CATALYZER

CLAUDIA KLEFFMANN M.S. Architecture and Urban Design

" I n t h e e n d we wi l l co n se r v e o n l y wh a t w e love , we wi l l l o v e o n l y wh a t we u n de r st a n d, a n d we wi l l u n de r st a n d o n l y wh a t we a r e tau g ht. " Ba ba Di o u m , 1 9 6 8

CONTENT

- TRAVERSING THE GORGE

- MIGROCULTURE

- WASTE FRONT

Spring - Addis Ababa

Fall - Hudson Valley

Summer - New York City

DEFINITION OF CATALYZE 1: t o b r i ng ab out t he c at al ys i s of ( a c he m i c al r e ac t i on) “an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of the sugars”

2: BR I N G A BO UT , I N S PI R E “his vigorous efforts to catalyze us into activity”

— Har r i s on Br ow n 3: t o al t e r s i gni fi c ant l y b y or as i f b y c at al ys i s “innovations in basic chemical theory that have catalyzed the field”

— Newsweek (M er r i am Webs ter )

TRAVERSING THE RIFT

CATALYZER:

SPRING SEMESTER

STREET VIBRANCY

CLAUDIA KLEFFMANN

making use of the current street life and vibrancy

TAL FUERST

to ensure an incremental improvement of the area

VICTORIA VUONO

while introducing a new approach for Addis Ababa

LASZLO KOVACS

to turn back to its rivers

GREAT RIFT VALLEY

The spring semester focused on the Great Rift Valley and three cities located along it: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Addis Ababa and Beira. These cities live at the edge of a conflicting rift which is also suffering from a constant international pressure to develop under foreign standards. Zooming into Piazza, a vibrant neighborhood within Addis Ababa, we find a micro-Rift, splitting the neighborhood in two. Similarly to the bigger Rift Valley scale, this neighborhood is also witnessing the constant pressure from rapid urbanization and international push to invest in generic projects along the river. As a summary of this Semester’s project, this Parti Diagram shows 3 traverses that will stitch both sides of Piazza back together.

GRADIENTS OF STREETS As we explore the site, we come across a gradient of str eets, marked by their historic backgrounds. During the brief period of Italian occupation, broad boulevard-type avenues were introduced, leaving an urban fabric with heavy traffic that hosts dense com mercial activities. Next, a worker’s neighborhood that dates back to the founding of Addis Ababa, is made of a very dense fabric of small str eets which are populated with domestic activities. Finally, across the river, a period of modern urbanization leaves a quiet neighborhood with almost no street activities.

1930’s

1890’s

2010’s

STREETS AS UNITS OF CHANGE

Due to its important presence in the urban fabric but also in people’s lives, the street becomes the unit that will drive change in this community. But first we recognize that streets are not isolated moments, since

they

between

work

as

housing,

a

medium

commerce,

stormwater management, sewage systems and public spaces. In addition to this, the local street dynamics bring value to the neighborhood, so we established them as our design principles for our interventions in Piazza. In

the

end,

these

principles

will

strengthen the vibrant street life of piazza, while improving the lives of those who live in the kebele housing along the gorge.

STEWARDSHIP THROUGH A GENERATION OF CHANGE

Local stewardship will be the foundation of the different interventions which will be organized by a cooperative that will be in charge of the three major layers towards street improvement: water

commerce

filtration

and

support,

construction

training. The Co-Op Hub branches will be established with government funding as the beginning of a symbiosis between government and community. These Hubs will become the Co-op administrative and empowerment centers where knowledge and support is shared throughout the community over a generation of change.

THREE TRAVERSES AND THREE CO-OP HUBS

The 3 branches of Co-Op hubs will be

located

at

three

different

traverses that cross the gorge. Each travers will be composed of a Hub, a crossing point and a number of interventions along it. The first traverse (1-5) will Increase commerce opportunity for locals, while

the

middle

one

(6-10)

will

Improve the kebele housing street infrastructure filtration

while

terraces

working for

with

stormwater

and sewage management. The third traverse (11-15) will empower the local community through cooperative stewardship and construction training.

