The Garden City, Mega City is a work of art that is preserved in the Skyscraper Museum in Manhattan, New York. The Garden City, Mage City illustrates a built and pre-built work by WOHA, a Singaporean building design company for tropical and urban buildings. The art work was introduced to the Skyscraper Museum in the United States on September 4, 2016. It is an exhibition that has been made possible due to the involvement of the New York State Council in the effort to promote the preservation of art and is supported by the New York City Department for Cultural Affairs (Edelson par 3). The work of art creates a context of building designs that are environmentally friendly as one of the greatest urban development difficulties. The objective of examining Garden City work of art was to establish the materials used to produce it, the objective of its production, and how it portrays the values of people in the society in which it was produced. Furthermore, the analysis of the work of art examines the materials that were used to produce it and the similarities and differences from other works of art.
Photos of the Art Work
Expanded Vies pf Garden City, Maga City
Source: Edelson (par 6)
Smaller view of garden City, Mega City
Source: Jowell et al. (176)
Similarities and Differences between the Work of Art and Other Works of Arts
The Garden City, Mega City is majorly in the form of an artificial tropical village that is vertical in form and is covered by sky gardens, raised parks, and ways for the movement of breeze. It illustrates an urban life in Singapore and other countries where there is a high population density and a high demand for amenities and housing needs which results into the creation of a highly social and sustainable garden city. The similarity of the art work with other art works such as Skyville@Dawson is that they are constructed using models, rendering, and other components that enable the design of a skyscraper (Jowell et al. (177). Both buildings apply the technique of buildings that protrude upwards as the strategy of their designs. Furthermore, art works have been designed to a large scale that enables them to be easily preserved in the museums. The art work is developed in the form of a skyscraper in a similar manner as the design for other similar art works such as Parkroyal Pickering. Both art works were designed by WOHA designers and have compartments that are covered with vegetation gardens. The art work is also composed of interior sections that can be rendered or magnified to understand the interior sections of the design thus creating a social network composed of porous covering of tropical vegetation. The difference between the garden City, Mega City and other similar architectural designs such as Oasia Downtown is that it promotes the preservation of tropical biodiversity which is not promoted in the latter. For instance, the design of the art work incorporates materials illustrating vegetation that covers the walls of the skyscraper, but other major building designs do not have this component. There is a difference in the color of materials used to construct the art works since Garden City, Mega City is constructed using white materials and located in a more urbanized environment while Oasia Downtown is constructed using reddish materials and located in less urbanized environment.
Category of the Work of Art
The category under which garden City, Mega City is classified is portrait of an urban design. The portrait presents a process of designing an urban environment with the focus on improving the physical characteristics of towns and villages (Edelson Par 5). The category is different from another art work such as the Rise of Wall Street that focuses on the design of individual buildings that were used during the colonial periods, rather it examines the approaches that can be put into use to achieve a Mega City that is sustainable and promotes the preservation of the natural vegetation while improving the usability of buildings for human needs. The garden City, Mega City was designed by a green design architect who was focused on creating a Mega City that promotes eco-friendliness and promotes practices that result into least impacts on the environment.
Techniques and Materials used to produce the Work of Art
The material used in the design of the Garden City, Mega City is similar to those used in other architectural models such as the design of Vertical Urban Factory since it uses cardboards, wooden materials, and polystyrene in the design of the walls. The use of these materials has enabled the design of a three-dimensional model that can remain at the museum for a number of years for viewing by the visitors (Jowell et al. 178). Other complex components such as interior sections and compartments have been made using formed materials that enables the attainment of the required characteristics. Pieces of card stocks, balsa woods, and flexible lightweight fibers have been used in the design of the scenery features such as grass, trees, vehicles, and people so that the viewers can understand the size of the building in relation to natural objects. The materials used in the design are those that can be cut easily or painted to represent the desired size and color respectively. Some components have been joined together by the use of glue. Sections of the art work that could not be cut accurately to achieve the right shape were cut by laser cutting. The similarities in the tools used to construct Garden City, Mega City and other similar art works is that the materials were light in weight and could be designed to specific shapes according to the required impression of the final product.
