UD_SU21_125

THANAWAT PHITUKSITHKASEM

COLUMBIA GSAPP DESIGN PORTFOLIO MSAUD 2021

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CONTENTS 1.

BARATARIA ON THE MOVE

A vision for a prosperous and growing Mississippi River Delta Urban Design Studio III

2.

AGRI [CULTURAL]KONBIT

Stewardship of Land to Build Social Resilience and Combat Climate Change | Kingston, NY Urban Design Studio II

3.

STACK THEM UP!

Saving Inwood’s Small Businesses | Inwood, NY Urban Design Studio I

MS Architecture and Urban Design Columbia University GSAPP

tp2662@Columbia.edu 212 810 7981

4.

HOUSING = WEALTH

5.

NYC ELDER’S SANCTUARY

Urban Design Studio II - Educational Poster

Geographic Information System

4 | Barataria on the Move

1. BARATARIA ON THE MOVE A vision for a prosperous and growing Mississippi River Delta Urban Design Studio III Collaborators: Zuzanna Jarzynska, Aruna Ananta Das, Cheng Ju Lee Faculty: Prof. Kate Orff, Geeta Mehta, Dilip Da Cunha, Adriana Chavez, Justine Holzman, Tori Vuono

Barataria on the Move is a design initiative that makes local communities strategic working partners in the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project. The project aims to reinvigorate the over-salinated wetlands of the Mississippi River Delta that are currently separated from the fresh water and sediment supply by levees.

We put forward 3 ‘units of change’ anchored in Myrtle Grove Hub as a gateway connecting leveed areas and the Barataria Basin: strategic willow planting to encourage and reinforce land-forming processes; a wetland literacy initiative to build data systems, wetland constituencies and local resilience; floating oyster hatcheries to ensure higher mobility of local fishermen in conditions of shifting water salinity.

The three units work systemically and symbiotically. Together, they help local communities retain ownership and a strong working presence in the basin both, during the land-building process and after its completion. It is a replicable, robust, research-driven and adaptive model of living and working synergistically with the wetlands.

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Wetland Loss Wetland loss in coastal Louisiana can be primarily attributed to rising sea levels and the construction of levees along the Mississippi River. There are two downstream effects of sediments not settling into the wetlands firstly salt intrusion which is constantly changing the ecology and Secondly, the lack of protection this provides the land, leads to soil erosion and land subsidence.

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Sediment Diversion To prevent further degradation, the CPRA, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, is planning a multi-billion dollar sediment diversion channel located south of New Orleans, near Myrtle Grove Marina. The project will divert 75,000 CFS of water from the Mississippi into the sedimentstarved wetland in the Barataria basin recapturing approximately 27 sq miles of wetlands. While this ecological transformation will secure high grounds and recreate an economy that wetlands uniquely enable, it also means the rapid injection of nutrients and freshwater into an ecological system that has grown to thrive on current water salinity levels.

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Managing Adaptation

The Units of Change

We propose a transition from the current ecology and economy, using adaptive management schemes to build sustainable and resilient systems that address the needs of those affected by the transformation. The key stakeholders in the process include CPRA, Army Corps of Engineers, and communities whose livelihoods are affected by the transition: oyster farmers, land owners and residents.

In contrast to the highly engineered, cost-heavy and permanent nature of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project, we offer a set of smaller, research-driven interventions that work in synergy and support the growth of local social, economic and ecological resilience.

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Positive Impacts

Unit 1: Land Building Strategy In order to accelerate the ecological change induced by the fresh water infusion, the first intervention takes the form of sediment retention structures, complemented by willow planting and guided by close monitoring of the new landscape morphology.

Both the sediment retention structures and willows capture sediment that with steady accumulation creates sustainable and natural barricades against sea level rise and storm surges. The products of the plantations serve as potential sources of energy for alternative fuel manufacturers. In this way, the areas that once benefited from fishing and farming can remain productive and thrive.

