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Radu Tîrcă and Ștefania Hîrleață are students at University of Architecture and Urbanism 'Ion Mincu', Bucharest. At present, they lead their theoretical research on the subject of thermal towns and diploma projects in Govora Baths under the guidance of Stefan Simion, Irina Tulbure and Ilinca Paun Constantinescu. As students, they won second prize and best student project in a BeeBreeders international architecture competition - Mango Vynil Hub, third prize in a Zeppelin national competition - Prototip pentru comunitate, as well as other mentions in other competitions.
The City as a vehicle for Migration
From the types of radical cities that Archigram put forward in the 60s, the Walking City might be the one that pushes their ideas to the most extreme. Gone is any sort of tethering to the ground, and instead, the city itself becomes a vehicle of transportation (and implicitly of migration) for its population. While dystopian Hollywood flicks have recycled these ideas in the past years, Arhchigrams' original vision was optimistic, putting their complete trust in technological advances. The city could be anything that was needed in any place of the globe.
While not living up to the sci-fi vision of the 60s, one might argue that recent urban developments can resemble a twisted iteration of a Walking City. Technological advances have allowed billions of people to be moved around and housed at lightning speeds. Instead, technology allowed us to build this new living infrastructure that embodies a generic urban image regardless of its position, landscape or culture. So even though it is not actually moving, it becomes a migrant architecture by multiplication.
Images:
[1] ‘A Walking City’ by Archigram
[2] A million people city in China - in construction