Pamphlet Architecture 30: Coupling, Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism by PA Press

COUPLING Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism

PAMPHLET ARCHITECTURE 30 INFRANET LAB / LATERAL OFFICE

Neeraj Bhatia / Maya Przybylski / Lola Sheppard / Mason White

Princeton Architectural Press, New York

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Published by Princeton Architectural Press 37 East Seventh Street New York, New York 10003

Airport

Roads

For a free catalog of books, call 1.800.722.6657. Visit our website at www.papress.com.

Highways Railway

High Speed Rail Trucking Ports

Shipping

This project is supported in partBridges by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Tunnels

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written ipelines permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews.PPipelines Energyowners of copyright. Errors Every reasonable attempt has been made toWind identify or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Editor: Becca Casbon Geothermal Energy Designer: Fei-Ling Tseng / InfraNet Lab Drinking Water

Special thanks to: Bree Anne Apperley, Sara Bader, Nicola Bednarek Brower, Janet Behning, Megan Carey, Carina Cha,Tidal TomEnergy Cho, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell Fernandez, Pete Fitzpatrick, Jan Haux, Linda Lee, John Myers, Katharine Myers, Margaret Rogalski, Dan Simon, Andrew Stepanian, Jennifer Thompson, Paul Wagner, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural Press —Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

Internet

Submarine Cables

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pamphlet architecture 30 : coupling : strategies for infrastructural opportunism / InfraNet Lab/Lateral Office, Neeraj Bhatia ... [et al.]. -- 1st ed. Landfills p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Greenhouses ISBN 978-1-56898-985-3 (alk. paper) 1. Architecture--Environmental aspects. 2. Infrastructure (Economics)--Planning. Aquaculture 3. Engineering design. I. Bhatia, Neeraj. II. InfraNet Lab (Firm) III. Lateral Office (Firm) IV. Title: Pamphlet architecture thirty.V. Title: Coupling : strategies for infrastructuralAgriculture opportunism. NA2542.35.P36 2010 Buoys 724’.7--dc22 2010043984

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PAMPHLET ARCHITECTURE 30

Urbanism After Form

Formatting Contingency

Charles Waldheim

InfraNet Lab / Lateral Office

Fresh Field 10

Keller Easterling

WATER ECOLOGIES / ECONOMIES 14

LAND RESERVATIONS 24

RE-RIGGING 32 The Architectural Reconstruction of Geography 42 David Gissen

NEXT NORTH 46

WIRING RUNWAYS 56

ICELINK 66 Afterword: Figuring It Out 76 Christopher Hight

2009

Acknowledgments 79

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Water Ecologiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2030;/â&#x20AC;&#x2030; economies An increasingly saline terminal lake in California is resuscitated as a water farm, recreational retreat, and habitat haven.

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WATER ECOLOGIES / ECONOMIES: FARMING A TERMINAL LAKE Salton Sea, California, United States 33°15’ N, 115°42’ W Perhaps the most striking aspect of the water infrastructure sustaining the American Southwest is the accelerated rate at which landscapes and ecologies are created, erased, and redefined. An extreme example is the Salton Sea in California, formed in 1905 during a season of heavy rain that caused the Colorado River to breach its canal, flooding the Imperial Valley and refilling an ancient inland seabed. The Salton is endorheic, or terminal, and has high evaporation rates. Officially designated as an agricultural sump for the massive farming operations of the Imperial Valley, its highly salinated water levels are perpetuated by agricultural runoff.

fish, kelp, water, and (in a return to its namesake) salt. The proposal offers three zones of coastal development: an ecology zone, an industry zone, and a recreational zone. Floating pools, or waterpads, of various sizes and salinities serve as salinityregulation devices as well as harvest plots, habitats, and recreational destinations. The pool types vary in dimension, complexity, depth (to control evaporation rates), and width (to suggest different uses). Pools aggregate to establish intensified habitats or harvests. Acting as micro-ecologies, they can be partially moored in place or migrate within a territorial range of the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea’s extreme salinity and threatened ecosystems offer an opportunity for economic, social, and ecological innovations. This proposal establishes the sea as a unique site for water harvesting. No longer serving as a hydrological sump or supporting a mono-agricultural landscape, the Salton would offer new forms of leisure, protected habitats, and industries—harvesting

