B A O P H A M / B A C H E L O R O F A R C H I T E C T U R E T H E S I S 2 0 1 4 / T H E S I S A D V I S O R : D O U G J A C K S O N / C A L P O LY S A N L U I S O B I S P O

TOWA RDS A
CIT Y OF E XCESSS
AN URBAN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PLANNING OF UNRULINESS
AND THE POTENTIAL OF EXCESS
TOWARDS A CITY OF EXCESS
AN URBAN INVESTIVIGATION INTO THE PLANNING OF UNRULINESS AND THE POTENTIAL OF EXCESS

DESIGN THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE

CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, SAN LUIS OBISPO

AT THE TIME OF PUBLISHING, ALL CONTENT CRETEA BY THE AUTHOR IS BELIEVED TO BE EITHER IN THE PUBLIC DOMIAN OR
USED APPROPRIATELY ACCORDING TO THE STANDARD OF “FAIR USE” AND ATTRIBUTION. INACCURACIES MAY BE DIRECTED TO
THE ATTENTION OF THE AUTHOR AND WILL BE CORRECTED IN SUBSEQUENT EDITIONS.

2014, BAO PHAM. SOME RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTACT: BAO.HT.PHAM@GMAIL.COM

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 CIT Y OF EXCESSS
TOWA RDS A

BAO PHAM / BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE THESIS 2014 / THESIS ADVISOR: DOUGLAS JACKSON / CAL P O LY SAN LUIS OBISPO
01
02
03
04
 Penn Station :: section perspective

Abstract 6-7

Manifesto 10-33
A Built in Rigidity
An intersticial Space
Excess
USV: Ultra Smal Vehicle

Design Studies 34-45

Varaiable Landscape
Fold/Lift/Turn
Prototype_1
Prototype_2
Prototype_3

Excessive City 46-81

Extra Content 82-93

Vellum Piece
Thesis Show Proposal
ABSTR
EXCESSIVE CITY IS A CRITIQUE OF THE MODER
I E S F O R T H E L A S T C E N T U R Y. T H E P R O J E C T C A
CONDITIONS, AND PLANNING PRACTICES, WHIC
INTO DISCRETE AREAS CONNECTED BY AN UNP
V O R O F A N E W C I T Y T Y P O L O G Y T H AT E M B R A C E
T I O N S O F T H E P R E M O D E R N C I T Y, W H E R E T H E S
L AT I O N B U T A S PAT I A L A R E N A T H AT I S B O T H A
VIRTUE OF THE HETEROGENEITY OF PROGRAM

EXCESSIVE CITY IS A NEW PROTOTYPE URBAN

“THE STREET” AS AN UNPROGRAMMED CIRCUL
D E S T R I A N E X P E R I E N C E A N D S O C I A L I Z AT I O N , W
S PA C E S A N D S PA C E S O F M O V E M E N T A R E C O M B
WHEREIN UNPLANNED ACTIVITIES AND SOCIAL

S I T U A T E D N E A R D O W N T O W N D E T R O I T, T H E P R O
H I G H WAY 8 5 ; R E D E V E L O P I N G 3 S Q . B L O C K S O F
BLOCKS IS AN INITIAL PROPOSAL TO CONGLOM
C O M B AT I N G E X I S T I N G U R B A N S P R AW L C O N D I T I
A L W I L L B E T O E X PA N D T O A C C O M M O D AT E A L L
O V E R S PA C E F R O M T H E O L D C I T Y I N F R A S T R U C
FA R M S .
 ACT

OBISPO
LUIS
R N I S T P A R A D I G M T H A T H A S S H A P E D O U R C I T-

SAN
LLS FOR A REJECTION OF RIGID ZONING

P O LY
C H H AV E S E G R E G AT E D A C T I V I T I E S A N D U S E S

CAL
P R O G R A M M E D C I R C U L AT I O N N E T W O R K , I N FA -

/
JACKSON
E S T H E H Y P E R - I N T E N S I F I E D S PAT I A L C O N D I -
S T R E E T I S J U S T N O T R E L E G AT E D T O C I R C U -

DOUG
A S O C I A L C O N D E N S E R A N D I N S T I G AT O R , B Y
T H AT I T FA C E S .

