Eco Mutations of Infrastructures

ECO MUTATIONS of

INFRASTRUCTURES Towards an Integrated and Sustainable “Grayscape”

Pattranun Bunyanund

ECO MUTATIONS of

INFRASTRUCTURES Towards an Integrated and Sustainable “Grayscape”

Pattranun Bunyanund

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

1 UNDERSTANDING INFRASTRUCTURE + ITS DEVELOPMENT 13 Genealogy of Infrastructure A Turning Point of Infrastructure Infrastructural Infludence in Power

14 26 30

3 UNTO NOW AND FAR BEYOND

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Present Towards Virtual Infrastructure Info-Mobility Possible / Probable / Presumable

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5 HUNTS POINT vs THE WORLD

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Existing Condition of the World Existing Condition of Hunts Point

MUTATED ADDENDUM

92 112

2 ARISEN ISSUES AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

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Gray Infrastructure and Pollution Contextual Negligence Ecostructure: Green Infrastructure

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4 INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGH TIME: CASE STUDIES

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An Overview of the Past An Overview of the Now An Overview Towards the Future

74 78 82

6 DESIGN PROPOSAL 123 Regional: Hudson Valley Urban: Hunts Point, Bronx Local: Hunts Point Eco Transit Hub Local: Agricultural Research Center

124 126 136 148

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As oppose to the current state of gray system, this research attempts to introduce new possibilities to transform existing infrastructure into an ecologically integrated and sustainable network.

The design proposal will focus on reorganization by combining gray, green, and blue systems, as well as exploration of the multiple forms of program and layers of different modes of movement, in order to provide a more utilitarian space.

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INTRODUCTION

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The very existence of humans can be broken down into three fundamental elements: food, hygine, and money. These three aspects share one hidden factor, behind the curtains of necessity and comfort, the most essential piece of puzzle in our daily lives is actually one that has been taken for granted, and overlooked, by everyon. It is the master of disguise, the world’s humblest behemoth, infrastructure.

Nobody notices it, but infrastructure has crept into every breath of our lives. Transportation is the most obvious, since we all have to travel to work, to school, home, and generally travel from one place to another.

Infrastructure has also brought us clean water, electricity, heat, and even the availability of produce in our nearby markets. It is the foundation of the modernity we live in today.

The research acknowledges and appreciates the importance of infrastructure. However, the current system that we now have is one of the main contributor to the climate issue we currently face. Soil, air, water, all of which are polluted with the contribution from the gray infrastructural system. Even the atmosphere, the light and noise pollutions, are part of the byproducts. That is why this project is attempting to transform the existing condition and introduce something that is more ecological, more concise, cater better lifestyle to the neighborhood, as well as the hope to improve this world at a global scale.

This book is structured into six chapters. First is to introduce the overall understanding of infrastructure, as they were in the history, and the process of development that brings us to where we stand today. Second is to state the issues led by infrastructure, and the possible solutions that are available, and an introduction onto ecostuctrue. Third, breaking apart the modern concept of infrastructure as it is today, where things have moved and transformed into the virtual world. Next, to explore the existing works; projects that have been done; projects that are designed in the past and for the future. Fifth is the research and analysis of the condition of the site, which is located in Hunts Point, New York, at multiple scales.

Lastly, the design proposal itself.

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UNDERSTANDING INFRASTRUCTURE

Genealogy of Infrastructure in.fra.struc.ture (n.) /ˈinfrəˌstrək(t)SHər/ The basic physical and organizational structure and facilities (e.g. building, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

The word itself was first presented in Frech since 1875, introduced in English in 1887, and exponentially gained its popularity in 1940 when people became more aware of its existence. The origin of the word came from a Latin root, Infra (Latin)

Below, underneath, beneath

Structure/structura (Latin)

A fitting together adjustment, a building, made of building, arrangement order

The original definition of the word stated, “an installation that forms the basis for any operation or system.”

Infrastructure is separated into two main categories: soft and hard. As soft infrastructure defines as individual buildings and institutions that are required to maintain the fundamental makeup of the country, and mostly results to the non-physical entities, this book will refer majorly to the latter category.

Hard infrastructure, of course, contains a number of subdivisions within itself. It illustrates the physical parts of the system that are necessary for the modern world, which branches off to transportation, energy and power, water management, and waste management. These all fall into the two subcategories of hard infrastructure: critical infrastructure and urban infrastructure.

Moreover, let’s not forget the relatively recent category of green infrastructure, which is the crucial aspect of this research.

Critical infrastructure refers to any type of infrastructure that is dire for the functioning of the country, or simply a city. This may include certain intervals in the transportation, a power supply for certain country, or communication line in certain areas. On the other hand, urban infrastructure, or municipal infrastructure, refers to all of the transportation, public buildings, public services, public spaces, and all the physical elements that make up an urban fabric. Thus, critical infrastructure may include urban infrastructure, although not necessarily. These can be concluded as gray infrastructure.

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Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park (2007) - Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture 15

Green infrastructure, however, is a completely separated entity on its own.

Its first appearance was in 1980, and was introduced as a new mean to solve urban and climatic issues that have recently surfaced themselves by relying heavily on nature. The field may sometimes bare a similar title of blue-green infrastructure when it interacts with elements of water. Green infrastructure, like the other categories, contains its own subdivisions: urban forests, constructed wetlands, green roofs, and green walls. All of which customarily confront one or more of the following issues: stormwater management, climate adaptation, heat stress, lack of biodiversity, food production, air quality, and pollution in water and the surrounding grounds. It should also provide sustainable energy production and ecological framework for social, economic, and environmental health.

High Line Park (2010) - James Corner, Field Operations 16

Infrastructure may not have gotten its name until the modern era, but its journey goes far beyond that. It has gone through centuries, and even millennials of evolution, dating back to one of the earliest civilization known to men.

The Roman Empire, known for their building skills and innovative inventions, is the star of the history of infrastructure. The oldest structure in the empire traced back as far as 600 B.C., when the Roman King, Tarquinius Prisus, ordered a construction of Cloaca Maxima. It was originally intended by the Etruscans as an open-air canal, which served as a drainage to the city.

However, as time pass, things ought to develop into a different direction, and this was no exception. The canal was paved over and turned into a tunnel underground, where it served as a sewage system instead. Hence the name Cloaca Maxima, which translated to Greatest Sewer.

There is no moving on from the Empire without mentioning the Roman aqueducts, one of the most significant structural inventions. Aqueducts were one of the various variables that led to the prosperity of the Empire, as it was the first time the world was able to figure out how to transport water for a long distance. The construction usually contain brick, stone, or concrete, and was built in a slightly downward direction which allow gravity to do a hundred percent of the work. In the third century of the current era, there were eleven known aqueducts which were supplying to over a million individuals in the region. As Roman structures are also known for their durability, some aqueducts still stand and are currently used in the present day as a prove to that claim.

Despite the glorious of Cloaca Maxima and aqueducts and all the rest of Roman structures, the first infrastructure ever recorded were actually those that transported human, rather than water. Even in the olden days, men could not remain still. There were always reasons to move around, whether it was to seek food supplies, shelter, society, or to build a civilization. Therefore, transportation of different modes and means were the first to emerge.

The oldest canals discovered in the history were built since 4000 B.C., six thousand years from today’s date, in the area of Mesopotamia, where now became part of the Middle East. There are a number of manmade canal and irrigation systems dispersed around the world such as India, Egypt, and China throughout time. In the meantime, Ur, a Sumerian city-state, also part of Mesopotamia, housed the oldest paved road, which dated back to 4000 B.C. as well.

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One of the first and most important network of infrastructure since the ancient times is Silk Road. Although it is known to be located in China, as the land where silk comes from, the route actually dated back to the Achaemenid Empire (500-330 BCE). Serving as the Persian Royal Road, it spanned from Susa, Persia, to the Mediterranean Sea in modern day Turkey. Later on, after Alexander the Great conquered Persia, the route finally got extended further to China in 200 BCE, in the period of Han Dynasty of China.

Around the year of 138 BCE, during the reign of Emperor Wu, the dynasty was suffering from a harrassing act by the tribes of the Xiongnu. It was coincidentally around the same time which the country had been trading with different cultures. Fortunately, the western culture introduced China with their horses, that are superior than the regular horeses in both speed and sizes.

This brought the Emperor his victory over the Xiongnu tribes, and led him to considered further use of the route for trading. Hence, the official establisment of Silk Road in 130 BCE.

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Silk Road as we know it, with its starting point at the far east in China, stretched through India, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and Britain, with a split southward to Egypt and ran deeper into Africa. mongst the various products that were ever traded through the route, the most popular, especially with the Roman, was, without a doubt, Chinese silk. However, the merchandises that were of great impact culturally throughout the route were two of the top invention by China: paper and gunpowder. Multiple eastern spices were also carried throughout the route to the west.

There weren't only commercial goods that were traded along Silk Road. The essential role for the route was the exchange of culture. Within the years of its operation, up until 1453 CE that the road closed down due to the Ottoman Empire, countless of cultural values such as art, religion, technology, philosophy, and architecture were carried from end to end across the globe.

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This phenomena of Silk Road trade had led to countless cross-cultural establishment of cities, as well as many historical events. It is a critical eveident of the natural spread of infrastructure and how it drove the growth of civilization across the world. However, Silk Road was not the only route that was involved in city establishments, as they are generally the by-product of infrastructure.

There are different methods of city formation due to infrastructure, such as the expansion of existing cities, cities evolved from favelas gathered during construction of the route, and cities that started off as resting areas between two destinations. A great example for the latter method is none other than Japan, where, in historical times, the Emperor used to travel between two great cities, Kyoto and Tokyo. Due to the distance and the lack of advanced mode of transportation other than carriage, the company were forced to stop at resting points.Those of which developed into a formidable cities, such as Nagoya and Yokohama, which are now respectable cities in Central Japan.

The situtation went on to become the base idea for one of the four urban models talked about by David Graham Shane in his book "Urban Design Since 1945 - A Global Perspective" (2011). Other than Metropolis, Fragmented Metropolis, and Megacity/Metacity mentioned in the book, Megalopolis is what we are seeing here.

Megalopolis is model which cities are connected together by infrastructure, forming a region of connected cities. Other examples of such model could be seen in the East Coast of United States, with the connection of infrastructure than stretched from Washington, D.C. to Boston, or the Blue Banana in Europe where the Milan, Italy is connected all the way up to Manchester, United Kingdom and considered the corridor of urbanisation in Western Europe.

These cities are not only bound together by a string of road or a pair of train tracks. Even though each city is granted with their own strength and weaknesses, and some are more developed than the other, while some are located in more advantageous places, they are made up of the comparable ideals that allow each other to thrive together as a collective. The cities share the similar, if not the same, culture, religion, and basic demographics. They are also working in the same group of economic chain, pushing one another up and down.

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The idea of infrastructure became more popular in eighteenth century, when technology of transportation flourished, and people started to use elaborated cars and carriages to travel from one place to the next, no more horseback riding or walking on foot. Roads were built with sturdier materials in order to withstand heavier traffics, the number of intricate canal systems increased greatly around late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries as a result to the more advanced boat design and rising trading affairs.

One of the significant manmade waterways is no other than New York’s very own Eire Canal. Went under construction since 1817 and completed in 1825, Erie Canal stretches 363 miles across New York State from Albany, at the point where Mohawk River meets Hudson River, to Lake Erie in Buffalo. It was later extended Eastward to Lake Champlain, resulting the final length to reach 524 miles. The canal’s purpose was mainly for trades. By spanning the full length of the state, East to West, passing various waterbodies, Erie Canal allowed connections between Atlantic Ocean, at the beginning of Hudson River, and Lake Erie, and even Lake Ontario, which are connected to Canada.

The route is still in operation today, although it may never again beat the peak year of 1855, when 33,000 commercial shipments were transported.

On top of road and canal, railway was another type of infrastructure that emerged in the early 1800s, when locomotives were invented and became widely used throughout cities. The original railways were focusing their purposes in mines or to bypass waterfalls rather than the common use of distant transportation as we are familiar with. The first inter-regional rail was actually a line in United Kingdom, connecting Liverpool to Manchester, which started operation in 1826. In the same year, the Granite Railway in Massachusetts, United States, opened as the first commercial rail.

