Uncanny Transitions Amnon Verberne | August 2020 instructed by
Arch. Shmaya Zarfati Arch. Yishai Well Dr. Arch. Or Aleksandrowicz
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Amnon Verberne
Uncanny Transitions
Final Project Consciousness and Sustainability Studio Instructors | Arch. Shmaya Zarfati, Arch. Yishai Well Research Seminar Instructor | Dr. Arch. Or Aleksandrowicz Architecture and Town Planning Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion 2020 | התש״פ
Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning
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Table of contents Uncanny Transitions 6 Tracing the Uncanny 8 I – The Uncanny, a bourgeois kind of dread 12 II – The Uncanny of Urban Congestion and Individual Estrangement 14 III – The Uncanny of Deconstructed Structures 16 IV - The Uncanny of Climate Change 20
Anthropogenic Climate Change The Front Line of Climate Change The Urban Tendency to Amplify Global Warming Baseline Effects
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Our Local Climate Dialect
26 Tel Aviv-Yafo, at the vanguard 28 Stormy and Warm 30 Urban Microclimate - Overview 30 Urban Microclimate - Tel Aviv-Yafo 32 Urban Flooding - Overview 34 Urban Flooding - Tel Aviv-Yafo 34
Adapt and Expose 36 Jaffa’s Swamp 48 Basin’s Bottom 64 Runoff volumes within Jaffa’s basin 66
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Strategy and Methodology - Macro 68 An Urban Sponge 68 Strategy and Methodology - Micro
82 Sculpted ground surface 82 Runoff life cycle 86
Typology 88 Orientation 90 Co-existing systems 94 Single block, way of operation 96
Basin’s Bottom - Revised
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Bibliography 122 Additional Credits 123
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Uncanny Transitions The Uncanny, the Unheimlich , or the Unhomely, is a term coined by the German philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later developed by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. It is a challenging concept to perceive, due to its intrinsic, elusive, nature. The uncanny is a specific class of dread, which rises from the transformation of something that once seemed homely into something decidedly not so.16 Pinpointing its potential applications and implications concerning space and the discipline of architecture in the current context may prove quite challenging. It may take different forms; a feeling of estrangement felt while revisiting a once familiar place that has changed since, or a feeling of unease caused by an intrusion of an alien presence to a space once considered familiar and safe. Although first used in the field of Psychoanalysis, such readings of the Uncanny ground it in the spatial realm as well, and so it sets foot in the architectural domain. It rises when a space which was once homely and secure gradually becomes hostile. Such gradual transformation may be read in the environments we inhabit today; as the destructive impacts related to climate change are increasing, the environment which accommodates us, and which we address as our “home�, is being transformed and defamiliarized. Due to the ongoing nature of the transition, reality is projected to present us with ever intensifying unhomely situations. This, in turn, may raise the question whether architectural action could provide answers to the uncanny spatial situations caused by climate change, and at the same time communicate its spatial impacts and implications. 6 Anthony Vidler, The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely, (MIT Press,1992), 6-8, 14 6
Conceptual exploration, physical models, white sponge
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Tracing the Uncanny In the entry of his book,The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely, Anthony Vidler, an architectural historian and critic, quotes Sigmund Freud’s take on the “Uncanny”: a specific class of dread. This dread, according to Vidler’s reading of Freud,71 rises from the transformation of something that once seemed homely into something decidedly not so. Freud goes further in his writings about the term and the conditions in which it rises.
This Uncanny, is […] nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression… The Uncanny [is] something which ought to have remained hidden but has come to light.8 The Uncanny may take different forms; for an example, a feeling of estrangement while revisiting a once familiar place that has, in the meanwhile, changed in ways hard to point at. Another form, according to Freud, is that of a feeling of unease, caused by an intrusion of an alien presence to a space once considered safe and familiar. This reading of the Uncanny by Freud positions it not only in the Psychoanalytical field in which Freud operates, but also grounds it in the spatial, and thus in the Architectural realm. In his essays, Vidler recognizes and describes three distinct periods in history in which the Uncanny had manifested itself, specifically in relations to Architecture and space.
7 Sigmund Freud, in The Architectural Uncanny, p.6 8 Sigmund Freud on Schelling, Anthony Vidler, the Architectural Uncanny, p.14 8
Empty Spaces People-Less Spaces, Archive, 2016, Lomography net9
Anthony Vidler (1941)
1992, MIT Press
Architectural historian and critic at Cooper Union
In his essays, Anthony Vidler recognizes and describes three distinct periods in history in which the Uncanny had manifested itself, specifically in relations to Architecture and space.
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I 18th Century Writings of E.T.A Hoffman, Edgar Allen Poe The Contrast between a safe and homely place and the intrusion of an alien presence Painting by Edward Lamson Henry
II Early 19th Century Writings of Georg Simmel, Emil When the city became a metropolis: The alienation felt by the individual towards the radically changing surrounding
Berlin Alexanderplatz, 1903
III 1960’s, Peak during the 1980’s - 1990’s Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, Coop Himmelblau, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry A call for Architecture that unsettles, Architecture claims the role of a critic
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I – The Uncanny, a bourgeois kind of dread The first appearance of the uncanny in relations to architecture and space occurred, according to Vidler, in the late eighteenth century. The Uncanny, then, had manifested itself in the writings of various influential key figures and authors in the literary Romanticism movement . Among these figures were American author Edgar Allen Poe, and E.T.A Hoffmann, an influential German author. In their texts, often relegated to the genre of fairy tales, Poe and Hoffmann, seemed to repeatedly thematize the contrast which arises in a safe and homely space, intruded by an alien presence. Vidler goes on to describe this recurring theme as a utilization of the high-class fear, or the bourgeois kind of dread. The uncanny is felt precisely then, when an alien presence that invades the individual’s most intimate space, precisely then when he is surrounded by his own familiar material possessions and boundaries on which he should have control. Though not always the case, in most of their stories, the invading presence takes the slightly imaginary form of a spirit or another characters’ own double. Regardless of the specific appearance, the uncanny sensations conveyed in Poe and Hoffmann’s stories, seems to be rooted in a fundamental insecurity; the concept of one not feeling at home in his own home.91 The home or haven is altered, turns into something which is on one hand familiar, but on the other one – alien, cold, and strange. The homely becomes unhomely and hence menacing.
9 The Architectural Uncanny, Vidler, Unhomely Houses, p. 17 12
“The Grey Drawing Room” [distorted] Original painting by Albert Chevallier Tayler, year unknown
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II – The Uncanny of Urban Congestion and Individual Estrangement The second manifestation of the uncanny in relations to architecture and space occurred, according to Vidler, during the late nineteenth century, when cities were gradually transforming into metropolises. Writers and theorists of that time, such as the sociologist and critic Georg Simmel, the novelist Emile Zola and the poet Charles Baudelaire described and explored the estrangement felt by the individual towards its surrounding as well as the loneliness and the sensual overload in their era’s evolving modern condition. Baudelaire describes in detail an experience which conveys this feeling - an individual’s stroll along the overly crowded boulevards of Paris – his, and Baudelaire’s own hometown – as he struggles to maintain some sense of individual security, and as he fervently looks for clues as to his own whereabouts. The familiar city was quickly transforming – it was suddenly rescaled, evolved into something else, much less accommodating and secure. Some of the ailments of the transformation of the rapidly growing cities, including some individual and social conditions went on to become a matter of public concern, and are perhaps held accountable for the paradigm shift in urban planning and architecture during the 20th century. It was then when theorists and architects began developing urban planning models aiming to mitigate the consequences of such rapid changes, by attempting to provide citizens with healthier, more accommodating and less congested urban conditions.
