DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
LIFE IN THE FLOW Emily King | East Bangor
Life in the Flow is an alternative form to urban expansion that celebrates and preserves a cultural symbol while reviving the area from ecological damage suffered. By creating living space that harmoniously ties to the landscape, the historic slate piles become more legible and show that the landscape is important and continues to have a life post-industry. After regional and local analyses of hydrological conditions, this area was selected for its potential to create a smart living style which balanced historic preservation with ecological revitalization as the site is the result of mining excavations and situated in a floodplain. Through topographic manipulations of the edges of already compromised slate piles, water flow is introduced to the area; thus bringing sedimentation and vegetation. Housing is situated at the base of the piles as they operate like porous, metabolic bands. Taking the problematic runoff and incorporating it into living, then onto the larger water system, the living areas become necessary interceptors to water runoff issues.
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By designing a living community within a park system, attention is brought to these post-industrial relics and a network established to connect the piles and down to Bangor. This form of living can serve as a prototype for implementation in other post-industrial, flood-prone areas as Pennsylvania has an economic industrial backbone, more miles of streams than any other state, and over ninety percent of municipalities in flood-prone areas.