Later along the decades, as various modes of transportation thrived, new forms of infrastructure continued to emerge along with the development of technology. We have entered into the realm of communication, where people could contact their relatives miles away by sending electronic telegraph. And then, forty years later, thanks to Alexander Graham Bell, telephones were available and people can now hear their friends’ voices by simply lifting a handset.

The world got even brighter and future became closer when, in the late nineteenth century, electricity was invented, opening a whole other dimension and allowing a vast room for new possibilities. The possibility of which fortunately led to the invention of the internet, the largest network ever existed on Earth. All of these inventions, however, require extensive system of connections, which result to the pipe and cable that are part of what was then, the new forms of infrastructure.

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A Turning Point of Infrastructure Up until about half a century ago, the main mode of transportation anywhere was railroad. Despite the increased popularity of automobile in 1920's, the people's first choice for long distance transportation was almost solely train. It is neccessary to mention that "long" distance at that time was as far as traveling from Manhattan to Long Island, and traveling across United States was barely an option. It might be a little different with the European countries, where trains linked countries together instead of states, and the movement from one city to another was more feasible.

During the years of 1950's - 1960's, however, the period after World War II and the boom of mass production, new possibilities were introduced. It was the time when automobiles gained an immensed populartiy. It was also the time that a great number of infrastructure were popping all around United States. These two events actually go hand in hand, as the rate of automobile users rose, the more expressways were built in order to handle the increased number of cars, as to decrease conjestions.

This was the golden years of Robert Moses, who was named the "Master Builder" for the sheer amount of projects he had done throughout his career.

The majority of expressways found in New York City can be safely said that they were done by Moses, that is including Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Cross Bronx Expressway, as well as Sheridan Expressway, which runs from Hunts Point to West Farms.

This period was the sum of Fordism, a term coined in the late 20th century that named after Henry Ford, an industrialist who was the founder of Ford Motor Company.

Fordism

A modern economic and social systems based on industrialized, standardized mass production and mass consumption.

The rapid and abundance construction of infrastructure, as well as the fast growth in automobile business were the direct result of Fordism, which was the base of modern economic. There were new methods of building things, aided by mass production, which is by creating smaller components, whether they are concrete panels or metal parts, and then put them together to make one piece of product rather than singly make a whole piece.

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Moving on from land based movement. It was already quite hard and time consuming to travel from one place to another by locomotive. It was even harder and took more time to travel from one continent to another.

Nowadways, a flight from New York to Milan may only take eight hours on airplane. But before commercial planes were invented, the only option would have been ships. With the ship, heading from California to Japan could take up to months on end.

Although the idea of human flight had been attempted before multiple times since late 18th century, and even dreamed about way back in Greek mythology such as Daedalus and Icarus, it was not until 1903 that the Wright Brothers finally invented and built their first operational airplane. It was picked up immediately and many companies went on to further develop airplane in different ways.After many trials and errors, in 1919, the first international commercial flight flourished at last. The plane flew from United States to Canada. From that on, the entirety of infrastrcture-scape took a turn for the better. Rather than taking a month long ship across the sea, civilians could now take an airplane across the ocean and arrive at their destinations within hours.

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Of course it wouldn't be for a few more decades that commercial flights started to operate as we currently know them to, but even with a small step within an aircraft world, it sure was a great leap for humanity.

Commercial flight does not exclusively refer strictly to people or even goods. Commercial flight actually meant the exchange of culture that could be extended far beyond the extent of Silk Road. People could move around worldwide. Moreover, merchandise could be transport multiple times faster, allowing trading of fresh produce and livestock easier than ever. It also meant the flush of tourist that were granted the ability to take a short vacation off work at still able to go as far as their dreams.

With all of the aforementioned combined, the addition of airplane into a part of infrastructure that used to be stuck on the ground and afloat water, had impacted economics greatly, and in a positive way. Due to the accessibilities that had been opened up in the field of tourists, goods, and trades, the cities were given the chance to blossom further than their old limits.

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Infrastructural Influence in Power Always running in the background and often overlooked by mostly anyone, infrastructure has actually influenced a vast variety of aspects in urban areas, whether they are the movement of people, the movement of goods, social interactions, and especially economics. However, one of the very critical influence by infrastructure is on political powers.

Since the olden days, the growth of cities has always relied on infrastructure, and that usually includes expansion. Either nearby or across the water, a city is always looking to expand. One of the many variables that help in succeeding the goal is the advantage in infrastructural technology.

Throughout history, various modes of transportation have been developed, from horseback riding to carriage to locomotive to automobile. All of the aforementioned are movements on land. Humans have come a long way on hooves and wheels. Battles were faught. Wars lost and won. Cities were conquered. Empires rose and fell. With the help of infrastructure that linked cities together, Roman Empire was made possible.

The more developed the city's infrastrcture system is, the more successful it becomes.

That also includes disposal of waste and delivery of water to cluster of people. Up until very recently, and still in some countries, electricity is considered an indication of urbanization.

However, the city is not all about a confined area within the wall. A prosperous city are commonly built nearby water. That is due to the easy access to the main source of life and the fertile soil of the lush ecosystem provided by wetlands, as well as the prime convenience in trading, such that exists in New York City.

It is also for the benefits of protection in wartime. By having one or two sides less facing the unknown could give the city its leverage.

Thus, boat becomes the primary mode of transportation for most urbanized areas.

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It is a particularly important mode of transportation in the era of colonialism, dated 16th century to mid-20th century. It was the time when European powers established colonies all around the world. This phenomenon could only be done with the help of a ship, which allowed people to move through vast oceans that was an obstacle in the previous times.

Rather than just conquering neighboring cities, France could now take over East America, the majority of West Africa, and a few more countries in Asia.

That is all because the colonized countries were less developed and were not able to defend themselves from these threats.

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Advantages from infrastructure could always be found in wars. It is crucial in battles that people and supplies are moved as quickly as possible, and that there are adequate living conditions to at least provide a proper medical emergencies when needed. Different cases were made in different times, and one that can be seen from the dreadful event not too long ago took plance in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

In World War II, a terrible war that took lives of over 60 million people, Japan was fighting against Great Britain. Part of the fight was for the Japanese troops to march across Thailand, who refused to join the war and avoid it by letting the Japanese pass through, to Burma, which was a British colony at the time. Marching across a country was not an ideal way to travel, especially in times of war. Thus, a train track was ordered to be built to enhance speed of transportation. The Burma Railway, or Death Railway as it is known in Thailand, faced trouble when it hit the Khwae Yhai River which blocked the path forward. This was a controversial event due to the violence and cruelty from the Japanese soldiers against Thai labors in order to quicken the workflow.

This goes to show how infrastructure raised the power that is held in one's hand. By having a network of infrastructure that linked each countries together, armies are provided with a chance to disperse troops into different places, come together once needed, and corner the enemies from multiple directions.

A bridge in Thailand was not the only advantage provided by infrastructure in the second World War. 1940's was the time when the world was already introduced to airplanes and have developed they to an extent of confident and convenience. During the war, a few countries, including United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan, owned and used aircrafts as one of the primaries method of attacks.

The birds were engineered for war, and built to carry and dispose bombs.

They were even scheduled regularly, sometimes even hourly in certain countries. However, as one of the newest infrastrctural technology, aircrafts were greatly successful in doing their jobs as to transporting and delivering people and objects. Although countless of lives were lost from the many attacks carried by aircrafts, causing events such as Pearl Harbor, Kamikaze acts, and one of the most regrettable lost in the history, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, these are still proves that upper hand power could be bought with possession of the advanced infrastructural technology.

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ARISEN ISSUES AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Gray Infrastructure and Pollution

It may seem weird that certain type of infrastructure has a color assigned to them. Those colors are used to distinguish the various systems and their function. As green and blue infrastructure are named for its purposes of ecological and water management, gray infrastructure received its name from the large amount of steel and concrete that are used to construct the structures.

However, the three types of colors are as different as they are similar. While green and blue concerns with healing the environment, gray is actually part of the cause for the planet’s sickness.

Unfortunately, no matter how amazing it is to have such well-connected network of infrastructure as we do today, it is very important to be aware of the negative by-products that it has been emitting. It took centuries to finally realized the grave mistake that we have wronged our own mother Earth. Once the harm is done, it is always too late to fix anything. Humans have done more harm to the Earth in the past century than anything in the past thirteen billion years of its existence.

Infrastructure, especially transportation, is by far the most destructive of all.

There are two types of pollution that are emitted from automobiles: primary pollution, which goes directly into the atmosphere, and secondary pollution which is the result from chemical reactions between pollutants that linger in the atmosphere.

Everyone is probably taught in elementary school what pollution is and all of its different types. It is clear as day what causes it and what it does to the environment. What is unclear is how to get rid of it. New ecological technology seems to be invented every year, yet not much improvements can be seen.

This is because people are not heading straight to the core of the issue, but constantly wasting time on the repairing aspect. We can plant a million trees and give back to a million forests, the issue will continue to stand if nothing is done to the source.

It is common knowledge that automobiles’ exhaust emits carbon monoxide, though that is not the only pollutant produced by cars. There are other chemicals like hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide, along with different greenhouse gases.

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air pollution light pollution water pollution soil pollution

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A completely disastrous structure in China, the Jinggang’ao Expressway, or the G4, stretching over 1,412 miles, connects Beijing, Hong Kong, and Macau together. It is opened in 2004 as the first North-South expressway in China. In October 2015, at the end of the National Day Golden Week, which is a 7-day long holiday, the expressway suffered a shockingly dreadful traffic at the portion where 50 car-filled lanes, moving towards the same direction, were converted into 20 lanes. The structure does not only cause horrendous traffic, but the cars within that traffic are constantly emitting exhaust that accumulates in the atmosphere.

China is one of the countries with most polluted air. It is to the extent that the citizen must wear face mask daily to prevent consumption of toxin, and the city of Beijing barely has a chance to greet clear sky in the recent years.

This is the result of a combination of high population and their culture where automobile is a sign of wealth.

However, cars and trucks are not the only source of air pollution, as airplanes is a huge contributor to the cause as well. One movement of an airplane landing emits an equivalent of smog as a car driven for 5,000 miles, and produces nitrogen oxides as a car driven 26,500 miles.

The building of the infrastructure itself is no less to blame, as it destroys the environment in every step towards completion. The construction and destruction of a structure lead to the soiling of waterbodies and contamination of the land. Not to mention noise pollution from constant buzzing of massive machines. The closer knitted the network of infrastructure is, the greater populated the area tend to be. These areas are mostly cities, whether big or small, and often the node for all types of pollution.

New York City, although does not possess as much air pollution as one may expect, thanks to a great system of subway that allow less people to drive cars, the city is infatuated with noise and light pollution. The lights and screens in Times Square are always on all day long and all year round. They are brighter than the brilliance of sun during the day, and as bright as day during the night. The luster of light loom the dark sky miles from the origin, obstruct the city’s inhabitants any chance to peak at the vast, starry sky.

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As boring or controversial the topic may sound, global warming must be mentioned. There are many features that contribute to the development of such phenomenon, and one of the significant ones are greenhouse effect. It is the occurrence when greenhouse gases form a thin layer surrounding the Earth under the atmosphere, causing the heat from the sun to be trapped within, along with the heat produced within the atmosphere itself. Greenhouse gases are comprised of 82% carbon dioxide, and are the most direct result of air pollution caused by infrastructure, which made up 28% of the total share, second to electricity which is 32%.

There are countless evidences of global warming occurring around the world, and the easiest one to be detected is the change in sea level. Due to the increasing temperature throughout the atmosphere, the sea surface and deep ocean temperature have been reported to be warming up. This led to the thermal expansion of the water, in addition with the melting of glaciers, which came together and result in the rising of sea level.

There is a high risk in catastrophe that could be caused by the melting of the Arctic ice cap. Not to be confused with the Antarctic ice sheet, locating at the southernmost of the Earth, which tend to go through a cycle of melting and reforming annually. Arctic ice cap, however, does not generally reform to its original mass once melted. It depends gravely on the overall climate of the world to remain intact. Unfortunately, in 2016, the temperature in the area was at the record high at 20 degrees above average. The melting of ice and increasing water level does not only impact humans, but a large amount ecosystems will be interrupted, endangering thousands of species depending on them.