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Unter den Linden, Berlin, 19th century, photographs by monovision magazine
Alexanderplatz, 1903, monovision
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III – The Uncanny of Deconstructed Structures The third and latest, as of publishing his book in 1992, manifestation, according to Vidler, was the interest sparked in the Uncanny in the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s, among architects of that time . This resurgence, Vidler assumes, had happened partly as a result of the publications of Derrida’s and Lacan’s close readings of Freud on the subject,101 and was most prominent during the 1980’s, and even during the publication of his book in 1992. This resurgence was mostly led by a few, now renowned, architects such as Bernard Tschumi, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Frank Ghery, Zaha Hadid and Wolf D. Prix of Coop-Himmelblau. Those architects, claims Vidler, seemed to attempt to explore the hidden terrors of the domestic. Some of them explicitly called, in their textual and public declarations, for architecture that unsettles, rather than accommodates, and thus took a critical role usually reserved to literature and other forms of media. Some of the most influential of this period’s architecture, according to Vidler’s reading, seemed to be indeed invested in the exploration of spatial qualities which may evoke the Uncanny among other unsettling sensations. For them, Vidler says, shaking off comfort was similar to shaking off ornaments by Modernist Architects. A straightforward example for the deliberateness, or this goal may be read in the manifest “Architecture Must Blaze”, by Austria-based architect Wolf D. Prix and his partners in Coop-Himmelblau (1980):2
We don’t want to exclude everything that is disquieting. We want architecture that has more. Architecture that bleeds, that exhausts, that whirls, and even breaks. Architecture that lights up, stings, rips, and tears under stress. 11 10 The Architectural Uncanny, Vidler, Preface, p 10 - 12 11 Coop-Himmelb(l)au, 1980, The Architectural Uncanny, 1988 16
Jewish History Museum, Daniel Liebeskind, 2001 Photo: Jose Antonio Piga
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Spaces were manipulated, and analogies to the human body and psych were made. These included various acts such as dismissing hierarchy, repetition, fragmentation, or the transformation of the familiar spatial grammar. The facade (the face), the interior (the intestines), the skeleton (construction) were dismembered, decontextualized, and experimented on. According to Vidler, deliberate use of the qualities of the uncanny, and the aim to provoke it were made in Coop-Himmelblau’s projects as well as other contemporaries.
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Bottom row: Coop Himmelb(l)au, left;
Familian House, physical model.
Rooftop remodeling Falkestrasse (1983)
John Clagett, C.Gregory Walsh.
and right; Blazing Wing (1980)
Photo owned by MOMA
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IV - The Uncanny of Climate Change Vidler had read three distinct historical points during which the uncanny had manifested in relations to architecture and space. As he points out, on one hand he, and Freud before him, acknowledged the complexity and the ambiguous of the term, but, on the other, both have believed that in each and every case, the Uncanny arose from the transformation of something that was once homely, into something decidedly not so, that is – there was always an eruption of the Unheimlich within the Heimlich. I argue that another version of the Uncanny will soon be constructed – the uncanny of climate change. Climate change is a major, ongoing, unruly transformation on a global scale. Our once familiar environments and our homes are being transformed, whatever now is considered homely, familiar, and hospitable is gradually becoming unhomely, alien and even hostile. Thus, soon to become our indisputable reality, climate change is bound to create a fourth, and perhaps an uncontrollable, type of the uncanny, the specific shift in the conditions and characteristics of this context acting as its platform.
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Paris, June 2019, photo by euractiv
Venice, November 2019, photograph by theguardian 21
Anthropogenic Climate Change the destructive impacts related to climate change are arguably increasing, and the infrastructures supporting human life have already been 1 severely impacted by it.12 The most prominent fluctuations of extreme
climate conditions in the last decades are already observed and projected. Weather patterns are shifting, surface temperatures are rising globally. The climate is changing and the environmental conditions are becoming harsher. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up by the UN Environment Program and the World Meteorological organization to provide an objective source of scientific information concerning climate change. Its’ published information is considered to be highly reliable among governments. The IPCC researches, collects, summarizes, and releases assessment reports concerning the implications of said climate changes. These reports are distributed to policy makers around the world. These documents communicate and clarify data about the different impacts of climate change, as well as on its implications on human and natural systems. They contain recommendations and data about possible measures which are needed to be taken, in various scales – regionally and globally – in order to mitigate the various impacts related to these changes. These reports also contain vulnerability maps and cover the specific conditions which may exacerbate the impacts of specific climate change impacts in specific places worldwide. The reports also elaborate on the relations between anthropogenic behavior and the impacts of climate change.
12 Social Sustainability: A New Conceptual Framework, Efrat Eizenberg and Yosef Jabareen, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, p. 6 22
According to the IPCC, Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems. Observed changes, such as rising temperatures, in the climate system since the 1950s is unequivocal, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. These trends concerning climate change, according to the IPCC, will amplify existing risks in the future and create new risks for natural and human systems.131 According to IPCC’s reports, it is very likely that heat waves will occur more often and last longer, and that in many regions extreme precipitation events will become more intense. The ocean will continue to warm and acidify, and global mean sea level will rise. {2.2} These are just a few of the implications concerning this trend.
13 AR5 Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Summary for Policy Makers, 2.3, p 13 IPCC, 2014 23
The Front Line of Climate Change According to Cynthia Rosenzweig, an American agronomist and climatologist at NASA, cities find themselves on the front lines of climate change, in more ways than one.141 Rosenzweig claims that cities should be considered crucial, and central elements in any global responses to climate change. Cities have outsize effects on their own environment, as mentioned before, they create so-called urban heat islands (UHIs) and pollute their own air and water. They generate most of the overall global greenhouse gas emissions, and so they are obvious targets for mitigation efforts. Rosenzweig mention a few factors that support her argument as to what makes cities especially vulnerable to climate changes and their impacts. Firstly, most people on the planet now live in cities, and urban growth is projected to increase during the twenty-first century. Secondly, cities are economic hubs, and often support a larger metropolitan, or national region. That factor is a strength as well as a vulnerability – as centers of wealth and innovation, cities often have the best tools and greatest resources for tackling the challenges of climate change. Lastly, says Rosenzweig, most cities are built, along coasts and riverbanks, a fact which makes them vulnerable to some of the most potentially damaging effects of climate change, such as increases in sea level and storm surges. Moreover, most cities continue to expand, in size, land use as well as in population, a fact that may amplify their vulnerabilities.
14 William Solecki, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Stephen Hammer, and Shagun Mehrotra, The Urbanization of Climate Change: Responding to a New Global Challenge, in The Urban Transformation: Health, Shelter, and Climate Change (2013), p 107-108 24
The Urban Tendency to Amplify Global Warming Baseline Effects The urban environment and the human activity in it are projected to amplify global warming’s baseline effects. To quote the IPCC again, surface temperature is projected to rise over the 21st century under all assessed emission scenarios. Also, as the temperatures rise, more frequent and intense floods and droughts will put even greater demands on water supplies that are often scarce already, as well as cause much higher property damages. And as Rosenzweig elaborates, cities are already hotter than their surrounding suburban and rural areas, because the now urban landscape is made up of concrete and other building materials which absorb and release heat, rather than vegetation, soil and trees, which possess evaporative and cooling qualities. The result is the now-familiar phenomenon of the Urban Heat Island, or Urban Micro-Climate, which will be exacerbated in cities as the climate shifts. The fact that the streets in urban areas are usually covered in concrete and asphalt do not only make them hotter. Expanding cities, done the way they are now, meaning even more asphalt and concrete and less permeable soil, as well as potential overload on existing city drainage infrastructure, make them more vulnerable to intense floods.
