A Public Architecture to Encourage Plurality

Abstract

A speculative design illustrates an architecture for plurality. The design rests upon George Baird's proposal that a plurality consists of individuals occupying a range of publicness from the collective distraction described by Walter Benjamin to the full engagement of Hannah Arendt's public realm. To encourage this range of publicness, the design gathers a diversity of public rooms— indoor, outdoor, and liminal— in order to bring many different kinds of people together. Occupants are able to move through, beside, and between the gathered rooms in a system of overlapping thresholds. Each person would encounter others within a syncopation of distraction and focus, thresholds and public gatherings.