supertight: models for living and making culture in dense urban environments

Supertight is an exploration of high-density urban life and reducing the footprint of cites through adaptations in design and behavior.

Tightness is a positive urban quality, examined through the observations of designers, with a focus on the cities of Asia.

The rapidly growing large cities of Asia are critical to understanding our future footprint. Asian cities provide insights into new ways of being densely urbanised. The by-product of this unprecedented metropolitan convergence will be the emergence of new urbanisms and new architectures, new models for living and making culture.

The Supertight refers to the small, intense, robust and hyper-condensed spaces that emerge as a by-product of extreme levels of urban density. Tightness arises as consequence of density, but tightness itself is not density. Tightness is a series of social, economic and cultural practices that have developed in cities as a response to the rapid growth and consolidation of cities. While architectural models of density have been heavily explored, this project investigates the culture of tightness that has emerged in Asian cities over the past thirty years, and the role that designers play in the material and social behaviours of tightness. To be tight is to be small and constrained, but also to be open to the economies and social intimacy of being close. Ultimately this project aims to unpack and convey both the delight and difficulty that emerges through the close occupation of large cities.

With Contributions of
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto / Atelier Bow-wow
Atelierco
Rafael A Balboa with Yasemin Sahiner
Sanuki Daisuke
Drawing Architecture Studio
Desiree Grunewald
Sue Hajdu
Tohru Horiguchi
Alban Mannisi, Yazid Ninsalam, Charles Anderson
Minsuk Cho / Mass Studies
New Office Works
Archie Pizzini
Andrew Stiff
Superimpose
Taishin Shiozaki / Shiozaki Lab
WOHA