Extraterritorial Vacuum Cleaner 2017

In 2015, the New York subway shut down due to the outbreak of a bacterial disease known as the monster soup, a new species of the swine flu that spread in the underground tunnels of Manhattan in three days. Due to limited ventilation and confined microclimates, underground space was very quickly rendered obsolete creating massive transportation and infrastructural problems above ground. The monster soup could also easily be transported through HVAC air conditioning systems in indoor spaces; it lived and thrived within confinement in closed buildings.  After forensic analysis and scientific scrutiny of airborne particles infected with the disease, microbiologists, doctors, engineers and architects concluded that a new nervous infrastructural system crossing the section of the city below, above and on the earth was necessitated to kill the monster soup leaving no chance for resurrection. In 2017, the nervous system of interconnected air channels was complete and the subway re-opened. The new underground transportation system is linked with outdoor air through pneumatic tubes that suck the air from below and reverse it to power 33% of NYC elevators with clean energy. Effectively, the city is now weaved with an extraterritorial vacuum cleaner, an arterial nervous system which links the air masses of the city above and below. Extraterritorial space, unfriendly in its physiology, lacking oxygen, becomes the medium to purify the urban sphere which is no longer a place or deadly asphyxiation. 

Credits: Lydia Kallipoliti and Sofia Krimizi

 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.