Class Division in a City

The Monoso Project is an interpretation of the city of Moriana from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Monoso has two opposite classes, the privileged Samsi that live on the surface with ordered, beautiful organizations of columns and open spaces, and the worker Samsi that live beneath the surface, hidden in closed cave systems. The Samsi creature absorbs sunlight as energy. This nature drives their greed for getting as much sunlight as they can, and so, they build ever higher columns. A monolithic column stands in the center where all the privileged Samsis are protected from the cold, dry night wind. Four smaller columns surround the central column, each one having its own function. A 3-level elevator to transport resources for column construction, going from the underground cave systems to the most upper part of the city. After mining constantly, the workers deliver the materials to build an extra level. Workers who mine a certain amount of rocks can deliver them, construct the extra level, and in turn, absorb sunlight during the transportation and construction process. A 3-level resource storage where the unused material from construction and excess material from mining are stored after a day’s work. It can only be accessed from the third level, to avoid the workers from taking and delivering yesterday’s materials as the new one. The other two columns are recreation spaces for the privileged.. The top part is cut diagonally for maximum sunlight intake. The observation park that circles the central column is a movable platform that, when opened, reveals 3 giant transparent floors that shows the whole underground cave system and gives the privileged entertainment by observing the workers’ daily routines, which are waking up from their cave, getting minimal sunlight from some openings, mining, delivering, constructing, and rest back in their cave.