C (cube) C (square): A Civic, Cultural and Commercial City Center

Abstract

Collective urban spaces have historically been a mixture of civic, cultural, and commercial programs. These urban spaces and the programs themselves benefited from their physical proximity and architectural integration. An intimate coexistence of C³ constituted the traditional city center. This formula for social and economic sustenance is well tested. However, in the present day megalopolis, segregated zoning and a shift toward the privatization of public space has changed the nature of collective urban space. Civic, cultural, and commercial institutions have been isolated; we no longer benefit from their mutual imbrication. This project uses an immanent shift in the scale of city-building to produce a new form of collective space that reintegrates C³.