Meshes of the Afternoon: Harvard GSD

This project was presented at the Harvard Graduate School of Design on December 14th, 2011. Professors: Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi

What is a utopia today? A dreamer lies on the city's bedrock - giant spiders weave away his dreams - webs expanding out of sight. A tapestry spreads and fastens to the streets, projected as a three dimension matrix, a scaffolding of dreams. This sensitive membrane sifts through the currents of the city, catching in its web particles, fragments, seasons, nights and days, lifting them up in the winds like a fisherman hoists his net.

Up here in the stratosphere, the layers of the city peel away, elutriating as in geological formations. Looking down, we see the speeding cars, above us the moon, motionless stars - and planets. But from this incisive contemplation of the city comes a feeling of nostalgia, as if we had left the Earth and were but ghosts walking through the walls ofthe city's towers. They no longer exist in physical form, all is abstraction.

A mermaid is caught. Her body is tangled in the ropes, but her spirit wanders and animates our structure - is it not in fact our desire that flutters in those cables?

An intangible manifestation of the city, framed within its air-rights, a space in constant expression allowing a better understanding of our environment, and also of ourselves. In a world whose complexity escapes us, confuses us, crushes us, but inspires us - this is today's utopia.