Linear City

Sited in Seattle, WA, Linear City proposes an alternative future for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, whose demolition is set to begin in 2019.

Fascinated by the city’s disjointed and opposing rectangular street grids, and Soria y Mata’s urbanist proposal for the Linear City, the viaduct is secured and metabolized through a rigorous infrastructural system. This allows for its repurposing, and establishes a dialog between past and future histories of the urban context. A series of frames form a choreography of interiorized spaces, relating to its exterior by way of permeable and translucent skins. The proposal constantly ponders upon the question of the generic, and explores the latent absurdity that exists in the pragmatic use of repetitive infrastructural elements.