ADVISOR:
FA B R I C T H AT R E P L A C E S T H E N O T I O N O F

THESIS
AT I O N N E T W O R K , I N C O M PAT I B L E W I T H P E -

/
WITH A NEW CONDITION IN WHICH PROGRAM

2014
BINES INTO AN UNIFIED URBAN LANDSCAPE

THESIS
E N C O U N T E R A R E C A T A LY Z E D .

ARCHITECTURE
O P O S A L I S A D J A C E N T T O H I G H WAY 1 0 A N D
F DERELICT AND UNUSED LOTS. THE 3 SQ.
M E R AT E T H E S U R R O U N D I N G N E I G H B O R H O O D S ,
OF
BACHELOR

IONS. THE EVENTUAL GOAL OF THE PROPOS-

L O F D E T R O I T ’ S P O P U L AT I O N , F R E E I N G L E F T
/

T U R E T O B E R E - A P P R O P R I AT E D A S U R B A N
PHAM
BAO
MA NIFE
 OBISPO
ESTO

LUIS
SAN
P O LY
CAL
/
JACKSON
E S S AY S :
B U I LT I N R I G I D I T Y

DOUG
A N I N T E R S T I C I A L S PA C E

ADVISOR:
EXCESS

U S V : U LT R A S M A L L V E H I C L E

THESIS
/
2014
THESIS
ARCHITECTURE
OF
BACHELOR
/
PHAM
BAO

Piranesi :: charcoal drawing

 A BUILT
The development of the city has often times been overshad-
owed by its architectural counterpart, where the architectural
often times, as long lasting as it is, been more capable of
embodying the spirit of the age, relegating the city to become
a docile backdrop to the pristine buildings. The city and its
realizations hold a great potential to explore architectural ideas
at a different scale, often times overlooked in favor of buildings.
The city being an aggregation of ideas, people, and culture has
the potential to inform architects about people interact, their
tendencies and their needs in accordance to the manifestation
of design. Rethinking the city can produce a catalyst that has
far reaching implications such as how buildings are form, of the
roles of buildings and the relationship between building and the
urban. This thesis is aimed at a re-imagining of the modern city,
understanding its historical legacy, and questioning its ade-
quacy in production a captivating condition for habitation. Most
importantly nominating the idea that we are at the cusp of a
new age, in which the contemporary city fails to reflect.
The modern city, as its name implies, is the prod-
uct of the modernist school of thought; it was conceived out
of the pursuit for efficiency. It was a rejection of the medie-
val cities of Europe, condemning those cities as inefficient
and lacking structure. The modernists seek to create a new
city typology that would coincide with the advent of the ma-
chine, and of industry. Just as the machine was an efficient
system, rationalized and ordered in its mélange or parts,
the modernist proposed a similar strand of thought toward
the city. It was believed by modernist planners that the city
could be studied, it could be calculated and most impor-
tantly it can be planned. Grounded on the idea of structural
anthropology, 19th and 20th century city planners saw the
city as categorical, parsing the city into zones of resi-
dential, commercial, recreation and transportation, which
inadvertently parse life itself. The approach to the city was
effective for the industries that eventually populated the
modern cities, giving rise to a typology that inefficiently di-
 IN RIGIDIT Y
gest large population, and industrial growth. The modern indus-
New York City, New York

the street into junk space/ a non space. The formalization of

trialized cities then became a large gridded network of spatial circulation specifically for the automobile turns the streets-
dividers and zones that sought to efficiently move commodities cape into a space that is mainly for movement, but fails to
and people around like electrodes on a circuit board. As dense address the engagement quality that is a perquisite for a
and thriving as the modern city is, there seems to be a big de- satisfying space. No longer is the street
tachment between its inhabitants and the city itself due to such
harsh adherence to spatial segregation. This spatial segregation
has been identified in later years to be the cause of fostering an
emerging population of city dwellers who are unengaged and
disinterested in the urban condition.