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Our Local Climate Dialect Climate change is global, but its impacts are context-dependent. Thus, different areas with different climatic characteristics will face different challenges. Israel’s climate is Mediterranean, and as such it is typically characterized by long and dry summers, as well as short and rainy winters. Israel is already known to suffer from heat waves and droughts, as well as flash floods in the spring and autumn. It also suffers from lack of freshwater resources, a lack of arable land and desertification.151 Other hazards may include air pollution, groundwater pollution, and sea pollution due to domestic wastes. Most of these hazards, or geographic challenges are projected to escalate, and become much graver.
15 Israel Meteorological Service, climate change in Israel, past and projected tendencies in the temperature and precipitation tendencies, November 2019, IMS report number 0000075-2019-0804-4000 26
According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Israel, a significant increase of 0.5°C per decade, 2°C by 2050, is forecasted throughout the country, especially along the western coasts, the northern Negev and the Judaean Mountains area, along with an increase in the duration and quantity of heat waves. The MOEPI states a long list of the impending impacts related to climate change, including an increase in UV radiation-related diseases, desertification, wildfires, scarcity of water for all uses, a hazardous rise in sea level forecasted to impact all Israel’s shorelines and more.161 A decrease of approximately 30 mm of the annual rainfall per decade is forecasted for the north of the country - 120 mm until 2050, possibly causing droughts, while the intensity of the individual precipitation events is projected to increase.172 Israel’s cities are no different than others, which places them, unsurprisingly, in the front line of climate changes, and as crucial elements in addressing it, both in mitigating the forecasted destructive impacts and damages – and as points of vulnerability, in which adaptation should be prioritized. As the MOEPI states, the urban heat islands and urban floods are two major impacts which are projected to be especially intense in cities.
16 Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection (Official website), climate change, implications of climate change in Israel 17 IMEP (Official website), energy & climate change, climate change and adaptation 27
Tel Aviv-Yafo, at the vanguard During 2018, the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo has joined the C40, a network of cities around the world, aiming to combine their knowledge to raise their resilience, tackle the challenges of climate change and miti ĘŹĘ Ę¸ĘšĘŠ ʺʰʊʣʎ ʤʸʼʥʧʺʤ ʣʸʚʎ gate its negative impacts on their urban environment.181 It is the first city ĘŠĘ˘ĘĽĘŹĘĽĘ¸ĘĽĘ Ę¨ĘŽĘ¤ ʺʼʸʊʚʤ
in Israel to do so. Since then, as of 2020, the municipality, in joint efforts
with the IMS, and other organizations, and by following ž²Â&#x;¢²Ž¨¢ › ÂŁÂ&#x;ª£³ž ´Â&#x;¨œ¨the “Deadline 2020â€? – a C40 initiative, in the form of a commitment to urgently pursue ʤʴʼʡʺʥ Ęś ĘŽ ĘŤĘĄ ʤʺʏʲ ĘŹĘ Ę¸ĘšĘŠĘĄ ʺʲʜʼʎʎʤ ʤʸʼʨʸʴʎʨʤ x a “resilience high ambition climate action – Tel Aviv-Yafo is working on ĘĽĘŚ ʤʊʏʲʏ ʺʲʸʍʎ ʤʎʼʸʺ ʼʎʸʺ ĘşĘĽĘ°ĘĽĘ¸Ę§Ę Ę¤ Ęʊʰʚʤ Ęʊʚʼʏʚ
acceleratorâ€? project to tackle these challenges. The project’s plan of ĘŽ ʺʊʧʍʼʰʤ ʤʴʼʡʺʤʎ ʺʼʏʲʏ ʤʊʼʴʜ ĘŹĘ Ę¸ĘšĘŠĘĄ ʺʲʜʼʎʎʤ ʤʸʼʨʸʴʎʨʤ x
ĘĽĘ Z WĎ°Í˜Ďą ĘŠĘŽĘŠĘ¨Ę´ĘĽĘ Ę¤ ʚʊʧʸʺʥ Ęś ĘŽ action, goals and schedule were ĘŤ ʣʼʲʥ published ʳʼʹ ʣʲʼ on August, 2020, along with Z WĎ´Í˜Ďą ʊʎʊʹʴʤ ʚʊʧʸʺʥ Ęś ĘŽ
ĘŤĘĄ
summarized reports the most urgent threats ʤʣʊʸʊ Ęʲ ʣʧʊʥ Ęʊʎʧʤ concerning ʺʼʏʊʏʤʼ Ęʊʎʊʤ ʸʴʹʎ ʺʼʸʊʣʺʥ ʤʊʏʲ Ę¤Ę ĘśĘŽĘ° x and ‍ חו×?‏tasks at ʪʚʎʊʤʏ ʤʊʼʴʜʚ ʤʎʢʎ Ęʊʸʡʤ ʺʼʏʊʏʤʼ Ęʊʎʊʤ ʺʼʸʊʣʺʥ
hand, in theʺʼʣʊʣʎʥ form ofʯʤa ʾʊʡʤ document named “Plan of‍הממו׌עת‏ Action – Climate Change ‍ה×?×—×¨×•× ×•×Ş תרמו‏ ;2017-1950 ‍בתקופה‏ ‍׌פויה‏ ‍בי׊ר×?×œâ€Ź ĘŻĘ¤ĘĽâ€Ť×”×Š× ×™×?‏ Ę¸ĘĄĘ˛Ę¤â€Ť×Š×œ×•×Š×™×?‏ ʺʰʼʲʥ â€Ť×œ×˘×œ×•×Şâ€Ź ʸʺʼʊ ʺʨʏʼʥ ʺʼʎʎʧʺʤʤ ĘşĘŽĘ˘ĘŽâ€Ť×”×˜×ž×¤×¨×˜×•×¨×”â€Ź x ‍ בעוד‏2050 ‍( עד ץוף‏2018) â€Ť×”× ×•×›×—×™×Şâ€Ź ‍מהתקופה‏ .20‍תרומה מכרעת ×œ×˘×œ×™×™×” זו‏ ʺʼʊʌʧʺʥ Preparation, 2020â€?, or, the “Resilience accelerator projectâ€? (translated
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A change in Israel’s average temperatures and projected trend Graph by the IMS, excerpt from Tel Aviv-Yafo’s preparation program. P. 29
Observations TM RCP4.5 TM RCP8.5
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-2 1950
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1960
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1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
ʲʜʼʎʎ . ʺʴʼʡʺʏ ʹʧʊʥ ĘŹĘ Ę¸ĘšĘŠĘĄ ʺʊʺʰʚʤ ʺʲʜʼʎʎʤ ʤʸʼʨʸʴʎʨʥ ʊʼʰʊʚʤ Ę¸ĘĽĘŠĘ 18 C40 official ʹʼʧʊ website ʚʊʧʸʺ ʸʼʥʲ ĘŹĘĄĘŽĘąĘ°Ę Ę¤ ʲʜʼʎʎ ʨʏʼʥ ʡʼʸʊʥ
ʚʊʧʸʺ ʸʼʥʲ ĘŹĘĄĘŽĘąĘ°Ę Ę¤ ʲʜʼʎʎ ʸʼʧʚʥ ʺʼʊʴʜʺʤ ĘĽ ʡʼʸʊ
Ęʊʚʊʧʸʺʏ ĘĘ ĘşĘ¤ĘĄ Ęʊʰʼʚʤ Ęʊʏʣʼʎʤ ĘşĘĽĘ ĘśĘĽĘş ʸʼʌʊʴ ĘşĘ Ęʊʰʊʊʜʎ Ęʊʡʣ Ęʊʼʼʡ ʨʏʼʥ ĘĘĽĘŁĘ ĘĄ
ʚʊʧʸʺ ĘŹĘŤĘŹ Ęʊʰʼʚʤ Ęʊʏʣʼʎʤ ʊʲʜʼʎʎ ʺʼʢʏʴʺʤ ĘşĘ ĘĘŠĘ¸Ę ĘşĘŽ
ʤʹʴʼʡʤ ʊʎʊʚʸʺ ĘĘĽĘŁĘ ĘĄ RCP8.5 ʸʼʧʚ ĘŠĘˇĘ´ĘĽĘ ĘĽĘˇĘĄ ʯʊʊʼʜʎ ʺʼʢʏʴʺʤʤ ʯʼʊʜʧ ʤʴʼʡʺʏ
‍ ממו׌ע ×”×?× ×Ą×ž×‘×œâ€Ź,(‍ ממו׌ע הת׌פיות )ב׊חור‏.1990-1961 ‍( ×”×Š× ×Ş×™×Ş בי׊ר×?ל ביחץ ×œ×Ş×§×•×¤×Ş יחוץ‏TM) â€Ť×”×Š×™× ×•×™ בטמפרטורה הממו׌עת‏ ‍ קווי×? דקי×? ×ž×Ś×™×™× ×™×? ×?ת פיזור תו׌×?ות‏.(‍ )ב×?דו×? ×‘×•×œ×˜â€ŹRCP8.5 ‍ ממו׌ע ×”×?× ×Ą×ž×‘×œ בעבור תרחי׊‏,(‍ )בירוק ×‘×•×œ×˜â€ŹRCP4.5 ‍בעבור תרחי׊‏ ‍( מת×?רי×? ×?ת ×”×Ş×¤×œ×’×•×Ş ממו׌עי‏boxplots) ‍ תר׊ימי הקופץה‏.(‍ )ב×?דו×?‏RCP8.5-‍ )ירוק( ו‏RCP4.5 â€Ť×”×ž×•×“×œ×™×? ×”×Š×•× ×™×? בהת×?×? ×œ×Ş×¨×—×™×Š×™×?‏ .‍ ח׌יו×&#x; ×”×”×Ş×¤×œ×’×•×Ş מ׌וי×&#x; בקו ×?ופקי ׊חור‏.2050-2021 ‍ ×œ×Ş×§×•×¤×”â€Ź,â€Ť×”×ž×•×“×œ×™×? ×”×Š×•× ×™×? לכל תרחי׊‏
ĘşĘ Ę¸ĘˇĘŹ ʡʸ ʊʼʨʊʥ ĘŠĘŁĘŠĘŹ Ę ĘĽĘĄĘŠ ĘĽĘŹĘ ĘĘŠĘ°ĘĽĘš Ęʊʚʊʧʸʺ ĘŻĘŠĘĄ ʊʼʌʧʤ ĘĘŠĘŹĘˇĘ ĘĄ ʏʼʣʢʤ ʏʣʥʤʤ ĘŠĘŤ ĘĄĘŹ Ęʊʚʏ ĘŠĘ ĘŁĘŤ ĘşĘ ĘŚ Ęʲ ʣʧʊ ĎŽ
