Marco Casagrande | ISB International Society of Biourbanism (original) (raw)

Papers by Marco Casagrande

Urban Island Studies, 2016

Nature Driven Urbanism, 2019

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—its connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Another example is offered by observing the daily life in Mumbai’s unofficial settlements. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.

Taiwan Architect, 2009

The Taipei City Government Department of Urban Development is facing a serious challenge. The gr... more The Taipei City Government Department of Urban Development is facing a serious
challenge. The growing pressure of Taipei Basin has turned its focus towards the last
natural wetland environment of the city – the Guandu Plain. Will Taipei repeat its
industrial sins with the planning of Guandu, or is the urban narrative ready to take the
next step onwards and develop a more environmentally harmonious co-existence between the city and the river? Will the future Guandu be a groundbreaking example of River Urbanism, or will Taipei now cut off its primeval roots towards the river for good?

Proceedings of 8th Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU), 2015

Nature Driven Urbanism, 2020

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityi... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityits connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Another example is offered by observing the daily life in Mumbai's unofficial settlements. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.

Journal of Biourbanism, 2015

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityi... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityits connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a biourban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Another example is offered by observing the daily life in Mumbai's unofficial settlements. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.

P2P Foundation, 2010

Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating needles into various points on the bod... more Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating needles into various points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes. Urban planning integrates land use planning and transportation planning to improve the built, economic and social environments of communities. Urban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities,

O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv Ukraine, 2023

Криза урбанізму аналізується як життєво важливий феномен, що готує місто третього покоління — йог... more Криза урбанізму аналізується як життєво важливий феномен, що готує місто третього покоління — його зв’язок із природою та її плоттю. Промислове місто, навпаки, фіктивне. Теорія розглядає майбутній міський розвиток як руїну індустріального міста, органічної машини, зруйнованої природою, в тому числі людською. Наведено приклад поселення Пагорб скарбів поблизу Тайбея. Будучи органічною руїною промислового міста, Пагорб скарбів є біоміським місцем опору та акупунктурною точкою Тайбею з власною методологією проектування, заснованою на місцевих знаннях. Ця руїна — речовина, з якої урбанізм-паразит компостує сучасне місто. Іншим прикладом є спостереження за діяльністю Ruin Academy, незалежного перехресного архітектурного дослідницького центру, який зосереджується на дослідженні процесів руйнування міст, які підтримують життя міста. Міська акупунктура, місто третього покоління та концептуальна модель Парасіті говорять про громаду, яка знаходиться в руках її власного народу. Біоурбанізм виникає, коли природна сила бере ініціативу, впливає на дизайн індустріального суспільства та стає співархітектором. Поєднуючи екологію та міський дизайн, Ruin Academy розробляє методи пунктуального маніпулювання міськими потоками енергії з метою створення екологічно стійкого міського розвитку до так званого міста третього покоління.

Ключові слова: міська акупунктура; біоурбанізм; Місто третього покоління; руїни; урбанізм паразитів; Парацітет; Місцеві знання; Академія руїни

Third Generation City, 2023

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityi... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityits connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The theory views the future urban development as the ruin of the industrial city, an organic machine ruined by nature including human nature. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Another example is offered by observing the operations of the Ruin Academy, an independent cross-over architectural research centre focused on the research of the urban ruining processes of that keep the city alive. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people. Biourbanism happens, when nature force takes the initiative, affects the design of industrial society, and becomes co-architect. By mixing environmentalism and urban design Ruin Academy is developing methods of punctual manipulation of the urban energy flows in order to create an ecologically sustainable urban development towards the so-called Third Generation City.

MARCO CASAGRANDE: WHO CARES, WINS THE THIRD GENERATION CITY, 2018

Open Form knows no designer. The architect is not an author, but rather a communicator, or a huma... more Open Form knows no designer. The architect is not an author, but rather a communicator, or a human intelligence officer. Most of the existing architecture is ‘closed form’, a structural manifestation of human control and authority, while nature is Open Form, and therefore the task of architecture should be mediating between the human nature and the big voice of Nature. Urban Acupuncture strives to penetrate through thin industrial layers of asphalt and concrete in order to connect with the original soil. The resulting cracks in the city fabric provide the breeding ground for the Local Knowledge and Open Form (which are essentially one and the same thing). The Third Generation City is the city of cracks.

