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LOCAL CODE +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Finalist in the WPA 2.0 competition sponsored by UCLA Citylab,
Proposal Location : Major US Cities with city-owned abandoned lots, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington DC. Case study developed for San Francisco.
Local Code : Real Estates uses geospatial analysis to identify thousands of publicly owned abandoned sites in major US cities, imagining this distributed, vacant landscape as a new urban system. Using parametric design, a landscape proposal for each site is tailored to local conditions, optimizing thermal and hydrological performance to enhance the whole city’s ecology—and relieving burdens on existing infrastructure. Local Code’s quantifiable effects on energy usage and stormwater remediation eradicate the need for more expensive, yet invisible, sewer and electrical upgrades. In addition, the project uses citizen participation to conceive a new, more public infrastructure as well —a robust network of urban greenways with tangible benefits to the health and safety of every citizen.
Local Code on Vimeo
Local Code, WPA Competition Board 1 (click for image in new window)
Local Code, WPA Competition Board 2 (click for image in new window)
SPACESUIT ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(2003-2010) Initiated as a public lecture at the Santa Fe Institute in 2003, Spacesuit (MIT Press, forthcoming) is an architectural history of the Apollo AL7 Pressure Garment, manufactured by the industrial division of the Playtex Bra and Girdle company, against stiff opposition from hard, one-piece suits much beloved of designers. A condensed version of the book's arguemnt appeared in 2008 as "Space Suit and City" in Log 13/14. (Image: NASA/Apollo 14)
BRODO DI PESCE +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A window on a larger, multi-year research on the ecology and form of Venice, Brodo di Pesce is a singular representation of a multi-layered, complex system; the city and its supporting lagoon. Conveying geospatial data in the form of a soup-bowl, the piece illustrates both the depths of the city's current ecological crisis, as well as the piece-by-piece (spoon by spoon) strategy that must be employed for its resolution. (with Kathryn Moll)
MEATROPOLIS ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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PROCESS=PLACE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A collaboration with Julie Bargmann's Dirt Studio, Process = Place was commissioned by the New York Times Magazine as a landscape memorial to the events of September 11, 2001. Alongside more traditional proposals, we proposed not a garden, but a process, in which a tree farm on the Fresh Kills site would, once a year, contribute saplings to the many neighbourhoods in New York touched by the day's tragedy.
NYC+2012 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What if cities saw olympic-scaled events as a strategic stimulus, and not stagecraft? This design research project at the University of Virginia School of Architecture looked at radical possibilities for urban renovation brought about by the (then active) Olympic bid's potential. (student image).
TEMPORARY, A TYPOLOGY ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(with Thomas de Monchaux). Our cities are defined by two types of architecture; that which is seen as permanent, and therefore subject to a range of conservative pressures, and that which is seen as temporary, and therefore given spatial, and conceptual license. Yet our experience of the city is defined by a regular upending of this relationship; that which is seen as permanent, is often not -- and that which is "temporary" regularly defines our long-term experience of the city. A Pamphlet Architecture Finalist.
CITY MACHINES ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What if the spaces and capacities of urban infrastructure were seen as a shared resource? This research project at the University of Virginia School of Architecture looked at new possibilities of urban life afforeded by a sophiscated understanding of a city's dense supporting structures (student image, Meredith Miller).
SUITE 106 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The events of September 11, 2001 forced the Newman Popiashvili Gallery into a series of temporary spaces, whose interiors were designed by Nicholas & Thomas de Monchaux. For a time, thanks to a donated hotel room, the gallery was known as "Suite 106."
