James Crawford

Patapolis: The Matter Form and Power of a Commonwealth Absurd and Pata-Modern.

The Pata-Modern project stems from a pataphysical critique of current trends in architecture that operate under the ubiquitous culture of 'greenism'.

Responding to the propensity for ecological urbanism to place ecological theory at the service of capital, the Pata-modern experiment appropriates a radical anarchist and surreal viewpoint that reasserts the ecological problem as a moral and ethical issue that can only be dealt with by questioning the value system from which it was created.

Mirroring the monastic journey of St Francis, and with the belief that the only way to stop the coming ecological crisis is through total social re-order, the Pata Modernists leave the city for the wilderness. Here, outside of the power structures and ethically defunct value system of the city, Patapolis is born.

Patapolis is the first settlement to be part of the newly formed commune state following the dissolution of the cities and the progression towards a new 'Wilderness Urbanism'. The architecture of the Patapolis exceeds reason, function and efficiency. Although each settlement is self sufficient (powered by the organic waste it produces and fed by the colossal greenhouses and agricultural carpet it nurtures) to provide autonomy, this autonomy paradoxically relies on mutual aid: creating a network across the landscape that replaces the city as the dominant form of human settlement.