Mediapolis Arcadia

We explored notions of Arcadia, defined by us as ‘life lived naturally’, and the future of work. We ended up with three concepts that would define our architecture:

The Collective is the Power; a metaphor of the current state of media and a social dynamic we tried to encapsulate symbolically and programmatically.

Distance as Power; through this, we sought to imbue identity on a ‘non-space’ – a context defined by the lack of context.

Building as ‘the Zone’; with a prominence to lure, through a dominant presence and strong, repeated language.
Through multiple iterations and 3D printing experiments, our modular systems work together to create a tropical building from the inside out, simultaneously allowing a deep penetration of diffused natural light within the building. Structurally, arches support the weight of the building, creating open spaces and a flexibility to modify the modulated floor slabs as needed.

Our final proposal surprisingly eludes to the Baroque and the Rococo style, perhaps suggesting that as construction processes become more automated, there will be a nostalgia for styles that modern architecture has long abandoned – a celebration of the attention on craft and detail that has, suddenly, become much more attainable.