Architecture is an environmental art. It belongs not to architects, but to nature; it belongs to our senses, and not to our control. What is not sensitive, is not alive – it’s death’s companion.

From Spaces to Places #Product#People#City, 2023

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—its connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.
Third Genereation City is the organic ruin of the industrial city, an organic machine and open form of the mechanical urbanism which has learned to become biological. Ruin is when man-made has become part of nature. The industrial control has been opened up in order for the nature to step in. The seeds of the third generation city are coexisting together with the current industrial urbanism – for example the illegal collective urban farms and settlements of Taipei.
Nature has only one rule: existence maximum. It wants the city to be part of the life-providing process. Now our cities are anti-acupuncture needles in the life-providing tissue.
Urban Acupuncture is a biourban theory, which combines sociology and urban design with the traditional Chinese medical theory of acupuncture. As a design methodology, it is focused on tactical, small scale interventions on the urban fabric, aiming in ripple effects and transformation on the larger urban organism. Through the acupuncture points, Urban Acupuncture seeks to be in contact with the site-specific Local Knowledge. By its nature, Urban Acupuncture is pliant, organic, and relieves stress and industrial tension in the urban environment, thus directing the city towards the organic—urban nature as part of nature. Urban Acupuncture produces small scale, but ecologically and socially catalytic development on the built human environment. The Third Generation City is a city of cracks. The thin mechanical surface of the industrial city is shattered, and from these cracks the new biourban growth emerges, which will ruin the second generation city. In the Third Generation City, we aim at designing ruins. The Third Generation City is true when the city recognizes its local knowledge and allows itself to be part of nature.
The way towards the Third Generation City is a process of becoming a collective learning and healing organism and of reconnecting the urbanized collective con- sciousness with nature. Citizens on their behalf are ready and are already breaking the industrial city apart by themselves. Local knowledge is operating independently from the official city and is providing punctual third generation surroundings within the industrial city: urban acupuncture for the stiff official mechanism. The weak signals of the unofficial collective consciousness should be recognized as the futures’ emerging issues; futures that are already present.
The city is a manifest of human-centered systems—economical, industrial, philosophical, political, and religious power structures. Biourbanism is an animist community structural system regulated by nature. Human nature as part of nature, also within the urban conditions. The era of pollution is the era of industrial urbanism – the second generation city. The next era has always been surviving within the industrial city, like a positive cancer. The first-generation city never died, it went underground, but the bio-urban processes are still surviving. The seeds of the Third Generation City are present. Architecture is not an art of human control; it is an art of reality - there is no other reality than nature.

Keywords: urban acupuncture; biourbanism; Third Generation City; ruins; parasite urbanism; Paracity; Local Knowledge; constructive biology; Open Form
ISBN 9788833381879

HUMAN, 2023

Independent newspaper for West Palm Beach describing the communicative arction process of the Tro... more Independent newspaper for West Palm Beach describing the communicative arction process of the Trojan Rocking Horse project. During 8 childrens' design workshops were created the inspirations for the 8 life-sized Trojan Rocking Horse which harvested dreams and aspirations from the citizens for the city authorities. "Invitation to Dream" #urban acupuncture #public sphere #communicative action #constructive anarchy #open form #who cares wins

PARACITY Magazine presenting the modular organic parasitic urban structure developed for flooding... more PARACITY Magazine presenting the modular organic parasitic urban structure developed for flooding, tsunami-risk, post-industrial and slum areas. Presented in the China Central Academy of Fine Arts CAFAM Biennale 2014. Casagrande Laboratory Center of Urban Research CURE.

First generation city was the human settlement in straight connection with nature and dependent o... more First generation city was the human settlement in straight connection with nature and dependent on nature. The fertile and rich Taipei basin provided a fruitful environment for such a settlement. The rivers were full of fish and good for transportation and the mountains protected the farmed plains from the straightest hits of the frequent typhoons.

