Colloquium: Jeffrey Nesbit, Architecture Faculty

Sophie Hassell (ID: 800905064)

Professor Nesbit began his presentation on Topological Thinking by talking about Gilles
Deleuzes book Difference and Repetition. In this book he explains why differences and similarities
work more and are more responsive than hieratical work. This reminded me of the new Facebook head
quarters designed by Frank Gehry. The new headquarter is designed on an anti-hierarchal system for
unique and fluid business operation. Professor Nesbit continued to explain what is mean by a hierarchical
system. He made an interesting comparison with two board games. He related the game of chess to a
hierarchy system where different pieces have specific way of movement. He then related the game of
Go, which is a traditional Chinese game, as the opposite of a hierarchy system. In this game the pieces
all move the same. Professor Nesbit is an urban planner. He began to speak about such. He started by
explain that topography is the geology of a terrain. Cities, he said, are populated by topographies.
Professor Nesbit then explain that topological networks and systems are within the cities, demonstrating
how the cities are set up and structured. When dealing with urban planning, Professor Nesbit explain that
he looked at the micro-scale and the macro-scale in the same way. When looking at the micro-scale, an
urban planner can find similarities between different areas of a city. Also, the micro-scale could explain
the macro-scale of a city. Looking at Paris, France, it is easy to see that the city is set up in a hierarchy
way while on the other hand the city of Shanghai, China demonstrated complicated city planning at a
large scale. Professor Nesbit related his work to studying cells and medical practice. He stated how cell
behavior is like analyzing the behaviors of complicated intersections. Professor Nesbit remarked that
studying cells is a complicated practice just like city planning. Cities today are becoming more
fragmented which is resulting in neighborhoods disappearing. Professor Nesbit stated ta the twenty-first
century is really complex. Being an urban planner is really complicated because it is nearly impossible to
fully understand what is happening in a city. So, urban planners, like Professor Nesbit, take information
that they have gather and try to create new buildings and structures to give back to the city. They look at
the micro and macro scales are find small and large details that they believe can enhance the function and
life of cities. Professor Nesbit made it clear that urban planners are not trying to tell cities how to behave
and act, they are trying to make the city flow and be more functional. Urban planners are not creating a
master plan of what they believe the city should look like, they are simply creating speculations on how to
better the city in which they are looking at. Professor Nesbit shared some of the creations he and his urban
planning firm have developed based upon research. The models do not look perfect because their main
purpose is to better the city not to make it look beautiful. Topological mathematics can create topography
based upon the data urban planners have found. The topics and information about urban planning that
Professor Nesbit was discussing reminded me a lot about Chapter 6 of Rasmussens book. Chapter 6 deals
with Rhythm in Architecture. Without proper construction of either a city or building, the purpose of the
structure is no longer beneficial. An example of this is in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. This city
has a processional rhythm through it. Without the architecture of such being carefully planned, the city
would have a different rhythm which many not have went a long with the purpose of the city. This relates
to urban planning because if a section of a city is planned a certain way it could either mess up the daily
functions of that area or create a beautiful rhythmic feeling that benefits the population. Another example
of this that we learned about in class is the Piazza, Vatican City, Italy. Here, there was an idea to make a
large space that would hold a lot of people. The Piazza would be able to fill up, enabling many people to
experience the Pope. The carful design of the Piazza in Vatican City, Italy, provided a large space for the
purpose of worship and experience the Pope for many people. Without having been properly planned and
designed the purpose and reason for this structure would have failed and not benefited anyone.
Connecting this back to urban planning, like Professor Nesbit discussed, looking at the micro-scale of
what events and necessities occur in the specific area of Vatican City, Italy, the Piazza was created enable
the macro-scale of the city to benefit to be able to experience and enjoy the building. Overall, Professor
Nesbits Colloquium was very interesting. I learned a lot about urban planning and how it is not an exact
science but their work is put in place to benefit those in the city, not to force the city to behave explicitly.