invisible cities

DES 3515 Design Research Studio 1
AssOCIATE INSTRUCTOR EMME MORGAN | FALL 2020

Design Sophomores in the research studio began their first project by selecting a city described in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Students researched each facet of their city, examining the built environment as an ecosystem of tangible and intangible elements. This research and design process manifested itself in a series of scaled and ephemeral drawings, synthesized into a final digital artifact.

Ashton Reeder, Sarah Kraft, Brandon Hoyt, Hannah Hadfield, and Tracy Phan, students in research studio 1, share their process through this project.

Design Utah: After experiencing each city in the book, what drew you to the city you selected?
Sarah: While reading Invisible Cities I felt incredibly frustrated at how inaccessible the text was. I started out trying to understand each and every city before moving on to the next. Each city felt so out of reach. It was only when I gave up that aspect of wanting to understand and control the cities that I started to gain an appreciation for the text. What drew me to Baucis was that the city didn’t feel overly abstracted or convoluted beyond meaning. I felt like I could relate to the residents of Baucis, I imagine the them as being overly pensive and introverted, like me. The passage of the city also contains an intersection of multiple feelings they might have towards the earth: “… that they hate the earth; that they respect is so much they avoid all contact; that they love it as it was before they existed…” I liked how their emotions and motives weren’t so clearly laid out, there was ambiguity to parse through. Similar to how when I feel something, it’s never just that one emotion. When I first selected my city, I hadn’t considered what drew me to it in this amount of depth. I liked it because I liked it. In spending hours considering, developing and getting to know Baucis is where it revealed itself to me, and I found our similarities.

Brandon: After finishing the book, I found myself reflecting on how I have experienced places through time and how these places shaped me. Most of the cities helped me answer the "why" to how I feel in some built spaces, but a couple of cities remained at the forefront of my mind.I was drawn to the city of Eudoxia because I felt the city itself was an abstract representation of how I see the human condition. Similar to how people in the city of Eudoxia follow "threads of faith" within the carpet preserved in the city to get to their true destinations, many of us follow paths in life that are manifested through chance and choice. Eudoxia is a shell of a city that was run into the ground because of the inhabitants obsession with finding their "true" and "destined" location. But the truth is, where we are in the moment is our one true place. Without good judgment, one can become lost and distracted comparing their own paths to that of other walks of life...and in the end it is just an anguish of one's choice to make these comparisons. Additionally, the story of Eudoxia brought up the question of whether one's path or map of the universe was that of holy origin or just like Eudoxia, a chaotic oil black stain that spreads shapelessly... My view is that the city's story comments on how one's choices and judgments of their current options leads to some sort of "path" for the individual...the "carpet" we weave in our minds is the human soul's effort to make sense of the chaotic, shapelessness that arises from the complexities of the universe that then gives rise to the human experience. These philosophical themes kept my eyes on Eudoxia's story. The experiences mentioned in the story of Eudoxia made me self reflect and have more understanding on how the human experiences have taken shape. Perhaps we are on paths of faith but just as the story suggests, perhaps with good judgement and attention to what we do have available to us at the current moment, we can make our own paths of faith.

Hannah: I was really drawn to Octavia because of the chapter title, Thin Cities. I thought the idea of a city stretched would be interesting to explore more. The idea of a city like a spider web was something that also drew me to it as well, because spiders are so particular in how they weave their webs I felt that was probably something the author thought the same about this city. This passage was very vague in how daily life was as well or what the people were like or anything to do with the ephemeral part really. I felt this city was so different from our modern day cities that it didn’t seem like something that could ever exist, so I thought that there was a lot of potential there. And after researching and iterating I found this city could actually be something very real.

Tracy: When I first read the book, the city that I chose hadn’t really stood out to me. I was more drawn to the cities that were described as fantastical and dreamlike such as Andria or Despina. The idea of travelling to one of these cities and experiencing things that couldn’t logically exist in the real world was fascinating to me.Since there were so many choices, I decided to go back through the book and reread the first sentence of each city. “No one is more inclined than Eusapia to enjoy life and flee care.” This sentence stuck with me throughout the whole project and was the aspect of the city that drew me in. My decision was possibly influenced by the current events of the pandemic where I just wanted a place to escape to where life would slow down and be alright again. Death and time are such prevalent themes in our daily lives that it seemed to create the desire for a city where enjoying life and fleeing care aren’t considered luxuries that can’t be afforded.