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“Stormy and Warm”191 According to the findings of the resilience accelerator’s team, based on reports by the IPCC, team members’ own research tools and mappings, and data from the IMS, as the heat rises in the middle east, and in Israel, Tel Aviv-Yafo will suffer from an increasing number of urban flooding and from an even warmer micro-urban climate (urban heat islands) in some of its urban areas.
2 Urban Microclimate - Overview20
The Urban Microclimate, or most commonly known as the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) is a phenomenon in which urbanized areas experience higher temperatures than their outlying counterparts. That, is due mostly to the fact that buildings, roads, parking lots and other infrastructures absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes such as forests, bare soil, grass and water bodies. Urban areas, where these structures are highly concentrated and greenery is scarce, become “islands” of higher temperatures. Other “contributing” factors are; the fact that human activity which emits heat is intense in these urbanized areas, and the building morphology of low rising buildings that do not provide ample shade, and leave most of the area’s surfaces bare and exposed to radiation. Daytime temperatures in urban areas are about 1–3°C higher than temperatures in outlying areas and nighttime temperatures are about 2-5°C higher (in extreme cases, in very large cities, the difference may be up to 12°C). 19 “Climate Change Preparation Plan, 2020”, municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo, p. 28-41 20 General overview of urban flooding and urban microclimate, their definitions and diagrams are based on the US Environment Protection Agency’s definition and diagrams, USEPA official website 30
Urban Microclimate - more commonly known as, the “Urban heat island effect”
Solar Radiation
Reflected solar radiation
Reduced outgoing heat radiation
Anthropogenic Heat
EPA Scheme, modified and simplified
According to EPA and ICCP reports, the annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8– 5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings. In the evening, the difference can be as high as 22°F (12°C).
Rural area
Suburban Residential Area
City Center
Rural Residential / Rural “Farmland” Area
Rural area
Based on USEPA Scheme 31
Among the effects of excess heat within the urban heat islands An increase in heat-related illness, a higher demand for medical care, a decrease in usage of public spaces, an increase in the costs of regular maintenance across the board. Populations at risk are even more vulnerable.
Urban Microclimate - Tel Aviv-Yafo Tel Aviv-Yafo is becoming warmer, both during the day and during the night – on the surface level and in the sea. The rising heat is expressed both in an increase in the average temperatures throughout, and in the frequency of heat waves. The full document describes different scenarios. By 2080, the temperatures in Tel Aviv-Yafo are projected to rise by up to 1.8(low assessment) to 4.5 (high assessment) Celsius degrees. By 2080, the number of days in which the temperatures will be higher than 33 Celsius is projected to rise by up to 66-129 (low and high assessments respectively). Heat waves duration by 2080 is projected to 1 increase by 10-30 days per year.21
21 “Climate Change Preparation Plan, 2020”, p. 31, 32
33
Urban Flooding - Overview Urban flooding are extreme flooding events that occur during storms, and deal damage to property or to life within the urban space. Urban flooding may be caused due to a combination of natural and human factors. For an example, human settling in low areas prone to floods due to runoff, urban sprawl which covers the permeable surfaces with impermeable ones, and the incapability of the urban drainage system 1 to get rid of the excess runoff.22
Damages to most urban infrastructures, especially to transportation. Urban flooding may inflict heavy damage to property and may even cause casualties in human lives, as they have in the past. Populations at risk are even more vulnerable.
Urban Flooding - Tel Aviv-Yafo According to the IMS, Tel Aviv-Yafo’s the overall precipitation in the urban space is projected to decrease immensely by the end of the century. However, the intensity of local precipitation events rises. The frequency of intense storms is projected to increase. Consequently, the threat of urban flooding due to said storms is projected to increase.
22 USEPA Diagrams and definition, USEPA official website 34
Human actions and natural factors contributing the threat of urban floods diagrams loosely based on the USEPA’s
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Adapt and Expose The anthropogenic impact on the environment, the state in which human behavior leads to unprecedented change in the environment, may share some merits with another era mentioned before. A period in which human activity has altered the environment completely. Such times I wish to point out are the events after the institution of industry and modernization, following the industrial revolution, which ultimately led to the city becoming a metropolis. As mentioned before, this is the era in which, according to Vidler, the Architectural Uncanny manifested itself the second time, in writings about the estrangement of a radically transforming environment. Perhaps, the ongoing human activity and its impacts on the environment may curate the suitable conditions for the fourth version of the Architectural Uncanny to be constructed. The environment which accommodates us, and which we address as our “home”, is being transformed, defamiliarized. The “behavior” of heat, water, pollutants and more, seems to evolve to an anomaly – a faceless looming presence which invades the places that we consider homely, and alters them into an environment decidedly unhomely.
