In response to the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas, ‘The Water Dyke’ proposal, which was one of the selected entries, focused not only on rebuilding the boardwalk, but on creating the boardwalk as a community gathering place and a functional infrastructure to protect the shoreline. Designed by Sorg Architects, their concept of the Water Dyke is to harness water itself to retain a storm surge and thereby the shoreline from damaging floods. More images and architects’ description after the break.
One of the selected entries in the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas, the 'Occupy Infrastructure' proposal by Barkow Leibinger Architects is three-fold. The main idea is to construct a network of retaining berms based on priority and need with local materials and by the communities that they protect. These berms are not continuous (like a wall) but overlap to allow beach access, gateways, and to maintain visual and spatial openness and continuity between beaches and neighborhoods. More images and architects' description after the break.
Designed by HYHW Architects and Planners, the local development strategy and strategic focus of the Madong Masterplan is aimed at building upon history, automotive culture, sports culture, encouraging advances in manufacturing and modern services, with cultural charmand continual innovation in a technologically advanced green city. Serviced by a highway to the North and with Jiading Forest to the South-West, it benefits from convenient transport connections and the close proximity to the ecological landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.
San Francisco; Photo Courtesy of Flickr User KP Tripathi. Used under Creative Commons
San Francisco's Planning Department is working with California's sustainability guidelines to structure growth within the city in accordance with the state's requirements and the city's goals through the department's Sustainability Development Program. The program aims to reduce water consumption, reduce waste and enhance community-scale energy resources. To aid in the fulfillment of these goals, the program is implementing a tool called Eco-Districts - a community of property owners, businesses and residents within a neighborhood that collaborate to develop and initiate sustainable development projects in their area. Using a set of performance metrics, neighborhoods can shape their projects with custom strategies for their community.
The Eco-District is fundamentally a community-driven development that has the potential to achieve the smart growth of sustainable ideas but also build local urban identity and enforce a sense of place among its residents. The Eco-District movement has already taken shape in Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Seattle, WA; Washington, DC; and Portland, OR is various degrees of development. San Francisco's adoption of this tool will help drive the successes of the Sustainability Development Program with a focus on holistic approaches of neighborhood development and support with environmentally conscious improvements.
Read on for more about the types of Eco-Districts that have been developed in San Francisco.
Situated in the middle of the iron-copper-gold polymetallic metallogenic belt of the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Waa's winning entry for the Tonglin City Planning Exhibition Center houses the future aspirations for future generations. Focusing on their design through 'Making', they found inspiration of architectural language in the process of fabrication in this regions mining industry. More images and architects' description after the break.
Taking its name from the elevation above which the city is safe from floods, The '28+' proposal by Michael Sorkin Studio for the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas is a habitable levee. Not simply does it allow the protection – and selective replacement – of buildings otherwise at risk, it actually increases the stock of waterfront residences and commercial spaces and improves public transit connections to the rest of the city. More images and architects' description after the break.
Inspired by Chris Marker's 'photo-roman' La Jetée, this selected entry for the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas by Matter Architecture Practice is is a fictional story of a real place. The Narrator speaks a remembrance presented as being that of her daughter (now growing up in New York) in the year 2096, when she will be 90 years old. The image of this daughter as an old woman is one taken by the Narrator of her grandmother - or the daughter's great-grandmother -on a boat, in New York, when she was 90 years old. More architects' description after the break.
Designed by SZA (Studio za arhitekturu), their Taichung City Cultural Center proposal is a complex space structure. With its ground plan being 50 x 50 m, their concept creates an energetic, self-sufficiency throughout the project through a system of a vertical accordion and through an exchange of functional storeys and sustainable construction storeys. More images and architects’ description after the break.
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sand map detail / Courtesy of Gena Wirth + Alex Chohlas-Wood and Ben Mendelsohn
Designed by Gena Wirth, with Alex Chohlas-Wood and Ben Mendelsohn, their 'Protective Ecologies: Building Resilience in Jamaica Bay' proposal for the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas was recently announced as one of the selected entries. Their concept explores how constructed ecosystems could function as coastal infrastructure in the severely damaged neighborhoods of Jamaica Bay and the Rockaways. More images and architects' description after the break.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club has just unveiled this design proposal for the Wimbledon Master Plan developed by Grimshaw Architects, with top UK landscape architecture firm, Grant Associates. Marking the first step in a consultation process, the vision reflects and reinforces the long history of The Championships while further enhancing Wimbledon’s position as the premier Grand Slam tennis event. More images and architects' description after the break.