A specific problem of the modern city is its lack of en-

gagement, its detachment to the people that inhabits it. Often
times in large cities the streets are relegated to cars more than
people. As stated above, this is due to the modernist master plan
attempting to control the process of the city in terms of function-
al and economical factors and manifesting it in terms of spatial
organization. This hyper functional and scientific approach turns
meant for exchange and spontaneous in-
teraction, it became a means to depart
and arrive at a specific destination, in-
evitably making street life nonexistent.
The actors within the city are no longer
aware of where they are, just when and
how they are getting there. The antic-
ipatory and planned nature of the city
that enables it to grow and accommodate
such large variety of inputs have left it
so benign and static that its inhabitants
are no longer engage with it. This lack
of engagement is a problematic symptom
that begs the question, does the modern
city need to be rethink.
 Le Corbusier :: Radiant City
BAO PHAM / BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE THESIS 2014 / THESIS ADVISOR: DOUG JACKSON / CAL P O LY SAN LUIS OBISPO
With the introduction of the car into city life, there is an emer-
gence of stratified experience, where people are relegated to
building, and cars but not their environment. People are pack-
aged into building when they are stationary and into cars and
mass transit systems when they are traveling. This notion of
needing to package people into specific zones of usage both
stems from life safety issues between the automobile and
human life but also because of the modernist belief that to
efficiently use the as a simulated rational machine, all its parts
must adhere to a predefine system of interaction. This enables
the city to maintain reception of inputs and outputs without
“congestion”, since all the players already have predestined
location, i.e. zoning.