The second generation city is the industrial city. Industrialism granted the citizens independence from nature–a mechanical environment could provide everything needed for humans. Nature was seen as something unnecessary or as something hostile–it was walled away from the mechanical reality.
Third Generation City is the organic ruin of the industrial city. The community gardens of Taipei are fragments of the third generation urbanism when they exist together with the industrial surroundings. Local Knowledge is present in the city and this is where Ruin Academy focuses its research. Among the urban gardeners are the local knowledge professors of Taipei. Third Generation City is true when the city recognizes its local knowledge and allows itself to be part of nature.
The Ruin Academy (Taipei 2010- ) is set to re-think the industrial city and the relationship between the modern man and nature in the urbanized Taipei Basin. It is looking from the local knowledge for the seeds of the Third Generation City.

Books by Marco Casagrande

From Spaces to Places #Product#People#City , 2023

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—its connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.
Third Genereation City is the organic ruin of the industrial city, an organic machine and open form of the mechanical urbanism which has learned to become biological. Ruin is when man-made has become part of nature. The industrial control has been opened up in order for the nature to step in. The seeds of the third generation city are coexisting together with the current industrial urbanism – for example the illegal collective urban farms and settlements of Taipei.
Nature has only one rule: existence maximum. It wants the city to be part of the life-providing process. Now our cities are anti-acupuncture needles in the life-providing tissue.
Urban Acupuncture is a biourban theory, which combines sociology and urban design with the traditional Chinese medical theory of acupuncture. As a design methodology, it is focused on tactical, small-scale interventions on the urban fabric, aiming in ripple effects and transformation on the larger urban organism. Through the acupuncture points, Urban Acupuncture seeks to be in contact with the site-specific Local Knowledge. By its nature, Urban Acupuncture is pliant, organic, and relieves stress and industrial tension in the urban environment, thus directing the city towards the organic—urban nature as part of nature. Urban Acupuncture produces small scale, but ecologically and socially catalytic development on the built human environment. The Third Generation City is a city of cracks. The thin mechanical surface of the industrial city is shattered, and from these cracks the new biourban growth emerges, which will ruin the second generation city. In the Third Generation City, we aim at designing ruins. The Third Generation City is true when the city recognizes its local knowledge and allows itself to be part of nature.
The way towards the Third Generation City is a process of becoming a collective learning and healing organism and of reconnecting the urbanized collective con- sciousness with nature. Citizens on their behalf are ready and are already breaking the industrial city apart by themselves. Local knowledge is operating independently from the official city and is providing punctual third generation surroundings within the industrial city: urban acupuncture for the stiff official mechanism. The weak signals of the unofficial collective consciousness should be recognized as the futures’ emerging issues; futures that are already present.
The city is a manifest of human-centered systems—economical, industrial, philo- sophical, political, and religious power structures. Biourbanism is an animist community structural system regulated by nature. Human nature as part of nature, also within the urban conditions. The era of pollution is the era of industrial urbanism – the second generation city. The next era has always been surviving within the industrial city, like a positive cancer. The first-generation city never died, it went underground, but the bio-urban processes are still surviving. The seeds of the Third Generation City are present. Architecture is not an art of human control; it is an art of reality - there is no other reality than nature.

ISBN 9788833381879

Keywords: urban acupuncture; biourbanism; Third Generation City; ruins; parasite urbanism; Paracity; Local Knowledge; constructive biology; Open Form

La ville rebelle. Démocratiser le projet urbain, 2015

The way towards the Third Generation City is a process of becoming a collective learning and heal... more The way towards the Third Generation City is a process of becoming a collective learning and healing organism and to reconnect the urbanized collective consciousness with nature. In Taipei, the wall between the city and the river must go. This requires a total transformation from the city infrastructure and from the centralized power control. Otherwise, the real development will be unofficial. Citizens on their behalf are ready and are already breaking the industrial city apart by themselves. Local knowledge is operating independently from the official city and is providing punctual third generation surroundings within the industrial city: Urban Acupuncture for the stiff official mechanism.

The weak signals of the unofficial collective consciousness should be recognized as the futures’ emerging issues; futures that are already present in Taipei. The official city should learn how to enjoy acupuncture, how to give up industrial control in order to let nature step in.

The local knowledge based transformation layer of Taipei is happening from inside the city, and it is happening through self-organized punctual interventions. These interventions are driven by small scale businesses and alternative economies benefiting from the fertile land of the Taipei Basin and of leeching the material and energy streams of the official city. This acupuncture makes the city weaker, softer and readier for a larger change.

