Background

Metropolitan Cityscapes is a platform designed to showcase the work of Chauntelle Trinh and Eckard Buscher.

Following a deep fascination for the metropolis and the urban milieu, we embarked on a journey to explore ways in which our insights could be shared.

Statement

Our work deals with the physical and emotional relationship between humans and the urban environment. Designed to invoke memory, curiosity and reflection, each project is an invitation for a user-contributed response towards the notion of 'identity' – of the individual and of the metropolis.

The knowledge and skills we garnered as Architects continues to influence our creative process, intellectual perspective and the execution of our work. Using software programs, physical models and industrial technology, we develop and give form to our ideas. It is a highly intensive process comprising of extensive research, digital rendering and experimentation with manufacturing techniques and materials. As a consequence, the outcomes challenge the boundaries that exist between Art, Design and Architecture.

The Urban Topography Collection is an ongoing effort and the first entry to Metropolitan Cityscapes. Topographic abstractions of urban anatomy, the series explores the notion of space re-imagined through spatial memory and comparison. World cities, captured within a 3x3km framework, are presented as negatives where existing urban mass is removed and the structure purified to its basic core. The creation of a distilled yet detailed visual language was essential to instigate an impartial response towards the similarities and differences between the cities. Viewers enter into a type of 'cross-metropolitan' dialogue as they share their personal sentiments and through the act of collecting.

The level of intricacy and the precision of our work as well as the choice of materials and processes used, holds direct correlation to the complex, artificial and technologically governed nature of our urbanised world. Our style, subject matter and method of dissemination attempts to reach a wide audience for cross-cultural participation in order to further our own understanding of the urban [human] experience.