Hierarchies and panoramic aspects of Anne Tyng’s urban projects and the contemporary vision of the city

Abstract

This article focuses on Anne Tyng’s Urban Hierarchy proposal considering the geometric reasoning, namely the helical structure and intrinsic progressions, as well as some coeval experiences and assumptions, especially regarding the developed visions revising urban standards and images. Starting from these two complementary paths, it is possible to fully comprehend the image of the formulated project, which is essentially based on the configuration of the helical megastructure and the infinite possibilities provided by the application of modularity and aggregation principles. Through the virtual reconstruction of this structure, combining clusters of houses and multiple hierarchical levels of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, it is possible to create different images. This process starts from the traditional terraced house to the multilevel panoramic vision (bilateral unit and its helicoidal aggregation), up to the view of the aggregate of the various units (spiral) in a potentially infinite arrangement based on the Divine Proportion.