This mechanical like approach keeps humans from intruding

into automotive zones, but consequently it keeps human from
doing much of anything. This insular bubble that the city fosters
makes an inefficient use of the streetscape. However the street
can become and should become an environment to contend
with and to design. Taking the model of the medieval cities
where although streets where “inefficient” its value was not in
how it assists in the movement of goods but in the movement of
information and experience. Small labyrinth like alleyways and
crisscrossing streets was a place of unplanned encounters and
unstructured occurrences. It was a place where people from
all stations of life can come across each other due to chance
encounters. This was made possible due to the mentality that
there was no clear way to get to a certain place, so each per-
son has their own interpretation of how space can be navigated.
There was neither predetermined, most efficient rout, nor a
value for it. Efficiency was a personal interpretation, rather than
a preordain planned path. This system of individuals interacting
with a non-hierarchal street layout, and bringing their own inter-
pretations of how the street is best navigated lays groundwork
for incredibly spontaneous and unplanned occurrence. It was
the messiness of these cities, with its wining interstitial spaces
and uncategorized and unplanned programmatic adjacency that
created a culture of engagement. The “street” became just as
important as the buildings that bordered it. The problem of the
street is an urban one but it has great potential to explore ideas
of critical engagement, mindful usage of design space and
most importantly reprogramming how the contemporary actors
of the city use their environment.
Chicago :: Illinois
This is not to be misunderstood as a call for a retrospective
and reimplementation of medieval city planning, but a new
proposal for a city that abandons the modernist master
plan. Acknowledging that such rigid planning and bound-
ary conditions of the present city, which seeks to zone
programs and circulations to define spaces, is inadequate
in producing a critical environment. These environments
are antithetical to the unplanned and spatially ambiguous
nature of the medieval cities.
How do designers move pass the master
plan, to challenge a scheme that so efficiently keep the city
moving day in and day out? The city needs to be complete-
ly rethought of as a series of non hierarchal and non spec-
ified space. One cause of complacency and unawareness
is the routine that the city fosters. People are moved around
like commodities to different depots, there is no space to
literally or figuratively move, to be inquisitive in. There is no
need to question an environment when one understands
it as a constant and never changing entity. The city is so
static that the individuals who move around it relegate it to
the background. T
This conversation would be extremely overambitious if not
for an emerging condition in many American cities that
A N INTERSTIT
offers this strand of thought traction. America is at a point in its
urban history that is unprecedented. With many of its infrastruc-
tural system starting to fail and needing maintenance, it offers a
door to really redefine a dying framework that is so instrumental
to what we understand as the modern city. Not only this, global-
ly the need for cities is increasing with emerging super econo-
mies of India and China. Thousands of potential new cities are
being planned, and a need for a new typology is inevitable. The
city by in large has abandoned architecture, seeing it only as
but another part in its mechanic operation. There needs to be a
reinvestment in the city by architecture, to reestablish architec-
ture as the city and the city as architecture. How people move
around the spaces of the city is just important as how they will
eventually experience and navigate architectural spaces.
Why fix an inefficient and inadequate system when one can
project a possible future where the city is not just a machine for
industry, but an organism of engagement. Designers need to
abandon the notion of boundaries that makes the modern city
so rigid. The cityscape can become an entity of blurred lines
and unspecified conditions. There need not a distinction of what
is infrastructure and what is building. This idea that infrastruc-
ture is separate from building is due to the formalization of
circulation within the city, turning it into a distinct visible entity,
and inevitably making it as fixed and rigid as the buildings it
disperses inhabitants to. Base on the promised of progressive
technology in the field of lightweight and composite materials,
couple with industries’ increasing interest in USV, ultra small
vehicle, it can be projected that within the near future, cars
will become not only extremely light but small and individually
owned. They will not be a machine to expedite movement, but
a vehicle to augment how we move through space. They are
small and compact, not dissimilar to modern-day segways.
 Consequently, vehicle segregation is no longer a necessity
to facilitate life-safety concerns as they do now, opening
the possibilities of redefining the pedestrian and vehicle
relationship? If cars become lighter and made of softer
materials, it can hypothesized that there needn’t be defined
streets as we know it today, pedestrian and vehicle move-
ment will be one and the same. This projection gives way to
an image of a city that puts into question what is “walk able
surface, what is drivable surface and ultimately is there any
surface that can’t be navigated?
If movement throughout a city is not zoned to only
the “street”, then the whole idea of boundary conditions
that subjects modern building and the street is obsolete.
When there is no more reason to separate the cars from
the pedestrian, then there is no more need for the overly
formalized street. There is no more need for a zone for
circulation. Once the zone for circulation is abandoned, it
seems inappropriate to have buildings zoned as well since
their placement is heavily dependent on the presence of a
formalized circulation. The de-zoning of the street frees the
streetscape to become more than just large boulevards for
circulation but potentially an open field condition. Within the
open field condition there becomes a need to reestablished
new ways of handling the integration of program space with
a now open field condition. This can lead to unpredictable
TIA L SURFACE
appearances of programmatic spaces within the open field
surface. Program spaces can be part of the surface, like walk
able roofs like we have now, or underneath walk able surface in
an system of structure/inhabitable space. All of this is under the
premise that the city no longer needs to adhere to the modern-
ist manifesto of efficiency as the social ideal. Value is shifted to
the ability of a city to foster a culture of meandering, exploring,
and unplanned and unexpected paths and programmatic adja-
cency.
This lost of identifiable streetscape and subsequently
zones for buildings gives rise to a new city typology. Buildings
no longer need to be clustered up against a street edge; they
can become part of a super surface. Buildings no longer are
destinations, but rather elements of an overall spatial experi-
ence. There will be no more concept of destination in terms of
point A to point B but rather a series of associations base on
the needs of the inhabitants. The integration of the buildings as
we know it into a super surface is to foster a shift in mentality of
how actors perceive space. Infrastructure and buildings are no
long separate; there is fluidity between getting to a destination
and the destination itself. The city is everywhere and nowhere
at the same time. This eliminates the circulation to space rela-
tionship. Circulation is space. The architecture is the city and
the circulation is how one would navigate the city/architecture.
An abandonment of zones and planned spaces en-
ables program to be disperse and situated in places that are
unexpected and unforeseeable. There is no hierarchal relation-
ship between the steps to get to a destination, no clear step by
step instruction, but rather a mélange of possible routes that
can be taken. The messiness in how one can possibly get to
a designation forces a reexamining of how one understands
the body’s relationship to space marrying time and space back
together.
Ford Production Line
Another symptom of the city to address is
the separation of time and space. Inhab-
itants of the city often time suffer from
“drive time”. Time spent within their
cars or mass transit. The time spent with-
in their insular world devoid them from
any spatial engagement, where space is
collapse and the act of driving, which is
meant to be a combination the passage
of time as one move through space, is
boiled down to just time. The car con-
dition confines the individual to a set
route. The car can only move through the
street. The street is only bi directional,
and often times, the path to a destination
i s d e t e r m i n e d b y t h e g r i d o f t h e c i t y. S o
again the efficient planning of the mod-
ernist master plan limits the option of
the individual, offering only one option
EXCESS of moving
space, the
through
most
ficient one, there is
ef-

no critical u n d e r-
standing of how one
is to move through
space. There is no
need for an individ-
ual to be mindful of
how the car is mov-
ing through the city
because there is
only the act of mov-
ing forward, on a set
grid. The only mea-
surement of progress
is how long a trans-
lation between point
A to point B is. Pas-
BAO PHAM / BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE THESIS 2014 / THESIS ADVISOR: DOUG JACKSON / CAL P O LY SAN LUIS OBISPO
sage of space is not recorded only the
passage of time.