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In the past century, records have shown that approximately one foot has been added to the ocean. There is a prediction that in the next century, the ocean will rise up to 3 feet. This puts a minor portion of the land in jeopardy, including most of the valuable, history-rich cities such as London, Shanghai, Venice, and New York. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of United States have made a study of the rising of water level and created maps of the new shoreline of New York City that will become inevitable in the next 100 years, as well as the next 500 years, which show the water rising as high as 10 feet.

With the goal of tackling this imminent problem in mind, The Modern Museum of Art (MoMA) has partnered up with five architecture firms, ARO + DLANDstudio, SCAPE Studio, Matthew Baird Architects, nARCHITECTS, and LTL Architects, to develop the Rising Currents exhibition. Each firm were assigned a site in the New York Bay area, and the designs were displayed at the museum.

Sadly, rising sea level is not the sole concern regarding global warming.

There are also apparent changes in climates. The increasing in temperature is not only causing ice to melt, but also accelerate the evaporation of water. It is a physical rule that water from Earth cycles within Earth, thanks to the atmosphere that prevents it from escaping into space. However, evaporated water condenses into rain, and there have been a growing number in irregular storm surges in the past year. Global warming is the reason why 2016 was suffering from abnormally hot winter and extended summer months, as well as a heat wave that rose the temperature along the East Coast of United States up to over 70 degrees in February when it is usually the coldest month.

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Negligence of the Surroundings Since landscape urbanism is a new idea, it is not surprising to find that more than a few existing infrastructural projects aren’t complementing so well with the surrounding environment. As infrastructure usually falls under the care of the government, it is almost always guaranteed that a random power with little knowledge of any type of planning will want certain things and conveniently pass them. When working with infrastructure, it is easier than not to forget the site condition. The job is almost Godlike, planning and placing things wherever, draw a line on a map and call it a road, and if one is rich and powerful enough, those lines will be built. That is why certain horrific structures exist.

Although that is not always the case, there is no argument that several structures are completely awful. Take, for example, the Cross Bronx Expressway, one of Robert Moses’s legacy amongst the innumerable projects he built in his career. As the most competent of all, a person who implemented the most changes across New York City, he deserved the nickname “Master Builder,’ though that could not mask the many controversial projects he’d worked on. Opened in 1955 and still currently used, Cross Bronx Expressway is part of the I-95 and a portion of I-295. It was originally intended to connect with George Washington Bridge, which opened at around the same time, to allow flow from New Jersey all the way to Long Island. This would alleviate the traffics, as well as provide as a trading route. Unfortunately, for the project to succeed, many inhabitants in Bronx had to suffer, as the freeway cut straight across the borough, separating it into North and South. The high and middle class migrated North of the expressway, leaving the lower class in the South. Because of the structure, the community was broken in two, and South Bronx became an unpleasant district.

LaGuardia Airport (1953) 41

Continuing in New York City, LaGuardia Airport is another undesirable infrastructure. There aren’t too many issue with the structures themselves, except that they are quite old and unrenovated, and they are uninviting to the public.

Locating in the North of Queens, with connection to East River, the only mass transit connection to the airport are the buses. There are also problems with the lack of airplanes punctuality, and places to wait in the case of plan delay or an overnight transfer. The airport itself may not be entirely terrible, though the users experience seems to state otherwise.

Cross Bronx Expressway (1955) - Robert Moses 42

Nevertheless, this does not mean that all infrastructure prior to the establishment of landscape urbanism are all bad, as Central Park, a manmade urban forest in the middle of New York City, designed by Federick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and completed as its current form in 1873, has successfully integrated the park aspect with transportation of the city. Other than beautifully designing an intricate park that covers nearly 800 acres of Manhattan soil, Olmsted and Vaux were able to intertwine roadways in such a way that they do not interrupt the momentum of a park nor the atmosphere of the visitor.

Yet he still provided connections between streets so that the automobile drivers do not have to circle around the whole perimeter of the park to get to its other side, while also serve as pedestrian pathway. There are four roadways cutting across the park from East to West. The street are dropped below grade level to allow car activity without pedestrian and automobile interrupting on another, as well as blocking the noise from high speed car movement from the serenity of the park.

Central Park (1873) - Olmsted + Vaux 43

Another example, from Asia, works as a prove that infrastructure component does not need green elements to be a successful project. The Kyoto Station, located in the heart of Kyoto, Japan, designed by Hiroshi Hara after Atelier Phi, has been hosting the entry of 40 million tourists annually since it first opened in 1997. The station housed over 2.56 million square feet of programs, which include a department store, amusement facilities, small theater, hotel, several local government facilities, and parking areas. It was even a part of Kyoto City Air Terminal up until 2002. The 15 story roof atrium structured by glass and steel frame provide a grand lobby-like quality with a futuristic atmosphere. The openness also allows the station to disperse different artificial landscape throughout the building.

Kyoto Station (1997) - Hiroshi Hara 44

Ecostructure: Green Infrastructure e.co.lo.gy (n.) /ēˈkäləjē/ The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

Ecostructure, in the crudest sense, primarily refers to the natural structure of the Earth. That is, the structure that may be found in nature, amongst the forests, mountains, and deserts. As much as people overlook the significance of manmade infrastructure, the natural infrastructure is almost non-existence. Human are absorbed in the idea of work and duty that we barely have any leftover connection with nature.

The world has turned sour as reality gets exposed. It is the tragic truth that we have to be kept away by law from causing damages to the precious elements of our planet.

As the first built infrastructures known to men were dated back six thousand years, the existing infrastructures have been evolving for billions of years. The realm of ecostructure is ruled by waterbodies. Only water can gnaw through soils and rocks and create tracks and trails which dominate the movements of animals and even humans, as all living organisms need water to survive. Humans may have the ability to construct 2,700-foot tall building, build a thousand-mile long canal, pave roads across continents, yet we still cannot overcome the wonders of nature.

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On the other hand, Ecostructure carries an alternate definition. According to John Harrison from The Center for the Study of the Force Majeure, it is defined as “ecologically literate/informed structure”.

“Ecostructure is a framework to replace current infrastructure models based on siloed approaches to develop or remediate distressed natural resource areas.

This new framework uses ecological systems and environmentally informed tools to modify or rebuild soil structure, plant cover and species habitats in response to destructive effects of climate change and other forms of environment degradation. These tools are especially important in situations where so much damage occurs that nature cannot repair itself. Ecostructures look to create large-scale sustainable in situ interventions to improve hydrologic systems and maintain and improve water supplies for human, agricultural and industrial uses. An Ecostructure framework is integrative and systemic in nature, and would supplant current hard-scaped and limited vision infrastructure development.”

– John Harrison (The Center for the Study of the Force Majeure)

The goal to Ecostructure should include: to restore and/or improve ecosystem of the area integrative and systemic in nature; ecological remediation challenges, watershed management, flood control, agricultural resource management, waste water treatment and management, ocean/fishery restoration, and forestry and large scale resource management.

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Precedents of natural infrastructure could be found anywhere. The easiest form to be recognized is water, scaling from a simple channel of water to the largest waterbody in the world. The Great Lakes, containing 23 petaliters of water, or over 21% of the entire Earth, which flow along almost 2000 miles originating from Lake Superior through Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, and finally end up in the Atlantic Ocean. The natural form of the lakes provides natural water filtration, flood control, and nutrient cycling that facilitate to over 35,000 species that are inhabiting the numerous ecosystems of water, land, and wetlands. It also provide fresh water for the 40 million people that live in the 8 states of United States to its southern boarders and the two provinces of Canada, as well as the great amount of industries and farms surround it the area.

Conduit Urbanism, a project developed by an architecture firm RVTR, investigated the new possibilities that could be explored within the area of a megaregion that is formed by the Great Lakes. By attempting to connect multiple urban areas such as St. Paul, Racine, and Montreal, the project proposing three bases in Chicago for financial exchanges, Detroit for the easy connection to Canada, and Toronto as the prime location for The Gateway that serves to receive and disperse people and goods. The objective is to enhance the movability by introducing a highspeed rail that connects all cities from the 8 states and 2 provinces.

With the pursuit to transform a gray infrastructure, which is the existing highways that are not working at their full potential, RVTR has incorporated different elements into the project other than the multiple modes of transportation. In the hope to clean up and aid the environment into the correct path again, service conduit was added, and this is including fresh water distribution, solid waste collection, recycling collection, and sewage management.

There is an area within the Transfer Interchange dedicated to the production of wind power as a choice of renewable energy. Several green carpets, greenhouses and production areas are also evident in the project.

Although this is not a real project that is undergoing construction, but instead a hypothetical one, RVTR was able to developed to raise awareness and induce the possibilities that could be explored further in the future. Conduit Urbanism was a part of their Infra Eco Logi Urbanism traveling exhibition, with the opening exhibit at the Centre de Design at l’Universite du Quebec a Montreal in 2013.

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Conduit Urbanism (2013) - RVTR 48

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Not too far from the Great Lakes, there is a stretch of river with the length of 315 miles spanning from the southernmost of New York all the way up to nearly the northern boarder of the state. Hudson River is one of the most important river found in the East Coast. Unlike Erie Canal that was mentioned in the previous chapter, Hudson River is a natural infrastructure, and comprised of rich histories as well as providing benefits to the millions lives residing in New York City.

The river runs from the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lakes all the way down, dividing the state into east and west, to meet with East River and Atlantic Ocean at the New York Bay. In 1800’s, those were the glorious years when New York City was receiving a large sum of people from many countries, mostly European. Not all of them end up in Lower Manhattan. A portion of immigrants travelled up the river to settle down in the towns along the water.

Not only did Hudson River providing habitats for the people, it is also a part of providing fresh water to the residents of the city. For a long time, New York City had been relying on Croton Watershed. The city was suffering from overcrowding, and the lack of proper water distribution started a great downfall of sanitation. An apartment building would only have one source of water, with it being available only on Monday for a certain amount of hours. However, later in the early 1900’s, Catskill-Delaware Watershed was discovered, and the lives of New Yorkers had changed since then.

With its great location in connection to both Hudson River and Mohawk River, Albany was named the new capital of New York State in 1797, second to Kingston, which is also along the river. All counties south of Albany that has contact with the water became known as Hudson Valley. In the past few decades, the valley came to be famous for its art and cultural value. Not quite unlike Napa Valley in California, Hudson Valley is home to dozens of wineries, breweries, and distilleries.

There is also a hidden gem along this flow of water that not many people have heard of. Due to the unfortunate of gentrification that has been happening in the recent years, original inhabitants of the area moved away and leaving behind old warehouse. The new residents who are of different demographics came together to form an organization and started Art Along the Hudson. It is a project to celebrate the 400 years of American art. There are a total of 10 cities along Hudson Valley that are participating. Each city has their own galleries and/or theaters, mostly a converted space from the abandoned warehouses, and the different galleries are assigned different week of each month to join in the artistic experience along the river.

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UNTO NOW AND FAR BEYOND

Present Towards Virtual Infrastructure land.scape (n.) /ˈlan(d)ˌskāp/ All the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.

Although there are many definitions and references to landscape, whether it is landscape as its own physical entity, landscape art, or landscape design, “landscape” in this book will mainly concern with landscape urbanism, which is a recent field of architecture than first appeared in the year of 1994 as part of the title for a Masters of Urban Design proposal by Peter Connolly. It is often suggested as the response to the unsuccessful New Urbanism. As Charles Waldheim stated: “The critique launched by landscape urbanism has much to do with urban design’s perceived inability to com to terms with the rapid pace of urban change and the essentially horizontal character of contemporary automobile-base urbanization across North America and much of Western Europe. It equally has to do with the inability of traditional urban design strategies to cope with the environmental conditions left in the wake of deindustrialization, increased calls for an ecologically informed urbanism, and the ongoing ascendancy of design culture as an aspect of urban development.”

– Charles Waldheim, “Planning, Ecology, and the Emergence of Landscape”

Freshkills Park (2008) - Field Operations 53

However, the term “landscape urbanism” has changed tremendously throughout the years since its first debut. The definition has transformed into the reorganization of declining post-industrial cities, to the flexible way of integrating large scale infrastructure, housing, and open space, to the association with highly commercialized, multi-phase urban parks.

The definition from James Corner, as he suggested in “Terra Fluxus” is, however, “the ability to shift scales, to locate urban fabrics in their regional and biotic contexts, and to design relationships between dynamic environment processes and urban form.”

