frau claudia

Of the old notion of Metropolis answered to the mechanics of production (of objects), that is to say, to a physical and expansive growth (radial and more or less uniform) around a polarising centre, then the notion of Metapolis refers to a more polyhedral, matrix, diversified and elastic development, produced within a changing and multifaceted framework, generated “beyond” the physical or merely geographic.
The Metapolis represents a framework of relationships – and qualitative productions – based upon the processing and combination of simultaneous bits of information.
The Metapolis is no longer be expressed only in terms of grow but also, in combinations; combinations that allude to evidence of an informational, dynamical and uncertain process, made up of interactions with the territory and with other territories; with the place and with other places.
The Metapolis is no longer a single place or a particular shape, nor a unique evolutionary stage, but rather the accumulation of multiple stages and simultaneous experiences.
Beyond the Metropolis, the contemporary Metapolis appears as an elastic and vibrant system defined by relationships between movements and events which are simultaneously interlinked and autonomous.
A multifaceted system of articulating networks and layers of information, of vague, fluctuating and variables outlines.
A changing scenario which can only be represented by “opportunist cartographies” that refer to those appropriately implemented tactical aspects.
A structure which is both analogous and different at the same time.
A structure, in effect, of similar dynamics on a global scale and of different situations on a local scale, made up of collisions, encounters and intersections that eventually generate a great variety of specific and plural combinations.
A spectrum of cities and of cities within cities. This is the essence of the contemporary Metapolis: a “hyper-place,” a “place of places,” a rich global kaleidoscope of local choices and opportunities.
To speak of the Metapolis is therefore to speak of multicity – this meta-place or “place of places” – identifiable, more abstractly and less physically, a multiple, multi-layered structure made up of different, superposed transformations-evolutions – combinatorial incarnations (or realities): a framework “of networks,” dynamic, fluctuating and definitely unfinished, comprising singular situations and changing relationships.
The territory of this new Metapolis is, therefore, a complex system of simultaneous relationships and events, determined – as already expressed – on the basis of a greater or lesser effectiveness of the possible combinations between successive layers of activity and definition which characterise it, and the large-scale structural networks that articulate it: layers and networks between processes of action and reaction occur, and between which also appears zones of fading (disconnections, layers with little or no information, levels of absence: fadings as background).
Such a structure, constructed on the basis of interactions between layers, networks and backgrounds refers to other possible synthetical combinations that allude to this progressively abstract and informational dimension of the contemporary city, which can be compared, in its more physical sense, to these three trinomials: voids-fills-articulations, constructions-landscapes-infrastructure and archipelagos (volumes)-free spaces (interstices)-arteries (support).
A system, in sum, of mobile, variable and discontinuous limits (geographical and “contractual”), according to the different agents that tend to influence it and whose effective approach should foster the movement of this new complex situation – strategic and plural – beyond the simple literal representation of its apparent shapes.

(Gausa Manuel, Guallart Vicente, Müller Willy, Soriano Federico, Porras Fernando, Morales José. the metapolis dictionary of advanced architecture. p 430 f)

Beyond the metropolis of the industrial era emerges the Metapolis of the digital era. The city is now a place of places, where numerous urban models coexist, each with its own qualities that make it different from the rest.
In the Metapolis, the dwelling becomes a place where we live, work and rest – thanks to audiovisual and telematic systems – where the neighbourhood is a multinational environment of direct relation between citizens and where zoning no longer has any meaning. The Metapolis creates complete environments (dwelling, leisure, commerce, education) in the proximity of the dwelling.”

(Gausa Manuel, Guallart Vicente, Müller Willy, Soriano Federico, Porras Fernando, Morales José. the metapolis dictionary of advanced architecture. p 431)