the sum things: the sprawl

‘sprawl’ skyscraper by the sum things all images courtesy the sum things

the sprawl project by danish firm the sum things is an attempt to redefine the role of the skyscraper in the larger context of the city fabric and thereby address a restructuring of cities to accommodate future challenges, such as increased urban population, transportation and the subsequent requirement of urban buildings to be flexible and adaptable. opposed to the notion of the urban master planner designing a finished and ‘perfect’ city layout in which buildings are simply extruded, sprawl is based on the belief that the restructuring of our cities should happen from the bottom up, and out, in an biological process of self-organization and emergence. the bottom, in this case, is the organization of flow, structure and building-skin that make up the buildings in our cities. by engaging the interrelation of those three parameters the project aims to establish a link between the diverse and differentiated patchwork of religion, culture, income and functions that is the city on a global scale and the organization of the urban building on a local scale.

the ‘sprawl’

the process generating the sprawl skyscraper is based on the behavior of emergent processes similar to the systems governing insect swarms, flocks of birds and schools of fish. such systems exhibit great abilities to adapt to changing internal and external situations by local unit to unit relations. another characteristic of such systems is the fact that while they are in a constant state of flux, changing appearance and quality. incorporating time as a factor in skyscraper design this paradox has obvious potential; while in a process of being built, the building is finished and inhabitable due to a high degree of adaptability.

detail

the skyscraper consists of two components: a branching system that represents a synthesis of flow and structure, and a subsequent surface system, generated by relations internal to the branching system, representing the buildings facade and internal spatial subdivision. the behavior of the branching system is coded to represent the qualities of dispersal, connectivity, continuity, density and growth; all qualities that flow and structure have in common. the idea is that as the building shoots upwards, every generation of growth is rigorously choreographed to establish a working system of flow, structure, skin and spatial partitions.

a view from below

the staircase