Landscape urbanism in this book, though, refers to the reorganization of space while heavily contributing to the integration of ecology in order to improve the environmental condition.

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in.fra.struc.ture (n.) /ˈinfrəˌstrək(t)SHər/ On a contrary to the definition discussed earlier in the book, the modern interpretation of infrastructure is considerably distinct. In the past, infrastructure has gone through a journey in the search of its identity. Thus, it has been able to operate singularly for centuries, concerning itself only with the urban planners. Howbeit, such entity could no longer function in the current situation anymore.

“Infrastructure, as we know it, no longer belongs in the exclusive realm of engineering and transportation planners. In the context of our rapidly changing cities and towns, infrastructure is experiencing a paradigm shift where multiple-use programming and the integration of latent ecologies isa primary consideration. Defining contemporary infrastructure requires a multidisciplinary team of landscape architects, engineers, architects, and planners to fully realize the benefits to our cultural and natural systems.”

– SWA, “Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA”

The relationship between infrastructure and landscape is an elaborate one, because landscape is not simply a natural environment nor an “environment in which nature is important” but, as Corner put it, “the regions where human occupation has shaped the land and its natural processes in an intimate and reciprocal way”.

Corner also mentioned ecology, as a dynamic element that bound all lives, that “the principle that the processes of urbanization – capital accumulation, deregulation, globalization, environmental protection – are much more significant for the shaping of urban relationships than are the spatial forms of urbanism in and of themselves.” Thus, if ecology refers to the dynamic element that bound all lives, isn’t infrastructure basically ecology, for it is also dynamic and does bind lives together.

Therefore, in order to comprehend the modern interpretation of infrastructure, we must recognize the relationship between infrastructure and landscape. In which case, the marriage to landscape is vital to the contemporary understanding of infrastructure.

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“If we think of landscape as an infrastructure which underlies other urban systems, rather than equating it with nature or ecology, we have a much more workable conceptual framework for designing urban systems.”

– Elizabeth Massop, “Landscape of Infrastructure”

Oresund Bridge and Tunnel (2000) - Georg K. S. Rotne 56

Jardins Wilson (1998) - Benoit Scribe; Yeves Lion, Alan Levitt

In the present day, infrastructure is no longer serving as simply a mode of transportation. Projects that have been constructed in the past twenty years do not solely contain a single purpose anymore. Due to the growth in environmentalism and concerns for efficiency, as well as the development of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) organization, most architectural and urban projects are packed with sustainable systems that are designed to remediate the site and aid in revitalizing Earth. Infrastructure projects are not excluded from this concern. On the contrary, as they are the main source of pollution in the past, they are under special speculation to operate within the boundaries of environmental lookout.

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There are many projects, built and unbuilt, and various remodeling of existing conditions, that have coincided infrastructure with sustainable systems, resulting in a conversion from gray infrastructure to green infrastructure.

High Line Park (2010) by Field Operations, for example, is a transformation from an abandoned railroad track that ran along the Hudson riverfront into an elevated park that runs over twenty blocks from the old Meat Packing District into a currently under construction Hudson Yards.

Another example can be found in Plaine Saint-Denis, France. Jardins Wilson (1998) is a project that works around an existing road, Avenue du president Wilson, which was dropped below street level for over ten feet and caused the separation in the neighborhood as well as an interruption of pedestrian and vehicular flow. The new injection is a slab that covers the roadway and introduce a green area that serves as a park that is permeable from one side to another. It is a fast and easy way to approach the issue, as well as preventing automobiles to emit carbon dioxide into the air.

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Fortunately, soon in the future, car exhaust will become much less an issue.

There have been experimentations on different ways to reduce carbon dioxide emission from vehicle. The diesel gas, the worst one of them all, was soon rivaled by benzene. Not too long ago, a new type of gas has been introduced, which was a mixture of gasoline with bioethanol, or pure alcohol. The most commonly used bioethanol gas is currently E20, which contains 20% of ethanol. The highest concentration, however, is E85, with 85% of ethanol in the mixture. By using ethanol instead of petroleum, exhaust could be much reduced and vehicles could become more efficient. Unfortunately, because it is pure alcohol, cars couldn’t perform at its best capability, resulting in the slow rate of popularity gain in bioethanol, and the same problem applies to organic biofuel.

As gasoline are being developed into a more environmental friendly product, another route was undergoing on the side, and that is electric car. It may sound unbelievable, but the first electric car was invented by Thomas Parker in 1884. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 2008 that the first legal serial product was delivered to the public by Tesla Motors. one is packed with the latest technology of its time. The latest model by Tesla, Model 3, which was released in 2016, is incorporated with an autopilot feature that allows a rider without driver.

In the past decade, electric cars have been under development and many car companies slowly adopted the idea and came out with one of their own.

FIAT 500e, Nissan LEAF, Kia Soul EV. These are considered the affordable models. There is also, of course, Smart, which is a two-seat car that was designed to perform in a tight city such as New York where parking is hard to find and speed is not needed. Then there is Toyota Prius, a hybrid car, which means it performs on both gasoline and electricity depending on conditions.

Another notable model is BMW i8, which is designed, unlike the other brands, to function as a sport car.

The difference between the aforementioned and Tesla electric cars are that much research has been devoted into making the fully functioning and technologically advanced products for Tesla. Instead of releasing a new model annually such as other companies do, Tesla is not under the same pressure of Fordism and spent their time making one perfect finished product. In the past ten years, there have only been a total of four models released and each one is packed with the latest technology of its time. The latest model by Tesla, Model 3, which was released in 2016, is incorporated with an autopilot feature that allows a rider without driver.

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Info-Mobility The definition of almost everything has been reshaped in the world of modernity. Infrastructure does not limit to physical movements of objects anymore, but it spawned a sub category as huge as the existing ones: informational infrastructure. It used to be a struggle to transport information.

Communication was limited by the extent of books, postal services, and face to face conversations. The information passing down by conversation is considered unreliable, as they could be misremembered and twisted, such as the event that Gian Lorenzo Bernini, an architect of Palazzo Barberini, Trevi Fountain, and one of the top participants in the design of St. Peter’s Basilica, learned about an elephant from his colleague who has traveled outside of Italy.

The movement of information was made easier with an invention of telephone, resulting in the development of telecommunication. People could now ring up a friend who lives miles away and converse in real time. The invention of internet, however, is the start of the modern era of infrastructure. Internet was originally invented as a tool to aid in war. The internet as we know today wasn’t introduced until 1991 by a computer programmer in Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee. It was then that the World Wide Web was born.

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Internet made it possible to transfer information in short time. Not only conversations, which was now carried out through electronic mails, but also images, videos, and any kind of file transfer. Moreover, an immediate communication that is extended from local community to a vast community of anyone in the world that have access.

It used to be connected via the telephone system, and only allowed the speed of a few kilobits per second. In the mid 2000’s, it has evolved into roughly 15mbps, allowing even more information transfer in shorter time.

The commercial availability of the new technology, fiber optics, scaled up the speed of the internet by ten folds. In the present day, 150mbps of internet is available at an affordable price. A company like RCN (Residential Communication Networks) even provide a speed as fast as 1gbps. One high definition movie stored in a DVD we buy at stores is generally estimated at 3GB. A movie streamed through Netflix could be downloaded in a matter of seconds and runs through without any buffering.

The fast connection and advanced technology have changed the way data are being stored. In the past, there were rooms full of physical files. Now, files are being stored in computer hard drive, and recently, the idea of a cloudbased storage has been gaining in popularity. A giant technological company such as Apple has built its own network of cloud, where all devices, including phones, laptops, tablets, and even watches, can access a stored data. All files can be access from anywhere and anytime.

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Not too long after the establishment of the World Wide Web, a new form of social interaction method was invented: social network. The most commonly known and globally popular social network site (SNS) of all time is, without a doubt, Facebook. Even though there were other sites that came before it, such as MySpace or Hi5, no one can deny that Facebook swept every other company off the ground.

The site was established in 2004, created by Mark Zuckerberg, who was a Harvard scholar at the time. The main idea for this invention was to bring people together through an invisible network. Everyone could now be connected to anyone, share life stories, and learn about other people’s daily activities. It had become a phenomenon that changed all lives, redefined the idea of internet, as well as the overall social norm itself. In its peak years, between the transition of 2000’s to 2010’s, the site has accumulated over a billion users, which is nearly 15% of the world population. People were not considered friends unless they were “friended” on Facebook.

Various other social network sites were created soon after the boom of Facebook. Some attempted similar line of genre, and many steered slightly off the route by introducing specific genre instead. The better known niche sites are: YouTube, which focused on video sharing; Yelp, a local business review site; Flickr, professional photography sharing; Instagram, daily image sharing; Snapchat, temporary image/video sharing; LinkedIn, a business and professional networking site.

Another successful site is Twitter, a website designed as a micro-blogging style social network that limit users with 140 characters per post. Unlike other sites, the user interface of Twitter made to encourage impulsive and back to back posts. It took off as a rapid news source, where people could quickly receive live newsfeed. Instead of waiting until the day after for a summary of an event, all information are now instant.

Other than their main functions, the majority of social network sites also incorporated a location sharing feature of geotag. The feature allows the user’s device that is connected to the satellite to locate exactly where a post is being posted. The new world of interconnected network, although convenient and useful, has taken away all of our privacies. It is not only the geotag feature that does the job, but, for legal or marketing purposes, companies tend to store all data of every single thing that has been posted through their platforms. That is, even with private instant messenger websites or applications, nothing that is being sent out is private.

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As the virtual world of infrastructure prosper, the delicacy of human interactions started to crumble. With an invention of online transaction, where stores take the number of credit card without the physical card itself, a new realm of possibilities was open.

Amazon, a website founded in 1994 focusing on online shopping, became immensely successful. The site provides both brand named products and personal businesses. People could buy anything from a computer to general household item like Clorox wipe. Combine that with Seamless or Postmates, sites that allow people to order food from different restaurants in the area and have it delivered at their doorsteps, and a growing trend of work-at-home jobs, a person could survive days, or even weeks, without having to step their foot out of the house.

The experience of enjoying a vacation is now different as well. With a program such as Google Earth that contains a three-dimensional image of the globe, a person is given an opportunity to virtually travel and explore the world without moving an inch. And if seeing 3D rendering of Eiffel Tower or Hagia Sophia is not enough, Google Street View is only a button away to provide a realistic impression of actually being there.

Sadly, this idea of virtual traveling is catching on. Many museums have recently launched a new feature of viewing by robots. Customers are renting robots online and remotely controlling them around the museum to see the exhibits. MusĂŠe de la Grande Guerre, located in Meaux, France, has a robot that will allow customers to experience their museum from anywhere possible. On the other hand, Tate Britain has a special event called After Dark, which let customers see their exhibits in darkness.

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Possible / Probable / Presumable

The earlier discussed idea of autopilot cars is actually commonly used in Silicon Valley, a district in Palo Alto, California that is dedicated to the development of new technology, housing all of internet based company such as Facebook, Uber, Hulu, and, of course, the giant company such as Google. The autonomous or self-driving car was developed by Google as early as 2009, and has spun out to become its own company Waymo, which serves under a description: “a self-driving tech company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around”.

It may be hard to comprehend the idea of an autonomous car, and could even seem unreasonable for some people. In the world where the majority of people can drive, cars are priced at an affordable range for middle class, and many enjoy driving as an activity or sport. However, what people do not understand is the new real of possibilities that can be brought by having driverless car. Within United States alone, over thirty billion hours were spent in traffic. In some cities such as Los Angeles, Beijing or Bangkok, people could spend up to six hours daily commuting from home to work because of traffic.

This issue could lead to accidents, road rage, and, most importantly, pollution from exhaust.

Wanis Kabbaj, a guest speaker at TED Talks, discussed a situation where we operate without a driver in “What A Driverless World Could Look Like”. He’s made a comparison of the infrastructural network to human anatomic venous system, that the vein in one person stretches over 6,000 miles once laid out in a single line, yet there is not a single traffic happening in a healthy person.

His argument states that the traffic congestions are commonly caused by the unpredictable human behavior, which combines with the horizontality and 2-dimensional form of the existing infrastructure. There is also an issue of space being wasted by 85 single-driver cars, while the same amount of people could fit into one public transportation and utilize that space in a better way instead.