By getting rid of the grid, there is an
opportunity to create paths that do not
have to adhere to the standards of effi-
c i e n c y. I f c i r c u l a t i o n i s f r a m e d t h r o u g h
the argument of experience than it
opens the door to possibilities of non
hierarchal, non ordered circulation op-
tions. Circulation is then value for its
options not its most efficient option.
There can be infinite ways to get to a
destination, no way being more efficient
than the next. This collapse of order
and procedural view of circulation forc-
es a reengagement of space and time.
There is no longer “drive time” because
the passage of time is now married to
the navigation of space. If there is no
solution to movement then the time
pass is just as important as the distance covered. the possibilities that people will diffuse base on their needs.
The system thrives on the state of flux. IT goes out of its
The city then succumbs to a state of ecological plasticity. way to create instability and difference to force radical com-
With the abandonment of zoning and any object to field bination from the potentially constantly shifting programs,
relation, the urban environment becomes a network of un- and people.
likely combinations program, inhabitance, materials and ac-
tivities. No hierarchal paths lead to no areas of importance
which leads to no restriction on activities and ultimately no
building or streets. The city becomes a super surface valu-
ing radical combinations over categorical divisions.

Stepping into the realm of unidentifiable physical

world that has no buildings and no streets is a daunting
image. It does not gel with what the romantic image of the
city. It puts everything into tension. There is no such thing
as a better option, there are just options. It is a dangerous
territory to enter because the modern view of architecture
is one of categories, divisions and zones, however present-
ing an environment that has no solution but only options
takes away the need to design for optimal use rather the
design effort is in usage. It is crafting an environment that
is solely focus on multiple rather than singular. There is no
set of options but rather tools to create and solve problems.

A possible example of this way of interacting with the city
is one of “free association.” Rather than understanding the
city as a framework with an optimal solution to any given
problem, a new paradigm would be seeing the city as an
entity aggregation. The value of an environment is the
ever changing possibilities of added elements. Program,
circulation, people, activities are all singular value; the
significance of their clustering comes from how the new-
est element can change the whole entire dynamic of the
cluster. Unlike zoning where the overall interaction of the
city is set, and new addition are just organized into already
define categories. This ecology base system is not based
on the present state but always on the state of possibilities.
It is about how a system can change within flux, accepting
the truth of life within the city as one of variability not stag-
nation. The ecology prized unequal distribution in return for
Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century
As mentioned above the introduction of the vehicle played
a large part in the transition from the medieval city to an
industrial then modern city. This intrinsic relationship be-
tween the personal vehicle and the space that it circulates
shows how intertwine technology is with the formalization
of space and even cities. Understanding this relationship,
this project aim is to further explore a new city typology
that not only deals with spatial qualities that is derive from
changing of architectural principles, but acknowledging that
the speculation of USV is poetically an important catalyst to
pioneer these type of projects and strand of thoughts. Just
as the modern city formulate itself to integrate the car into
urban life, under the premise of a new breed of city vehicle,
how does the new city change as the main ingredient of its
formalization is substituted with a new and foreign agent.
It can be speculated that just as the car radically change
the look and layout of the modern city, so will a rethinking
of the car, along with other speculations, will help transform
the modern city into a city more compatible with contempo-
rary culture.

The primary draw to the Ultra Small Vehicle is its size. It is
around 1000lb as opposed to a standard sedan weighing
from 2500 to 3000lb. It is also shorter and slimmer than
the typical “Smart car.” The size of these USV are not only
redefine the vehicle as a lighter and less intrusive tech-
nology but it also begs the question, if these vehicles are
getting smaller and lighter, doesn’t it make sense that the
infrastructure that once was created to accommodate their
larger ancestors be redefine as well? Beyond their size
what is even more interesting and potentially revolutionary
is the idea that to make the size of the USV possible, there
is a push to turn the car into a set of “soft technologies”
rather than a collection of “hard” mechanical parts, i.e. the
chassis of the car. There are developers in the automotive
industries that are proposing the operation of the vehicle to
be rethought of as a series of electric impulses rather than
heavily relying on the traditional chassis of a car with drive
shaft and other mechanical parts. The main idea is to be
able to control the car through electric signals rather than
physically moving parts. This allows for a different make up
of the vehicle, the cab size is reduced and also the struc-
tural members of the car are significantly reduced as well.

