EoYS21_MArch_63

TRISTAN SCHENDEL

INFORMED BY NATURE A Portfolio of Architecture & Urbanism (social) sustainabillity informed by the natural sciences

M.Arch - Columbia University - Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation

CONTENTS ESSAY Actionable change towards a (socially)

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sustainable future

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SITE: MELROSE, THE BRONX PROFESSOR: GABRIELA ETCHEGARAY GRADE: HIGH PASS

CORE III

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THE BOATHOUSE

SITE: ROAN MOUNTAIN, NC/TN PROFESSOR: JUSTIN MOORE & ALICIA AJAYI GRADE: TBD

ADVANCED VI

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RETURNING TO UNAKA

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FLOW, SWAY & MEANDER

ESSAY When Natural Science, Sustainability,

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and Infrastructure come together

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SITE: RANDALL’S ISLAND, NYC PROFESSOR: DAN WOOD GRADE: PASS

Justice

CORE II

LIVING HEALTH

ADVANCED V

ESSAY Nature, Ecology, and Social & Racial

SITE: SARA D. ROOSEVELT PARK, MANHATTAN PROFESSOR: TOSHIHIRO OKI GRADE: HIGH PASS

NETWORK EXCAVATION SITE: TOMKINS COVE QUARRY, NY PROFESSOR: LINDY ROY GRADE: HIGH PASS

SITE: BROADWAY (59TH ST.-125TH ST.) PROFESSOR: LINDY ROY GRADE: PASS

CORE I

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ESSAY ACTIONABLE CHANGE TOWARDS A (SOCIALLY) SUSTAINABLE FUTURE a note on synthesising design concepts from the natural sciences, and how it enables & strengthens design

Over the past few years, I have found myself, perhaps coincidentally, deriving design concepts from nature, natural phenomena, earth sciences, or environmental sciences.

In particular, I have found great fascination in treading the fringes between these natural bodies of knowledge, and the manmade; from infrastructures to societal issues. I have come to the opinion that the natural, and the human, are undeniably linked. In fact, I see our existence, here on earth, as part of a larger ecosystem, which we do not (and should not) control. Rather, I’ve found the notion that we are part of complex systems, and should foster a deep understanding and care of our surroundings, much more productive, academically, and as a catalyst to synthesize design concepts. As such, my research endeavors into the larger natural sciences have become more conscious, more explicit, and more fruitful.

In semesters one and two, under the guidance of Lindy Roy and Toshihiro Oki, respectively, extensive research into geology & infrastructure, and Manhattan’s natural history & ecology blended from one into the other, as a sort of continuation of research. These project sites, both being located on Manhattan, therefor lent themselves perfectly for a more-or-less seamless research effort for a body of knowledge that grew in its potential for being able to feed design concepts. At the end of this first year, here at GSAPP, I became very aware of its meaning, importance, and potential. In parallel, having been able to intern for Studio Gang for a few years now has also given meaning to the idea of connecting people to each other, and to nature. In my own words, this became, is still, and will be for the foreseeable future, an exploration of natural sciences, and how it is able to form adjacencies with an architecture that is able to push ecological sustainability, as well as social sustainability, all while fostering peoples’ connections with them. These concepts, in my opinion, are, individually and hollistically, forever intertwined.

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Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

In the last Core semester, GSAPP’s infamous Housing Studio under guidance of Gabriela Etchegaray, my project collaborator Steven Corsello and myself, from the beginning set out, very consciously, to investigate how natural & restorative ecologies could start to mitigate the vast depth of social and public health issues our site in the south Bronx had to deal with. Our research, drawing from social, socio-economic, demographic, and health issues, merged with vast bodies of knowledge on ecologies, biology, and sustainability, into a design that was able to utilize the latter in an effort to improve the former.

But it wasn’t until the first Advanced Studio semester, once again under supervision of Lindy Roy, that I was able to give my research the depth and precision is deserved to inform not only concepts and ideas, but also truly be able to naturally feed into architectural form and user experience. A vast breadth of research, drawn from disciplines including Geology, Ecology, Hydrology, Infrastructure, and various fields of History, started to naturally come together, as they start informing each other. And as they started informing each other, potentially solving one another’s problems, concepts derive naturally. This particular project was, through research, able to identify infrastructural & social problems, and geological & ecological opportunities, that were able to be an answer to one another, and end up playing a tune in unison, coming together in a design.

