As a flexible practice in the 21st Century design field Urban Operations engages in research through it's non-profit label Urbanops.org. The focal point of our research is to extract and critique dirivations of media culture and their effects on contemporary metropolitan environments using architecture as a vehicle. Student work also plays a role in our research as the academic laboratory is a vital method for hashing out new strategies that far exceed the limitations of design.

Evolo Skyscraper Competition 2006:

Skyscrapers of Death: A Post-Critical Solution to Dead Modernism

This project serves as a critique of the Modernist skyscraper and all of it's techniques and effects. A prototypical subject has been proposed in order to better understand the skyscraper typology as well as propose new strategies to be deployed in it's post-mortem state. Data culture is also analyized in this study, as well as the individuals position in contemporary culture. Finally, the subject of death is explored, both as a programmatic strategy as well as a way of understanding the current societal context from which the competition entry emerged.

"Other than death and the Internet, where else can one attain authenticity without the realization that their very identity has been constructed and is but a meaningless static of prescribed data?"

A limited edition printing of this pamphlet is available by request through our office.

Evolo Skyscraper Competition 2007:

In a world where design is ubiquitous, design no longer matters.

The Sumoscraper is both the result and the solution to this problem. Its presence in cities everywhere is an approaching manifestation of stylistic ambivalence marking a rejection of the unique. It gains relevancy within planning circles by its shear functionality, not its aesthetic presence or cultural affect. It is completely democratic in that it gathers the masses rather than dispersing them through aesthetic preference. It recognizes that beauty lies in the operations of daily life, not in the pursuit of stylistic relevancy. Because the Sumoscraper is functionally simplistic, yet programmatically complex, it will endure dynamic changes in the restlessly mutating urban fabric.

A limited edition printing of this pamphlet will be out in the Summer of 2007.