Willow Planting

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Unit 2: Temporary Field Research Center

Unit 2: Wetland Literacy With the land formation processes underway, research and educational facilities will be needed to repeatedly assess the changes as part of the adaptive management process. This sector will not only provide new, specialized green jobs, such as field researchers and wetland navigators. It will also attract nature enthusiasts and students seeking for unique handson experiences, enforce wetland literacy among visitors and residents and highlight the unquestionable value of this area to the whole delta and all its inhabitants.

Trail reassembled

USGS Research Stations

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Unit 3: Mobile Oyster Culture

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Mobile Hatchery and Aggregation

With changing salinity gradient, the static reef oyster culture will have to be reinvented.With the Co-op model, floating cages and consolidated leases, Oyster people will be able to move their beds around regardless of the current boundaries. These beds are then supported by nodes which are shared mobile hatcheries. This distributed system will provide oyster seeds more efficiently than the current state-owned seeding grounds. Harvests are then aggregated on the same facility and get transported on a shared boat to a processing center located at the hub.

Floating Oyster Beds

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Myrtle Grove Hub - Resilient Community Center

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A Day Between Land and Water

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Annual cycle of a co-op member Centralizing economic activities at the hub provide year-round jobs for coop members, increasing economic resilience regardless of seasons.

24 | Agri [Cultural] Konbit

2. AGRI [CULTURAL]KONBIT Stewardship of Land to Build Social Resilience and Combat Climate Change | Kingston, NY Urban Design Studio II Collaborators: Ahmed Al Yazeen, Jil Shah, Mariana Majima Faculty: Prof. Kaja Kuehl, Anna Dietzsch, Shachi Pandey, Lee Altman, Thaddeus Pawlowski Historically the land in Hudson Valley was predominantly cared for by the Wappinger Munsee Lenape tribe of native Americans who practiced different forms of sustainable agriculture. However as land was taken from them, the practice of intercropping was lost.

Our project seeks to revive the lost cultural farming practices and promote communal stewardship of land. Within the framework of the Green New Deal, a KONBIT or cooperative labor model of regenerative farming will incorporate educational, celebratory and community components that will bring be tools to bring back low-carbon farming and increase community resilience in the region starting from Kingston.

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Farming Apartheid The Hudson Valley Region has endured a decline in small family farms and BIPOC farmers. The lack of federal support for all but monoculture farming continues to prohibit new farmers who want to start small and serve their communities.

This system of inequity, especially on the grounds of race puts valuable agro-ecological knowledge at a risk of being lost.

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KONBIT system

The KONBIT system is a framework for communal regenerative farming in Kingston and is based on the five historic cultural farming practices found in the Hudson Valley. The system has three components that additionally facilitate urban programs and increase access to fresh food in the City; The Seed Hub along Esopus creek, Active Linear Farming Corridor in Midtown, Kingston and Community-based programs.

1. Seed Hub

The first component of the system is the Seed Hub where the journey of learning begins on a communal farm. This Seed Hub acts as an anchor which connects the regional farm network to the active farming corridor in the city. Its location at Esopus Creek acts as a threshold between the farmlands outside Kingston and the city fabric.

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2. Active Farming Corridor The second component of the system is a linear farming corridor located in the Midtown neighborhood of the city. This active farming corridor offers several shared resources for the community and celebrates people who grow our food.

Through the Kingston Land Trust, the corridor occupies the abandoned railroad and aims to create a public space that educates residents about regenerative farming practices.

Once the produce is harvested, it is sorted and excess food is sold at the Food Co-Op, Culinary School and Artisanal Foods center for which green premiums can be received. The purpose of this linear farming corridor is to showcase these regenerative practices and bring awareness within the community.

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3. Community-Based Programs in the City The third component of the system is the Food Co-Op, an open Gallery, Artisanal Foods Center, Culinary School and a Community Kitchen. The food co-op located between the farming corridor, Broadway and residential area, aggregates and distributes produce from the AGRI[CULTURAL] KONBIT system.

