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G R A D U AT I O N PORTFOLIO P OYuqi RT FTian OLIO YU QI TI AN

TABLE OF CONTENTS Fall 2020

An Untitled Water Project

Page 3

Spring 2021

No Trash, All Treasure

Page 5

Summer 2021

Retreat Wildlife Sanctuary

Page 7

AN UNTITLED WATER PROJECT New York, USA Fall 2020 Urban Design | Design Group: Yuqi Tian, Chrysothemi Kouloumentas, YuhuiSi* Instructor: Nans Voron, Austin Sakong, Sagi Golan, Tami Banh * All drawings by Yuqi Tian

BACKGROUND RESEARCH As reported by DEP, about 11 billion gallons of raw sewage mixed with polluted runoff overflows into the waterbody annually by Combined Sewer Overflows. The entire State of New York holds over 1,100 CSO outfalls following Hudson river and other waterbody, with a great majority of it found in NYC in a high density volume. In New York City, the CSO outfalls, though found in all boroughs, are mostly located around lower Manhattan. Today, about 60% of New York City has a combined sewer system. The Harlem River, as the research object and design target, has the top 5 CSO outfalls that account for 66% of the total volume along the river.

DESIGN CONCEPT According to the research, the water quality of Harlem River is affected by a variety of factors, such as the CSO outfalls, the MTA train yard, the highway, the car washing, and waste upon the streets. Additionally, areas on either side of the river are prone to flooding, be it from high tide or from extreme weather events such as hurricanes, or the eventual sea level rise. Also taking residents and communities nearby into consideration, the project follows the direction of the water of each condition, and designed three systems that work together to improve the water quality of the river, enhance flood safety of the area, and provide dynamic public space to the residents.

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DESIGN STRATEGY 1. Streetscapes The project redesigned the streetscapes to function as an ecosystem, collecting and filtering water, from stormwater runoffs and other sources. The interventions are translated into a number of street typologies with regards to each category’s requirements.

2. Waterfront Waterfront is crucial to form a barrier against occurring flooding events, including high tide and sea level rise, as well as to gather water volume and allow for natural water filtration.

With the combination of hardscape and softscape, this area functions as 1) biofiltration unit of wastewater, 2) public space for activities, and 3) barrier against flooding events.

3. River The last piece of intervention sits on the river and consists of a water filtration system, equipped to deal with stormwater runoffs and CSO outfalls that do not get treated by the wastewater treatment plants. This unit provides equipments and chemical to treat the water, and also holds a unit for storing the treated water before it gets released or reused. The top layer of the unit, which sits above the water, is connected to the waterfront and is designed as an access point for people as an open platform on the edge of the water.

1 STREETSCAPES

2 WATERFRONT

3 RIVER

By anaylzing the site area, the project designs for the character of each street while upgrading the transportation and collecting rainwater. By adding special programs to each street, the project encourage community engagement, including framer’s market, bioswale showcases and billboards, or car washing businesses.

Taking flooding safety and water filtration into consideration, the project secures land from the city and Con Edison, and designs following the topography on either side of the river. The spaces are a mixture of hardscapes, and softscapes: the softer surfaces absorb and filter the water, and harder surfaces hold public uses.

The heart of the vision is a water filtration unit on the river. Water gets filted underneath, and people use the unit for water activities or just as an open point on the river. The intention is to reconnect people with a clean river, and perhaps most importantly, to bring awareness and educate people on the issues of water.

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NO TRASH, ALL TREASURE

BIG IDEA More than ever, Zero Waste needs to be achieved if we want to reduce the overwhelming volume of greenhouse gas emissions produced by solid waste. As a way to promote waste reduction, we envision a system that is based on everyone’s contribution to increase the awareness of material resources and reduce municipal solid waste carbon emissions. Our project introduces a new type of waste collection infrastructure and broadens the existing recycling programs. With a focus on reuse, repair, and resource recovery education, our design is not only applicable in Kingston but also replicable throughout the region by implementing community-engaged collection nodes and a municipal central hub.

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Kingston, NY, USA Spring 2021 Urban Design | Design Group: Lonas Chiu, Wenjuan Li, Xindi Wang, Yuqi Tian Instructor: Kaja Kühl, Lee Altman, Anna Dietzsch, Shachi Pandey, Thaddeus Pawlowski

KINGSTON, NY

WHEN TRASH IS WASTE Economic growth in the US is based on a never-ending cycle of production and consumption, pushing people to buy new items instead of repairing the ones they already own. Consumption culture led to a phenomenon where people rather buy new things than repair what they already had. The logistics, mass manufacturing, group psychology, loss of repairing skills, the price to repair, and the inconvenience to repair push people to buy more and more new stuff.

