Longa-polis

Abstract

Longa (Latin): (adj) 1. Boundless. 2. Far. 3. Long. Polis:(noun) A city-state in ancient Greece, especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical purposes. Longa-polis accepts the inescapable social and political circumstances of the doctrines of capitalism as a repetitive tragedy giving us dystopian cities, where different classes of people submit voluntarily and pessimistically and yet even sometimes unknowingly to a dystopic reality. The thesis adopts Gilles Deleuze’s and Jacque Attali’s concept of nomadism to not only draw a possible future community but also enhance a sense of both realism and radicalism this thesis aims for. The thesis is an architectural contemplation of this political scenario rather than a problem-solving approach and a utopian correction. Considering today’s cities as a disease, the methodology follows the process of extracting an ‘antigen’ in its attempt of developing an ‘antibody’ to make the future city immune: the attempt of discovering an architecture through interpretation of the existing in the dystopian cities. The process of extraction is carried out by writing a short story that depicts the protagonist as an ordinary nomadic worker in the city highlighting the undesirable qualities of his life situation due to the distressing social conditions. This short story acts as the main source for extraction, and the ‘extracts’ that are architecturally converted are injected in various sites serving as a warning of the dystopian cities while they cause poetic emotion. The site is the dramatic canal, with ancient origins, cut through the isthmus near Corinth, Greece. Chosen as the test site to harbour the conception of the architectural contemplation, a megastructure and landform building are imagined. This thesis generates an apartment-hotel, which it is similar to renting a house but with no fixed contracts and occupants can ‘check-out’ whenever they wish. While it contains varied public programmes where infrastructure is also offered, individuals are given a minimal private realm where the room serves only a single person. An ideology of semi-permanent ownership and a public community is conceived from which the project attempts to explore the concept of heterotopia with the proposition of temporary inhabitation.