Plumebanism
Awarded the Pella Award
Finalist in AIA's Chicago in Architecture Competition, to be judged this fall.

One hundred and sixty years ago Ildefons Cerda created an automated urbanism that created a set of rules that allowed for gradual expansion. This expansion created the megalopolis that we identify as the city of Barcelona, although it is an amalgamation of many cities.

This expansion relieved the intial problems the city had, but the desire to live within Cerda’s Eixample recreated the problems that the Eixample set out to fix. Every block within the Eixample has reached it’s maximum capacity, pushing more people the outer edges of the megalopolis; only to commute and travel back down to the Eixample to spend time.
When you consider the megalopolis of Barcelona, the density of the city is astounding: 41,416 people per square mile allowing each person 39 square meters per person of living space. Now, 80% of the people living in the outer edges of Barcelona live in sub-standard conditions, at double the density within each household allowing each person 15 square meters of living space.
The answer to these problems is to create a new vertical density that allows people to move into the Eixample, relieving the cities astounding density issues.

This project is about creating new ways of living within the city.