It is a linear document as the information is organized from macro to micro scale, meaning general information to the fields of specificities. However, it is also an inter-referential codex, a synoptic document of legal and procedural codes, whereby one would have to constantly go to and fro pages; so as to negotiate the various contingencies that can ultimately and literally shape one’s form. What has been generated by the City Planning Commission as a result is the regime of so-called unbiased and objective protocols that would dare to incarcerate us into what would otherwise be a real estate developers’ playground of dreams.
Needless to say, it is left to us to imagine a provocative critique of reality within these constraints. We propose a City of Captive Zoning, not as a trite recapitulation of metropolitan archipelago of Rem’s varying architectural “Merveilles” (marvel, miracle, wonderment; dream; gem; wonder, prodigy), but as territory of embryonic condition, permutations of zoning formulae, in which we will dare to envision the world that world has yet to see.

マンハッタン超高層マニュアル
Manhattan Highrise Manual: Chapter 01
2010
Harvard GSD
Studio: Neo-Metabolist Kit
Professor: George Legendre

Manhattan Highrise Manual: Chapter01 pdf