THREE CO-OP HUBS

The different interventions along the traverses will trickle down and benefit from the presence of the Co-Op Hubs. The commerce Hub will allow for the strong commercial sector of the neighborhood to work cooperatively to improve their businesses, but also to clean the river and improve the area in order to attract more local and international visitors and tourism. The Water Filtration Hub will work as a natural system to clean stormwater and sewage coming from the Worker’s neighborhood, which currently lacks this bas ic infrastructure. This low cost and locally managed system will be introduced incrementally, together with the gradual improvement and densification of the Worker’s neighborhood. This will happen in collaboration with the Construction Hub, where locals will learn a rich combination of modern and native techniques for construction, allowing them to take ownership of their neighborhood. The three Hubs will not work independently, but will rather benefit from cross collaboration, planification and exchange of knowledge, enhancing the neighborhood’s capacity to improve their own site.

COMMERCE HUB

WATER FILTRATION HUB

CONSTRUCTION TRAINING HUB

HAILE SELASSIE STREET DENSIFICATION Haile Selassie Street’s strong commercial character will be enhanced through the reduction of cars to a minimum, improvement of streetscape and by densifying the buildings. By improving the streetscape, the local economy will profit, allowing for the residents or the Worker’s neighborhood to take care of their houses and the gorge, eventually allowing for a better connection to the gorge, finally enhancing their life quality and experience.

WORKER’S NEIGHBORHOOD

As commerce in the area improves and locals are more capable of improving their homes, the Worker’s neighborhood will gradually densify areas as well as rebuild small family homes to provide basic infrastructure for a better quality of life and security. These improvements will be guided by the construction Hub, working in collaboration with local labor and exchange materials with surrounding agricultural fields of Addis Ababa, introducing vernacular materials with new building techniques. This gradual improvement will include the betterment of the streets, making them permeable for flash floods, creating shared spaces for laundry, toilets and public spaces for neighbourly exchanges.

INTERVENTION DIVERSITY Throughout interventions

the of

three

traverses,

different

scales

address small but important issues. From up-cycling discarded plastic found in the river to produce locally handcrafted shading structures, to temporary infill structures to occupy the empty streets of the condo side. The

design

about

interventions

bringing

the

are

all

community

together and improving their livelihoods.

EMBRACING ADDIS ABABA’S RIVERS

While some areas can tap into existing sewage infrastructure, some are out of reach or lack accessibility due to the street density. However, filtration terraces and ponds will treat

stormwater

and

sewage

coming from these areas, like the Worker’s

neighborhood,

providing

an even better solution which uses local

materials,

provides

green

spaces and can be mantained by the local community. Finally empowering Piazza’s residents to forge their future.

CATALYZER:

MIGROCULTURE

FALL SEMESTER

HUDSON VALLEY FARMS

CLAUDIA KLEFFMANN

making use of the great amount of small farms in

NINA LISH

the Hudson Valley, their diversity and livestock

GERMAN BAHAMON

availability to sequester carbon and empower agri-

ANGUS PALMER

culture to lead the fight against climate change

NINA NDICHU

FARMERS LEAD THE FIGHT

Farming is the DNA of the Hudson Valley and as such, there is a very large

farming

community

of

small

businesses. These hold the power to absorb huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the ground, making the m key

players

in

the

fight

against

cli mate change. Building upon and enhancing

the

great

diversity

of

farms, farmers can collaborate in the ex change of knowledge, tools and rotation of livestock to maintain the soil healthy and absorbing Co2. By doing so, we can create a growing network of trails that will allow farmers to benefit from collaboration and a better and more connected rural ex perience.

HEALTHY FARMING TO SEQUESTER CARBON Worldwide, Agriculture gets blamed for contributing high amounts of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) to the environment. Yet, what is important to highlight is that agriculture is not really to be blamed, but instead the farming practices that we humans have adopted. With the use of pesticides, industrial feedlots, bad manure management and land tillage, we are damaging the environment and the health of our population. However, agriculture holds a powerful tool: with better farming practices that allow for the soil to regenerate, we are capable to sequester huge amounts of GHG from the environment, creating a Carbon Sink.

NETWORK OF TRAILS AND LIVESTOCK ROTATION After understanding what Regenerative Agriculture means we proposed to use livestock as a tool that can be shared for improving farming practices. We propose a space in the form of a farm corridor that taps into a diversity of farms allowing for farmers to connect with each other, either moving livestock or sharing resources. Through the use of livestock, stomping, feeding, defecating and spreading manure we can reduce tillage and the use of fertilizers. More importantly this path will allow livestock movement, but also the creation of a network of trails as public space connecting the farmers to towns and the towns to the farmers.