In Ulster County, the Zero Waste 2020 Action Plan shows a great ambition to reduce MSW waste to 90% by 2030. The plan envisions a future of ‘NO WASTE’, where all the wastes have their ‘second life’.

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WHEN WASTE IS COLLECTED: NODES Community Collection Nodes aim to decentralize the waste management system, improve trash classification, and promote community engagement for waste recycling. With easy access and symbolic value, four types of nodes are designed to accommodate different neighborhoods. Collection Nodes will be placed inside neighborhoods so that each node covers roughly four blocks (fivemin walk) for daily trash drop-off and also weekly/monthly collection events.

WHEN WASTE IS TREASURE: HUB The central Collection Hub provides full services for repairing used/broken items, with a repair studio, dropoff services, art fabrication workshops, secondhand store, open plazas for weekly/monthly events, and public space for Kingston residents. The site was chosen for its central location in the city, as well as for current land use and a great number of vacant lots.

WEEKDAY

WEEKEND

Second-hand Store

Recycle Items Dropoff Center

Flea Market

Reycling Node Education Pavilion Shared Bike Lane

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RETREAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY Bird’s Foot Delta, LA, USA Summer 2021 Urban Design | Design Group: Xiaofei Sun, Yuqi Tian, Kai Zhang, Wanjing Zhang Instructor: Katherine Orff, Dillip da Cunha, Geeta Mehta, Justine Holzman,

Adriana Chavez, Tori Vuono PROJECT CONCEPT Over the past decades, the Mississippi Bird’s Foot Delta had been experiencing an imbalance composed by the contradictory and futile efforts of human activities. Deep sea projects and navigation exploits that pollute and plunder the remaining wetlands, sediment diversion efforts as a momentary remedy to keep the navigation channels, Infrastructure that went burdensome and under-maintained.

Hundreds of millions of dollars was dumped into the sea each year to maintain the current absurd cycle, but it seems inevitable that the delta will be devoured by the sea level rise.

In order to reclaim the balance of economy and ecology in the Bird’s Foot Delta, our retreat plan is choreographed with four operations, from changing the navigation course and recouping sedimentation, to building new habitats and introducing a new cycle of balance.

OPERATION 1: CHANGING THE COURSE The operation starts with changing the current navigation course to a new one.

Because of sea level rise and the gradual sinking of the bird foot, this area will eventually disappear. Given this fact, Southwest Path is abandoned, a shorter new route will be dredged from the Head of Pass to the nearest 60ft depth. The new route has a much cheaper maintenance fee, and will be a temporary one. In the future as the sea level rises, the estuary point will be pushed towards inland, and the Head of Pass will eventually be the point where Mississippi River enters the Gulf of Mexico.

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OPERATION 2: CUT AND RESERVE The operation two restores the balance of loss and gain of marshland in the whole area, starting with the Southwest Pass.

As a new navigation channel got set up, the next step is to degrade the Southwest Pass. Two types of cut operations are applied: one connects the inner river and navigation channel, the other breaks down the current jetty. With both the cut operations and natural forces, this operation slows down the river, recoups sedimentation, prolongs the decaying process of the bird’s foot. Therefore, the man-made channel will gradually return to natural marshland as a temporary habitat for birds. In the far future, as the new habitat gets prepared, when the bird’s foot disappears, birds will migrate to their nearby new homes. current

cut operation

10 yrs

50 yrs

100 yrs

future

OPERATION 3: MUD ENGINE The operation 3 aims to restore the wetlands on the north side of the Birds Foot, by using the strategy of mud engine.

Because of the dredging activities in operation 1 and freshwater recharge from operation 2, the Birds Foot as a whole becomes a giant mud engine, providing mud to its nearby areas. Given this situation, operation 3 directs the location of sedimentation, and eventually recesses to the upper bay where new habitats can be preserved with the protection of barrier islands. To direct the location of sedimentation, meshes will be installed that take advantage of flora growth to catch the sediments and set up the foundation for other species, with respect to the salinity difference.

OPERATION 4: WILDLIFE SANCTUARY As the land building proceeds, the project envisions a wildlife reserve taking place at the bay side of the Bird’s Foot Delta.

For each of the localities within the bayside and the composite of materials and conditions, different sites prioritize with different species. The project consider human existence in parallel, rather than taking priorities, with the different species in the wildlife reserve. Programs include Aquatic Habitat Reserve, bird habitat reserve, and pelagic biodiversity observatories to monitor, research, and facilitate the respawning wildlife territories as well as generating income for the ongoing interventions.

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