ESCAPING WIND: Form Pensile City on South Bridge Through the Wind
Authors: Jiang Wu 
Published: December 2023

By reorganising the wind to form a pensile city so that more sociological and Technological wind towers can be infiltrated and offered to people to escape is the ultimate goal of my project.Guattari said "The problem of ecosophy is the problem of the production of human existence itself in a new historical context". [1] The problem of ecosophy is the problem of the production of human existence itself in a new historical context'. Ecology is inseparable from historical civilisation, and behind every environmental problem there is a human social problem. Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, has been 'notorious' for its environment, despite its growing status and the size of the city. The History of Scotland refers to Edinburgh's Old Town as a "cramped and fetid district", and "the smoke from the numerous charcoal fires and the stench from the countless pieces of rubbish thrown away by people gave Edinburgh the nickname 'Auld Reekie'. This was the most obvious problem of the old city of Edinburgh, and the source of the desire of those who lived in it to escape. 18th century urban expansion gave the rich a chance to escape to the new city, but those who remained continued to live miserably in the old city. Along with the environmental and ecological problems came the social problem of the lack of public space.Although there are many differences between the New Town and the Old Town in terms of planning structure and architectural form, wind is a common element throughout the New Town and the Old Town, but it is also present in different vehicles that travel through the city. For example, in a relatively closed and small space like the Old City, there are few opportunities for people to communicate with each other by sight or face-to-face, but sound, as a carrier of wind, can be a low-cost but efficient medium of communication, allowing people to communicate with others through their own windows, play music, etc. Wind can also leave traces on stones and other materials, for example, in this ancient city made of stone. In the old city, for example, the stones are weathered by the wind and the rain to create a more permeable weathered stone, which gives the plants a good environment to grow, as can be seen in the contrast between the new city and the old. So the wind transmits the past and the present in Edinburgh, connecting different spaces, different classes of people, becoming a common memory for the old and the new city, and still innovating.Therefore, wind is not only a medium, but this thesis will investigate its instrumentation and use it as a methodology for design solutions, exploring the relationship between public space and wind penetration. Pensile city and flight line were developed by Piranesi and Gilles Defeuze. Pensile city refers to the layering of buildings and infrastructure to allow the landscape to permeate the city, flight line offers a way and a route for people to release their desires and seek a more comfortable public space by promoting them, which is also applicable to the city of Edinburgh. The methodology I hope to use to form a pensile city in Edinburgh and thereby infiltrate more public space in response to the desire to escape from urban sprawl, seeks to find a way to regenerate the city of Edinburgh and achieve a sustainable urban development. Finally, the project is being tested at south bridge.