And most recently, my explorations have been focussing on studying and drawing the self-organizing capabillities of nature, or in other words, how nature behaves. I believe there is so much value to be found in understanding better how nature organizes itself, spatially, and will be able to inform architecture, somehow.

Essays on Architectural Concepts

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CORE III LIVING HEALTH

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06 Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

As Bronx community district 1 and the Melrose neighborhood continue to change in line with national economic and demographic trends, highlighting housing insecurity and newly multi-generational households, our proposal takes the unit as a point of departure for addressing these challenges. Drawing on a body of research heavily influenced by the u.k.’s new generation of redeveloped social housing estates, we have identified five unit typologies, adapted them for the south bronx, and designed them to maximize efficiency, flexibility, and adaptability within mixed-use, multi-age, mixed-income project.

PROJECT PARTNER FOR THIS SEMESTER: STEVEN CORSELLO DRAWINGS OF HIS HAND, OR ANY OTHER WORK, OF WHICH THE FINAL ITERATION IS PRESENTED IN THIS BOOKLET WILL BE CREDITTED TO, AND MARKED WITH, HIS NAME.

CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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Living Health How can a building make us healthier? This is the question we asked ourselves when we began Core III in response to a range of outstanding health challenges among residents of the Melrose neighborhood of the South Bronx where our studio’s site is located. As we began to wrestle with this question on a unit scale, trying to understand exactly what a household would need from their home to become healthier, keeping in mind the neighborhood’s long history of environmental neglect, we found ourselves confronting a slightly different but equally profound question: how can the built environment help us heal? We seek restorative justice at the scale of the unit, the building, the neighborhood, the city and the planet.

The project’s distributed mass and minimal, low-rise footprint are particularly well suited to mass-timber construction, which we’ve pushed far beyond New York’s code while demonstrating eminent buildability. Employing laminated columns, glulam beams, timber bracing, CLT-slabs, and facade panels, the project is meant to maximize wood’s potential to fight climate change and serve as a deployable case study in sustainable residential design. Embodied energy can be reduced by two-thirds and carbon storage purified. And unlike steel or concrete, Wood’s biophilic properties serve to simulate the psychological, if not metaphysical, benefits of nature key to wellbeing and to our capacity to become healthier.

Sustainability through community is, we believe, at the heart of the Paris Agreement, which takes as its goal nothing short of saving the world. To save the planet from climate change is in essence an act of healing and is, perhaps, the ultimate act of restorative justice. To this end, we see building high density, inclusive cities out of wood as an act of urban healing at a global scale.

A project with Steven Corsello

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Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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neighborhood research investigating needs and trends - statistical research by Steven Corsello 10

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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translating data to unit scale proposals for basic housing reflecting local demographies 12

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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isometric project overview 18

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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perspective section - atriums are designed to pull nature & healthier environments indoors

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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perspective view from neighborhood, sculpted “canyon” thoroughfare pulls people into the public space 22

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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visualization of a multi-story atrium, flanked by residential units

visualization of the courtyard thoroughfare, where massing incidentally steps down as entry-way

elevation matching longitudinal section, showing atriums, louvered timber facades, and voids 24

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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longitudinal section, mathcing elevations, of housing penetrated by atriums & communal space

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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cross section, delineates the massing, the existing streets & buildings, and the courtyard in between

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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typ. facade elevation

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typ. facade section

CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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ground floor plan - public programming (drawing by Steven Corsello) 32

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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third floor plan - residential units, punctured by atriums & communal voids (drawing by Steven Corsello)

typical unit plans - reflecting the most urgent housing needs (drawing by Steven Corsello)

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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mass timber structural (span) concept

diagrams of mass timber structural systems, arranged by structural order

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context model of mass timber housing CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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model photography of southern building (1/4 scale model, 6’-0” long)

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CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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model photography of multi story atrium spaces 40

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model photography of communal terrace voids - all models made together with Steven Corsello CORE III - Gabriela Etchegaray

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ADV V THE BOATHOUSE

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The Boathouse is a combined training center for kayak and crew, and a political advocacy center for environmental justice.

