Toward a Meta-Urbanism of Fluid Space: Speculative urbanism and the fluidity of metropolitan perception

Presented as part of The Greatest Grid Competition, organized by the Architectural League and the Museum of the City of New York, Looking for Interspace(s) is a conceptual proposal that reimagines the urban rigidity of New York City. The project challenges the dominance of linear planning and architectural orthodoxy by proposing a speculative vision of the city, one that foregrounds the invisible, the immaterial, and the fluid. To rethink the horizontal and vertical surfaces of New York, the project invites us to look beyond buildings and toward the emergence of intermediate spaces. These “interspaces” are ephemeral zones that arise from the distortion of urban linearity, functioning as deviations from normative spatial systems. They reflect the dynamic interplay between built form and social fragmentation, revealing a new metropolitan climate shaped by unexpected relationships, subcultural immersions, and sensory dissonance.

Inspired by theories of urban heterogeneity and spatial multiplicity, Looking for Interspace(s) proposes a meta-system that mirrors the complexity of a living environment. The city becomes a responsive organism, where future grids are not imposed but negotiated, preserving a sensory dialogue between architectural structures and the evolving needs of its inhabitants. This speculative framework envisions architecture not as static infrastructure but as a field of potentiality. It embodies the notion that urban space is not only constructed but also experienced, inhabited, and continually redefined through social, cultural, and perceptual interactions.

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