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With autonomous cars, traffic could be reduced to almost zero by programming each car with a route and schedule that it could follow without fail. Kabbaj also mentioned a bus that is made up of multiple interlocking pods which could be disjoined to drop off specific passengers and come back to connect to the bus again. Interestingly, the idea has been implemented as part of BIG Hyperloop project, where a train is made up from pods that can detach to send the passengers at their specific location, while other pods move out to drop off freight or deliveries.

The future of transportation does not end at driverless cars, but there is yet to be one unfulfilled hopeful dream that has been introduced decades ago in Science Fiction, flying cars. Back to the Future, Doctor Who, and even The Jetsons have incorporated flying cars in their stories as a daily mode of transportation. We are inching towards that dream come true when Airbus, a company for aircraft manufacturing, announced a development of Skyways.

The project attempts to create a network of pathways reserved for their flying car, CityAirbus, which is an “electrically operated aerial vehicle�.

Hyperloop (2016) - BIG 68

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However, before we set our foot off to fly in the air, there is a more realistic and soon to be in operation, Maglev, or Magnetic Levitation. The name is straight forward from the engineering behind it, which is the usage of electrodynamic suspension to repel the train from the track just enough that there is no contact between the two objects, and pushes the train forward with zero friction. The technology allows a high speed movement that is currently the fastest land land-based transportation ever invented.

Maglev technology has been under development for over a century, slowly moving toward its soon to come completion. Japan has taken over the leading role in Maglev development, topping itself in the speed record each time since 1994. The fastest test run was recorded in 2015 with 603km/h or 375mph with a manned seven-car formation of the train. Amtrak trains are averaged at 150mph, taking two hours to travel from Philadelphia to New York City. The new technology opens up vast opportunities to be taken up by investors, and a next level of urbanization.

The project has been proposed to multiple countries including United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, and Korea. An East Coast Maglev has been proposed in the recent years, which will link Washington, D.C. to New York City. There will be two lines in operation, a full line that stops in major cities along the way, and an express line that promises to take only half an hour to travel from end to end.

The current issue with this project is the funding. Although Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) has offered to pay half of the cost, another half of the funding source is still unknown.

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INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGH TIME: CASE STUDIES

An Overview of the Past

Lower Manhattan Expressway (1972) - Paul Rudolph Born nearly a full century ago, Paul Rudolph took a turn to become one of the most notable architects in the history. His works were concentrated around 1950’s – 1960’s. Lodged in between the eras of International School and Postmodernism, he is known for his compassion for highly complex structures, as well as the frequent use of concrete.

In the late 1960’s, the glorious period of the development of infrastructure in New York City, a discussion was carried out about an expressway that would stretch from New Jersey, passing across Lower Manhattan, to connect with Brooklyn, Queens, as well as Long Island. The structure would run through Holland Tunnel, Manhattan Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge.

Paul Rudolph has participated in the proposal for this project. His scheme is a Y-shaped corridor that is designed to preserve the existing infrastructure, while using that structure as a base to a building. The idea was to, rather than divide the communities, incorporate the transportation networks that bind the communities together. The sectional drawing is of a transportation corridor, which contains a central hub with an entry for bridges or tunnels. It is a multilevel structure where the top part serves as residential, with a step back gesture to allow the penetration of light and air, pedestrian plazas, people movers, as well as parking, while the existing bridge and rail systems are placed at the bottom.

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Lower Manhattan Expressway (1972) - Paul Rudolph 74

A Plan for Tokyo (1960) - Kenzo Tange 75

A Plan For Tokyo (1960) - Kenzo Tange A Plan for Tokyo was proposed by Kenzo Tange in 1960, which was the time when various industrial cities were at the height of urban sprawl. Due to Tokyo’s ever expanding city and its internal regeneration, Tange presented a utopian vision that aimed to establish a new spatial order for the city. The scheme is of a series of interlocking loop that spans across the bay. Each floating structure is connected by a monorail, and contains different programs such as public space, residential, commercial, and parking areas.

Tange believed that this plan is the solution to the issue at hand where people’s lives were heavily impacted by the rise of automobile that their perception of space has been impaired. He believed that the city needed an introduction to a megastructure form rather than a radial zoning status quo.

“In the past, people walked along streets until they came to their destination and then simply disappeared into the door. With automobiles on the street, however, everything is different. In the first place, it is necessary to divide pedestrians from vehicles, to create highways and streets that are for the exclusive use of vehicles.

Thanks to the coming of the automiobile, there is needfor a new order in which a vehicle can move from afast highway to a slower one and then come to a stop at the destination.”

– Kenzo Tange

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An Overview of the Now

Brooklyn Bridge Park (2008-current) - MVVA Brooklyn Bridge Park is a project by MVVA, covering 1.3 miles of Brooklyn waterfront, spanning from a little to the east of Manhattan Bridge until the far south of Brooklyn Heights where used to be vacant warehouses and industries. The main idea is to create a total of six piers along the shoreline, with each of the pier serving different purposes. The first is to enhance experience of nature and views of the relationship between land and water. Second is dedicated to athletic courts. Fourth serves as a beach. Fifth is a picnic area, as well as another athletic, but as a field. Sixth is an area for community building activities. Since the project is still undergoing, a clear program for Pier 3 has not yet been assigned, but is shown in the master plan as a green area.

The site runs along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Thus, the project has introduced uplands in the area nearby Pier 3 and 4 to create a barrier between noise from the expressway and the public park space. The design also aid in flood protection with the incorporation of pebble beach.

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Brooklyn Bridge Park (2008-current) - MVVA 78

Louisville Waterfront Park (2009) - Hargreaves Associates 79

Louisville Waterfront Park (2009) - Hargreaves Associates Louisville Waterfront Park is a public park project, done by Hargreaves Associates, that successfully connect the I-64 highway to the waterfront of Ohio River. The area was a site for brownfields, scrapyards, sandpits, and industries. The existing railroad created a separation between the site and inner area of the city.

The park was design to work together with the ebb and flow of the river. There is also an accommodation to the movement of water, slowing the flood water, as well as reestablishment of the native riverside species.

The project contains a series of river related recreational spaces, along with other programs such as a working wharf, Festival Plaza, Overlook, and Lincoln Memorial. By gradually sloping the topography of vehicular level to meet with waterfront level, the project achieved a very dynamic design, or the Great Lawn, that also serves as an amphitheater.

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An Overview Towards the Future

Transbay Transit Center (2017) - PCP Architects Located northeast of San Francisco, California, Transbay Transit Center has easy access towards all the main districts in the city including residential, educational, cultural, and financial districts, as well as a connection to Oakland via the bridge.

The project, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, comprised of two buildings: a tower for residential, hotel, and offices; a transit center that extends over two big blocks. The transit center alone carries over 34.5 acre of square footage, in addition to a rooftop park that is 5.4 acre. That is because the building is carrying multilayer of programs, where the ground floor is for pedestrian movements, a lower level for retail, and two floors for transportation, buses and mild transit on the top and high speed rail at the bottom. The hub is designed to incorporate up to 11 transit systems, including BART, MUNI, Amtrak, Greyhound, and many other local companies. It is estimated to get 45 million users per year.

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TOWER

EXTENDED BLOCK

Transbay Transit Center (2017) - PCP Architects 82

AMPHITHEATER

RESTAURANT

CULTURAL CENTER

GREEN SPACES

CHILDREN PLAY AREA

CAFE

TRANSIT CENTER 83

The design is jampacked with various sustainable systems that is anticipating a LEED Gold Award, including solar collection, wind turbine, water filtration, and passive heating/cooling system. The building is said to be able to reduce the energy target by up to 25%, lowering the carbon footprint.

45M/yr (anticipated)

The structure of the building is mainly steel and glass, wrapped with a fabricated drape curtain wall with screen system that is working to regulate sunlight. The big skylights along the length of the building also are designed act as light columns that will bring in daylight down to the lowest level.

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Water Proving Ground - LTL Architects Water Proving Ground is a project that is in participation with MoMA’s Rising Current Exhibition. The overall project is sited at the New York Bay area, where five architecture firms are assigned different site to work on a design that will protect the city from the 100-year flood issue. LTL Architects are working on a site that is Liberty State Park, where the project boundary spilled over to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, resulting in a 1,220 acre in total.

The main idea behind the design is to maximize shoreline, which is done by creating multiple fingers that are extending into the water. The fingers are then broken down into multiple triangular shaped islands that contain various programs. The programs on one finger are grouped together to become four main categories: research, recreation, preservation, and transportation. The finger at the far north is housing the existing railroad station, thus works as transportation core for the project.

Each specific programmatic island is designed into various shapes. Not a single island is identical.

The site is located by New Jersey Turnpike, which is, unfortunately, not incorporated into the design. The main transportation for this project is no other than ferry, which is stationed at the tip of all fingers, as well as Liberty Island and Ellis Island. The tips of the fingers also contain specific programs, which are Aquaculture Research and Development Center, Amphitheater and Tidal Park, Water Lodge, and Regional Produce Market.

The project is designed to embrace the rising currents by allowing the area to be partially flooded, which is done by varying the height of each islands and creating slopes.

85

8,6

7,3

ORTATION

CH

FT

4,6

00

00

7,3

FT

1,220acre (494ha)

EA TIO

N

AR

4,000FT

SER VE

CR

SE

T

PRE

RE RE

00F

FT

00

TRANSP

3,300FT

RISING CURRENTS

Water Proving Ground - LTL Architects 86

RECLAIMING

REPARATIVE

AGRICULTURE

BIOREMEDIATION

WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT

REMEDIATION

PRESERVE PREVENTION

PRESERVE WETLAND

INVASIVE SPECIES BOTANICAL PRESERVE

RECREATION

AQUACULTURE

RESEARCH

WETLAND BIRD HABITAT

87

88

HUNTS POINT vs THE WORLD

Movement of Products

EXCHANGE OF PRODUCTS PRIMARY SHIPPING ROUTES (SEA) SECONDARY SHIPPING ROUTES (SEA)

K

MAJOR SEAPORTS ORIGIN

MACHINERY

METALS

CANADA: 1.6m

GE

RM

1,506 MW (2.4%)

A

TRANSPORTATION

103.2B m 3

CHEMICALS

CANADA

FAIRBANKS

MINERAL PRODUCTS

DESTINATION

WINNIPEG

VANCOUVER

28B m3

DESTINATION

27. USA

12.035 GW N AS

IA

ays

4. LUXEMBOURG

ST LUCIA CARACAS

PANAMA

ys

BOGOTA

10. USA

BRAZIL

LIMA

RIO DE JANEIRO

5. USA

SOLAR ENERGY PRODUCTION

2,754 MW (4.3%) SAO PAULO

2. USA

WIND ENERGY PRODUCTION

1. CHINA 2. INDIA

90. USA 3.4. POLAND BANGLADESH

COUNTRIES WITH THE LARGEST SHARE OF THE WEALTHIEST PEOPLE WHERE DO THE TOP 1% LIVE?

5. BULGARIA 6. MONGOLIA 7. BAHRAIN 8. CHILE 9. ISRAEL 10. PAKISTAN

1. CHINA 2. USA 3. GERMANY 4. INDIA 5. SPAIN 6. UK 7. CANADA 8. FRANCE 9. ITALY 10. BRAZIL

1. GERMANY 2. CHINA 3. ITALY 4. JAPAN 5. USA 6. SPAIN 7. FRANCE 8. AUSTRALIA 9. BELGIUM 10. UK

1. CHINA 2. USA 3. EUROPE 4. RUSSIA 5. MIDDLE EAST

DAKA

$31.4B

2. USA

TO EASTERN ASIA

79.1 YEARS 1.6 $7452 5.9%

0M

THE WORLD’S LARGEST CO2 EXPORTERS

8,598 MW (13.5%)

5.375 GW

10 d

MIAMI

MEXICO

da

ITALY: 2.3m

80.6 YEARS 3.6 $8980 4.4%

$8 M I=

THE WORLD’S LARGEST EXPORTERS OF GAS (BILLION CUBIC METERS)

3. SWITZERLAND

WASHINGTON D.C.

HOUSTON

100

30

$59.