Nestled in between the for too long overlooked communities of Harlem, The Bronx and Queens, Randall’s Island has a prime strategic opportunity to become a hub for citizen and community engagement. Fueled by its inherent relationship with the water, media & knowledge come together for much needed environmental outreach and restorative justice, while simultaneously engageing with NGOs to take back agency over their community’s environmental surroundings. Youth is encouraged to pursue academics and scholarship in crew through this initiative.

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Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

ADV V - Dan Wood

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site plan & coastal resilliency strategy 46

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ADV V - Dan Wood

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bringing together site opportunities and concepts related to sports, community achievement & agency, and environment

structurally inspired by the motion of water sports, the building turns outward, like water ripples

design model + collage 48

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ADV V - Dan Wood

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the undulating roof structure creates dynamic and versatile sectional adjacencies

these adjacencies control circulation and naturally allow for certain program

model photography demonstrating sectional properties of the structure and interior 50

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ADV V - Dan Wood

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cross section through east side - cutting through sports programming and gym space 52

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ADV V - Dan Wood

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cross section through middle - where the roof lifts, the volume allows for a theatre space open to manhattan

cross section through west side - cutting through ngo & environmental programming 54

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ADV V - Dan Wood

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L3 plan - theatre layout and more private spaces higher up in the stepped volumes L1 plan - public programming, sports training & boat storage

L4 plan - top (balcony) floor of stepped volumes provides private spaces and viewing decks L2 plan - communal/office programming in the stepped volumes

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ADV V - Dan Wood

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interior model shots - experimenting with shadow, light and effect by the elaborate structure

model photography - The Boathouse commands attention seen from the water, and anchors the community to a place 58

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structure & sustainability ADV V - Dan Wood

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ESSAY NATURE, ECOLOGY, AND SOCIAL & RACIAL JUSTICE how ecological stewardship equals restorative justice, and informs actionable justice far beyond that

My last year at GSAPP, and surely also several projects from my undergrad, have had strong implications into the (restorative) justice of ecologies & people alike. In fact, in theADV-V & ADV-VI studios, under Dan Wood and Justing Moore & Alicia Ajayi, this became increasingly explicit. I have learnt how concepts from both ecology and people can go hand in hand. Strengthen eachother. But I’ve also come to realize that strong relationships that people have with their landscapes, and the power of agency over one’s surroundings. Concepts of such breadth and depth, have been able to inform my projects from architectural moves, down to the logic of sustainable technology and buildings.

The site specific concepts of Migration, Destination & Shelter were born, as guiding & informing principles to bringing together issues of Cherokee erasure, untold black narratives, and ecological impacts on my site of Roan Mountain in the North Carolina Appalchian mountains. Histories of deforestation become mechanisms for reforestation. And legacies of Cherokee erasure feed into a renewed agency of access. Coupling the two, with age-old Cherokee knowledge of forest management, then, only strengthens both.

In a self-enforcing positive feedback loop, social & environmental justice then become a place to rebuild, and to celebrate.

In ADV-V, then, The Boathouse project, a concept was developed that would adress all of these. For a program that was briefed to combine sports with that of politics, I recognized the potential for a sub-section of sports, that of crew & kayak, which has an inherently deep & intimate relationship with its natural (aquatic) environment, to be a vehicle for political outreach and social change. Giving the youth of overlooked communities of the surrounding neighborhoods the agency to access sports, pursue athletic scholarships, and reach education goals, the concept also provided room for environmental advocacy and political outreach, by its very relationship with said environment.

Such a conceptual development would not have been possible without extensive research into fields like environmentalism, marine biology, and infrastructure. Nor would it have been possible without the growing realization that concepts synthesised from such endeavours, are a strong starting point for employment toward social equities and restorative practices. It perhaps goes without saying that this endeavour of research is a seamless continuation from semester’s past, and my longer arc of interest in continuously learning from disciplines within the natural sciences. My trust & belief that these interests, and the knowledge gained frum such disciplines at the periphery of architecture, are fruitful and valuable for architectural concept developement, has thus only grown stronger.

And in my last semester at GSAPP, ADV-VI, under Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi, this has continued. The intensity of research, and the sense of importance of research findings has grown exponentially during this semester. With a studio prompt centered around Mark-making and Erasure, I realized two things: my peripheral research into the natural sciences for this project has a direct impact on the themes of erasure, social justice and racism, and the very same mechanisms that have enabled such processes (societal, cognitive, industrial or otherwise), have also produced the erasure of ecologies.