Designed by BAT, their proposal for the new City Cultural Center grows from the earth, with the strength of the sea and mountains, to show to the world how Taiwan is; how Taichung is. The design uses this strength to configure an astonishing landscape architecture able to project the cultural center internationally. More images and architects' description after the break.
With the main goal of facing the challenges of recovery in the coastal urban neighborhoods of the Rockaways, the 'Resilient Rockaways' proposal by Brennan Baxley takes precedents from dune formation and creation. In doing so, their concept provides a local opportunity to defend the coastline while aiding in the recreational and participatory design of dunes. Building with nature, small infrastructure, and community effort, the design encourages social resiliency as well as promote a healthy shoreline. More images and architects' description after the break.
The Incubator Matrix: Live/Work/Play proposal for the Redesigning Detroit: A New Vision for an Iconic Site competition consists of a facility for a new industrial ecosystem to revitalize downtown Detroit. Designed by H Architecture, their design is a live/work station for high-tech start-up companies and creative young artists to continuously challenge each other and spark innovation. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The ‘Far Rockaway: Accommodating Nature’ proposal by archedesign for the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas accommodates nature, instead of fighting it. Selected as one of the winning entries, the concept both creates a more fluid connection between the urban neighborhood and the surrounding water, and helps to minimize future environmental damage. It does this by re-purposing the concrete structures remaining from the dilapidated boardwalk, and creating pathways that will channel surge water to flow between the ocean and the bay. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) cuts through myriad neighborhoods on its route between Queens and Brooklyn. Sometimes it takes the form of an elevated six-lane highway with nothing but dark parking lots below; sometimes as a deep trench that segregates neighborhood pockets. The Cross Bronx Expressway in the South Bronx similarly creates boundaries, isolating neighborhoods from each other.
Projects such as these, built under the heavy handed politics of Robert Moses in the mid-20th century, show little regard for community development. The effects of these projects can be seen today; the spaces below the highway overpasses of New York City tend to be dark, dingy places that we avoid or rush past. They’re perceived as "lost space" within the city, yet they have an innate potential to be much more.
The Design Trust for Public Space, a non-profit dedicated to promoting public space, sees that potential. With their new project, Under the Elevated: Reclaiming Space, Connecting Communities, they hope to take these “lost” spaces and turn them into safe and exciting venues that will, at long last, reconnect long-separated communities.
The condition for this proposal by Hyunjoon Yoo Architects for the Taichung City Cultural Center competition is very unique and original since two distinct buildings, library and fine arts museum, should coexist in one site. For the architectural design that fulfills this exclusive condition, the architects applied the notion of "Taiji", the verity of yin and yang that has existed since the ancient era of Chinese history. In this new design, the spatial arrangement of library and art museum are planned to confront and interact at the same time, giving the positive effect to each other. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Those of us associated with the building of cities are often asked to do tricky things. Build a 632-meter-high skyscraper and give it the world’s tallest and fastest single elevator, traveling at speeds of more than 40 mph so folks can soar to the top in fewer than 40 seconds with no transfers. Build a data center in Houston that makes its own electricity (handy during a hurricane) and turns rain water into an asset. Design an office building that makes people happy to come to work.
But one of the biggest challenges facing us today requires, perhaps, one of our best magic tricks of all time: Creating open space when there seems to be none left.
How do we give people in cities public spaces (parks, gardens, squares, even wide tree-lined streets) to gather and room to breathe in our increasingly built-up and built-out urban environments?
More on David Gensler's thoughts on reutilizing public space, after the break...
In the 20th century, it was going to be the site of the world's tallest skyscraper, but it became the world's largest hotel. In 2006, the hotel was replaced with a fence, the largest advertising space in all of Europe, enclosing acres of undeveloped, highly valuable land. In 2014, it will become Moscow's first - and most important - park in over 50 years.
