AND BEAUTY TRANSMITTED BY THE ELEMENT FROM WHICH ALL LIFE ORIGINATES AND WHICH CONSTITUTES THE MOST MATTER OF WHICH EVERY ANIMAL OR PLANT LIVING BEING IS MADE.