The structure is composed of several Living Pods grouped between vertical axis. The Pods can be added or removed as functions of the user's will

There is only one sketch of Living Pod that shows trees and a suggested landscape or garden location. Subsequently it was deliberately denied any context because it was intended to be beautiful wherever it was placed, just like a car. Having designed one dwelling, it was clearly necessary to see what happens when you assemble lots of pods together in a project that has exactly the same conceptual intentions. The multipod-wall (or High-rise Pods or Project B) was such a project: to explore the customization of parts and ways of assembling a large, constantly changing array of pods in an autonomous, utility-free scaffold structure – a pod in its parking lot. Each pod has fixing points to connect to the framework that would flex and recalibrate themselves (much like a car suspension) with regard to changes in weight and arrangement and in order to allow the maximum freedom in relation to any one plot. The gross load does not exceed 10,000lbs (or the weight of three small cars).

The scaffold structure – a shock-eliminating suspension system, so minimal as to be almost invisible – relies on new tension technology and has to be entirely stable whether empty or full. It is made from a series of compression elements 150ft high at 40ft centres, which are central planwise within a triangular format of tension cables. These cables serve to stabilize and stress the compression elements and also provide a vertical system into which any kind of package can be plugged. The compression elements pyramid out at the top to collect the cables and form a chassis to support the mobile gear for servicing and replacing the pods. Primary access to the pods is via a twitchy ballet of programmable hydraulic service arms that connect each pod directly into the underground transit system.

Plan is the product of two single-banked systems running parallel to each other with a gap of 6ft minimum, 10ft maximum, between them. Horizontal lightweight stressed platforms are hung within this gap. 18ft vertical separation. A transparent pre-formed plastic covering is clipped to the platforms creating an enclosed walking-route system. Packages can then be plugged into each side of the route and hung within the cables as in the single-banked system. Elevators and stairs would plug in as required. Service runs for non-autonomous pods would be taken under the routes and collected in vertical ducts adjacent to the elevator towers.

Utilities are fed into the pods through smaller, more localized infrastructures as and when required – water and electricity are delivered to each site, although each pod has its own interchangeable waste system. Some long-term residents (by which I mean maximum five years’ occupancy) might cooperate over communal waste facilities – pods and framework draped in bundles of pipes, perhaps.

Since the average duration of pod occupation is estimated at nine months, contact between people within this structure will be minimal. You are looking at a high-rise campsite, a field of apartments. And through and above this heaped cacophony of shape, time and colour is glimpsed the sky…bliss.

David Greene
The Disreputable Projects of David Greene, Written and edited by David Greene and Samantha Hardingham, (London: Architectural Association, 2008)