The city is a manifest of human-centered systems – economical, industrial, philosophical, political and religious power structures. Biourbanism is an animist system regulated by nature. Human nature as part of nature, also in the urban conditions. The era of pollution is the era of industrial urbanism. The next era has always been within the industrial city. The first generation city never died. The seeds of the Third Generation City are present. Architecture is not an art of human control, it is an art of reality. There is no other reality than nature.

Conference Presentations by Marco Casagrande

Regenerative Regions, 2024

BIOURBANISM - Constructive Biology & Case Kharkiv Architecture as environmental art. Architectu... more BIOURBANISM - Constructive Biology & Case Kharkiv

Architecture as environmental art. Architecture as the art of reality. There is no other reality than nature. Architectonic works as constructive biology, moving freely in-between architecture, environmental art and biourbanism, strongly tied with environmental awareness and social drama. Architects as design shamans, merely interpreting what the bigger voice of nature including human nature is transmitting. A series of architectural installations around the world as public environmental artworks using site-specific construction methodologies of Local Knowledge with biological and recycled materials. Land(e)scape in Finland, walking and burning barn houses commenting on the desertion process of Finnish countryside and abandoning Local Knowledges develop over centuries. 60 Minute Man in Venice Biennale, an abandoned barge growing a stack of 24 oaks planted on 60 minutes’ worth of human waste produced by the city of Venice. Potemkin, park for post-industrial meditation in Echigo-Tsumari, Japan as an industrial Zen Garden, mixture of a machine and temple.

Learning from Treasure Hill, an un-official self-made community in Taipei, Taiwan. 400 households resisting the destructive modern centrally governed city. An urban organism officially doomed to die. Reconstruction and legalization process of the settlement as a model laboratory of Local Knowledge-based sustainable biourbanism. Ruin Academy emerging from the Communicative Action with Treasure Hill as an independent cross-disciplinary research center of Local Knowledge implementations of urban and community development in Taipei, Taitung and in cooperation with the International Society of Biourbanism in Artena, Italy. Theory and design methodologies of Urban Acupuncture and the Third Generation City, the organic ruin of the industrial city, regenerative urbanism as part of nature. Illegal Architecture, Urban Acupuncture, River Urbanism, Urban Nomad, Organic Machine, Parasite Urbanism.

Examples of Insect Architecture in human scale. The Bug Dome bamboo-cocoon in Shenzhen, China and Sandworm willow cathedral in Wenduine, Belgium. Large up to 45 x 12 x 12 m handmade bucket structures with 100% natural discarded materials celebrating similar local knowledges of Flemish and South-Chinese cultures regarding nature as the co-architect.

Potential of CLT cross-laminated timber in modular, modifiable, and movable architecture in housing, community, and urban scale. Introducing Tikku, a 3-floor micro-apartment building fitting into one car-parking space 2,5 x 5 m, Lamminranta, a combined elderly care home + kindergarten, and Dokken, world’s largest contemporary all wooden city district development in Bergen, Norway. Paracity as a high-tech slum for organic urban development combining CLT primary structure with other low-carbon secondary structures (green concrete, circular materials, carbon, clay, paper, adobe…). UNFPA CLT Maternity and Child-Health Polyclinic in the Zaatari refugee camp with prefabricated and rapid construction CLT spatial modules with skin-to-skin architecture, for psychologically calming, restoring and regenerative spaces in the world’s most adverse places.

Kharkiv City, Ukraine, the intellectual university city, and centre of industry, now 30 km from frontline, getting shelled day by day. Setting up the Ruin Academy in Kharkiv in cooperation with O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy. Focus:
- Regenerative and healing bio-urbanism and constructive biology responding to social, climate and biodiversity crises. Multi-voiced or polyphonic narrative.
- Urban biodiversity of wild nature, and nature overtaking/ruining built human environments.
- Some kind of nature; de-centring humans and highlighting the needs of more-than-human focuses to define engagement with the environment where diverse actors are given agency.

SURVIVAL
COMFORT
BEAUTY

Urban Island Studies, 2016

Nature Driven Urbanism, 2019

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—its connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Another example is offered by observing the daily life in Mumbai’s unofficial settlements. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.

