From Plato’s philosophical parables to Marcel Duchamp’s ‘allegorical appearance’ of the Bride, allegory—a structure of thought where a secondary meaning hides behind narrative and story telling—exists throughout history not only in literature but also philosophy, science, art and architecture. Departing from the modernist aphorism ‘form follows function’, unit one will seek to define design traits for an allegorical architecture, where form can also follow fiction. To capture this symbolic potential of buildings, and following last year’s successful experience with animated/time-based architectural representations, we will continue merging the boundaries between drawing, modelling, film and collage.

The focus of our investigation will be Mexico City: a place contrasting between the mythical floating city of the Aztecs and the everyday contemporary life of one of the most densely populated cities in the world. We will study the city first from a distance—through its representations in literature, art and film—and then close up starting from the city’s heart: Zócalo, a huge square where the projected shadow of the central flagpole turns into an inhabited sundial.

'...I spend a lot of time walking around the city... The initial concept for a project often emerges during a walk. As an artist, my position is akin to that of a passer-by constantly trying to situate myself in a moving environment. My work is a succession of notes and guides. The invention of a language goes together with the invention of a city. Each of my interventions is another fragment of the story that I am inventing, of the city that I am mapping.' (Francis Alÿs, Mexico City 1993)