The co-op provides fresh produce in Kingston year round and creates a quality collective place where co-op workers, farmers and residents can occupy the same area, embracing the idea of a community. The community kitchen and culinary school, located on Broadway-the main commercial corridor, provides meals as well as teaches residents about local traditional recipes and seasonal food. It embraces the concept of connecting people who make food to the ones eating it with an open kitchen.

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Pollinating the System to Hudson Valley Once this system of communal farming is established in the city of Kingston, the shared ownership and stewardship model can replicate at the regional scale starting with farmlands along the Esopus creek.

This would involve the Kingston Land Trust acquiring farmlands through a land matching portal and leasing it to farmers for practicing regenerative farming.

These farmers in turn would benefit from shared profit and green incentives for their ecological services that restore the ecosystem.

38 | Stack them up!

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Site Construction

Map of Inwood’s economic, housing and social resources

THEM UP! 3. STACK Saving Inwood’s Small Businesses | Inwood, NY Urban Design Studio I Collaborators: Yunpeng Wu, Wanjing Zhang, Chinedu Adiele Faculty: Prof. Nans Voron, Tami Banh, Ifeoma Ebo, Sagi Golan, Austin Sakong, Noah Chasin Since the approval of Inwood’s rezoning in 2018, there have been major protests from the community since it will introduce new market-rate development and displace residents. Retail spaces along the commercial U will be most affected due to a major typological shift from an area mostly populated with 1-story retail, to a street allowing mid-rise commercial buildings. This will not only increase rent, but will also change the urban form, where its cultural and economic DNA is rooted in.

Stack them up is a counter-displacement strategy that incorporates both design of a modular system and a policy design which gives developers extra air rights in exchange for support for creating community space

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Business and Open Space Typology

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Before Rezoning

After Rezoning

C4-4 Zoning

Impact of Rezoning Due to a major typological shift caused by the rezoning, small businesses which rely on a specific building typology will be most affected. The rezoning will allow construction of mid to high rise commercial buildings which will displace the current 1-2 story buildings

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Affordable Retail Support System

Retail Dimensions

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Modular System

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Community-Decided Space As retail spaces start to occupy the voids created through our system, configurations and public programs could be collectively decided with the design team. This scenario is depicting one of the possibilities of how these community spaces blends with the shifting urban fabric.

Outdoor Dining

Art and Culture Space

Street Vending

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Connecting the Network As time passes, the small clusters begin to form a network that co-exist with the new comers. The nodes will be connected through a festival route, a path emerged from the existing commercial corridor.

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50 | Housing = wealth

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4. HOUSING = WEALTH Urban Design Studio II - Educational Poster Collaborators: Zuzanna Jarzynska, Xiaofei Sun, Chen Liu Faculty: Prof. Kaja Kuehl, Anna Dietzsch, Shachi Pandey, Lee Altman, Thaddeus Pawlowski

The majority of houses built with government subsidies for homecoming WWII veterans were modest, single-family homes in suburban environments. By the 1960s, already 50% of Americans lived in a car-oriented suburb. Today, 69% of Americans live in detached houses.

Instead of investing in public housing, federal programs turned to subsidizing private real estate and thus incentivized home ownership as a way to generate wealth. This process continues to broaden inequalities which were once established by redlining practices in planning and banking. Now, white Americans have at their disposal the wealth accumulated for generations, while families of color continue to be marginalized by neighborhood associations and mortgage lenders.

Local zoning plans support segregation of single-family houses on lots of prescribed minimum size. Despite the shrinking household sizes, developers build ever larger estates. Future owners expect idyllic, simple life, whilst the hidden financial and, more importantly, environmental costs of that decision are rarely discussed.

Increasingly, the primary role of the housing market for single family homes is not to “house” people, but generate wealth for a few.

Ecosystem Pressure Due To Housing For the Harvest activities, US Northeast and Midwest regions have lost 96% of Primeval forest. In 18 century, New York state only have 5000-150000acre. Cedar forest has almost extinct. From 2002 to 2019, United States lost 1.35kha of humid primary forest and lost 40.3Mha of tree cover. And in the same time,there was a total of 60.5Mha humid primary forest lost globally. 15% gaolable lumber consumption used in US housing market. the peak harvest for all timber products occurred in 1991, it totaling 18.7 billion ft3.