Taiwan Architect, 2009

The Taipei City Government Department of Urban Development is facing a serious challenge. The gr... more The Taipei City Government Department of Urban Development is facing a serious
challenge. The growing pressure of Taipei Basin has turned its focus towards the last
natural wetland environment of the city – the Guandu Plain. Will Taipei repeat its
industrial sins with the planning of Guandu, or is the urban narrative ready to take the
next step onwards and develop a more environmentally harmonious co-existence between the city and the river? Will the future Guandu be a groundbreaking example of River Urbanism, or will Taipei now cut off its primeval roots towards the river for good?

Proceedings of 8th Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU), 2015

Nature Driven Urbanism, 2020

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityi... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityits connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Another example is offered by observing the daily life in Mumbai's unofficial settlements. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.

Journal of Biourbanism, 2015

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityi... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityits connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a biourban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Another example is offered by observing the daily life in Mumbai's unofficial settlements. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.

P2P Foundation, 2010

Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating needles into various points on the bod... more Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating needles into various points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes. Urban planning integrates land use planning and transportation planning to improve the built, economic and social environments of communities. Urban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities,

O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv Ukraine, 2023

Криза урбанізму аналізується як життєво важливий феномен, що готує місто третього покоління — йог... more Криза урбанізму аналізується як життєво важливий феномен, що готує місто третього покоління — його зв’язок із природою та її плоттю. Промислове місто, навпаки, фіктивне. Теорія розглядає майбутній міський розвиток як руїну індустріального міста, органічної машини, зруйнованої природою, в тому числі людською. Наведено приклад поселення Пагорб скарбів поблизу Тайбея. Будучи органічною руїною промислового міста, Пагорб скарбів є біоміським місцем опору та акупунктурною точкою Тайбею з власною методологією проектування, заснованою на місцевих знаннях. Ця руїна — речовина, з якої урбанізм-паразит компостує сучасне місто. Іншим прикладом є спостереження за діяльністю Ruin Academy, незалежного перехресного архітектурного дослідницького центру, який зосереджується на дослідженні процесів руйнування міст, які підтримують життя міста. Міська акупунктура, місто третього покоління та концептуальна модель Парасіті говорять про громаду, яка знаходиться в руках її власного народу. Біоурбанізм виникає, коли природна сила бере ініціативу, впливає на дизайн індустріального суспільства та стає співархітектором. Поєднуючи екологію та міський дизайн, Ruin Academy розробляє методи пунктуального маніпулювання міськими потоками енергії з метою створення екологічно стійкого міського розвитку до так званого міста третього покоління.

Ключові слова: міська акупунктура; біоурбанізм; Місто третього покоління; руїни; урбанізм паразитів; Парацітет; Місцеві знання; Академія руїни

Third Generation City, 2023

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityi... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation Cityits connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The theory views the future urban development as the ruin of the industrial city, an organic machine ruined by nature including human nature. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Another example is offered by observing the operations of the Ruin Academy, an independent cross-over architectural research centre focused on the research of the urban ruining processes of that keep the city alive. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people. Biourbanism happens, when nature force takes the initiative, affects the design of industrial society, and becomes co-architect. By mixing environmentalism and urban design Ruin Academy is developing methods of punctual manipulation of the urban energy flows in order to create an ecologically sustainable urban development towards the so-called Third Generation City.

MARCO CASAGRANDE: WHO CARES, WINS THE THIRD GENERATION CITY, 2018

Open Form knows no designer. The architect is not an author, but rather a communicator, or a huma... more Open Form knows no designer. The architect is not an author, but rather a communicator, or a human intelligence officer. Most of the existing architecture is ‘closed form’, a structural manifestation of human control and authority, while nature is Open Form, and therefore the task of architecture should be mediating between the human nature and the big voice of Nature. Urban Acupuncture strives to penetrate through thin industrial layers of asphalt and concrete in order to connect with the original soil. The resulting cracks in the city fabric provide the breeding ground for the Local Knowledge and Open Form (which are essentially one and the same thing). The Third Generation City is the city of cracks.

Architecture is an environmental art. It belongs not to architects, but to nature; it belongs to our senses, and not to our control. What is not sensitive, is not alive – it’s death’s companion.