EDUCATION: HEALTHY FARMING PRACTICES

COMMERCE: LOCAL PRODUCE

SOCIAL: LOCAL NETWORKING

PEOPLE AND LIVESTOCK

PATH DESIGN:

Opportunity to sell, exchange or share produce or resources Shared livestock path when requires

Low maintenance materials

Multipurpose shelters for farmers and shepers

Seating areas and bike stations located along the path

Closer to urban areas the path can change its character to a more formal path

PICNIC MARKET: SHOP AND EAT

BIKE STATION: REST AND PUMP

FARMER SHELTER: HOLDING AREA

A JUST TRANSITION FOR ALL FARMERS A transition towards healthy farming practices can sometimes be more complex than expected, which is why a new Co-operative will ensure a just transition for farmers and guide them towards Regenerative agricultural practices. The system proposed will not only create a great variety of new jobs in the area, but it will also reduce farm operation overheads, lower mortality rates of livestock and due to a newly acquired quality, even

CARBON CAPTURE INCENTIVES

increase margins at markets. It will guide new and transitioning farmers and over the course of two years they will have improved their profits by 30%. MAINTENANCE JOBS AND NEW CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS

TOP DOWN FUNDING A new Co-operative is established to manage Regenerative Netwrok

ADD POULTRY

EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS

SELL FARM MACHINERY

DIVERSIFY ASSETS

FARMERS PARTNER

INCREASE HERD/FLOCK

SILVOPASTURE AND ALLEY CROPS

ROI MET

CONSTRUCTION AND TRAINING

TRANSITIONING FARMER

NITROGEN TAX PENALTIES

INDUSTRIAL FARMER NEW FARMER

A JUST TRANSITION ECONOMIC MODEL

PROFITS UP +30%

ROAMING FARMER

PLANNING AND INVESTMENT EARLY AGROBUSINESS RETURNS

TODAY

TRANSITION

PLAN AND COMMENCE CHANGES

1 YEAR

GROWTH AND RETURNS

PATH IMPLEMENTATION AND TOP DOWN FUNDING

YEAR 2

WORKSHOPPING THROUGH THE HUDSON VALLEY

As any co-operative driven group, workshopping will be key to the success of a project like this. Due to its complexity, education and campaigning is necessary to convince farmers that the changes are for good. It will also be key to include all populations aside from farmers, since the trail will also benefit them through new public spaces. As part of the workshop, a simplified board game will raise important qu estions for debate and also emphasize the huge importance of collaborative work, i nstead of individualism.

CATALYZER:

WASTE FRONT

SUMMER SEMESTER

WASTE-SORTING FACILITY

CLAUDIA KLEFFMANN

making use of an existing sorting facility located on

TING ZHANG

one of the last industrial waterfronts of NYC to

VASANTH MAYILVAHANAN

embrace its industrial history and bring back a strong identity

FINDING VALUE IN WASTE

By tapping into an existing sorting facility located in Sunset Park, this project proposes a Green Waste System that will manage and recycle waste at NYC scale, creating an asset and new Industrial Waterfront typologie that will give back to the community, not only in terms of infrastructure, public spaces, education and clean energy, but also with a new waterfront identity.

SUNSET PARK’S ASSETS

Sunset Park has an underutilized waterfront with great potential. It is one of the last industrial waterfronts and falls under the category of an IBZ (industrial Business Zone). It hosts a number of NYC properties that are being underutilized and has great connectivity via Highway, Rail and Water to the rest of New York.

1 2 3

It has

SOUTH BROOKLYN MARINE TERMINAL $ 115 million investment in infrastructure

BUSH TERMINAL

$ 136 million investment for Made in NYC

BROOKLYN ARMY TERMINAL

90 acres of space available for anchor tenant

3

One of the main opportunities is the SIMS recycling facilities which is cur-

2

rently not working at full capacity. This facility is one of the biggest waste

1

sorting facilities in the US: it receives waste and sorts it for later recycling.

educational programs and 20% of its energy is renewable. It receives 100% of

NYC’s residential recyclable waste, but this only represents 25% of NYC’s Waste Stream, and the remaining 75% is Commercial Waste. The DSNY only gathers Residential Waste, while the remaining is left to Private Companies, generating a huge amount of tr uck traffic. Only 22% of Commercial Waste gets recycled and this happens scattered all over the city in small facilities, costing a lot of money and polluting do to its distribution.