Regulating the water’s salinity levels, saltwater pools separate salt from freshwater through passive solar desalination, where freshwater condenses on a transparent fabric and collects in the hollow structural ring of each pool. Briny by-products foster high-salinity habitats. Meanwhile, salt is harvested, shifting a current ecological liability into an economic and environmental asset.

Salton Sea water

New shoreline interface

Infrastructural ponds

New waterfront program

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2010

Productive Ecologies Reactivating the Salton Sea from an aqueous sump to economically productive territory

2010

Sea as water dump

2025

Sea as waterfront

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LOS ANGELES

Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA)

PALO VERDE

COACHELLA VALLEY

SAN DIEGO

Central Arizona Project (CAP)

PHOENIX IMPERIAL VALLEY

Data from www.citymayors.com

YUMA

All-American Canal (AAC)

Waterstructures of the Southwest The fastest-growing cities in the United States are in the areas of greatest water shortage. The constant drive for urban growth in the face of water scarcity has necessitated ever-more-elaborate infrastructure to transport water from wet regions to dry ones. The Colorado River is the site of man-made water networks that artificially sustain cities and agriculture in the desert conditions of the Southwest. Almost every mile of the Colorado River has been modified and diverted by a system of dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, and pumping stations.

TUSCON

NEVADA TOTAL: 248,613 a.f.

CALIFORNIA TOTAL: 4,358,000 a.f.

The Colorado River

USA MEX ICO

LOWER DIVISION STATES TOTAL: 9,118,092 acre-feet (a.f.)

ARIZONA TOTAL: 2,831,711 a.f. Other: 1,171,903 a.f. CAP: 1,659,808 a.f.

Metropolitan Water District (CRA): 967,495 a.f. Palo Verde Irrigation District: 1,180,000 a.f. Imperial Irrigation District (AAC): 2,679,356 a.f. Coachella Valley Water District (via AAC): 322,730 a.f.

MEXICO TOTAL: 1,564,000 a.f.

Allocating the Colorado Riverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Flow Data from the 2009 Colorado River Accounting and Water Use Report

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1 2 3 4 5 6 1b

2b 3b 4b

fresh water is harvested from water harvesting pools sedimentation tanks water filtration water processed in settling tanks fresh water stored in tanks or underground water pools water exported to cities or agriculture hyper salinated water is harvested from salt pools and allowed to evaporated in salt flats brine pools salt is stored or sent on trucks for export

Interactive Waterfront A new landscape emerges on the shore, completing water- and salt-harvesting cycles. New wetlands treat incoming agricultural runoff before it enters the sea.

1 2 3 2b 3b

salinated agricultural water is intercepted and collected water flows into naturally remediating wetland marshes remediated water is sent back into agricultural loop salinated water naturally evaporated to create brine marshes salt + brine water sent to habitat and recreation pools

3b 3

agricultural runoff flowing towards Salton

processing tank/ coagulant

sedimentation ponds

aeration/ filtration basins

settling tanks

water tower

underground water storage

greenhouses

agri. wetland

salt flats

brine pools

drying beds salt, sludge

salt storage

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Aquaculture / Kelp: Cluster 1. Salt harvester and algae nursery feed brine shrimp 2. Brine shrimp feed fish culture 3. Fish culture waste is cleaned by kelp nursery 4. Kelp is brought onto pool platforms to dry in sun 5. Fish and kelp are brought to shore for harvest 5

4 3

5 4

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Aquaculture / Kelp: Operation A. Fish farm B. Kelp farm C. Kelp drying platform