Ashton: Invisible Cities filled me with wonder. Each and every city was described in such a unique way. I struggled to pick just one city, but eventually decided on studying Hypatia. Hypatia brought me in by discussing darkness and death within the first bit of the passage. Calvino successfully transplanted me into the city, I was searching for answers. I had a sense of wonder as each section and experience of Hypatia was introduced. I wandered, and studied, rereading the passage over and over again looking for a meaning. Only to discover that Hypatia didn't hold answers. It was this unique choice that drew me towards Hypatia.

Design Utah: How did studying an entirely fictional city challenge your typical design research process?
Sarah: The fact that the city was entirely fictional was the best part! I had all the creative freedom! I didn’t have to ask someone else what they thought of my choices, I didn’t have to worry about how the residents would feel if I implemented a public transportation system, there were no real repercussions of making a bad city planning decision. I got to shape the city how I wanted it to be and focus on the parts I found interesting. I would definitely live in my city if the opportunity somehow magically presented itself, at least for a little while.

Brandon: Given that my city had most of the focus on how people experience the carpet, the challenge was deciding whether the carpet was a standard carpet in the middle of the city or a carpet that runs throughout the city. But because of the fictional aspect of the city, it gave me that flexibility to interpret the city as I wanted. I felt that because the inhabitants used the carpet as a guide to navigate, it made sense having it run throughout the city. If the story had been about some real city, I feel I would have not had the opportunity to explore a more playful, outlandish interpretation of the descriptions mentioned in the story.

Hannah: I agree with Sarah, I loved how we got to really use our imagination to make these cities come to life and I really enjoyed having creative freedom. It was nice to be able to explore any part that really interested me and create based off of what I perceived the city to be. I also really enjoyed how different all of our cities were from each other!

Tracy: It was difficult. While reading the passage, I had already imagined what the city would look like and how the people lived based on the descriptions given to us. I had this picture of what the fictional city would look and feel like, but that went against what we’re taught of how each piece of the drawing needed to have a purpose. I agree that studying an entirely fictional city gave us more flexibility and creative freedom, but it was also somewhat overwhelming. Just how far could we push it until it wouldn’t be considered a city anymore? Finding other peoples’ interpretations of the city was interesting. They highlighted different areas of the city, but there were always the main aspects of the city present. The fictional aspects of the city served as an inspiration for me to go past the known boundaries of the existing world to begin researching about things I’d never thought I’d need to know as I built the city in my head!

Ashton: Usually when starting a project my first step is photographing, and analyzing. When given a completely textual and fictional city, the photoghraph aspect is impossible. Instead of creating some of my own precedents to study and examine, I was turned to study others work first. This challenge had its upsides, it forced me out of what I know and to learn new methods. Being ushered to analyze textual elements over and over again I believe strengthened my process and lead me to a solution that I may not have reached otherwise.

Design Utah: Was it more difficult to derive the measured aspects or the experiential aspects of your drawings?
Sarah: I’d say they were close, but the experiential aspects were slightly more difficult for me. I had to think of an interesting and cohesive way to tie in the ephemeral aspects of living in Baucis. I had to keep asking myself “how would a human interact with this space?” because that question didn’t come to me naturally. I became a bit hyper-focused on the intertwining trees for the first half of the assignment, looking at the progress from other classmates, I noticed that I was missing that human element. A city is comprised of its residents!

Brandon: I thought that the scale aspect was more difficult..but I realized at the end of the project, I was the one making it harder than it needed to be. By looking too far into the experiential aspects of the city, I distracted myself away from tying the scale aspects back into how the city is experienced. This led to others having a difficult time digesting and believing the scaled elements in my project.If I had focused on scaling the carpet itself, opposed to the building I envisioned on the highest point of the city, I perhaps would have been able to tie the experiential and scale aspects of my city more effectively.

Hannah: I think they were equally difficult. The passage for Octavia was fairly detailed in the measured aspect and gave me lots of easily recognizable scaled items, however it very vague in the ephemeral aspect. It was difficult at first for me to imagine what the scale of this city would be because there were so many aspects that would influence it, like the wind or the ropes. The ephemeral was equally difficult because the passage didn’t give me much insight into the residents or their lives. Looking back, I think there were some really subtle hints as to what the people living there were like in the passage that I could’ve built off of more.

Tracy: I usually struggle more with the experiential aspects of my projects. Although the passage for Eusapia is more focused on the experiential aspects of the city, being able to communicate those feelings that the inhabitants have is challenging for me. Since we began the project by creating one scaled object, it allowed me to be able to draw out real life objects that I know and am familiar with. It’s much more difficult for me to look into someone’s life and think about what types of things they might enjoy or hate based on textual research alone. I feel like it would be more effective for me to imagine myself being able to talk to these people and learn from them directly to truly get an understanding of why they chose to live in Eusapia.

