The Horizontal Metropolis, a Radical Project

“Horizontal Metropolis” is an oxymoron to conjugate the traditional idea of Metropolis (the center of a vast territory, hierarchically organized, dense, vertical, produced by polarization) with horizontality (the idea of a more diffuse, isotropic urban condition, where center and periphery blur). In contrast with main trends that see figures of urban dispersion mainly as a phenomenon to be contrasted, the Horizontal Metropolis concept consider them beyond the theme of “peri-urban” and as an asset, not a limit, for the construction of a sustainable and innovative territorial project. Here horizontality of infrastructure, urbanity and relations, mixed use and diffuse accessibility can generate specific habitable and ecologically efficient spaces. In this frame of thinking, the Horizontal Metropolis works as natural and spatial capital, as a support and place of potentiality.

The exhibition investigates the Horizontal Metropolis, its space, its traditions and its inhabitants’ lifestyles, its relevance today as an energetic, ecological and social design issue, it explores scenarios and design strategies for the re-cycling and upgrading of cities-territory in a radical project.

Promoter: Archizoom EPFL

More info: http://archizoom.epfl.ch/