36
The homely, the familiar, transforms into something decidedly not so. In our local context, the rain, often considered a blessing in dry and warm lands such as ours becomes a nuisance or a menacing presence
37
Well-established research bodies such as the IPCC have been claiming that immediate mitigation and adaptation actions must be taken by all relevant authorities and policy makers.231 Despite those, and de2 spite that fact that some measures are indeed being taken worldwide,24
there seems to be a general inadequacy to adapt accordingly.253 That is a complex matter, which revolves around various causes and factors – political and economic-interests, psychological patterns of denial and repression, such as a cognitive dissonance in light of a threat, plain skepticism and so on.
23 Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand, Hayden Washington and John Cook, Earthscan, 2011, p.7 24 UNFCCC, The Paris Agreement, as an example 25 Hayden Washington and John Cook, Earthscan, 2011, p.8 38
Slow, gradual transformation, we tend to repress
39
Regardless of the factors at play, a layer of repression seems to exist. A layer which keeps us from internalizing that an actual need for adaptation is required. I wish to argue that this layer is sometimes punctured by glimpses of awareness or dread, in light of the transformation of our surroundings. Yet, these glimpses, mostly, do not last for long and do not possess a serious, lasting effect. They do not stir into radical, seemingly necessary, actions . Sometimes, some measures, such as minor acts of adaptation or reaction to changes are taken. These often only make us more tolerant to change, as they allow us to push aside any inconveniences caused by these changes, dismissing them at that. Regardless, it may be argued that as the climate changes escalate, these glimpses may surface more prominently. In time, some of these may manifest as more radical, spatial disturbances. Perhaps, these glimpses and their uncanny qualities may be used deliberately to stir a reaction.
40
Threat
Uncanny
Consciousness
41
Threat
Uncanny
Consciousness
Threat
Uncanny
Consciousness
42 44
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In the third manifestation of the Uncanny, as mentioned before, attempts were made to cause shock, evoke feelings of discomfort, and to criticize through architecture. The crown achievement of these attempts is the utilization of the concept of the Uncanny as a design tool, and an actual generator for planning. Yet the benefit in such spaces created with these goals in mind, as well as their ability to do more than to provoke such reactions, is debatable. The fourth manifestation’s possible achievement, or rather, its’ goal, may be to do so again – to harness the concept of the uncanny and use it as a spatial generator, but this time, with an additional goal. The uncanny may be used, to generate different species of spaces, ones that expose certain disturbances or possibly eerie characteristics of a given context, in this case - the impacts related to climate change – but at the same time react to them and ameliorate their destructive impact. To face the impending unhomely situations presented to us by climate change, architecture has to assume a double role – not only in exposing the fact that climate is about to reshape our cities, but also in preventing the changing climate from destroying them altogether. Through architecture, the forces of nature may physically manifest themselves and be well apparent to the eye of the beholder, not through acts of destruction applied to our cities, but through their imprint on our physical defense strategies. Thus, the project aims to explore, interpret, and utilize the concept of the “Uncanny” in dealing with the impending impacts of the anthropogenic climate changes. It raises to possibility of harnessing the uncanny in order to [1] adapt the environment to the changes, and [2] expose these changes, and shed the layer of repression.
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Ayalon’s possible future, diverted in an underground concrete tunnel to prevent flooding of settled areas in its perimeter Our symptomatic solutions are often underground, and thus under conciousness solutions
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Conceptual exploration: exposing climate change’s impacts as the reality and space-shaping forces that they are 46
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Jaffa’s Swamp During the chapter, “The Front Line of Climate Change” it was established that cities are a major element in facing head-on the challenges presented to us by climate change. In our local context, Tel Aviv-Yafo, a highly vulnerable yet capable city, sets out to deal with the destructive impacts of climate change, and to adapt to them. It declares the escalating problems of urban flooding and the urban heat island phenomena as the two main impacts threatening its proper urban existence, the ones to be addressed as the city strives to develop its resilience. Two studies from the recent years had led to a specific site whose physical characteristics generate these two phenomena and as such it is extremely vulnerable to them both. One of these studies, was conducted and published in 2019, by Dr. Arch. Or Aleksandrowicz, L.A Shachar Zur, Arch. Yonatan Lebendinger, Dr. Yoav Lerman from the Technion, Israel. The study was funded by the Conservation Department at the Tel-Aviv Yafo Municipality, and was coordinated by Arch. Rinat Millo-Steinlauf. The study, “Shade Maps for Climatic Urban Planning in Tel Aviv-Yafo”, as well as some of its conclusions, was cited and used during 2020 by the municipality of Tel Aviv in the aforementioned plan for preparation to climate change, 2020. It presents a methodology to evaluate micro-climate conditions during the summer, in an entire city, viewing shade levels in outdoor spaces as a main indicator for thermal comfort.
Maps by Aleksandrowicz Or, Zur Shachar, Lebendinger Yonatan, Lerman Yoav, “Shade Maps for Climatic Urban Planning in Tel Aviv-Yafo”, study’s summary report, Liebling Haus, Jully 2019 48
Shade index map, entire vicinity of Tel-Aviv-Yafo, August 6th. highlighting only lowest (under 0.2) and highest (above 0.6) values. Source: Aleksandrowicz et al., fig. 14, p. 30 49
The methodology conducted in the study is demonstrated specifically on Tel Aviv-Yafo, and includes various layers of maps, which contain, and graphically present the results and ratings of shade levels (shade index) by neighborhoods, street segments, with and without tree canopies and more. One of this study’s main applications, as well as its primary goals, is ability to point out and determine which areas within Tel Aviv are to be prioritized by the municipality for shade intensification, and which ones to prioritize in shade-conservation.
A map for prioritizing shade intensification and shade conservation, Tel Aviv-Yafo. 50
Source: Aleksandrowicz et al., fig. 17, p. 33
These maps allow, among their other applications, to pinpoint areas that are extremely exposed to direct sun radiation. During the search for a case-study, a few of these sites were marked as such. Shade index by neighborhood, August 6th. Source: Aleksandrowicz et al., fig. 19, p. 35 *White Highlight marks are not a part of the original map
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By juxtaposing another source, an article by archeologist Aaron Burke and his research team, one of these areas, in northern Jaffa, was pinpointed as having some physical characteristics which make it also extremely vulnerable to urban flooding. This study, Jaffa’s Ancient Inland Harbor: Historical, Cartographic, and Geomorphological Data, raises the possibility that in an area in northern Jaffa, where Bloomfield stadium, Groningen Park, and the center of Shlabim road stand today, was, hundreds of years ago an estuary and a lake. Burke also raises the possibility that within the lake, an inland harbor for small ships may have existed, though the latter hasn’t been proven. The area is low and mostly flat, and due to its topographic characteristics it functioned, and still does 1 function, as a bottom of a large basin – the one called Jaffa Basin today. 26
Dry Alluvial Plain
above: Jaffa as portrayed in one of David Roberts’s paintings, 1839. Source: Burke et al., fig. 4.6. p. 98 Left: illustration, approximate view origin point. 26 Aaron A. Burke, S. Wachsmann, S. Avanim-Katav, Richard K. Dunn, K. Kowalski, G. A. Pierce and M. Peilstocker, Jaffa’s Ancient Inland Harbor: Historical, Cartographic, and Geomorphological Data, 2017.p. 89-106 52
Drainage Network Analysis created with the ArcGIS Hydrology Toolbox using SRTM data (Drainage 1); Israel Transverse Mercator (New Israel Grid) projection. Map by Krister Kowalski and George A. Pierce. Source: Burke et al. fig. 4.10, p. 103
Tel Yafo
West to east elevation profile of ridges and depressions based on DEM data. Map by Krister Kowalski. Source: Burke et al., fig 4.12.p. 104 53
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Throughout the years, the place dried out mostly, and became a swamp, surrounded by orchards. It is still commonly called, Al-Bassa, “the swamp�. As Tel Aviv and Jaffa grew and expanded, the swamp and orchards were urbanized and covered.