Ashton: Hypatia as a city is described in great detail. There were many structures given throughout the passage which made me think that the measured drawings would be a simple process, but I ended up struggling with these the most. The structures were all grand, whether it be a palace or a great library, that I struggled to create accurate drawings of each. When it came to the experiential drawings, I found that these were a bit easier to derive. My passage was filled with symbolism and hidden meanings, which prompted my to be confused at first. Once I actually started my drawings though, I found the experiences were able to be translated visually successfully.

Design Utah: How did your understanding of Invisible Cities change through the process of this project?
Sarah: My understanding of Invisible Cities remained pretty stable throughout the project, it was only during our presentations that I realized that it could be seen as a problematic book. While working on the project I was so focused on my city that the rest of the book and context were blurred out in the background. It was when I finished working on my presentation that I could take a step back and see everyone’s cities and understand that mine was only a tiny part of a larger whole.

Brandon: As I listened to how my classmates changed their interpretations of their cities throughout the project, I found different ways of interpreting my own city. Similar to how people notice different aspects of certain paintings, these different interpretations helped me shape my perception. I had trouble interpreting some of the more ephemeral/abstract passages for my city, but throughout the project I was able to cultivate a more confident interpretation of the passages.

Hannah: When I first read the book it sounded like Marco Polo was just describing these made up cities. However, working through the problems I encountered with my own city as well as watching my classmates work through their own set of problems I realized these cities might not be as unreal as I thought they were. I think building visuals and backgrounds for these cities helped make them seem almost real.

Tracy: As we were working on the project, Invisible Cities seemed like a book filled with imagination and faraway lands that provided an escape. I did have concerns about a few cities that brought up possible concepts that would be viewed as problematic today, but I didn’t realize that each city had hidden concerns until we had further discussions during the final presentations. Invisible Cities started as a resource for our project that lead us into further research about the built environment and cultures but ended up bringing up more discussion about why these cities were built. They don’t seem to be entirely made up anymore to me, but rather it seems like the author worked through their own research and problems to create them. It makes me think about how everything we create has to begin from somewhere and we continue building onto it.

Design Utah: How did this process change your understanding of our built environment?
Sarah: I realized how much one can take away from and begin to comprehend another solely by their surroundings. Is the city of Baucis the way it is because the residents act a certain way or do the residents of Baucis act that way because of the physical aspects of the city? Does the community define the individuals or do the individuals define the community? Does the situation define the character or does the character define the situation? Understanding the larger context is an important aspect in understanding the subject. There’s a lot of give and take there. While developing my city, I had to consider how a measured aspect of the city would directly impact the ephemeral experiences. Ultimately, I see the two working together and the environments function as a sort of funhouse mirror. The two resemble each other, but maybe not at first glance.

Brandon: This process made me rethink about how some small details of the built environment "speak louder". Just like the small details mentioned or not mentioned in our stories, the small details in the built environment come together to shape how the environment is experienced. Most of how we experience built space is subconsciously rendered, but as designers, in manipulating these details, we are better able to shape behavior and experience in these built environments. But this is not exclusive to built environments and the same can be said for the many branches on the tree of design. Our projects relied heavily on visual communication of our intent, and just like the design of built environments, the small details in our presentation is what helped guide the viewer along to experience the intent of the project.

Tracy: Similar to Sarah, it became more apparent for me that the built environment and the inhabitants both had an influence on each other. We can’t be sure whether the environment was built to accommodate the inhabitants’ lives or whether the inhabitants accommodated the environment. Beginning the project, the built environment was more like a piece of a puzzle to me. It’s created and it’s there. Since I decided that Eusapia was set in a built environment that was slowly crumbling and being built over and over again, it made me realize that buildings need to be taken care of. The built environment isn’t just there, but rather it’s there with a purpose and was created with intent in mind. Building onto the built environment, the experiences and memories that people hold of a city are layered on top where both the living and non-living objects continuously interact.

Ashton: Our built environment is often times seen as solely physical. Most only notice the function and aesthetics. Infact, prior to this assignment I fit into the same category. After going through the process of studying an entirely fictional city, I realized that our built environments are created due to the experiences we have as a group. A simple example of this in Salt Lake are the roads. As an outsider I thought they were wide to decrease traffic, but eventually learned that it is actually so wagons were able to turn around in one sweep. This prompts the question brought up by Sarah, "Is the city of Baucis the way it is because the residents act a certain way or do the residents of Baucis act that way because of the physical aspects of a city?"

In addition to final deliverables, students designed postcards from their Invisible City to share with review attendees.