SWITZER

E=$

NATURAL RESOURCES

$43B

NEW YORK

CHICAGO

4.639 G

>$100B

OTTAWA

ZIL: BRA

STER

MOST POLLUTED COUNTRIES

LOS ANGELES

78.7 YEARS 6.1 $4150 4.9%

TO EA

REYKJAVIK

FRANCE: 3.5m

>$100B

UNITED STATES

598 mt

MEXICO: E=$400M I=$400M

ORIGIN

IMPORTS

EXPORTS

GERMANY JAPAN

UK: 2.9m

81.6 YEARS 1.6 $3872 5.6%

$5B

MADE IN THE USA

UNITED KINGDOM

80M

I=$

6. ICELAND

$10-100B

SAN FRANSISCO

CHINA

0M

=$8

M: E

GDO

KIN

>$100B

US: 18m

OTHERS

UNITED STATES

91

ED UNIT

1. RUSSIA 2. CANADA 3. NORWAY 4. ALGERIA 5. QATAR 6. INDONESIA

SANTIAGO

BUENOS AIRES

Existing Condition of the World

KOREA: E=$100M I=$50M JAPAN: E=

$100M I= $200M

CHINA: E=

$100M I=$ 400M

=$

80

M

I=

$1

50

M

PO

RE

: E=

$50

M

50M

GA

NORWAY

95B m3

2. NORWAY

PO

RE

:E

UK591 mt PARIS

LENINGRAD

STOCKHOLM

3

POLAND

1,266 MW (2.0%)

GERMANY

$23.6B

0M

ROME

IRKUTSK

$23.5B

MONGOLIA >$100B

KOREA

7

$71.9B 10

QATAR DUBAI

57B m3 KUWAIT

>$100B

NEW DELHI

KARACHI

4

FUJAIRAH MUMBAI

2

INDIA

OHAKA

THAILAND

2,623 MW (4.1%)

10

ADDIS ABBADA

HONG KONG

KOLKATA

CHENNAI

$295B

13.947 GW

MADE IN CHINA

$45B

CHINA: 1.6m 79.9 YEARS 2.2 $2426 2.8%

ys

da SINGAPORE

$72B

INDONESIA

1. QATAR

77.6 YEARS 7 $2029 0.5%

PORT LOUIS

MADE IN BANGLADESH

37B m 3

30,753 MW (48.5%)

>$100B

3.524 GW

$61.3B

AUSTRALIA: 1.8m

BRISBANE

PRETONIA PERTH

CAPE TOWN

JAPAN: 4m

18.528 GW

8. SINGAPORE

COLOMBO

MOMBASA

KINSHASA

JAPAN

1

KATHMANDU

ADEN

LAGOS

$98B

SHANGHAI

1556 mt CHINA

LAHORE

$7B

CAIRO

78.4 YEARS 3.2 $5407 4.9%

79.9 YEARS 2.1 $4752 4%

6

TEHRAN

9

7. AUSTRIA

AR

5. JAPAN $49B

$237B

ATHENS

17.861 GW

$20.9B

$99B

$10-100B

RUSSIA

OMSK

PERM

5

LISBON

59B m3

409 mt

$5

KAZAKHSTAN

$15B 1,073 MW (1.7%)

386 mt ALGERIA

I=

79.9 YEARS 2.4 $5320 8.1%

MOSCOW

ANTWERP

154.4B m 3

9. SWEDEN

3.470 GW

RLAND: 0.8m

RABAT

M

HELSINKI

OSLO

.4B

50

35.736 GW

GERMANY: 2.8m

GW

=$

6,013 MW (9.5%)

3.316 GW

79.5 YEARS 2.3 $9055 3.5%

RUSSIA IS THE WORLD’S LARGEST EXPORTER OF PIPELINE GAS, ACCOUNTING FOR 26% OF GLOBAL EXPORTS

I=$

SIN

ay s

GA

Y: E

6d

SIN

AN

AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY MELBOURNE

TO NOR TH AMERI

CA

10. AUSTRALIA 79.9 YEARS 3.4 $6140 5.7%

WELLINGTON CHRISTCHURCH

92

Pollution

Eastern Europe + 1.1 years

Western Europe +7.9 years North Atlantic Gyre

North America + 7.5 years North Pacific Gyre

Central/South America + 14.5 years

AIR POLLUTION >2000M

ACCESS TO A HEALTHY WATER SOURCE

Asia + 12.9 years

Africa + 13.2 years

> 95%

1000M - 2000M

83 to 95%

500M - 1000M 100M - 500M

South Pacific Gyre

65 to 83%

Indian Ocean Gyre Australia +9 years

South Atlantic Gyre

< 65%

10M - 100M (MILLION TONS OF CO2 EMISSIONS)

Movement of People 7%

PARIS

12% 8%

NEW YORK

14%

LONDON

14%

650,000

LOS ANGELES SAN FRANSISCO

CANADA

600,000

RUSSIA

USA

FRANCE

20%

BANGKOK

NETHERLANDS

UK

GERMANY

TOKYO

KAZAKHSTAN

UKRAINE

UZBEKISTAN

ITALY

PERU

PORTUGAL SPAIN SYRIA

BRAZIL MOROCCO

EGYPT

JAPAN

KUWAIT

MEXICO

MEXICO BRAZIL ITALY SWITZERLAND SYRIA KAZAKHSTAN UZBEKISTAN UKRAINE UNITED KINGDOM FRANCE

DESTINATION

ORIGIN 93

CANADA

BANGLADESH

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

INDIA GHANA

UNITED STATES

QATAR

1,350,000

CHINA

PAKISTAN SAUDI ARABIA

10%

400,000 HONG KONG 1,000,000

SWITZERLAND

HONG KONG

THAILAND

NIGERIA

PHILIPPINES

300,000

MALAYSIA

SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE

INDONESIA

10%

18%

AUSTRALIA

SOUTH AFRICA

SHORT TERM VISITORS PER YEAR

BUSINESS TRIPS LEISURE (TOURISM)

LONG TERM

VISITORS PER YEAR PERCENTAGE

RELOCATING STUDENTS (COLLEGE) PROFESSIONALS

NEW ZEALAND

Agriculture Production

HELSINKI STOCKHOLM

MOSCOW

United States is the leading country in corn global exports

BIRMINGHAM

BERLIN

PARIS CHICAGO

TORONTO

SAN FRANSISCO TOKYO

United States is the leading country in soybeans global exports

CAIRO

China is the leading country in fish global exports

MEXICO

United States is the leading country in wheat global exports

ST LUCIA

TOP PRODUCERS

LEADING FOOD MARKETS BASED ON VOLUME

Thailand is tvhe leading country in rice global exports LIMA

CORN

UNITED STATES

50.1% ($9.1 billion)

FISH

CHINA

9.2% ($6.6 billion) peru

PALM OIL RICE

INDONESIA

51% ($10.4 billion)

THAILAND

34.5% ($6 billion)

SOYBEANS

UNITED STATES

50.5% ($16.5 billion)

WHEAT

UNITED STATES

18% ($5.4 billion)

SINGAPORE

1042 843

428

CHINA

UNITED STATES

MELBOURNE

394

RUSSIA

INDIA

330

BRAZIL

284 JAPAN

241

194

175 170

UK

GERMANY INDONESIA

FRANCE

Indonesia is the leading country in palm oil global exports

Movement of Food Products

LANDS

NETHER

WASHINTO

I

TA NC E: 4 0 M ,00 0 I M

22

DIS

: 1,

EX IC O

NCE

M

ISTA

DA D

90 MI

FL ORI

DISTANCE: 3,135 MI PERU DISTANCE: 3,645 MI

MI

00

5,3

CE: 2,5

E: NC

DISTAN

JAPAN DISTANCE: 6,760 MI CHINA 7,420DISTANCE: 8,970 MI MI

TA UT

H

AFR

IC

AD

NEW

IS

TA

NC

E:

8,9

70

ZEAL

AND

DISTA

NCE:

MI

8,845

MI

E: 6,775MI

28% TRANSPORTED BY SHIP

SOUTH KOREA DISTANCE: 6,920 MI

DISTANCE : 8,970

DIS SO

ARGENTINA DISTANC

CHILE DISTANCE: 5,740 MI

RICA

VIETNAM

IL

COSTA

MI

AZ

ORIGIN OF GOODS

3,820

BR

DISTA

NCE: BLIC DISTA

II HAWA

EQUADOR

30 MI

5,3 NCE:

E: DISTANC

4,815 MI NORTH ITALY DISTANCE: SOUTH ITALY DISTANCE: 4,415 MI

REPU DOMINICAN 2,040MI

N DISTA NCE: 2,465 MI NEW YORK CITY 2,050 MI COLORADO DISTANCE: MI NCE: 2,980 I 85 MI 0M I E: 2,6 3,47 70 M TANC CE: 3,6 N O DIS E: TA MEXIC DIS NC A O T IC DIS MEX O IC EX M

DISTA CALIFORNIA

37% TRANSPORTED BY AIRPLANE 35% TRANSPORTED BY TRUCK

CALIFORNIA

BUDDAHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HAND, 2 DAYS PASSION FRUIT, 3-4 DAYS PERSIMMONS, 2 DAYS POMEGRANATES, 2 DAYS

PENNSYLVANIA

SHITAKE MUSHROOMS, 1 DAY PORTOBELLO MUSHROOMS, 1 DAYS

FLORIDA

GUAVA, 2-3 DAYS

COSTA RICA

YUCCA, 7 DAYS DRIED CHILLIES,7-10 DAYS RED BANANAS,

BRAZIL

PRICKLY PEAR, 10 DAYS

ARGENTINA

BOAC PEAR, 10 DAYS

NETHERLANDS

LEEKS, 10-14 DAYS ORANGE PEPPER, 10-14 DAYS

ITALY

NORTH:

CHINA

DRAGON FRUIT, 1-2 DAYS

VIETNAM

KING OYSTER MUSHROOMS, 1-2 DAYS

94

Projection Urban Cluster in 2050 Cascadia

Front Range

rn Northe nia Califor

Great Lakes Northeast

Southern California

Sun Arizona Corridor

6 million

Texas Triangle

Gulf Coast

Pledmont Atlantic

3-6 million 1-3 million 150.000-1 million

95

Florida

Agricultural Production

< $20000 $20000 - $39000 $40000 - $59000 $60000 - $79000 $80000 - $99000 > $100000

Waste Management

60% MROCKY OUN 38% LANDFILTLAINING R WEST

LAND

FILLIN

G

ENGLAND

36% LANDFILLING

MID

WEST LAND

GREAT LAKES

65% 3C3LIN%G

77% 2% 2% R8EC6YC% LING 14% 22% ECYC

LING

WASTE TO ENERGY

FILLING

RECY

RECYCLING

1% WASTE TO ENERGY

29% NEW

RECYCLING

TO WASTE Y ENERG

MID

WASTE TO ENERGY

49% 35%

LANDFILLING

RECYCLING WASTE TO ENERGY

18%

33%

SOUTLHING 69%

LANDFIL

G RECYCLIN O T E WAST ENERGY

22%

9%

96

Transportation in New York State

Greater Rochester Int'l Niagara Falls Int'l.

Buffalo Niagara Int'l.