The British survey office, 1930, owned by the National library of Israel, Eran Laor collection Right: enlarged area, Al-Bassa
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Northern Jaffa, aerial photograph and its enlargements, by the British Airforce ~1918, view from north to south. The National Archives [Britain]
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Soil Permeability Levels
High Medium Low
Al-Bassa, Northern Jaffa
Simplified Permeability map, based on Runoff Management Appendix, Tel-AvivYafo masterplan for drainage, p. 12 by Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality and Leor Lovinger of URBANOF, 2013.
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Whether a historic inland harbor existed there, or not – the area is still the bottom of the largest basin within the city (5.2 square kilometers), 1 the basin’s runoff gravitates towards it, and accumulates within it.27
Left: Illustration of runoff within the basin,
freely
flowing
through the roads and accumulates in the low plain in Al-Bassa
Bloomfield stadium, northern Jaffa, within Al-Bassa Photo by Sport5-IL, January 2020
27 Runoff Management document, excerpt from the Tel-Aviv water drainage masterplan, unicipality of Tel Aviv–Yafo, L.A Leor Lovinger of URBANOF Studio, Guy Nardi, Liran Malka, 2013. Guide for development appendix, Jaffa Basin (8), p. 47-48 60
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Today, the area is a relatively vast, unraveled urban area, home mostly to ramshackle, one to three story buildings that fail to provide shade to their surrounding streets. It is a different kind of swamp. The orchards, soil and wetlands are no more, instead, the area is covered in large swathes of concrete and asphalt, in the shape of roads and large parking lots – the ideal conditions for an urban heat island to exist. The result is a flat, low area, at the bottom of a basin, with impermeable surfaces that absorb and re-emit heat – an urban desert in warm days, one prone to be flooded whenever more than a few clouds break. As mentioned before, as the climate changes, storms will become more intense and more frequent, and the temperatures in the urban areas will increase.
Shlabim road, within Al-Bassa vicinity, personal archive, 2020
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A new kind of swamp
Impermeable, heat re-emiting surfaces
based on Al-Bassa aerials, govmap Israel 63
Basin’s Bottom During storms, the volumes of water that flow in the basin and gravitate towards Al-Bassa are immense. There, most of the soil is impermeable, and the city drainage system within the basin, is incapable of dealing with the high rate of flow within the basin. The result is urban flooding. Regardless, the future plans for the area, especially at the Shlabim road perimeter do not seem to address or acknowledge the area’s characteristics, as an urban heat island or the water accumulating vessel at the bottom of a basin.128
28 Runoff Management document, excerpt from the Tel-Aviv water drainage masterplan, municipality of Tel Aviv–Yafo, L.A Leor Lovinger of URBANOF Studio, Guy Nardi, Liran Malka, 2013. Guide for development appendix, Jaffa Basin (8), p. 47-48 64
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Runoff volumes within Jaffa’s basin As a perquisite for the spatial alteration proposal, I have estimated the volumes of water that the area has to deal with, by putting the Rational Method to predict a design peak runoff rate to use. This method is often used by hydrologists (in Israel as well) to calculate runoff rates to certain extents. At first, the calculations were done manually. Then, a simple, online calculator was used to calculate the different scenarios. In general, using the equation requires the precipitation intensity (i), drainage area (a), the area surfaces’ permeability coefficients (c), and the peak discharge (q), which was set to m3*day, as the past measurements I had the data for were mostly reduced to m3*day. In a 65mm event, during a single day, a 6 meters deep vessel of water which covers land equal to two Bloomfield stadiums would have been needed to contain all the runoff in the basin. In a theoretical event of 150mm of rain over every square meter, a 6 meters deep vessel which covers the land of four and a half stadiums would have been needed. The rational method does not apply to events longer than one day. Therefore, in longer events, the volumes graphically presented here will be even larger. *In an average rainy day during the winter, according to the IMS, the rainfall is 10mm for each square meter. In a medium-size storm – 65mm. In an extreme storm surge event, such as in February 2020 – the rain measured was higher than 90mm per square meter. Extreme events of up to 130mm were historically recorded in the area. All of the calculations were recalculated using a Rational Method calculator provided by LMONO Engineering. Websites providing this service for free are abundant. LMOENG/Hydrology
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General Data, Jaffa Basin (08) Total Area, Jaffa Basin, tA = 5,200,000 sqm2
Rational Runoff Coefficient =
C
Rainfall Intensity =
I
Drainage Area =
A
Peak Discharge =
Q
Permiablity coefficient, C = 0.8 impermeable Area, A = 4,797,224 sqm2 [(5,045,271sqm2 exluding parks) - (248047sqm2 open areas and gardens)]
Rainfall Intensity, I = 65mm Event Total impermeable Area [drainage area]: 4,797,242sqm2 Total Runoff Volume [total peak discharge]: 247,394 (m^3*24hrs) Displayed Extrusion: h=6m “water vessel”
Rainfall Intensity, I = 150mm Event Total impermeable Area [drainage area]: 4,797,242sqm2 Total Runoff Volume [total peak discharge]: 570,911 (m^3*24hrs) Displayed Extrusion: h=6m “water vessel”
In orange: the area’s future plans, according to TMA/5000, based on a 3d model by Arch. Guido Segal
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Strategy and Methodology - Macro An Urban Sponge The area is adapted to face the changing environmental conditions. It is radically changed so that it could absorb and contain the impacts related to climate change that befall it. The methodology of the area’s adaptation is described in stages. Firstly, a strategic area, to which the runoff water in the basin flow, and in which they accumulate is set as the area of intervention. The soil within the boundaries of the set area is liberated. The built mass in the area made up mostly of sprawling, ramshackle industrial buildings and garages is demolished and cleared. The buildings within the area set to remain are mostly public, larger, and newer buildings, such as the Yafo police station, an infirmary, and the Bloomfield stadium. The concrete and asphalt surfaces, such as the parking lots and the roads are peeled off the soil. By applying a series of stereotomic actions, that include sculpting, digging, piling, and nicking, the ground surface area and its water capacity are greatly increased. New runoff routes are designed – set to connect to the existing drainage system at the boundaries of the sponge’s area. They divert, lead, slow, withhold, accumulate and contain runoff water above the surface, in plain sight. The municipalty’s future plans for the area are redrawn. The built mass’s morphology is designed in an orthogonal grid to prioritize shading over the public spaces, as well as in attempt to mend and stitch together the unraveled urban tissue.
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Jaffa’s Swamp, existing state, pre-adaptation
Runoff vectors and Jaffa basin’s boundaries
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In juxtaposing the different planned layers – The water’s, or the surface layer, and the built, urban one – a reaction occurs, disrupting the orthogonal grid along the water paths. The surface layer imprints its mark on the urban one, which has to adapt in order to cope with it. The water paths function as veins, leading water and supporting a green system of trees, vegetation and green areas that provide shade and lower the temperatures within the area. The result is a vast urban area which absorbs the impending impacts of climate change within the area, mitigates them, and by demonstrating its own adaptation measures to them exposes their existence.