What makes these studies incredibly interesting is the transi-
tioning of a traditional highly mechanical object into a almost
purely software driving machine. The car become more syn-
onymous to an I pad then a tractor. The difference is that with
the introduction of a reliance on software rather than hardware,
the car has the ability to be customizable. One car can have
multiple owners with individual “SUPERfob” that changes the
car’s interior cabin mood light, music, scent, seat positioning
and more. The car then becomes not commodity but potentially
shared space. Rather than thinking of the car as something
each individual needs to own, but are small spatial pods all
around the city that individuals can climb in, inhabit and make
it their own by using their SUPERfob. This make transportation
non specialized, the customization goes with the individual not
the product. All of this is even potentially possible, with cloud
technology and high capacity data storage being miniaturized
into a small USB.

The larger implication of the SUPERfob proposal is that poten-

tially space can become non specific as well, especially with
the chosen program of this project of tech campus and co-work-
ing spaces. These program are a prime candidate for spaces
that are not necessary spatially specific, the common practice
is a desk, a computer and filing cabinets, and a large workable
surface. Since the nature of these spaces, especially co-work-
ing spaces are meant to be almost generic so as to facilitate
flux in people using the space. A SUPERfob would be ideal in
a scenario where co-working spaces are sprinkled all over the
city some in grassy areas, some by the restaurant, and some
by the houses, basically everywhere. Since these spaces are
generic in nature, there is no need for them to be specifically
anywhere. The anonymity of the space allows us to redistribute
them, in a non planned and non zone approach. The introduc-
tion of the SUPERfob only makes these space even more non
specific, since the specificity is in the software not the actual
hardware which is the space.

If Detroit is rethought of as a tech city then the main “work”

that the majority of its inhabitant will be doing is mainly digital
work. Digital work is often time done through the computer,
internet and etcetera. So the idea of a city that mainly deals
Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century
with the digital also opens up the dis-
cussion of a city that does not neces-
sarily be influence formally by the in-
dustry that supports it. Old Detroit is
the poster child for industrialization.
Its planning, makeup, and aesthetic is
heavily influence by the industry that
inhabits it. This relationship between
industry and the aesthetic or composi-
tion of the city is put under question
when the industry is heavily non-phys-
ical. There is not necessary a digi-
t a l b u i l d i n g t y p o l o g y, n o t t h e r e n e e d s
to be. The passing of industry into the
digital real, frees the built environment
to reflect a different type of ideology
and aesthetic. No longer does the city
n e e d t o b e a r e c e p t a c l e f o r i n d u s t r y,
and inevitably the manifestation of it.
The city now operates separately from
i n d u s t r y, g i v i n g t h e c i t y b a c k t h e a b i l i t y
to focus on the inhabitants rather than
n e g o t i a t i n g b e t w e e n i n d u s t r y, h e a v y m a -
c h i n e r y, f a c t o r i e s a n d s u c h . T h e c a n b e
focus on different set of values that are
base on the human experience base on
multiplicity father that dictatorial.

DESI
STUD
IGN
DIES
VA R I A B L E L A N D S C A P E

FOLD/LIFT/TURN

PTOTOTYPE_1

PROTOTYPE_2

PROTOTYPE_3
D S _ VA R I A B L E L A N D S C A P E

This design study looks into the idea of interactive landscape.

The question is, how does one produce an environment that
challenges the participant’s awareness of their surrounding.
The proposal utilize mechanize solutions to create variability as
an attempt to create uniques and personalize experience to the
individual.
The half sphere is covered with grass material while the flat
plane is pavement, the premise is that the half sphere will
rotate according to certain predetermine pixilize patterns which
will change how individuals navigate the same path but with
change in materials from time to time.
DS_FOLD/LIFT/TURN

This design study utilizes the plane as the starting point to cre-
ate surfaces that contorts and unravels to create spaces but still
retain a homogeneous quality to the overall composition. The
premise is to manipulate 2d planes to crate enclosures and paths
that blur the line between the “building typology” and the “path
typology”.

The bluring and subtleness of the change in exterior and interior

promotes an environment that doesn’t not immediately reveals
itself but rather promotes exploration and way finding.

