The Footprint of Tight: Hinterlands, Landscape and Dense Cities

The Supertight refers to the small, intense, robust and hyper-condensed spaces that emerge as a by-product of extreme levels of urban density. These ideas were explored through a site specific architectural installation and curated exhibition that was held in Melbourne in 2019 and drew on contributions from practitioners throughout Asia to explore the role of design in negotiating and expressing density in urban environments. The project explored the term ‘Tight’ as a positive and more nuanced approached to thinking about urban density. If the Supertight is focused on cities, its consequence is equally on the landscapes that support cities. The paper will explore how productive landscapes that support dense cities be absorbed within dense urban cores, and what would need to shift to enable this.

Keywords: Architecture, Urbanism, Urban Design, Density, Cities, Production