Erie Canal

I-90

4h

381 mi 6h 15 m

O Syracuse Hancock Int'l 34 5h 2 m 15 i m

rie

E ke

La

Ithaca-Tompkins Regi

Chautauqua Co / Jamestown

Elmira / Corning Regional

ENCLAVES

COMMERCIAL AIRPORT (PR

ECO-ARMATURE

COMMERCIAL AIRPORT (NO

ANTHROPO-ARMATURE

RELIEVER

DISTANCE BY CAR

GENERAL AVIATION

RAILWAY

PRIVATE AIRPORT CARGO SERVICE HARBOR

97

Massena Int'l Richards Field

Ogdensburg Int'l Plattsburgh Int'l

Adirondack Regional

Henderson Lake

2 3h 10 30 mi m

Watertown Int'l

i

m 6 m 19 15 3h

18

Albany International

150 m 2h 30m i

15 2h 9 mi 30 m

258 mi 4h

nR ive r

ional

94 1h 4 mi 0m

I-87

dso

Binghamton Regional

7 1h 9 m 30 i m

RIMARY)

64 mi 1h 15m

Stewart International

Westchester County

15 m 30 i m

ON PRIMARY)

Hu

255 mi

235 mi 3h 40m

1m 3h i

Oneida Lak e

La Guardia

L.I. Mac Arthur

John F Kennedy Int'l

98

JEF

FER

SO

N

Agricultural Production

ND CO RTL A

IN S MP K

C

ON ST ING

LIV

D

GA

DA

X

G

UN

EM

CH

O MA

ON

Farm Selling Pigs I

CAYUGA

X

A

Farm Selling Cettle I

N

Organic Farm

ER

YL

HU

SC

BE

EU ST

99

I X

YAT ES

Y AN

Cheese

Farm

EG

I X

ALL

Wine

AR TT A C

OM

WY

RIO ONTA

SENEC

E

CH

US

G AU

ING

WAYNE

ON

GENESEE MO

ERI A

QU

E NRO

TO

ORLEANS

ARA

NIAG

U TA AU

EGO

OSW

GA

TIO

BROOM

Farm Selling Sheep Farm Selling Poultry I I X

X

Ch I X

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

Farm Selling Potato Farm Selling Corn Farm Selling Wheat

Farm Selling Nuts Farm Selling VegetablesFarm Selling Fruits Farm U

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

HAM

TO N IN

X

CL

SE R SA GA

O AT

FULTON MONTGOMERY

hristmas Trees

ELA SS BIA

NE

GREE

CO

UL

ST

SS

ER

HE

LL

AL

IVA

DU TC

GO

AN

EN

CH

D

SU

BA

RIE HA

E

R WA A EL

NY

RE N

HO SC

O

EG

S OT

ER

Y AD CT

NE

HE

SC

LU M

ON

WASHIN G

N

TON

ILTO

HERKIMER

LE WI S

N

E NC RE

DIS

ME

ES

AW

IDA

FRANK LIN

.L ST

ONE

N

E WARR

N

UM

PUTN

ORANGE

WESTC

HESTER

ROCKLAND

Using Chemicals X

ON

BR

QUE

ENS

GS

D

ON

HM

RIC

KIN

AU

SS

NA

LK

SUFFO

100

Ecotone

- a transition area between two biomes; where two communities meet and integrate

Flatland to Mountain Farmland to Wilderness Land to Water

Population Density Northern Country 428,357

River Corridor 5,287,609

Southern Tier 964,295

+

+

+

+

=

+

=

=

+

New York City

101

15.97M

Values: Natural vs Industrial

Financial District Manufacturer Power Plants Industrial Public Parks 1m+ People Near Park Areas

Values: Economic

UNITED KINGDOM CANADA

$3.4 billion

$30.2 billion

SWITZERLAND $1.8 billion

JAPAN

$2.6 billion

ISRAEL

$2.4 billion

Ceramic+Glass Industry Nanotechnology Industry Photography Equipment Industry Diamond Industry Medical Instrument Industry Fashion Industry Media Industry Art Industry

GDP Per Capita

Real Estate Industry

>100,000

Other Mines

>50,000

Marcellus Shale Extent

>30,000

Active Marcellus Shale Mine

>25,000

Oil Fields

>20,000

Salt Mine

>15,000

Food Industry

Fishing Industry Tourist Industry

Manufacturer Exports

102

Territorial Condition Along Hudson River

Henderson Lake

Adirondack Mt.

N WASH INGTO N

RE WAR URBAN AREAS SALT WATER

G TO RA SA

FRESH WATER WATER TUNNEL

RE NS S

EL

NE

HE

SC

RESEVOIR

Y AD CT

AE

WATERSHED

Y AN

AQUIFER

IA

B AL

AGRICULTURE

LU MB

NE

GREE

UL

CO

Catskill-Delaware Watershed

R

A

AQUEDUCT

S

ST

DU

TC H

ES

ER

UM PUTN

ORANGE

Croton Watershed

WEST CHES

TER

ROCKLAND

ON

BR

X

QU

103

D ON

M

CH

RI

GS KIN

EEN S

AU

SS

NA

Urban Texture

Territorial Biography 1100AD: Paleo-Indian Period The Algonquian settled in the North Eastern America since the prehistoric period

1900 Settlements 1950 Settlements 1524: French Samuel de Champlain explored the northern most part of New York “Lake Champlain” 1609: Dutch Henry Hudson discovered New York and settled in the area of Church St. “Hudson River”

1664: English Englishmen arrived and settled in the area of Brooklyn

1776: American The 13 British Colonies united and drove out Englishmen Later settled by East River

104

Natural Disaster

Pollution

Rn

Rn

Rn

BROWNFIELDS

SNOWSTORM

BEACH ADVISORY

FLOOD

SEVERE CONTAMINATION

Rn

HURRICANE

CO2 EMISSION (TON)

TORNADO

Rn

DROUGHT

60,000+

EARTHQUAKE

50,000+

LANDSLIDE

40,000+

WILDFIRE Rn

Rn

RADON GAS

Rn

105

80,000+

30,000+

22.0sq m

3.94sq m

ALBANY 210ft

98,469 4,570/sq mi

344ft

1,780/sq mi

14,552

GLENS FALLS

Longitudinal Section Along Hudson River

- A project to celebrate the 400 years of American art.

ART VENUES ART EVENTS RHINEBECK: Rhinebeck Art Festival

SAUGERTIES: POUGHKEEPSIE: “Paper & Wood” Exhibition “Spring Awakens with Art” Exhibition

WINERIES BEACON: 3D Main St. Sculpture Trail

CIDERIES DISTILLERIES BREWERIES

NEW PALTZ: Gardiner Studio Tour

NEWBURGH: Ryan Roa: Melange

COLD SPRING/GARRISON: “Ephemeral” Exhibition

PEESKILL: “I’m Tired” Exhibition

OSSINING: Living Art Event

106

2.01sq m 50,005 41,250/sq mi

HOBOKEN 26ft

22.8sq m 72,000/sq mi

Wine+Spirits Production

Art Along the Hudson

KINGSTON: “Recycling Nature” Exhibition

1,626,000

20.3sq m

MANHATTAN

265ft

YONKERS 82ft

199,766 4,470/sq mi

5.70sq m

121ft

2,000/sq mi

11,277

1.6sq m

TARRYTOWN

NYACK 72ft

6,765 4,200/sq mi

4.90sq m

BEACON 138ft

15,541 2,980/sq mi

4.79sq m

NEWBURGH

210ft

28,480 2,740/sq mi

7.80sq m

5.70sq m 32,736

230ft

POUGHKEEPSIE

KINGSTON 476ft

23,731 3,200/sq mi

6,140/sq mi

Artistic Value

Transportation in New York City

107

108

Flood Zones

Bridges + Tunnels HENRY HUDSON BRIDGE BROADWAY BRIDGE UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS BRIDGE

GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE

WASHINGTON BRIDGE ALEXANDER HAMILTON BRIDGE 100,000+ 80,000+ 60,000+ 40,000+ 20,000+ 10,000+ <10,000

MACOMBS DAM BRIDGE MADISON AVENUE BRIDGE THIRD AVENUE BRIDGE

145th STREET BRIDGE WILLIS AVENUE BRIDGE

TRIBOROUGH BRIDGE LINCOLN TUNNEL QUEENSBORO BRIDGE QUEENS MIDTOWN TUNNEL HOLLAND TUNNEL WILLIAMSBURGH BRIDGE MANHATTAN BRIDGE BROOKLYN BRIDGE BROOKLYN BATTERY TUNNEL

109

Subway Track Levels

UNDERGROUND ABOVE ROUND

Transit Hubs GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE TERMINAL

PORT AUTHORITY BUS TERMINAL

(1963)

(1950)

S

MANHATTAN CRUISE TERMINAL

(1935)

BUS TERMINAL TRAIN TERMINAL

PENNSYLVANIA STATION

LAGUARDIA AIRPORT

(1953)

(1910)

SEAPORT AIRPORT

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL

(1871)

S

JAMAICA STATION

(1836)

1M PEOPLE WORLD TRADE CENTER STATION

(2016)

ATLANTIC TERMINAL

(1877)

JOHN F. KENNEDY INTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;L AIRPORT

(1948)

110

Existing Condition of Hunts Point When the world steps forward, history is left behind. Small towns whittle over time, allowing big cities to prosper beyond imagination. The luxury of Hunts Point vanished together with the conclusion of the Second World War. The people moved away in the search of better life quality, fleeing the town, leaving it to crumble away. The definition of Hunts Point that it once possessed eventually forgotten. New inhabitants flocked in, unaware of the original conditions, gated themselves within the peninsula.

Blinded by the marriage of natural and cultural armatures, Hunts Point held captive in its own time, while New York City marches on. The area has become a complete paradox of itself as the food industry flourished and developed into the main life source of the people.

Hunts Point is located in the South Bronx, and is an example of a post industrial city. The area is best known for the Food Distribution Center, which receives all types of food from 49 states of America and 55 countries around the world, and then distribute them to New York City. Hunts Point also houses auto shops and auto parts scrap yards, as well as many other industrial programs such as sewage treatment plant, sanitation garage and recycling facilities, as well as a rail junkyard.

Every kind of transportation goes through Hunts Point, although in an oddly fashion. It is cut off from the rest of Bronx by Bruckner and Sheridan Expressways, which run along a train track that belongs to Amtrak and CSX Transportation. There are accesses to three lines of Subway to the North of the highways, but the only direct public access into the town is a municiple bus.

The whole perimeter of Hunts Point is built in favor to produce delivery trucks rather than pedestrian, although the roads do accommodate for bicycles.

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NORTH BROTHER ISLAND HUNTS POINT PORT MORRIS WARDS ISLAND

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BUS STOP TRAIN STATION BUS ROUTE SUBWAY ROUTE TRAIN ROUTE BICYCLE ROUTE EXPRESSWAY TRUCK ROUTE

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DESIGN PROPOSAL

Regional: Hudson River

Eco Mutations of Infrastructure is a project that covers the major part of Hudson River, from Troy down to New York City, with a focal site in Hunts Point, which is then zoomed into two local areas within the neighborhood.

As Hudson River is considered a very polluted river, mainly due to the decades old industrial wastes that were dumped into the water by General Electric. The main idea is to place bioremediation at different spot along the river in order to attempt to clean the water before any further actions are taken place.

With the use of the existing Metronorth tracks along the water, Maglev will be introduce in replacement, which will allow faster and smoother transportation throughout the area. Express tracks will only stop at three main transit centers: New York City, Newburgh, and ends at Albany. The locations are chosen in accordance to the cities' proximity to airports.

Hudson Valley contains various cultural features, including food and art. An artistic center will be introduce in Rhindbeck, which is the Northernmost city of Art Along the Hudson project. A experiential winery is also introduced in Highland, placed in the center of the Valley's winery cluster. The product are then transported to be sold at Hunts Point Local Market, which is connected to the valley through a series of port along the shore, as well as Maglev train.

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TROY ALBANY

bioremediation

transportation hub

bioremediation

maglev

bioremediation

KINGSTON

art center

RHINEBECK

HIGHLAND POUGHKEEPSIE

bioremediation wine center

transportation hub

NEWBURGH BEACON

bioremediation

bioremediation

NYACK TARRYTOWN bioremediation

YONKERS NEW YORK CITY HUNTS POINT

food center bioremediation transportation hub art center

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Urban: Hunts Point, Bronx Eco Mutations of Infrastructure is a project that attempts to turn gray infrastructure into green and blue infrastructure, help clearing the pollution, as well as providing a self-sufficient environment in the city of Hunts Point. The design is projected far into the future, where flood becomes a main problem for the city of New York.

Hunts Point initially contains various types of transportation system: subway, railroad, and, most importantly, an expressway that is causing the main problem to the neighborhood. In the attempt to create a permeable boundary between Hunts Point and its neighboring cities, Bruckner and Sheridan Expressways are relocated underground to free up the barrier, while, at the same time, containing the pollution caused by vehicles from the open air. The existing expressway is then turned into a green strip that runs across the length of the project, serving as a production land, as well as a pedestrian pathway that links all programs together.

The project is designed to embrace the problematic issue of flood rather than prevent and avoid it. The form of the design is derived from a 500 year floodline introduce

by FEMA. In addition to the attempt to protect the existing Food Distribution District that is the gem of Hunts Point, an island is created. This island performs as an isolated work area for food related production, handling the packaging and distribution of the products to the rest of New York City and more. This is so that the industrial activity does not cause a disruption to the rest of the city, while still connected to the city by three connecting bridges strictly dedicated to: vehicle, tramway, and pedestrian.