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Jaffa’s Swamp, existing state and runoff vectors, urban flooding illustrations
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Urban sponge, soil liberation area schemes
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Urban sponge, stereotomic manipulations to the surface area Superposed layers’ reaction
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Built mass pre-reaction New runoff vectors, waterflow illustration within the sponge
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Water paths supporting green infrastructure Green infrastructure provides shade and mitigates urban heat
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The strategy and methodology are explored further. The urban design is demonstrated on a specific strip within the vicinity, by following the runoff from east to west – starting from the Hurshot Park, in Abu Kabir mound - one of the higher points in the basin, all the way down to their destination point, which is the historic swamp area, around Groningen park and Bloomfield stadium.
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80
Bloomfield stadium Groningen park
Abu kabir Hurshot Natural Reserve
Jerusalem Blv.
Shlabim road
Pre-adaptation state
Urban sponge, exploded. 150mm rain event 81
Strategy and Methodology - Micro Sculpted ground surface The ground surface and its design are the base for the planned ecosystem. Notching and increasing its surface area allow for water accumulation while creating a diverse, sculpted landscape within the urban fabric. Along the water paths, and by leaving large patches of bare soil, trees are planted to provide shade and as major cooling elements for their surroundings. The built mass, as the top layer in the juxtaposition, rises upwards, clears the ground floor when necessary, allowing water to freely pass through as well as creates shaded passages under and near it.
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Physical models, top: stereotomic idiom exploration Bottom: accumulation of spatial disturbances / stereotomic reshaping of a surface 83
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Runoff life cycle In average precipitation events (10 mm of rain), the runoff is gathered from the pavements, roads, and the existing drainage system at the edges of the Sponge. It is led through different stations. Sedimentation trenches and sedimentation tanks discharge eighty to ninety percent of the solid pollutants, the garbage, and debris. The water slowly flows to the adjacent vegetation and trees. In more intense precipitation events, as the water accumulates and these tanks and trenches overflow, the runoff slowly flows through strips and patches of biofilters and arrive at larger pools. The water is pumped repeatedly from the pools to the adjacent biofilters, thus cleaning them further. The excess water is released to the adjacent vegetation and trees. The biofiltration process is slow and only works well when the rate of flow within the basin is low. Therefore, in extreme precipitation events, the runoff will flow almost immediately to the stormwater accumulation ponds, where they will be contained, and only then starts the slow process of biofiltration. The runoff is restrained and sustained, horizontally seeping and percolating to the nearby root systems and the trees, which, in turn, assist in mitigating the heat within the area.
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Swale
City Drainage Trench Sedimentation Tanks & Sedimentation Trenchs 80%-90% Solid discharge
Biofilteration
Air pump
Swale
City Drainage Trench Pond
Sedimentation Tanks & Sedimentation Trenchs
Swale
Air pump
Biofilteration
Swale
City Drainage Trench Tree Root System, permeable pavement
Trench
Pond
Sedimentation Tanks & Sedimentation Trenchs
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Typology The built mass within the urban sponge’s boundaries is made up of standard, 60 on 100 meters blocks that react and are deformed as a reaction to the stereotomic actions applied to the ground level, and in accordance to their objective to shade the public space around them. Wherever water paths are scarce, and consequently less trees are planted, the buildings themselves are utilized as the main shade-generating elements.
Water paths and built-mass reaction
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Exploded scheme, urban layer, stereotomic layer, water volumes
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Orientation The rectangular blocks, on a rectangular grid, are positioned in a way that’s efficient both in shading the streets and in shading their inner patios. The elongated facades are facing north and south, while the shorter ones are facing east and west. Such orientation maxims the inner spaces, or apartments, facing the preferable directions of north and south. Most of the streets stretched from north to south are shaded most of the day, even during the warm summer. The stretches of pavements and public passages that lack shade are concentrated on the streets stretched from east to west, mostly in their northern edge, and when the pavements are especially wide – also in the southern. The base block units are deformed to create a different street section in the urban segments that are exposed to direct radiation and are lacking shade – the northern edge of the blocks is raised to provide shade on the southern edge of the streets, while the southern edge of the blocks received a deep setback on the ground level to allow for a shaded passage for the public. Artificial, light shading systems compliment the shade provided by the masses and trees to create a continuous stretch of shade.
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Series of tests concerning shading viability of said grid, June 28th
Superposed shade tests, June 28th. right: marked exposed pedestrian pavements
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Heat mitigation imprint on built mass. Left: schematic urban sections. Right: 3D schemes
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Co-existing systems The passage of water dissolves the masses and thus manifests itself as the physical imprint of the urban defense system as it reacts to the urban flooding threat. The layout of the blocks makes up a flexible system capable of absorbing and dealing with urban flooding in varying scales.
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Pedestrian trail Motorway, cycling and pedestrian combined, permeable paving Irrigated, green spaces
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Single block, way of operation In an average rainy day in Yafo, with when the rain falls and accumulates at a rate of 10mm for every square meter of the basin, the space maintains its normal functionality - the runoff flows in swales and trenches around the blocks, roads and pavements, and slowly seeps into the adjacent vegetation and tree root systems. In more intense events, the urban environment changes its face. The shade-pools created by the sculpted ground surface and the trees planted around it, that usually function as urban gathering and meeting places, turn into actual water ponds, and change the urban circulation scheme. The ground surface, made up of volumes is now filled with water While allowing for the blocks to function, while exposing and highlighting pedestrian passages.
738
Normal intensity rain event - (~12mm, 24 hrs) 96
738
Extreme Cloudburst Event (~100mm, 24 hrs)
738
Extreme Storm Event (~150mm, 24 hrs) 97
Shade pools surrounded by public and commercial spaces
Normal intensity rain event - (~10mm, 24 hrs) 98
Shade pools–surrounded by24 public Cloudburst (~65mm over hrs) and commercial spaces
Extreme Cloudburst Event (~100mm, 24 hrs)
Extreme Storm Event (~150mm, 24 hrs) 99
The blocks react to the volumes and paths made to contain the water during storms. They are deformed, dissolved, or lifted upwards. These reactions allow for the passage of water as well as to create and define shaded public passages and hubs. The layer of the built masses, the sculpted ground floor and the system of foliage sustain the ecosystem, that on the one hand mitigates the threats related to climate change in the area, and on the other - spatially and physically exposes and presents their imprint on our urban environment.
The blocks, that allow the passage of water, rise up in order to provide shade and thus play a major role in shaping the street’s edges and facades. By reacting to them, the created urban space exposes the natural factors that shape our environments, as well as their state and condition. The liberation of the ground surface from the physical encumbrance of the buildings acts as a gesture in which the unheimlich within the Heimlich is exposed – that which was once hidden and suppressed now comes to light, as a space-shaping element.
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Building mass is set-back where water is set to flow
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Climate change impact’s over the urban environmen is exposed through spatial reactions and through the visible characteristics that allow cohabitation of the same space
Stereotomic reshaping of the ground.
formerly paved
Northen block edges are taller [up to 29m], to provide shade to the street’s southern edges
Pedestrian bridge over swale
Wide street 4 lanes motorway, walkable street and crossings
Southern block edges groundfloors setback provides shade
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Basin’s Bottom - Revised During intense storm surges, the runoff water In the basin flows down through the blocks, as the ground surface there reaches its full capacity. The water flows and gravitates towards the sponge’s lowest spot, where once was the historical accumulation area – Al Bassa, the swamp. In this sub-area within the newly planned urban sponge, the spatial manifestation of the impacts related to climate change is the most intense, and as such, so is the spatial reaction to them. This area is the area with the greatest capacity, both of water and for heat, and as such it is also the most public.