From Spaces to Places #Product#People#City, 2023

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—its connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.
Third Genereation City is the organic ruin of the industrial city, an organic machine and open form of the mechanical urbanism which has learned to become biological. Ruin is when man-made has become part of nature. The industrial control has been opened up in order for the nature to step in. The seeds of the third generation city are coexisting together with the current industrial urbanism – for example the illegal collective urban farms and settlements of Taipei.
Nature has only one rule: existence maximum. It wants the city to be part of the life-providing process. Now our cities are anti-acupuncture needles in the life-providing tissue.
Urban Acupuncture is a biourban theory, which combines sociology and urban design with the traditional Chinese medical theory of acupuncture. As a design methodology, it is focused on tactical, small scale interventions on the urban fabric, aiming in ripple effects and transformation on the larger urban organism. Through the acupuncture points, Urban Acupuncture seeks to be in contact with the site-specific Local Knowledge. By its nature, Urban Acupuncture is pliant, organic, and relieves stress and industrial tension in the urban environment, thus directing the city towards the organic—urban nature as part of nature. Urban Acupuncture produces small scale, but ecologically and socially catalytic development on the built human environment. The Third Generation City is a city of cracks. The thin mechanical surface of the industrial city is shattered, and from these cracks the new biourban growth emerges, which will ruin the second generation city. In the Third Generation City, we aim at designing ruins. The Third Generation City is true when the city recognizes its local knowledge and allows itself to be part of nature.
The way towards the Third Generation City is a process of becoming a collective learning and healing organism and of reconnecting the urbanized collective con- sciousness with nature. Citizens on their behalf are ready and are already breaking the industrial city apart by themselves. Local knowledge is operating independently from the official city and is providing punctual third generation surroundings within the industrial city: urban acupuncture for the stiff official mechanism. The weak signals of the unofficial collective consciousness should be recognized as the futures’ emerging issues; futures that are already present.
The city is a manifest of human-centered systems—economical, industrial, philosophical, political, and religious power structures. Biourbanism is an animist community structural system regulated by nature. Human nature as part of nature, also within the urban conditions. The era of pollution is the era of industrial urbanism – the second generation city. The next era has always been surviving within the industrial city, like a positive cancer. The first-generation city never died, it went underground, but the bio-urban processes are still surviving. The seeds of the Third Generation City are present. Architecture is not an art of human control; it is an art of reality - there is no other reality than nature.

Keywords: urban acupuncture; biourbanism; Third Generation City; ruins; parasite urbanism; Paracity; Local Knowledge; constructive biology; Open Form
ISBN 9788833381879

HUMAN, 2023

Independent newspaper for West Palm Beach describing the communicative arction process of the Tro... more Independent newspaper for West Palm Beach describing the communicative arction process of the Trojan Rocking Horse project. During 8 childrens' design workshops were created the inspirations for the 8 life-sized Trojan Rocking Horse which harvested dreams and aspirations from the citizens for the city authorities. "Invitation to Dream" #urban acupuncture #public sphere #communicative action #constructive anarchy #open form #who cares wins

PARACITY Magazine presenting the modular organic parasitic urban structure developed for flooding... more PARACITY Magazine presenting the modular organic parasitic urban structure developed for flooding, tsunami-risk, post-industrial and slum areas. Presented in the China Central Academy of Fine Arts CAFAM Biennale 2014. Casagrande Laboratory Center of Urban Research CURE.

First generation city was the human settlement in straight connection with nature and dependent o... more First generation city was the human settlement in straight connection with nature and dependent on nature. The fertile and rich Taipei basin provided a fruitful environment for such a settlement. The rivers were full of fish and good for transportation and the mountains protected the farmed plains from the straightest hits of the frequent typhoons.

The second generation city is the industrial city. Industrialism granted the citizens independence from nature–a mechanical environment could provide everything needed for humans. Nature was seen as something unnecessary or as something hostile–it was walled away from the mechanical reality.
Third Generation City is the organic ruin of the industrial city. The community gardens of Taipei are fragments of the third generation urbanism when they exist together with the industrial surroundings. Local Knowledge is present in the city and this is where Ruin Academy focuses its research. Among the urban gardeners are the local knowledge professors of Taipei. Third Generation City is true when the city recognizes its local knowledge and allows itself to be part of nature.
The Ruin Academy (Taipei 2010- ) is set to re-think the industrial city and the relationship between the modern man and nature in the urbanized Taipei Basin. It is looking from the local knowledge for the seeds of the Third Generation City.

