NASH’S DYMAXION: A CARTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO THE CITYSCAPE AND THE SURVEYOR’S INSTITUTE OF MAPPING AND CASTING

Nash’s Dymaxion: A Cartographer’s Guide to the Cityscape questions the role of John Nash’s work in the 21st century and ideas of the modern vernacular to understand neoclassical Regency buildings. Multiple methodologies have been accrued and new urban navigational systems created as looking-lenses for the cityscape. Using principles from Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion and readings from Gilles Deleuze’s The Pleats of Matter, a series of transient, nomadic modules are proposed to facilitate as migratory ‘Gatehouses’ to the city that survey Nash’s archetypes in terms of scale, orientation and chance. These cumulate in The Surveyor’s Institute of Mapping and Casting that examines criticisms of Nash’s masterplan in the 21st century and seeks to solve issues of citywide fragmentation through testing and speculation, with an Exposition that merges the public and private facets of the building. The architectural strategy embraces the physical reproduction of neoclassical facades within the groundscape, allowing for testbeds of public engagement for the creative user. The roofscape program is driven by Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World Game; a model on which speculation can occur through the internalised map room modules. Additionally, the physical parameters of the space frame float over site, as an emblem of ‘organised thought’.