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In this area, most of the masses, as well as a majority of the pedestrian trails and streets are detached from the soil. Consequently, the percentage of bare and permeable soil is the highest with the sponge. The ground surface is designed as a system of tangent or interfacing volumes, allowing for gradual, progressive, and slow flow and containment of water. During intense storm surges, this system of volumes is flooded – the landscape becomes one of ponds, while a system of hanged and raised streets and bridges above it maintains its urban function. Within the sponge, even immediately after a storm, the urban rhythm may continue to exist, it does not come to halt. After the area is flooded, the water slowly seeps to the soil, quenching the trees’ thirst over time, supporting the shade infrastructure provided by it.
+8.60m (absolute), horizontal section 108
Normal intensity rain event - (~10mm, 24 hrs)
Extreme Cloudburst Event (~150mm, 24 hrs) 109
Spring, sporadic precipitation
Extreme Cloudburst Event (~150mm, 24 hrs) 110
Cloudburst – (~65mm over 24 hrs)
Extreme Cloudburst Event (~100mm, 24 hrs) 111
The urban tissue at the historical swamp area is the most intense when it comes to vegetation and the shade and water pools’ scale. These pools, in varying size, support the public buildings surrounding them – both in urban flooding events and as cooling elements. They function as cool, shade pools, green yards and plazas for the urban residents and visitors. When the area is moderately flooded, some shade pools become water pools, and the remaining, relatively dry pools become more intense gathering spots for events and leisure. During the winter, when the shade pools become water pools, the vast trails and streets continue to allow for pedestrian and cycling passage. As time passes, after intense storms and flooding, some pools remain filled with water that repeatedly go through the process of biofiltration, and eventually become an urban event.
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The buildings themselves, at the bottom of the basin, are mostly public. They act as complimentary elements in the ecosystem. They join the trees and the rest of the artificial shade-providing systems in maintaining continuous, shaded public passages as well as in defining shaded, canopied sub-spaces. The result is an environment, aspiring to remain adaptive, fit to face the gradual shift in our world’s conditions and contain the imminent impacts of climate change.
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Is it within our abilities as architects to make use of spatial tools to create architecture that adapts to the impending changes reality presents us, while having an impact on environmental consciousness?
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Bibliography Aleksandrowicz Or, Shachar Zur, Yonatan Lebendiger, and Yoav Lerman. 2020. “Shade Maps for Prioritizing Municipal Microclimatic Action in Hot Climates: Learning from Tel Aviv-Yafo.” Sustainable Cities and Society 53 (February): 101931. Aleksandrowicz Or, Zur Shachar, Lebendinger Yonatan, Lerman Yoav, “Shade Maps for Climatic Urban Planning in Tel Aviv-Yafo”, study’s summary report, Liebling Haus, 2019, p. 29, 30, 33, 35. Burke Aaron, Shelley Wachsmann, Simona Avanim-Katav, Richard K. Dunn, Krister Kowalski, George A. Pierce, Martin Peilstöcker. “Historical, Cartographic, and Geomorphological Data Concerning an Ancient Inland Harbor at Jaffa, Israel”; in, Burke, Burke and Peilstocker (Eds.), “The History and Archaeology of Jaffa 2; The Late Ottoman Period and Other Archaeological Studies”. The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, 2017. 175-221 n.d. p. 89, 90, 93, 95-98, 101-105. C40 official website, Homepage, about and “Deadline 2020” section. Eizenberg Efrat, Jabareen Yousef, “Social Sustainability: A New Conceptual Framework”, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion, Israel, 2017, p. 6. IPCC, “AR5 Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Summary for Policy Makers”, 2, 7, 13. Israel Meteorological Service, “Climate Change in Israel, past and projected tendencies in the temperature and precipitation tendencies”, IMS report number 0000075-20190804-4000, 2019. Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection official website, “climate change”, “implications of climate change in Israel” Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo, “Climate Change Preparation Plan, 2020”, 2020, p. 28-41 Municipality of Tel Aviv–Yafo, with Leor Lovinger of URBANOF Studio, Guy Nardi, Liran Malka, Runoff Management document, excerpt from the water drainage master plan, Guide for development appendix, 2013. p. 6, 12, 46-48, 201 Solecki William, Rosenzweig Cynthia, Hammer Stephen, Mehrotra Shagun, “The Urbanization of Climate Change: Responding to a New Global Challenge”, in “The Urban Transformation: Health, Shelter, and Climate Change”, 2013, p. 107-108 Vidler Anthony, “The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely”, MIT Press, 1992, p. 6-8, 14, 16, 17
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Additional Credits Photographs by lomography.com, Empty Spaces People-Less Spaces archive, page 9 Photograph of Anthony Vidler, Canadian centre for Architecture, p.10 Book Cover of the Architectural Uncanny by Vidler, MIT Press, p. 10 Painting by Lamson Henry, p. 13 Photograph of Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 1903, deacademic.com. p. 11, 15 The Grey Drawing Room, painting by Albert Chevallier Tayler, year unknown, p. 14 Photographs by monovision magazine, p. 15 Jewish Museun, Berlin, Photograph by Jose Antonio Piga p. 17 Photograph, Paris, 2019, by Euractiv (webite), p. 21 Photograph of Venice, 2019, by the Guardian (website), p. 21 Photographs and sections, by Coop-Himmelb(l)au, official website, p. 18-19 Image of Earth/Globe, used for collage, shutterstock, p. 23 Background for the collages roughly based on a screenshot from a news brief by Or Ravid of N12, 2020, p.29 Diagrams used for base diagrams, USEPA / US Environment Protection Agency official website. p.31, p. 35 Bloomfield stadium, photograph by Sport5-IL (news website), p. 60 Satellite photos, Govmap-IL website. p. 63. “Urban Microclimate”, “Urban Flooding”. definitions by US Environment Protection Agency’s official website.
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The destructive impacts related to climate change are arguably increasing. A link seems to exist between these impacts and the way in which we form our built environment. Yet, there seems to be an inadequacy to adapt accordingly, a collective repression of the ongoing shift. This layer of repression is occasionally punctured by flashes of startling awareness, when spatial disturbances are formed, stirring us momentarily. During these periods we feel the environmental transformation. That which was once homely and secure becomes hostile. The project aims to harness these uncanny glimpses of awareness as a tool. It seeks to explore a scenario in which architecture adapts to the impacts of climate change by exposing their existence, and addressing the existence of such layer of repression, possibly contributing to its undoing. Al-Bassa and its surrounding area in Jaffa were once a seasonal pond, a swamp, and are now an urbanized area covered in concrete and asphalt. It is an area to which runoff water from across the Jaffa Basin drains and accumulates. This area’s natural and man-made characteristics make it susceptible to two major climate-related impacts – the increased heat in urban areas and urban flooding. Those impacts are projected to escalate as the climate gets warmer and as our cities expand. The project suggests a strategy to adapt the area in face of these rising problems. The area is to be redesigned as an ‘urban sponge’ that absorbs and mitigates the destructive impacts that the area currently generates and suffers from. The sponge is capable of remaining unharmed even when flooded. Moreover, it makes use of the stormwater runoff to indirectly mitigate the impacts of excessive sun radiation. The whole area is molded to lead, lure, and contain the water flowing in the basin during varying scenarios, such as everyday rain, normal cloudbursts, as well as extreme precipitation events. The planned elements in the vicinity, including the built mass, are designed to provide large patches of continuous shade over the public spaces, allowing it to maintain its function even during the warmer days of the coming future. This kind of adaptation has two major coalescing objectives: to make up a functional response to the impending impacts, enabling the space to maintain its functionality while making these impacts visible and present in the way the space is read and experienced. The urban space is designed to physically expose the existence of the imminent environmental transformation related to climate change, displaying its imprint on our urban environment and its physical defense strategies. Thus, an existence alongside the changing conditions is proposed, addressing both the need for adaptation, and the pattern of repression.
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