From Spaces to Places #Product#People#City , 2023

The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—... more The crisis of urbanism is analyzed as a vital phenomenon that prepares the Third Generation City—its connection with nature and its flesh. The industrial city is, on the contrary, fictitious. The example of the settlement of Treasure Hill, near Taipei, is given. As an organic ruin of the industrial city, Treasure Hill is a bio-urban site of resistance and an acupuncture point of Taipei, with its own design methodology based on Local Knowledge. This ruin is the matter from which parasite urbanism composts the modern city. Urban acupuncture, the Third Generation City, and the conceptual model of Paracity speak to the community that rests in the hands of its own people.
Third Genereation City is the organic ruin of the industrial city, an organic machine and open form of the mechanical urbanism which has learned to become biological. Ruin is when man-made has become part of nature. The industrial control has been opened up in order for the nature to step in. The seeds of the third generation city are coexisting together with the current industrial urbanism – for example the illegal collective urban farms and settlements of Taipei.
Nature has only one rule: existence maximum. It wants the city to be part of the life-providing process. Now our cities are anti-acupuncture needles in the life-providing tissue.
Urban Acupuncture is a biourban theory, which combines sociology and urban design with the traditional Chinese medical theory of acupuncture. As a design methodology, it is focused on tactical, small-scale interventions on the urban fabric, aiming in ripple effects and transformation on the larger urban organism. Through the acupuncture points, Urban Acupuncture seeks to be in contact with the site-specific Local Knowledge. By its nature, Urban Acupuncture is pliant, organic, and relieves stress and industrial tension in the urban environment, thus directing the city towards the organic—urban nature as part of nature. Urban Acupuncture produces small scale, but ecologically and socially catalytic development on the built human environment. The Third Generation City is a city of cracks. The thin mechanical surface of the industrial city is shattered, and from these cracks the new biourban growth emerges, which will ruin the second generation city. In the Third Generation City, we aim at designing ruins. The Third Generation City is true when the city recognizes its local knowledge and allows itself to be part of nature.
The way towards the Third Generation City is a process of becoming a collective learning and healing organism and of reconnecting the urbanized collective con- sciousness with nature. Citizens on their behalf are ready and are already breaking the industrial city apart by themselves. Local knowledge is operating independently from the official city and is providing punctual third generation surroundings within the industrial city: urban acupuncture for the stiff official mechanism. The weak signals of the unofficial collective consciousness should be recognized as the futures’ emerging issues; futures that are already present.
The city is a manifest of human-centered systems—economical, industrial, philo- sophical, political, and religious power structures. Biourbanism is an animist community structural system regulated by nature. Human nature as part of nature, also within the urban conditions. The era of pollution is the era of industrial urbanism – the second generation city. The next era has always been surviving within the industrial city, like a positive cancer. The first-generation city never died, it went underground, but the bio-urban processes are still surviving. The seeds of the Third Generation City are present. Architecture is not an art of human control; it is an art of reality - there is no other reality than nature.

ISBN 9788833381879

Keywords: urban acupuncture; biourbanism; Third Generation City; ruins; parasite urbanism; Paracity; Local Knowledge; constructive biology; Open Form

La ville rebelle. Démocratiser le projet urbain, 2015

The way towards the Third Generation City is a process of becoming a collective learning and heal... more The way towards the Third Generation City is a process of becoming a collective learning and healing organism and to reconnect the urbanized collective consciousness with nature. In Taipei, the wall between the city and the river must go. This requires a total transformation from the city infrastructure and from the centralized power control. Otherwise, the real development will be unofficial. Citizens on their behalf are ready and are already breaking the industrial city apart by themselves. Local knowledge is operating independently from the official city and is providing punctual third generation surroundings within the industrial city: Urban Acupuncture for the stiff official mechanism.

The weak signals of the unofficial collective consciousness should be recognized as the futures’ emerging issues; futures that are already present in Taipei. The official city should learn how to enjoy acupuncture, how to give up industrial control in order to let nature step in.

