The Polyrhythmic-scape of the City

Abstract

This paper shows the work of the 'Cosmopolitan Workshop', which is part of the Arts and Study Abroad Program (ASAP) at Tokyo University of the Arts. ASAP encourages interdisciplinarity and practical design research strategies out of the studio, the university, and the country. Especially, the Cosmopolitan Workshop explores a way for understanding and conceiving the complex connections between humans and the environment of the city, while focusing on King’s Cross redevelopment area in London. Drawing on ideas by the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre, and with reference to Bernard Tschumi, the participants in the Cosmopolitan Workshop aimed to describe a series of ordinary 'direct actions'as 'rhythmanalysis' of humans, architecture, and space, through the assumption that this not only proposes different readings of spatial function, but also configures ambiguous relationships between “every being, every entity and every body, both living and non-living”. With the support of Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London) and the Architectural Association Schoolof Architecture, the participants attempted to document human actions in everyday life that would expand the perception of time in urban space, while strategically examining the city’s perimeter and its relation to urban rhythms and events.