concept
Spring 2021-Spring 2022: Coordinators- Kai Gutschow, Francesca Torello, Sarah Rafson
Advisors: Dana Cupkova, Matt Huber, Mary-Lou Arscott, Sinan Goral
Sofa Memory
When I was little, around 4 years old, I would hang my head off of the sofa and imagine walking on the ceiling of our living room. The fan became a jump rope to hop over and the stairs a ladder to climb. This memory led to my formation of the “unvertical” concept.
Why Verticality?
Verticality has a lot of assumptive primacy in our spaces. From the primitive hut to our current iconography of the skyscraper, architecture and space seem to be focused on vertical engagement, and that increasing our reach signifies a refinement and evolution of human ability to overcome our landscape. Verticality is political, sensorial, emotional, and physical. Yet most of these characteristics are seen as a given of it, leading to continued oppressive practices and a built environment that supports those practices. An exploration of the unvertical can help us question the predominance of verticality in our spaces and society.
Implications of Verticality
Religion
Religions around the world, including major religions like Christianity and Hinduism, have a connotation of gods living in an upper abode and demons or other evils residing under the human land. This relationship of positive upward movement and negative downward movement has greatly influenced the way that we interact with the earth and the built environment. We continuously reach for heaven and the space above our heads while the environment at the bottom of our oceans and towards the center of the earth is less popularized.
Intelligence and the Upright Male Body
Other widespread imagery like the Vitruvian Man, and the image of bipedal Man evolving from the quadrupedal chimp imply a correlation between intelligence and the upright body. Walking on two feet is what separates us from the ‘unintelligent’ other animals. In both of these illustrations and many more, the representation of an average or ideal human form is that of an athletic man without visible disability. This association of the upright body being an intelligent body, and of standing on two feet as the body at a neutral position has many repercussions including assumptions of an ‘average’ body when designing space, and subpar modifications of space to accommodate those with physical divergence from this form.
Masculinity and Ego
Skyscrapers are seen as symbols of development and modernization and this association popularizes a design form derived from phallic connotations and a display of masculine arrogance. Most architects are cisgender men, even to this day, and the toxic expressions of masculinity perpetuated by patriarchal cultures has led to male architects and land owners competing in a “mine is bigger and better than yours” race that leaves little respect for land constructed upon and the usability of the space. Skyscrapers attempt to make the penthouse occupant the king of the world, extending their claim as far as the eye can see.
Visual ownership and Capitalism
Increased height indicates increased visual access to our environment. Our sight extends beyond the immediate ownership of space from touch, and by towering over the land below, you have an increased sense of ownership and control over the area in sight. Our land is segmented under the idea that we can ‘own’ a piece of land and oftentimes, the segments are built upon to increase the space that we can control and call our own with as little economic loss as possible. Building only one story in an area like downtown NYC is unthinkable because you could instead build a skyscraper and increase your economic and visual ownership.
The Horizon
The horizon is the unreachable edge. Many artists take it as a metaphor for clarity and the moment where stability and truth are brought into the environment. It holds power because of the expectation that the sun will rise over the horizon. On the other hand, the horizon is a key destination for the colonial powers, for White Man’s Burden. That journey to reach the unreachable edge continues to leave devastation in its wake. If the horizon is no longer a stable landmark, then it breaks both the foreverness of ownership and the trust in our environment.
Navigation - physical and digital
Grids of latitude and longitude have been superimposed onto the globe, sectioning the land regardless of its verticality. Sea faring nations used to navigate the water through the study of wave patterns and other dynamic mapping until imperial powers used measurements of location relative to the stars above and to the man-made grid. Navigation continues to be driven by a similar logic; GPS. We are highly reliant on a satellite view and the resulting segmentation of our space that it becomes second nature to turn on a GPS for any task outside of daily routine.
Vertical Bias in Language
Some colloquial and formal terms and phrases that illustrate the vertical bias culture include: A brighter future, Upstanding citizen, Head in the clouds, Up and coming, Tall, strong, young man, Bottom feeder, Feeling down.
This list is ongoing and are just a few examples used in my environment, however it further demonstrates the ways that connotations tied to verticality shape our interpretation of people and space. Most of these phrases are tied to intelligence, masculinity, and power structures, showing that these correlations exist outside of the architecture office and are not consciously taught in school, but instead percolating through our collective consciousness and are sleeping giants in our environment.
Why Unverticality?
Unvertical is a term created to describe a nonbinary approach towards verticality. This approach expresses verticality as a part of the design space, but undoes the exaggerated importance of it. It is a part of the toolkit, not the toolbox itself. Unvertical also sits in a similar relationship to horizontal and vertical as undead does to living and dead. Unverticality is separate from the argument to build horizontally or even diagonally, but it is instead a challenge to the assumptions and prominence of verticality in our spaces.
