In Stephen Holl’s Alphabetical City, he studies how the forms of buildings in early 20th century New York began to resemble letters in their plan, mainly as a means to bring light and air into densely packed blocks at the height of urbanization in The United States.
This project investigates how elements of calligraphy can potentially be generative elements for building masses in an urban context much in the same way that Stephen Holl formally codifies buildings in Alphabetical City using the Roman Alphabet.
Calligraphy is palpable and media-specific, rather than typography which is graphic and geometric, which allows for more nuanced interpretations of the calligraphic process to influence the design of the project—for instance, how ink as a medium interacts with different types of specialty paper lead to inspiration for more unconventional structural, cladding, and fenestration systems.