Single Family House Development

Single family house cause larger private lawn yard area.Grass is the single largest irrigated agricultural “crop” in America, more than corn, wheat, and fruit orchards combined. A NASA-led study in 2005 found that there were 63,000 square miles of turf grass in the United States, covering an area larger than Georgia.

Keeping all that grass alive can consume about 50-75 percent of a residence’s water.

Lawns are the No. 1 irrigated ‘crop’ in America. They need to die.

By Eric Holthaus on May 2, 2019

NEED WOOD LAND

CO2

Alaska

Change Water runoff Waste Pollution

Deforestation

From 2001 to 2019, Alaska lost 5.47Mha of tree cover

Lawn Yard

Energy Loss

Ecosystem Pressure

Natural resources Reduce

1620 Forest Area 2019 Forest Area 2019 Lawn Area Timber Harvest Area TOP Harvest state in 2001-2019

CALIFORNIA From 2001 to 2019, California lost 1.87Mha of tree cover

TEXAS From 2001 to 2019, Texas lost 1.84Mha of tree cover

8% US Other

15% US Housing Markets 20% Nonstructural Panel

77% Rest of World

US Lumber Consumption as a % of world Total

From 2001 to 2019, From 2001 to 2019, Alabama lost 2.93Mha Georgia lost 3.19Mha of tree cover of tree cover

ALABAMA

GEORGIA

32% Total Single Family

48% Sturctural Panel Consumpeion

Wood Consumption for Single Family House

Single Family Starts

sq ft per single-family unit

Panels(SF per sq ft)

MSF per single-family unit

52 | NYC Elder's Sanctuary

5. NYC ELDER’S SANCTUARY Geographic Information System Collaborators: Aruna Ananta Das, Cheng Ju Lee Faculty: Prof. Leah Meisterlin New York is a city with an aging population and with the pandemic, the elderly face even more problems in their daily lives. Senior centers are closing making it difficult for the elderly to get access to their basic needs and to travel from place to place. In Manhattan, we aim to define the most livable blocks for the elderly, where even during the current global COVID pandemic, they can maintain a high standard of living.

Our area of study is centered around the Morningside height and the Upper West Side from 59th street to 125th street roughly west of Central Park and Morningside Park. Our aim is two-fold: first, to define the favorable area in block level, to determine if it is currently matching the locations of the current elderly population.

Research Questions 1. Where are the most favorable blocks for New York’s elderly, who live alone in Manhattan, as they pertain to factors like public space, public transportation, super markets and hospital?

2. In comparison to our research, what is the present density of elderly located in specific areas in new york city. Do they match the favourable areas or not?

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Methodology- Concept We will identify the favorable blocks for elderly by using network operation and identify distance ranges from the “essential” facilities including hospital, food retail, subway entrance and park.

Using a scoring system, we will then use map algebra to calculate the favorability of different areas. We find the ratio of buildings with elevators in a block, reclassify it to the same scoring system and overlay it with the shapefile from the previous operation. We will then compare the result with the existing density of population over 65 years old per census tract and analyse the result.

Step-by-step

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Scoring System

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Access to Building Elevators

Access to Hospitals / Clinics

Access to Parks

Access to Food / Retail

Access to Senior Centers

Access to Subway Stations

We would know the answer using the scoring system and by doing map algebra, we will be able to identify the favorable area and blocks according to our definition. By comparing it to the existing old population density, we would know how effective the support infrastructure is distributed.

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Final Result

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Comparison with Seniors Density

FAVORABLE AREAS FOR ELDERLY IN NEW YORK ARE THOSE AREAS WITH HIGHER LAND VALUE The favorable areas for seniors are located around the tip of central park and around the park. The concentration of elderly based on census data seems to matches with the favorable area we obtained based on multiple criterias like super markets, hospitals, parks and open spaces. We have also learnt that the number of buildings with elevators around areas with higher density of seniors are more.