Tilt, twist, fragment and collide the volumes of a composition, so that no floor is level, no wall upright and no angle square except where the ground forces it.
Rules · Cities · Theory · Plans
Superimpose independent systems
Do not compose the park as one picture: lay down independent systems (points, lines and surfaces), each complete in itself, one over another, and let them collide where they meet.
Against the classical garden, organised by a hierarchy of axes towards a centre, Tschumi set a park without a centre, in which meaning arises from events and the chance meeting of systems. A folie may stand in the path of a gallery; a lawn may be cut by the promenade. The effect was meant to be the opposite of reassuring.
Related rules
Set a red folie at every intersection of a 120-metre grid across the whole site; make each a 10.8-metre cube on a 3.6-metre grid, then subtract parts and add stairs, ramps, drums and canopies so that no two are alike.
grid 120 m · cube 10.8 m = 3 × 3.6 m
Cross the park with two straight covered galleries at right angles, joining its gates and landmarks, and wind a promenade through it like a film strip, linking a sequence of themed gardens.
Leave large open surfaces (lawns and gravel) for games, crowds, markets and whatever the city brings, defined only by their shape.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Superimpose independent systems”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/villette-superimposition. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.