Iris Hwang, winner of the national RAIA Student Achievement Prize
*The design project consisted of group work as well as individual work. The two other members of the group are mandy ng & kenny tan
*city of sydney model was a design group effort ofAndrew Burges's design studio, 2002, semester 1

Simultaneous Urbanism (grafting Hong Kong onto Sydney)
no hierarchies, no preconceptions, no traditional masterplanning sense
collisions, coincidence, complementaries and cohabitation are the rules of the game
on the western edge of the city ,
a new twenty four hour cycle emerges
a fusion of unrelated or even opposing programs create a new hybrid
programs merge, activities collide
moments are captured
x-rays are taken at time intervals,
enabling active functions to be identified
and the inactive to be re-examined
an intricate structure of interconnecting passages emergehere, a new pattern begins to designate ……

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Location
Western edge of Sydney, water edge-precious land, views, vastness of landscape, noise far away

Context
First settlements (heritage) nearby
Tourist circles around from Darling harbour to Rocks, unaware of the site
Heart of Sydney throbs speedily in the background
Port activities goes day by day
Balmain residents look in with curiosity

How to color in the blank???
How to imagine a sea of program here???
How relevant is Sydney to this?

Every model of the city should be better than predecessors—FACT!!!

So what could new Sydney do better?

Mapping
Are not preconceptions to the new Sydney, just tools to understand the biological cycle and fluidity of the city

Macro: X-rays are taken at time intervals, enabling active functions to be identified and the inactive also to be reexamined

Micro: “Big Brother’s” 24-hour surveillance camera taps into the life of a typical office worker, the humble worker that forms a key role in the Sydney’s pulse

Pixelation
To intensify the new city, making it a 24 hour operational, there needs to be a fusion of programs
Programs are color-coded and pixleated
How then not to randomly pixelate the site??? Afterall nature has its rules…
We overlaid Hong Kong and Sydney’s X-rays; rotating, scaling, stretching and mirroring it
One sheet forms the lower layer, the other the top

Structure / Macro program
Structure emerges from the sea of pixelation here.
“ the interaction of the individual parts on the bottom level produces an emergent global quality on the top” (Kulka, P. , Assemblage 33, MIT, 1997, p. 40)
No hierarchies, no preconceptions, no traditional masterplanning sense.
Collisions, Coincidence, Complementaries, cohabitation are the rules of the game

Subdivision / Typology
I don’t know what you’re talking about
We don’t have grids!!!
We only have planes of colors to designate and bound / expandMicro program
A fusion of totally unrelated / even opposing program either creates a new hybrid or intensify the opposition

Some eg.s: (from MvRdV, FARMAX, 010, Rotterdam)

• Presentation 1
• Presentation 2
• Presentation 3
• Presentation 4
• Presentation 5

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