Seton Wakenshaw: SIDEWALKS IN THE SKY

MA A+U student Seton Wakenshaw's thesis project

‘Sidewalks in the Sky’

Based in Manhattan the ‘Sidewalks in the Sky’ project considers a series of smaller ‘perfect states’ as a more realistic proposition to improving the underused cities that we inhabit. A series of strategically placed ‘lungs’ within our urban realm are created, that offer up smaller scale, temporary utopias that will enrich our individual and collective wellbeing.

The design recalls Jane Jacobs’ observations of New York that “Streets and their sidewalks, the main public spaces of a city are its most vital organs” with the introduction of functional rooftop ‘sidewalks’ establishing a new sense of community through pedestrian occupied spaces in the sky.

The images below document Seton's design process and the development of his project.

Teresa Stoppani

Dr. Teresa Stoppani (University of Greenwich) will be leading a seminar for MA A+U at 10,30 am on Thursday 9 December.

Her new book Paradigm Islands: Manhattan and Venice, Discourses on the City has just been published by Routledge.

Concerning architecture and the city, built, imagined and narrated, this book focuses on Manhattan and Venice, but considers architecture as an intellectual and spatial process rather than a product. A critical look at the making of Manhattan and Venice provides a background to addressing the dynamic redefinition and making of space today. The gradual processes of adjustment, the making of a constantly changing dense space, the emphasis on forming rather than on figure, the incorporation of new forms and languages through their adaptation and transformation, make both Manhattan and Venice, in different ways, the ideal places to contextualize and address the issue of an architecture of the dynamic.

On the previous day Wednesday 8 December Dr. Stoppani will be speaking at a seminar at the University of Manchester on Piranesi's Erasures in G19 Mansfield Cooper Building at 4.00 pm