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Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

Essays on Architectural Concepts

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ADV VI RETURNING TO UNAKA

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This project takes Roan Mountain as a point of entry into the interrogation of cultural & ecological erasure. As an integral and highly relevant site for regional histories of Appalachian culture, rural industries, extraction, ecological vitality & Cherokee spirituality, Roan Mountain becomes a site of contestation and multiplicity. A site where so many narratives have collided, from Black freed people & the Cherokee, to the historically white population & persisting poverty. As such, this project finds itself negotiating the vital act of place-making on the one hand, and the stuartship of land & ecology on the other. By synthesizing the concepts of Migration, Shelter & Destination with today’s Roan Mountain land use, we have the unique opportunity to uncover place, foster stuartship, protect ecologies, and tell stories through callibrated design interventions.

Returning to Unaka Returning to Unaka takes Roan Mountain, the Unaka Range’s highest peak, as a point of entry into the interrogation of cultural & ecological erasure.

As an integral and highly relevant site for regional histories of Appalachian culture, rural industries, extraction, ecological vitality & Cherokee spirituality, Roan Mountain becomes a site of contestation and multiplicity. A site where so many narratives have collided, from Black freed people & the Cherokee, to the historically white population & persisting poverty. As such, and by drawing from a vast body of regional research, this project finds itself negotiating the vital act of place-making on the one hand, and the stuartship of land & ecology on the other. Narratives, stories, science, and stake-holder interviews alike, have -without failure- all uncovered concepts of Migration, Shelter & Destination. Combining the synthesis of these concepts with today’s Roan Mountain land use, we have the unique opportunity to uncover place, foster stuartship, protect ecologies, and tell stories through callibrated design interventions. Interventions that touch lighly, are experienced boldly, and -paradoxically- might not wish to be seen.

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ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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Roan Mountain, within the Unaka Range

Resource extraction, Industry & the Erasure of Ecologies

the various cultural & geographical definitions of Appalachia

Analysis of Migrations & Erasure

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ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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Collecting (counter)narratives of culture 68

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ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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Site analysis, from ecology, to land-use, to mobility 70

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ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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Ecology, pressure of land-use, opportunities 72

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ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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Site plan, existing features by category of significance & new proposals 74

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ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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Site plan - a distributed program of three (semi-temporary) design interventions 76

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ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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Collage - A temporary, seasonal, travelling event structure which allows for occupation

Collage - on the site of a former logging railroad, an axis of reforestation connects interventions

Section perspective - The event structure follows a Cherokee-based, seasonal time-scale & regenerates ecologies

Plan - The tree corridor becomes ecologically connecting, and a visual marker of industrial legacies

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Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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Interior collage - A new forestry center is a space for Cherokee and the Park Service to join forces

Collage - A Seasonal residency for Cherokee natives to re-occupy their rightful land

Plan & Section - As a building that doesn’t wish to be seen, and touches lightly, it steps down the mountain

Axo, Plan & Section - The plan follows traditional Cherokee planning principles, creating communal space

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Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

ADV VI - Justin Moore & Alicia Ajayi

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CORE II FLOW, SWAY & MEANDER

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The Library as simply a place for books has become obsolete.

For the Library to stay relevant as an institution, but more importantly, as a social and societal catalyst for engagement and progress, we must imagine the Library in a new way.

This proposal will draw from Manahatta’s indigenous natural history to provide a contrasting reference to the relentless city’s grid through the concepts of flow, sway and meander.

Flow, Sway & Meander Rooted in our research at the beginning of our semester, which shows us segregated neighborhoods around Roosevelt Park with little interaction between them, the park has the potential to become a community connector right in the middle.

At the same time, I personally firmly believe in the potential for a Library becoming a strong and meaningful civic asset, but only if it is able to open itself up to an array of program, thus servicing communities better who need it most.

Therefore, I am proposing an overarching canopy structure, which connects this program, new and existing, with each other through an experience of flow, sway and meander. Providing a contrast to the city, this design undulates together with the ground plane, and by lightly touching down on an accessible terrain, it pushes people from left to right, through an array of architectural moments, connecting them to program and providing transparent access to it. The experience of the flow and movement of people then becomes and an armature and facilitator for exploration, opportunity and learning.

