Designboom_conceived by quatre caps, ‘the nice host’ addresses the exponential growth of cities in the recent years and its influence on today’s society. concerning not so much the city itself, but the city as a representation of civilization, the project compares cities to parasites that spread throughout the ecosystem.

madrid

‘the fungi were the first organisms to colonize the mainland, contributing to making it habitable for other less adaptable organisms’ quatre caps explains. ‘today, 1.3 billion years later, cities spread over the earth as parasites of an ecosystem, which they only make less habitable for other species‘. the urban spread is an undeniable phenomenon, as more than 4 billion people worldwide (more than 50% of the world’s population) live in cities.

paris

with the intention of an organized and sustainable growth (although many times the reason of the development is not the need of housing) the urban sprawl affects the landscape directly. but also, it propitiates the loss and fragmentation of the habitat, the development of invasive species, the displacement of native species, the light and acoustic pollution and the climatic change. in a way, the city is a pathogen that attacks the land in a still unconscious way, a parasite that expands at a pace that is difficult to sustain with an intention to develop empathy towards its host every day.

rome

the city growth discussed by the project is merely a reflection of an attitude, a way of being in collectivity. ‘faced with a problem that we believe does not affect us directly, we spread the responsibility to act in the hope that someone will come to the rescue of kitty genovese,’ adds the valencia-based studio. this behaviour is caused by fear, lack of resources, selfishness or ignorance. bearing these thoughts in mind, ‘the nice host’ shows the disproportionate growth of a creature without enough intelligence to know when to stop.

stockholm

vienna

amsterdam

berlin

brussels