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A berm is introduced to the right side of the island in order to protect the existing structure of the Distribution Center, as well as serve as a park on the top to allow viewing of the New York City skyline, connected to the mainland by a tram line that runs along the inner edge, right above a truck-reserved service street beneath. Within the berm, industrial service programs can be found to the side of the street, while on the outer edge, overlooking the water, pedestrial path leads downward for a multi-level parkway.

In the attempt to clean the pollution of East and Bronx River, a research center is introduced to research and manage the issue that the water is facing.

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Development in Phases 2050: Relocation of auto repairment district + Introduction of berms to prevent early stages of flood + Bury Bruckner Expressway to prevent further air pollution

2200: Food production industrial area replaced the initial location of auto repairment district + Completion of remodeling of the existing residential area, spilling into the Northwest side to initiate permeability

2350: Completion of research areas, broken down to create marshland to prevent further flood in the future + Completion of conversion of initial Bruckner Expressway into elevated productive green pathway

2500: Full completion of the project Water allowed into the project as the new natural shoreline following 500 years floodline + Beaches at the tip of each fingers + Multiple marinas and transportation hub completed

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On the other side of the new water channel is a series of programs laid out along the edge of the mainland. The Eco Transit Hub is located at the northernmost of the area, followed by a residential district where all residents are provided with their personal urban farm at the area near their buildings. Next to it is the Crossing Market, a pedestrian bridge that works a local market that gathers products from within Hunts Point, as well as Hudson Valley, which connects to the Food Distribution Island. To its left is a cluster of agricultural research center that provides a further developed fresh produce to the city, while also serves as marshland at the tip of their fingers to prevent flood into the area.

The design ends with an auto repairment district that is relocated from its former settlement near the Food Distribution Center. The area is separated into two levels. The top level is strictly devoted to pedestrian and a tramway, working as where the auto repairments occur. While the bottom level is filled with storages and vehicular entrances.

Each and every fingertip in the project has its purpose. Apart from the marshland, others contain beaches that works as an inner shoreline for the city, which holds pedestrian activities, as well as water filtration system.

Programmatic

TRANSIT TERMINAL

RESIDENTIAL

WATER AFFAIR RESEARCH CENTER

LOCAL MARKET BIOGLOGICAL RESEARCH CENTER

FOOD DISTRIBUTION INDUSTRIAL

EXPERIMENTAL FOOD RESEARCH AUTO REPAIR DISTRICT

FLOATING FARM AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FLOATING FARM ALGAE RESEARCH

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Apart from the Bruckner and Sheridan Expressways that have been moved to underground, another major vehicular route is an extension of the expressway that carries trucks and automobiles to be dispersed into the isolated island. Where one of the tram line circles around half of the island, and another tram line can be found running along the production strip on the mainland, serving as a municiple connection for the length of the project, stretching from the Eco Transit Hub and ends at the business ferry port where the new auto repairment district is located.

As ferry becomes the major transportation of the project, due to the vast coverage of water, three other ferry ports can be found along the shorlines. A freight port is located on the island, serves as delivery of freight for the food distribution. A commercial port serves as a movement of people who wish to visit the Crossing Market. Lastly, the main ferry port that connects to all other transportation systems at the transit terminal of Eco Transit Hub.

Transportation System

TRANSIT TERMINAL

EXISTING 6 TRAIN / SUBWAY

COMMERCIAL PORT SHUTTLE TRAM

HIGHWAY FREIGHT PORT

HIGH SPEED RAIL BUSINESS PORT

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With the attempt to become a self-sufficient city, various urban farming areas can be found along the mainland of Hunts Point, ranging from the production strip, floating farms, as well as private gardens at the residential district.

Two methods of flood prevention are introduced to the project: berms and marshland. The major berm is at the edge of the island, where existing structure needs to be protected by redirecting water away from the area. On the other hand, marshland is located at the tip of the floating farms to work as a sponge that absorbs water and protect water from the city.

In the hope to repair the damage done in the past, a water management center works to clean leftover pollution in the East and Bronx Rivers, while also reclaim water to provide for the city. An algae wall is found near the floating farm as a way to provide renewable energy, as well as cleaning of the atmosphere around it. Then, an area is dedicated for the recycling of auto parts and various different materials.

Sustainable System

SELF SUFFICIENT FARMING

RECYCLE OF AUTO PARTS

WATER MANAGEMENT

BEACHES SERVE AS WATER FILTRATION

ALGAE WALL AS RENEWABLE ENERGY + FOR RESARCH PURPOSES

MARSHLAND FOR FLOOD + ECOLOGY PROTECTION

BERM PROTECTS FROM FLOOD + REDIRECTS WATER

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Section Through Water Management

Section Through Food Distribution District

Section Through Residential Finger

Section Through Residential Finger

Section Through Floating Farm

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Local: Hunts Point Eco Transit Hub

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Hunts Point Eco Transit Hub is the node where all types of transportation found in Hunts Point connect. The transit center includes: a connection to the existing 6 train Subway where the station that is located a little off to the west of the hub; parking space for vehicles on the route of Bruckner and Sheridan Expressways; a railroad station that serves for the existing Amtrak and CSXT trains, as well as the proposing Maglev; two tram lines that extends to different areas of the city; a municipal ferry port for public ferry, as well as boat parking marina for the public use; and a connection to the production strip which also works as a pedestrian pathway.

The design of the building is organized into two zones: public and private, where the private part serves as a hotel/residential tower, while the public part contains all of transportation systems, commerical zones, and exhibition halls for food, art, and transportation history. The two parts of the building are connected via a long mass of offices.

The main idea for the design is the production strip that runs the length of Hunts Point and continues into the building, transforms into roof garden atop the top of the lower half and continues inside, wrapping upward into the tower, serving as part of the double facade in the residential and hotel area.

Due to the sheer size of the building, both halves contain a puncture in the center of the mass in order to allow natural light to travel to the bottom floor.

This also applies to the underground level, which contains many modes of transportation, where an aquarium is introduced in the center, serving as a decoration as well as a light well.

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Vertical Circulation

Green Pathway 138

Underground Floor Plan

AQUARIUM

RAILROAD STATION REGIONAL TRACK (HIGH SPEED) LOCAL TRACK

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COMMERCIAL

6 TRAIN SUBWAY

CONCOURSE

PARKING

COMMERCIAL

Ground Floor Plan

TRAM STATION

FIELD SPORTS

COURT SPORTS

FERRY STATION

EXHIBITION HALL

PUBLIC MARINA

MUNICIPAL

PRIVATE MARINA

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OFFICES

Third Floor Plan

TRAM STATION

OFFICES

EXHIBITION HALL

OFFICES

RESTAURANTS

Fifth Floor Plan

OFFICES

LOCAL MARKET

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HOTEL

Ninth Floor Plan

OFFICES

OFFICES

EXHIBITION HALL

HOTEL

LOBBY

Typical Floor Plan

RESIDENTIAL

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Local: Agricultural Research Center

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Vertical Circulation

Indoor Green 149

Agricultural Research Center is a group of four fingers that extend from the mainland into the water, with an additional of one more finger to the left, which is a Bioremediation Research Center that serves to research algae wall.

Two of the fingers are hard programs, which are the Agricultural Research Center, which is devoted to the further understanding of agriculture and the attempt to maximize capacity of farming, and Food Experimental Research Center, which is devoted to the new technology and invention of food culture such as molecular gastronomy. Each of the two fingers are provided with their own floating farms to their left that cater to the work of the research.

The typology of the buildings in this area works as a cluster of three buildings, where each one contains distrinct programs: research and offices, convention and hotel, and residential.

The ground level of every building serves as restaurants, markets, and commercial for public. On the other hand, the residential building is strictly reserved for the employees who work in the area, which led to the form of a small footprint but tall tower. The second building is where the food and agricultural conventions are held, which is why hotels and temporary housings are provided for the visitors for the events. The research center is the longest building, but also shortest, containing four main programs: offices for general comapnies, research labs for specific affairs, vertical farming, and botanical garden that is dedicated to the research.

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BOTANICAL GARDEN

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OFFICES

RESIDENTIAL

RESEARCH LAB

Typical Floor Plan

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Mutated: A Story of 2350

My sister and I grew up listening to our great grandfather’s tales. He might have been in his 160’s, but the old man never shut up about anything. And even after all the stories he told us, I’m still not sure what we have to be so proud of that he had to go on and on about our ancestors. How they spent months on the boat before arriving at this country, settled down in Hunts Point, and moved to Albany in 2025 because of the redevelopment.

“Hunts Point,” his cracking voice still sounds so clear in my memory, “wasn’t much of anything.”

That was how he always started his stories. And, like he said, it wasn’t much of anything. Hunts Point was a peninsula, framed on three sides by East River, Bronx River, and a highway that seem to have separated the town from the rest of South Bronx. Within the one and a half square mile, half of it was dedicated to this food distribution center, and the other half to what he used to call ‘industrial’. There was a small chunk of the town, about five blocks radius, for residential. That was where my ancestors lived.

“He was a mechanic,” my great grandfather said, “worked on cars.” He chuckled when our expressions shifted from bored to confused, and then explain. “Once upon a time, when we didn’t have droids, humans used to fix things themselves. It was a profession.”

He went on about how hard it was to travel anywhere from Hunts Point. That without a car, the only ways in and out of the peninsula were a 6 train that ran along the highway and maybe a few buses if you didn’t wish to go far. And if you wanted to catch a flight somewhere, you might as well jump onto those flying planes that passed by every few minutes than to spend an hour, sometimes two, on three different connections.

“His laughs used to shower us with joy like spring rain,” a trembling voice brought me back to the present.

The frail figure of my grandmother is barely standing up to give a eulogy to her father. She continues for a few moments before she finally breaks apart and has to step out. One hundred and ninety-one years. Most of us have known him for all our lives, and yet somehow, it still wasn’t enough.

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After the funeral, I separated from my family. They insisted on my staying at the old house here in Albany, but my boss wanted me back at the office by the end of lunch. I hop on a 12.03 train and arrived at the Hunts Point Transit Station in forty minutes.

I know, I work here now. In fact, I actually live in the same building as my workplace. In what Hunts Point is today, every office building provides a reserved residential tower nearby for their employees. I could’ve chosen to live somewhere else and commute to work. That wouldn’t take more than half an hour if I remain in the Hudson Valley, but because of my great grandfather’s constant brainwashing, I secretly grew oddly attached to this place even before I visited.

I work in the Food Experimental Research Center located a little to the west of Hunts Point. With the tram that runs along Bruckner Boulevard from the Transit Station, I arrive at the office with ten minutes to spare. I like riding the tram.

Something about it calms me, gives me a peace of mind. Unlike Maglev or even the subway, this is relatively slow, enough to let me enjoy the surroundings once in a while. I usually sit on the south side where the windows look out to the old highway. My great grandfather told me that they remodeled the structure quite a bit to support light farming. My early mornings are often spent jogging through the greeneries atop, watching the farmers nurture and harvest their corns. At the boulevard under it, yellow carpods flash by left and right, rushing to their destination as fast as they can. People don’t drive themselves anymore nowadays. We don’t need to. With the system of autonomous cars, what is the point.

After work, I head towards the Crossing Market as I regularly do to acquire new and unique inspirations. On the way through the boulevard, I can feel the sun setting behind me, and witness the building lights going off one by one at the island of Food Distribution District across the new water channel. As I arrive, the area has already been filled with people. Crossing Market is the only pedestrian connection to the island, with the its length lined with various commercial goods, especially local food product found along the Hudson or within Hunts Point itself.

Cutting through Hunts Point is a channel of water with fingers of land loudly facing off one another, with beaches softly extending from their tips into the water.

And I found that this spot, right below the end of the bridge, is the best place to quietly observe the stream of constant flow of people going home.

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ADDENDUM

The Landscape Urbanism Reader

Charles Waldheim 2006

Extrastatecraft

The Power of Infrastructure Space

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Keller Easterling 2014

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166

Splintering Urbanism

Networked Infrasructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition

167

Stephen Graham + Simon Marvin 2001

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Mamma Roma

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Pier Paolo Pasolini 1962

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171

172

Through A Glass Darkly

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Ingmar Bergman 1961

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Cries and Whispers

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Ingmar Bergman 1972

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ECO MUTATIONS of

INFRASTRUCTURES Towards an Integrated and Sustainable “Grayscape”

Pattranun Bunyanund