What the design then becomes is a response Manhattan’s inherent man-made urban nature. Rolling hills, as if returning to its original natural roots, the plan provides room for the return of the Island’s natural vegetation, thus connecting people not only to services, but also to nature.

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CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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plan & longitudinal section of a parametrically derived gridshel canopy, with social programming 86

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CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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perspective of nature vs urban, the plan draws visitors in through its constantly shifting form 88

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CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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isometric view of Mannahatta’s “rolling hills” concept with pockets of nature 90

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CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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the project is to restore New York’s indigenous vegetation - typical detail of canopy “touch down”

skirting the edges of the canopy, diagonals emerge as corridors connecting the streets 92

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structural concept & details of a gridshell canopy structure CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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at night, the pockets of vegetation and community pavilions act as guiding beacons 94

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CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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the canopy touches down on landscapes mounds, which then become occupyable

model photography of the behaviour of a permeable gridshel, strudying trees and shadows 96

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vizualization of a reading room, looking into the Canopy’s meandering terrain CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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ground floor and basement plan for library pavilion

elevation of the library, a clash of contrasts 100

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CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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detailed cross-section of the library pavilion

DETAILED CROSS SECTION OF THE LIBRARY PAVILLION

construction details of transparant & invisble pavilions 102

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CORE II - Toshihiro Oki

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ESSAY WHEN NATURAL SCIENCE, SUSTAINABILITY, AND INFRASTRUCTURE COME TOGETHER how studying geology and it’s forces became an instrument for rethinking New York’s infrastructure

My interest in continuously learning from other disciplines, and blending concepts of the Natural Sciences with those of Architecture began, right off the bat, in the first semester, CORE I. Under Lindy Roy I was pushed to investigate geology, hydrology, and natural history and learn from them. How can they adapt to, or adopt architectural concepts. How can they inform architectural moves? Pressure, fluidity & force were key observations, and effortlessly merged with questions of mobility, sustainability and infrastructure.

During this semester I was very taken by ‘everything underground’. Geology on the one hand, and New York City’s infrastructure on the other. Thus, on the geological end of the research scope, this semester became as much of a research endeavor into traditional geology on the one hand, and earth science notation, on the other. Understanding the discipline-inherent logic that goes behind the making of diagrams for geological processes, or any other respective field’s notational traditions for that matter, has proven helpful in understanding what the respective processes mean. For geology, in searching for ways to ‘architecturally excavate’ New York’s underground infrastructure, understanding these diagrams as something of a force diagram, or perhaps a notation of movement, was called for. Inspired by the book ‘Landform Architecture’, these geological forces became movements and morphologies, and by extent methods of understanding and implementing architecture that would delve underground.

This endeavour has continued in all of my studio projects, and in many different aspects of life ever-since. But it has echoed and re-emerged strongest in ADV-IV semester’s project on the Tomkins Cove Quarry. Taking knowledge from CORE-I, and expanding it with site-specific knowledge within the disciplines of hydrology, ecology, chemistry, environmentalism & infrastructural history, it was able to inform, and indeed synthesize a integral concept that takes Geology, Sustainability, and Infrastructure, and spins it into one.

A singular, unified concept & architectural design that draws on knowedlge from all three, to expose & celebrate, and perform to the benefit of natural history & sustainable infrastructure. That’s what the Tomkin’s Cove Quarry project was truly about.

Nature, here, had become a framework for utilizing and employing architecture to break open the underground, and rethink these infrastructures. Geology then has become an infrastructural datum, a potential way of accessing space, and renewing & improving the city’s infrastructure. Natural Science & Infrastructure, then, are merged.

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Essays on Architectural Concepts

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ADV IV RESERVOIR

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Reservoir is a project that transforms Tomkins Cove Quarry from a geological site of industrial extraction into a retreat environment for the extreme outdoors, a water reservoir and a hydro-electric facility. Re-inserted into New York’s fragile infrastructural networks, the quarry becomes a monument to its historical legacy, and casts contrasts between its infrastructure and fragmented (outdoors retreat) landscape.

ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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site analysis - on-site photography, studying water, mineral properties and rock formations 108

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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site analysis - on-site photography, studying water, mineral properties and rock formations 110

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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an entrance cut as a starting point, tying together concepts of geology, hydrology & human experience 112

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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RESERVOIR My work on Tomkins Cove Quarry began with researching relationships between Geology and the Hudson River watershed, both as a natural ecosystem and an infrastructural supply system for New York City.

This started by exploring the effects of massive glacial, fluvial, geological and tectonic forces that formed the physical landscape over vast timelines. This image, then, investigates patterns of fluvial and glacial activity, dating back to the last ice age which started 2.6 million years ago and ended some twelve thousand years ago. It’s legacy is a continuation of processes, even today, that have shaped the physicality of Tomkins Cove Quarry, and its larger environs into the rugged landscape we know today.

At the same time, its location right next to the Hudson, within proximity of New York City, inserted the Quarry within a larger network of industrialization and the creation of the metropolis. As did various other infrastructures serving the metropolis: Our network of potable water supply is old, decaying and not calculated for the increasing severity of weather & Climate Change. Neither is our power supply, in response to which New York is currently constructing a high voltage electricity conduit from Quebec, to be laid underneath the Hudson. Long distance power transmittance, however, suffers incredible transmission losses and single-source power is a vulnerable concept in and of itself.

In recognizing Tomkins Cove Quarry’s unique and valuable position in the landscape, and its strategic geographic relationship with these –often old, decaying and inefficientinfrastructures; I then began imagining our site as an integral part of this larger infrastructure.

The Quarry, then, becomes an immensely de-scalar retreat experience, pushing the limits of extremity of an outdoors environment. The very infrastructure that frames it becames a device to scale it by, and is a commentary in and of itself toward blurring the lines between infrastructure and nature, both now and in the Quarry’s historical legacy.

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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plan for four proposed dam walls, retaining water & generating power, or as isolated retreat environments 124

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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site section of dams when retaining water 126

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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structural calculations rationalize the parabolic form of the dam walls

model photography - exploring geological layers of exploration

standard profile section of dam structure

infrastructural cut as a human entrance, a water sluice & a testiment to geological timescales

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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perspective section exploring the quarry as an extreme & framed outdoor activity retreat 130

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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view - backpacker entering through cut

view - climbing up the dam walls, there are designated resting and viewing spots

view - exploration of framed outdoors experiences

view - walkway on top of dam provides the only circulation & connectivity between segments

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ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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view - with structural force acting as a matephor, climbing to the top is a goal & reward, and the only connection to life 134

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beyond the quarry ADV IV - Lindy Roy

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CORE I NETWORK EXCAVATION

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While New York City’s infrastructure lay in decay, I propose a framework for renewal that impacts not only said infrastructure, but the way people move through and interact with their city. It aims, through infrastructural excavation, to connect people with people, and with their natural-historical environment.

Infrastructural space becomes a social datum and the proposal at large, then, becomes an ethical commentary aswell.

analysis & research: investigating site, geology & infrastructure 138

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CORE I - Lindy Roy

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analysis & research: investigating site, geology & infrastructure 140

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CORE I - Lindy Roy

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model photography of geolically derived space, and ways to inhabit excavated earth 142

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CORE I - Lindy Roy

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Excavating Broadway In studying public transportation networks in New York City and geological forces as architectural concepts that might affect it, I have arrived at excavating the 1-2-3 line underneath Broadway to imagine a new public datum. The new system will bundle infrastructure at large, using all that is unearthed to its advantage and giving it new life.

In doing so, and using the geologically derived techniques of Shear, Undercut, Subduct and Erode, this vector-like network of NYC becomes a public space, and a commentary, on the decaying state of its infrastructural network.

At the same time it brings much needed improvements to the NYC subway, like light, air and accessability.

Each station, then, is designed through a different geoloigcal method, derived from the hyperlocality of the stations geological conditions, and the spatial implications this holds in the design provides different types of public space, such as a park, a nightlife space, or a cavernous transportation hub.

exploded perspective of an excavated station, a new mobility & infrastructure 144

Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

CORE I - Lindy Roy

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urban plan (part 1/2) of subway excavation with new station sections 146

Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

CORE I - Lindy Roy

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urban plan (part 2/2) of subway excavation with new station sections 148

Tristan Schendel - GSAPP

CORE I - Lindy Roy

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