Rachel Kallicharan

EDGELESS A TYPOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO WATER MANAGEMENT IN GEORGETOWN, GUYANA RACHEL KALLICHARAN

E dgel ess A Typological Response to Water Management in Georgetown, Guyana

A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in par tial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture in the Depar tment of Ar t, Architecture, Ar t and Planning of the School of Architecture and Interior Design by

by Rachel Kallicharan Bachelor of Ar ts in Architectural Studies Boston University, 2015 Committee Chair: Michael McIntur f, M.Arch Committee Member: Thomas Bible, M.C.E

I

nfrastructure is the skeleton which gives a city shape, function and order. It includes structures, networks, services and facilities that support the growth of a city.

Georgetown, Guyana is a coastal city that operates with the same infrastructure today that was established by the Dutch upon colonization in the early 17th century. With a coastal elevation below sea level, the city is at risk of suffering severe impacts of climate change.

This proposal re-choreographs the urban fabric of Georgetown through a series of inhabitable infrastructures. This network of interventions operates to promote a denser, ever-evolving and sociable Georgetown. Edgeless redefines the way that the city manages water. The resulting proposal consists of a densified neighborhood lining the revitalized canal systems with peripheries designed to embrace and absorb water as opposed to the existing that attempts to reject water. Punctuating the neighborhoods are vertical bathhouses that doubly treat the water before they are flushed into canals. As evident in urban centers all around the world, the strategy of resisting the sea is a decreasingly substantial solution moving forward.

Consequently, the new city is a collage of negotiated moments rather than hard edges.

seawall

canals

hydrological infrastructure

pumps sluices

Georgetown’s topography lies 3 feet below sea level. The inhabitants of the city struggle to manage water due to inadequate infrastructure.

Georgetown should be visualized as a n

Can the landscape hold the wate

network of inhabitable infrastructure.

er instead of attempt to reject it?

explora

a city shaped

ation 01

d by canals

explora

a city shaped

ation 02

d by bridges

exploration 03

a city shaped by mangroves

Design Constraints In choreographing a revised urban fabric, it is mandatory to maintain and celebrate the dazzling, whimsical, uniquely ridiculous and colorful DNA of the city.

Edgeless is a cit

reimagining the flow of water fo

The new city mus

negotiated moments, r

ty wide strategy,

or a more resilient Georgetown.

st be a collage of

rather than hard edges.

Edgeless unfolds

uiterwaarden

a terrain that operates as a filter between land and water rather than a division

densified

utilizing the peripheries o soakable landscapes =

s in three scales

d housing

of canals for productive, = displacing residences

the tower

water shall be cleaned before flushed into the canal

Case Study Site: L

The neighborhood is sprinkled with a m middle income residences. Many of th running water nor plumbing. Consequ

La Penitence Canal

mix of informal settlements to lower to hese residents do not have access to uently, the canal is littered with waste.

A successful version of Georgetown is

+

+

create streetart

+

+

grow food

+

worship

+

hang clothes

+

bathe

+

party

+

+

gather

+

play

+

air dry laundry

s one where its residents are able to:

+

+

practice yoga

+

+

wash clothes

+

shop local

celebrate holidays

access clean water

+

walk to family

+

+

+

+

dry fish

+

cook outside

+

take care of goats

6_laundry

5_men’s bath + toilet

4_women’s bath + toilet

3_2_micro wastewater treatment plant

2_micro wastewater treatment plant

1_water tank

The vertical bathhouse becomes an opportunity for social gathering while also bringing attention to water management.

The tower ancho It is a beacon, symbolizing

ors the neighborhood, appearing all over the city. a new, accessible water system the city desperately needs.

The principal infrastructure of any city plan is the street.

A principal infrastructure of

the c

The waterfront evolves into a bustling, chaotic, co

Wastewater is treated in the tower then flushed into the canal.

rice paddies

f Georgetown’s city plan is

The canal begins to behave as a street does:

canal.

omplex, productive, culture-specific, civic space.

wetlands

On a map land + water are To respond to climate change, this line

Productive landscapes blur the ed

e drawn separated by a line. e is better represented as a gradient.

dge where the water meets land.

The new image of the city

It is reminiscent of the quirks and nuan But it is a more intelligent landsca

is different but the same.

nces that define the Guyanese people. ape. It is a responsive landscape.

Edgeless is a typological approach to

The proposal could be applied to the entire obsta

o water management in Georgetown.

e city as well as other cities facing similar acles.

“There are no solutions to clima engineered hard an

- Jerry v

ate change, only combinations of d soft protections.�

van Eyck