Elements and Principles of Design that makes the Work of Art Powerful
Various elements of art and principles of design have been integrated into the Garden City, Mega City art work that makes it more visually powerful compared with other art works such as the Oasia Downtown. The major element is the selection of a white color as the walls of the structure which improves its visibility and attractiveness compared with Oasia Downtown whose color selection of reddish wall makes it less attractive and appealing. Garden City, Mega City is also powerful in terms of its use of lighting system which gives the viewer the impression of its outlook when it is operated at night. The design of the streets has been achieved in such a manner that there are lighting that improves the visibility of the trees and creates an exciting experience to the viewers. Other buildings such as the Oasis Downtown do not have any lighting system that makes it unattractive when viewed during dark hours.
The Garden City, Mega City is also made powerful by the use of sections of the buildings containing small plants as a sign that when it is constructed, users are able to grow plants in the building while using it. The act of incorporating nature in the design makes it unique compared with other designs such as Vertical Urban Factory that does not incorporate any natural environmental feature. The similarity of Garden City, Mega City to other art works is that they are designed to illustrate urban typology of residence in which people live in densely populated areas where skyscrapers have been constructed to make use of the available spaces in en affective manner (Jowell et al.179). Another similarity observable in the art works is that they are all accessible since their internal sections can be seen when vision is magnified thus enabling understanding of greater details. The difference between Garden City, Mega City and other art materials is that it is easy to identify the vegetation in Garden City as well as observe internal components due to lighting, while these features are difficult to observe in other art works since they do not have lighting systems.
Previous Function of the Work of Art before it Entered the Museum
The previous function of the Garden City, Mega City art work might have been to create a vision of a self-sufficient building in the future in which people are able to plant trees in skyscrapers and various floors of storey buildings. The art materials might have been constructed for the purpose of developing a design that can be used to develop a similar house which can be constructed I urban areas in tropical countries where the impact of urbanization has resulted into few vegetation cover in most areas (Edelson Par 8). The art work might have been commissioned by the Ministry of Environment conservation in the country inn which it was designed as means of recommending the construction of buildings that promote preservation of trees and planting additional trees in areas of residences and urban locations. The meaning that this work of art had on the artist is that one is able to provide an impressive idea of methods of construction of buildings through art work which can be implemented into practice. According to my assessment of the work of art, it was aimed at providing an idea that building constructions in the future should focus on features which enable their use while not causing harm to the environment due to decreased vegetation cover. When compared with other works of art such as Vertical Urban factory, it is observed that the Garden City, Mega City emphasizes on building construction design that accounts for conservation of the natural vegetation while the Vertical Urban Factory was a facility design for business objectives such as processing activities of factories without consideration of the impacts of its activities on the environment.
Conclusion
The art work of garden City, Mega City is a representation of a culture of living in a natural environment that promotes the interrelationship between a Mega City and the natural environment. It represents a social value of preservation of nature irrespective of the existence of modern forms of lifestyles such as industrialization and the use of engines that produce pollutants which have harmful impacts on the environment. The art work also advocates for an urban setup where people have positive attitude toward vegetation and nature by growing trees in their surroundings or planting small plants in skyscrapers. The designer of the work of art also had the objective of creating a perception that a healing impact can be achieved admits the present challenges encountered in urban areas in which residential areas are not closer to vegetation or plants because urban lifestyles and activities do not prioritize on conservation of natural vegetation.
Works cited
Edelson, Zach. Garden City, Mega City at the Skyscraper Museum, Architects Newspaper, 2016, April.[Online], available at: https://archpaper.com/2016/04/garden-city-mega-city-at-the-skyscraper-museum/ , Accessed on June 8, 2018.
Jowell, Ashley, Bright Zhou, and Michele Barry. "The impact of megacities on health: preparing for a resilient future." The Lancet Planetary Health 1.5 (2017): e176-e178.
