the urban matrix

The contemporary city constitutes a new urban agglomeration of multiplied, heterogeneous and discontinuous spaces and relationships exceeding the metropolises that have existed.

These cities are formed by urban entities that are loosely linked in terms of hierarchy, and more difficult to relate to circumstances of spatial or contextual proximity, but on the contrary are associated with dislocated and fluctuating dynamics with reference to the variable relationships between, residence, production, service and leisure, thus defining a versatile dimension to the contemporary city.

Formed through a vibrant system, which at global scale is generic and recurrent but at a local scale it is diversified and specific.

The metapolis city consists of a matrix, a diversified and elastic development, produced within a changing framework, generated beyond the physical or geographic. A framework of relationships based on the processing and combination of simultaneous bits of information.

The metapolis is not a single place or a particular shape, nor is it at any point at a unique evolutionary stage, it is the accumulation of multiple stages and simultaneous experiences.

As an elastic and vibrant system, the city is defined by relationships between autonomous interlinked movements and events. This is a complex system of fluent networks, and layers of information the outlines of which fluctuate and change in a macrobiotic way.

The structure of cities can be considered as being similar yet different at the same time. They consist of similar dynamics at a global scale yet at a local scale consist of varying situations, formed through collisions, encounters and intersections, generating a variety of specific and varied combinations.

The essence of a contemporary city; a metapolis, is a spectrum of places within places. This multi-city can be considered abstractly as a multi layered structure formed through superposed transformations and evolutions, a fluctuating and dynamic network, definitively unfinished.