The City on the Rails

Abstract

The research focuses on the application of the elements of the theory of linear urbanism to the current solution for the rural settlements, from which life is lost and they are becoming open-air museums. Rural settlements are currently experiencing a crisis, most of their residents are moving to the big cities for work and in order to improve the quality of their life. This work is inspired by utopian cities from the early 20th century, such as The Roadtown by Edward Chambless, Plan Obus by Le Corbusier or Green City by Konstantin Melnikov. Similar tendencies as in previously mentioned works could be found in highly developed cities such as Tokyo. The book, “Made in Tokyo,” from Atelier Bow-Wow, has already mapped the use of those utopian tendencies in Tokyo and tries to apply its forms to the existing typology of cities and landscapes. The aim is not to put all the functions in one conglomerate, but rather to create a superorganism within the country. The superorganism consists of several settlements with insufficient facilities. The settlements are interconnected by an already existing railway. The most important transformation is hidden in the utilisation of the transport infrastructure and in the further addition of the necessary facilities in such a way that the individual necessary facilities within the linear composition can be shared between multiple dwellings. The presented paper uses an artistic research approach, using the method “research by design”. It is an applied (practical) normative research, which relies on the theory of linearity and the theory of the garden city and their radical and coherent design concept. The starting point of the research is a critical look at the current methods of chaotic construction in protected landscape areas in Slovakia. It uses the Margecany-Červená Skala site as a case study to demonstrate how linear theory would work in the present day, using Geographic Information System (GIS) data to analyse the site. The main goal of the project is to bring back the attractiveness of the region with the usage of contemporary artistic concepts, technologies and strategies.