December 26, 2025 - Surjan Super School Weekly Newsletter - PART 1

SURJAN SUPER SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

WEEK OF DECEMBER 26, 2025 - PART 1

Theme: The Pneumatic Vernacular & The Gilded Glitch

INTRODUCTION: THE CITY WITH WET FEET

As we stare down 2026, our studio has been obsessed with a singular architectural problem: Buoyancy.

Manhattan has always been a negotiation between bedrock and water. But as our shorelines become more unpredictable, our architecture must become amphibious. The images we generated this week explore a new typology I’m calling the "Pneumatic Vernacular." It is a proposal for a city that doesn't just resist the water, but wades into it—wearing boots made of oxidized copper and lungs made of ETFE.

01. THE TIMBER LUNG

(Ref: River Typologies / Oxidized Bases)

The dominant study this week focuses on a hybrid structural system.

• The Skeleton: We see a rigid, oversized Mass Timber grid. It is the logic of the warehouse, exposed and celebrated.

• The Skin: Instead of flat glass, we have deployed pneumatic cushions (ETFE). These "bubbles" soften the hard grid, acting as thermal insulators and diffusing light.

• The Boots: This is the critical detail. Look at the base of the structures. The timber transitions into a heavy, oxidized copper plinth, turning that specific "Statue of Liberty Green."

It suggests a narrative: The copper is the part designed to get wet, to age, and to protect the timber above. It is a material registration of the tide line.

02. CENTRAL PARK FOLLIES

(Ref: The Park Towers)

We moved the typology inland to Central Park.

Here, the water towers of New York—usually hidden on rooftops—are reimagined as habitable totems. These timber cages sit lightly on the landscape on stilt-like bundles, reminiscent of reeds or bamboo.

This challenges the idea of "park view" real estate. Instead of living on the perimeter looking in, what if we lived within the canopy, in structures that breathe? It is a "High-Tech Primitive" aesthetic—sophisticated engineering disguised as a treehouse.

03. THE GILDED GLITCH

(Ref: The Gold City Speculations)

Finally, we allowed the AI to hallucinate. We asked: What if the infrastructure wasn't utilitarian, but jewelry?

The resulting images show a "Gold City" overlaid on the grey metropolis. These gold clusters and floating geometric primitives represent the "Glitch"—the moments of pure surplus and joy in the urban fabric.

While the timber projects are about survival and resilience, the gold projects are about desire. Architecture needs both. We need the sturdy timber frame to keep us dry, but we need the golden sphere to keep us dreaming.

TECHNICAL NOTE: MODELING THE PRESSURE

For those attempting to replicate this aesthetic in Rhino/Python this week:

Don't model the bubble as a sphere. Model it as a boundary constraint. The tension in these images comes from the way the soft "balloon" creates a muffin-top effect as it presses against the hard timber frame.

• The geometry is not the shape; the geometry is the force.

• The timber is linear (logic).

• The bubble is radial (pressure).

• The beauty is in the collision.

LOOKING TO 2026

Next year, in our "Architecture After AI" course, we will push this further. We will stop treating AI images as "finished paintings" and start treating them as "schematic blueprints" to be reverse-engineered.

Enjoy the last days of the year.

Surjan

Professor of Practice, ASU

Founder, Surjan Super School