The book I just finished reading, or should I say sort of finished, because its too ready overdue and I don't think I can afford to keep and enjoy it more, is a MVRDV one called "FARMAX -Excursions on Density". Now you may have heard that The Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe and one of the most dense in the world - and the guys at MVRDV took that subject and started playing with it, trying to explore all the possible whatifs the future development of their country may be. But perhaps the word FARMAX needs an explanation - FAR means Floor Area Ratio, an index equal to the total built floor area of a building divided by the area of its lot (much like the Bulgarian КИНТ). So they wondered what would happen if they brought that to the max.
The problem in The Netherlands is that the continuous growth of cities spreads them among the adjacent countryside into low-density suburbs that fail to realize the dream of dwelling but at the same time ruin the quality of the country's landscape. For the authors of this book density can only be estimated if surrounded by nothing - in this way they try to study what would happen if their country's population is concentrated in a dense urban environment thus preserving the country's landscape intact for the future. The book examines some trends in society, the relations between density and social behaviour, and also some practical issues like light, air and access as the density is brought to the possible maximum.
The great thing about that book is that they get out of the box labelled 'common sense' and really push possibilities to extremes. In this way it becomes much easier to observe and study processes taking place now but at a very slow ratio and therefore of unknown consequences. Also these extreme studies produce a lot of material to think about and to be inspired. The book provides you with some answers - what would happen if you went in that direction, and gives you the extreme result, leaving you with the choice as to how far would you, the designer, go.
This is the moment to mention that MVRDV are not that popular at home and it's here in Belgium that I began to understand that their name has become somewhat of a religion among architecture students. The book I read is quite old (issued in 1998, come on, I was 9 at the time, playing the violin and building Barbie houses), but to a beginner in the urban studies and trends in societies and cities it turned out to be the right thing to read.
And this image so much reminds me of the current urban situation in Bulgaria... Aztecs!
