Strata

Strata posits a global state of placelessness wherein traversable levels of tensile membranes are hoisted above the earth’s surface, thereby supplanting the then overgrown urban grid, and creating a new world of nomadic people. In some distant future, we find ourselves dependent upon a new epidermis: a shade from the sun, a bio-filter for the air, and a shroud for the earth. At the height of the era of ‘Megatall’ buildings, a uniform experience fell upon the inhabitants of such structures – a quest for a new plane of travel, and the freedom to leave the otherwise urban cell. So the towers grew out, and in a sense, the world began over.
In this narrative, monstrosity is both a precursor and a result. Strata exists as a result of densification, human ambition, and an unquenchable thirst to build higher. It offers an environmental remedy, but also serves as an alternative to Cartesian thinking. It provides a place for meditation, but also dissolves the social centers that occupied the former ground. As such, Strata is not in and of itself the solution, but rather, a hypothesis on how some of our current problems might morph and extend into a future alternative.