SIMS

HOW CAN RECYCLING BE MAXIMIZED? HOW CAN THE SYSTEM BE MORE EFFICIENT?

NG

TI OR

S

1

C

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G

IN

L YC

2

G

SIN

U HO

E

R WA

4

F

U AN

G

IN

UR

T AC

GY

ER

EN

M

3

5

4

5

2

The waterfront will locate a number of processes in one specific area, reducing transportation, money and time invested in recycling. For this we propose to use the existing NYC Infrastructure, creating 5 main areas that will take care of: Sorting, Recycling, Warehousing, Manufacturing and Energy production. Finally, the exchanges and flows within the areas will be carried out with the existing rail infrastructure, which then connects to city-wide transport systems.

1

3

THE PROCESS

SORTING

RECYCLING

WAREHOUSING + DISTRIBUTION

CLEAN ENERGY

MANUFACTURING

The collected waste will arrive at Sunset Park’s Waterfront into the SIMS facility for sorting. The system will handle 100% Residential Recyclable Waste and 50% Commercial Recyclable Waste. Then it will flow into the different recyclin g facilities to be processed. Then it can be stored in the existing Warehouse (SBMT) until it gets purchased and sent through Highway, Rail or Water to another location. But this material can also be reintroduced into the Manufacturing areas of Sunset Park at the Brooklyn Army Terminal. In fact, in can serve the growing industry of textile production and food packaging, giving them a green character. Finally, 13% of all the waste that goes into the SIMS facility never gets recycled because of its composition (non-recyclable) and gets sent to landfill . Therefore, we propose to close the loop by introducing a sustainable Incineration plant that burns waste without polluting the air instead of using landfills, that will in fact produce cleaner air and enough energy to provide for 37% of Sunset Parks Households.

A CITY WIDE NETWORK

In order for the whole system to work, all the waste has to arrive at Sunset Park’s Waterfront in an efficient and non-pollutant way. Therefore, we ident ify different types of existing infrastructure that connect the city and use these to propose a pneumatic tube waste system that can transport waste without affecting the ci ty in a negative way, creating a Network that covers New York’s 5 Boroughs. We then propose different Collection I-495

Points along the way that will serve specific neighborhoods. This system will work together with the DSNY and the policy introduced by them to regulate Private Carters, to gather waste with Truck services in specific areas, reducing truck traffic

BELT PARKWAY

I-278

NY&A

ELEVATED EXPRESSWAYS

4,5,6

NY STATE ROUTE 440 MTA STATEN ISLAND RAILWAY

RAILROADS

SUBWAY TUNNELS

CHANGING THE NEGATIVE CONNOTATION OF WASTE

In order to avoid a negative connotation of waste in this Waterfront we need to engage with the community, spreading knowledge about good waste management, new public spaces and local opportunities to incorporate these areas into the neighborhood. Using the existi ng rail infrastructure for the transportation of people in order to connect the different activities located in this axis, as well as alo ng the waterfront (1st Ave), serves the waste system through mobility of waste and products, but also people. Some older train carriages can also be used as flexible market spaces, located on the tracks. In the surrounding areas of the Incineration Plant, we can find Murals, Boulder areas, Skate Park and we use canopies that provide shade and light at different times of the day.

EDUCATION ON WASTE

R EC Y C L I N G A R EA

VIEWING AREA

T R A N S P O RTA TION + S T O R A GE

A DM IN ISTRA TION + EDUCA TION

PN EUM A TIC TUB ES IN TERA CTIV E PA THW A Y

In the Recycling Area within the SBMT (South Brooklyn Marine Terminal), we will include educational programs, following the SIMS model, to create awareness regarding the collection

system

and

recycling

processes. In order to do this, we are proposing to equip these industrial

facilities

with

educational

spaces which at the same time act as a transition from the rigid industrial area to the street. With an elevated pat h for the pneumatic tube we create different interactive moments, making the process fun and educational.

BRING WASTE. BRING VALUE This whole System of waste treatment and public spaces will give a green character to the neighborhood through recycling and clean energy and it will provide jobs, education, public spaces and free energy, creating more value for the local community.

THANK YOU

CLAUDIA KLEFFMANN M.S. Architecture and Urban Design