Habitat: Cluster 1. Salton Sea is a major bird migratory area 2. Habitat mass is created by clustering of pools 3. Brine shrimp and algae pools provide food for birds

1 4 3

Habitat: Occupation A. Mesh of suspended growth media B. Wetland vegetation

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Recreation: Cluster 1. Boats pull up to recreation pool 2. Freshwater pools deliver recreation pool 3. Saltwater feeds therapeutic pools

1 3

Recreation: Occupation A. Diving platforms B. Tanning decks C. Marina D. Freshwater pool E. Hypersaline pool

Salt / Water: Cluster 1. Water pool takes in saline sea water 2. Desalinated water delivered to shore for treatment 3. Brine pools deliver saltwater for salt harvesting

1 3

Salt / Water: Operation A. Saltwater intake B. Freshwater harvesting C. Evaporation/condensation dome

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Pool Typology Pools vary in width and depth to address a range of uses and environments.

Section of Desalination Pool The desalination pool takes in water roughly filtered by a mesh (1), which then gets heated up and evaporates (2). The evaporated water gets collected (3) into a storage cell (4) where it is available for various uses (5). Watercone, designed by Stephan Augustin.

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Pools for Hybrid Ecologies View of ecology delta, with remediating wetlands treating the agricultural runoff of the Imperial Valley before entering the Salton Sea

Pools for Salt Farming View of industry waterfront with large water harvester brought to shore

Pools for Recreation View of new recreation waterfront with pools and expanded shoreline in Salton City

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LAND RESERVATIONS A call to extend the agency of landfills to organize open space networks

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land reservations: landfill as connector Wayne County, Michigan, United States. 42°05’ N, 83°25’ W In Southeast Michigan, open spaces are defined as being composed of four primary types: wetlands, cultural parks, grasslands, and active agricultural land. While wetlands and cultural parks have a safeguarded status, grasslands and active agricultural fields are in a more vulnerable position, as the region’s current development plan doesn’t grant them any protection. With these land types’ removal, the open space network experiences a significant reduction in its continuity. At the moment of their conception, landfills are located at a point of equilibrium, where their distance from developed regions minimizes operational impacts while maintaining an economic proximity to sources of waste. When we examine the outward growth of urban centers such

as Detroit into the surrounding Wayne County, this rationale fails to hold. Ironically, four of the six active landfills within the county are now surrounded by development that emerged after the landfills were opened. Thus, the existence of a landfill does not preclude development around it. Active agriculture once reserved open spaces, so why not now deploy another industrious, open space–preserving land use in order to regain some of the lost connectivity? Why not use the landfill as part of a land reservation system? Landfills inherently preserve open space since they cannot be built upon. Land Reservations explores the unutilized potential of landfill sites to structure, organize, and connect the open space network.

Absorbing Landfills in Sprawl Detroit’s growth, paired with landfill locations and opening dates: onceexurban sites become engulfed by development. 1920

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Landfill as Connector The top two images show the existing open-space network of southern Wayne County (in black) and the potential fragmentation of this network should unprotected land uses be lost to development. In the image below, landfill sites are strategically deployed to reverse this process, stitching islands of open space into a continuous fabric.

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120 m

270 m

120 m

270 m

15º

270 m

30º

15º slope cell limit 325,901 m³ per cell 2,884 truckloads 19 days of filling capacity

120 m

45º

30º slope cell limit 701,975 m³ per cell 6,212 truckloads 41 days of filling capacity

45º slope cell limit 1,214,800 m³ per cell 10,750 truckloads 70 days of filling capacity

Cell Morphology The basic building block of a landfill is a cell—the active dumping site within the landfill bounds. The filling sequence is planned to optimize the capacity of the site as a whole, and is limited primarily by waste materials’ angle of repose. When considerations are expanded to anticipate post-landfilling programs, a much wider variety of geometries becomes plausible.

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