Homogeneity of the surface also starts to suggest design ques-

tion of how one creates an environment that hints at certain us-
ages while still retaining the capacity to be misused or altered.
DS_PROTOTYPE_1

DS_PROTOTYPE_1 builds on the idea explores by the creation

of space through physical model making, and attempts to dig-
italize the concept of a homogeneous surface that opens and
close to accept program and paths. The study is pushing idea
of surface to volume relationship in an attempt to retain a sense
of blurriness in the composition of the city.
DS_PROTOTYPE_2

DS_PROTOTYPE_2 explores the idea of multiplicity of paths

and overlaps as a tool to create an environment that promotes
way finding and exploration. The change in elevations and the
overlapping of paths is used as a tool to create conditions in
which program can eventually be in filled and introduced as
another system with the matrix of paths.

The main goal of the study is to explore methods of introducing

multiple materials within a homogeneous composition to create
a collage effect in terms of aesthetic and experience.
DS_PROTOTYPE_3

DS_PROTOTYPE_3 explores adequacy of space when the

urban condition is layered and densified. The question is what
are the lighting conditions and spacial experiences like when a
city is vertical instead of horizontal.

The study focuses on creating a weaving and fluid effect in

terms of usable surfaces to promote ambiguity and multi-usage.
TOWA RDS A
CIT Y OF EXCESSS
S I T E : D E T R O I T, M I

The scope of this project is to reclaim approximately 6 sq.

blocks in downtown Detroit. Although the specific location has
not been determined, the premise of this project does not need
it to be extremely site specific. The goal is to reimagining a
sizable portion of downtown Detroit as a catalyst for the re-de-
velopment of the city and potentially a case study for future
urban development. Detroit is a prime candidate for this type of
intervention given the fact that it has become an urban center
fill with derelict spaces. There are an abundance of empty car
lots and one cities. The large portion of the city has migrated to
the outskirts, with most of its population living in the suburbs.
This condition of mass exodus towards the suburbs, and decen-
tralization of downtown Detroit has made an once high density
locale into an almost abandoned downtown.

There have been attempts to rehabilitate Detroit, by methods of

urban infilling. This method seeks to reintroduced new program
into Detroit’s existing infrastructure; however the method has
not been very successful, given the fact that the introduction
of new program still has to contend with the issue of spatial
organization that is ingrained in the city grid that often time is
incompatible with the new program. Although buildings are be-
ing reused, there are still issues of adjacency and zoning that
keeps Detroit from thriving again.

This project seeks to attack the challenges of rehabilitating De-

troit through a different approach. An introduction of a new city
typology that will act as a parasitic organism first establishing
itself in the heart of downtown Detroit, and eventually spread its
DNA throughout the rest of the city to start a mass intervention.
This method is intended to not only serves as a case study but
also to introduced a new industry to a city that has by in large
been abandoned by the industry that put it on the map.
PROGRAM

The programmatic elements of this project hopes to introduce

to Detroit are mainly new residential buildings, tech campus-
es, co-working spaces, and recreational amenities typical of a
contemporary city. The emphasis of this project is to redefine
Detroit as a “soft” city, with investment in fostering tech compa-
nies. The benefits of a program like this is the unspecialized
spaces that tech companies and co-working spaces required
since a lot of work are often done via the internet or personal
computers, this enables programmatic spaces to be sprinkle
across the new city typography without large specialized build-
ing types, like car factories or heavy machinery depots like the
old Detroit, in essence, the transforming of Detroit from a “hard”
city into a “soft” city.

Situated near downtown Detroit, the proposal is adjacent to

Highway 10 and Highway 85; redeveloping 3 sq. blocks of
derelict and unused lots. The 3 sq. blocks is an initial proposal
to conglomerate the surrounding neighborhoods, combating
existing urban sprawl conditions. The eventual goal of the pro-
posal will be to expand to accommodate all of Detroit’s popula-
tion, freeing left over space from the old city infrastructure to be
re-appropriated as urban farms.
A B

C D

A. Site Identification B. Tabula rasa

The initial site was chosen amongst varies derelict sites Initially 3 sqr. blocks are cleared away to build the first area of
through out Detroit, with the goal of finding areas with the high- high density. These lots are cleared to be replaced by a new
est derelict structure and lots to be redeveloped. urban fabric that will double to triple the usable space with the
same footprint.