The local knowledge based transformation layer of Taipei is happening from inside the city, and it is happening through self-organized punctual interventions. These interventions are driven by small scale businesses and alternative economies benefiting from the fertile land of the Taipei Basin and of leeching the material and energy streams of the official city. This acupuncture makes the city weaker, softer and readier for a larger change.

The city is a manifest of human-centered systems – economical, industrial, philosophical, political and religious power structures. Biourbanism is an animist system regulated by nature. Human nature as part of nature, also in the urban conditions. The era of pollution is the era of industrial urbanism. The next era has always been within the industrial city. The first generation city never died. The seeds of the Third Generation City are present. Architecture is not an art of human control, it is an art of reality. There is no other reality than nature.

Regenerative Regions, 2024

BIOURBANISM - Constructive Biology & Case Kharkiv Architecture as environmental art. Architectu... more BIOURBANISM - Constructive Biology & Case Kharkiv

Architecture as environmental art. Architecture as the art of reality. There is no other reality than nature. Architectonic works as constructive biology, moving freely in-between architecture, environmental art and biourbanism, strongly tied with environmental awareness and social drama. Architects as design shamans, merely interpreting what the bigger voice of nature including human nature is transmitting. A series of architectural installations around the world as public environmental artworks using site-specific construction methodologies of Local Knowledge with biological and recycled materials. Land(e)scape in Finland, walking and burning barn houses commenting on the desertion process of Finnish countryside and abandoning Local Knowledges develop over centuries. 60 Minute Man in Venice Biennale, an abandoned barge growing a stack of 24 oaks planted on 60 minutes’ worth of human waste produced by the city of Venice. Potemkin, park for post-industrial meditation in Echigo-Tsumari, Japan as an industrial Zen Garden, mixture of a machine and temple.

Learning from Treasure Hill, an un-official self-made community in Taipei, Taiwan. 400 households resisting the destructive modern centrally governed city. An urban organism officially doomed to die. Reconstruction and legalization process of the settlement as a model laboratory of Local Knowledge-based sustainable biourbanism. Ruin Academy emerging from the Communicative Action with Treasure Hill as an independent cross-disciplinary research center of Local Knowledge implementations of urban and community development in Taipei, Taitung and in cooperation with the International Society of Biourbanism in Artena, Italy. Theory and design methodologies of Urban Acupuncture and the Third Generation City, the organic ruin of the industrial city, regenerative urbanism as part of nature. Illegal Architecture, Urban Acupuncture, River Urbanism, Urban Nomad, Organic Machine, Parasite Urbanism.

Examples of Insect Architecture in human scale. The Bug Dome bamboo-cocoon in Shenzhen, China and Sandworm willow cathedral in Wenduine, Belgium. Large up to 45 x 12 x 12 m handmade bucket structures with 100% natural discarded materials celebrating similar local knowledges of Flemish and South-Chinese cultures regarding nature as the co-architect.

Potential of CLT cross-laminated timber in modular, modifiable, and movable architecture in housing, community, and urban scale. Introducing Tikku, a 3-floor micro-apartment building fitting into one car-parking space 2,5 x 5 m, Lamminranta, a combined elderly care home + kindergarten, and Dokken, world’s largest contemporary all wooden city district development in Bergen, Norway. Paracity as a high-tech slum for organic urban development combining CLT primary structure with other low-carbon secondary structures (green concrete, circular materials, carbon, clay, paper, adobe…). UNFPA CLT Maternity and Child-Health Polyclinic in the Zaatari refugee camp with prefabricated and rapid construction CLT spatial modules with skin-to-skin architecture, for psychologically calming, restoring and regenerative spaces in the world’s most adverse places.

Kharkiv City, Ukraine, the intellectual university city, and centre of industry, now 30 km from frontline, getting shelled day by day. Setting up the Ruin Academy in Kharkiv in cooperation with O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy. Focus:
- Regenerative and healing bio-urbanism and constructive biology responding to social, climate and biodiversity crises. Multi-voiced or polyphonic narrative.
- Urban biodiversity of wild nature, and nature overtaking/ruining built human environments.
- Some kind of nature; de-centring humans and highlighting the needs of more-than-human focuses to define engagement with the environment where diverse actors are given agency.

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