C. Initial intervention D. Land conversion

Initial hub of density is a prototype which holds the genetic
material to spread through out Detroit, and redensified the
surrounding areas. Taking up 3 sqr. blocks, the project is able to
create enough livable area to accommodate for the surrounding
blocks. This is one of the methods to combat urban sprawl.
The lots that are now free of inhabitants due to the new inter-
vention can become redeveloped into farm land; feeding the
people of excessive city.
Excessive City is a critique of the mod-
ernist paradigm that has shaped our cities
for the last century. The project calls for a
rejection of rigid zoning conditions, and
planning practices, which have segregat-
ed activities and uses into discrete areas
connected by an unprogrammed circula-
tion network, in favor of a new city typology
that embraces the hyper-intensified spatial
conditions of the premodern city, where
the street is just not relegated to circula-
tion but a spatial arena that is both a so-
cial condenser and instigator, by virtue of
the heterogeneity of program that it faces.

Excessive City is a new prototype ur-

ban fabric that replaces the notion of “the
street” as an unprogrammed circulation
network, incompatible with pedestrian ex-
perience and socialization, with a new con-
dition in which program spaces and spaces
of movement are combines into an unified
urban landscape wherein unplanned activ-
ities and social encounter are catalyzed.
Situated near downtown Detroit, the propos-
al is adjacent to Highway 10 and Highway
85; redeveloping 3 sq. blocks of derelict and
unused lots. The 3 sq. blocks is an initial
proposal to conglomerate the surrounding
neighborhoods, combating existing urban
sprawl conditions. The eventual goal of
the proposal will be to expand to accom-
modate all of Detroit’s population, freeing
left over space from the old city infrastruc-
ture to be re-appropriated as urban farms.
Zoned vs. RhiZONEmatic
The practice of zoning relegated similar programs into distinct
and segregated areas within the city. This approach to plan-
ning although efficiently orchestrates city life, robs the city of
any chance to be more than what it was planned. The spacial
segregation forces distinct activities to be played out only within
the confines of it zone, whereas if planning was approached by
a rhizomatic method, spaces become exploited as potential
catalyst for spontaneous and unplanned activities due to un-
Conventional adjacencies. The potential to enrich the
urban experience by not forcing spontaneity but by deploy-
ing collage of program will inherently result in spontaneity
in its truest form, for spontaneity can not be planned. This
method of planning puts into question how space is treated
now and how productive it is to challenges the notion that
productivity comes from similarity rather than differences.
The Funnel Effect
Contemporary high-rises which pop-
ulates almost every major modern ur-
ban center allows space to be multiply
and layered , however this capsule of
variable program tends to only be ac-
cess at the ground floor, hence lim-
iting its potential to expose its vari-
able program to the environment.
1. light well
2. panelized pre-stressed concrete
3. girders
4. vertical structural pylon
5. beam

Bao Pham :: Studio Jackson

4
2

3
5
EX TR
CON
RA
NTENT

VELLUM PIECE :: Ad_Lib

FINAL THESIS SHOW PROPOSAL

4

5
2

1
3

ad_lib chooses to look at furniture 1 slotted wood surface

not as a fixture but an adaptive ele-
2 aluminum polish grips
6 ment within the daily functions of life.
its design was conceived through the
3 slotted galvinized bars

thought that a piece of furniture can 4 hardened irion 1/4" D bars

adapt to the need of a person on a 5 3/8" screw collar
basis to basis scenario. Hence, ad_lib 6 1/16" socket screw
takes cues from mechanical tract sys- 7 1' double barrel hinge
tems and slotting of the wooden sur-
faces to create a piece of furniture that
can be misused, ad hoc, and mallea-
ble. the ability of the wooden surfaces
to change angle on a tract systems
create new part to whole relationships
that instigates a certain temptation to
misuse or ad hoc performance. the
end game of this piece is to be used
in every way possible.
6
This thesis show proposal
unitizes a field condition of
columns to alter the space of
the Berg Gallery. By deploy-
ing a field condition, the over-
all space is reduced down to
a more intimate and digest-
ible size.

The field condition allows for

an infrastructure to be intro-
duced in a space that usually
is unprogrammed and un-
orchestrated.

Variation in program of the

collumns and heights cre-
ates unexpected views and
alcoves to engage the viewer
in the idivitual thesis projects.
?
Special dedication to my loving parents, Thai Pham and Christy Phan for always seeing

the best in me, your tireless suppor t is what drives me to be my best. Thank You, I Hope

I will make you proud.