LONGTAIL_REVIEW 1
LONGTAIL Zakiya Franklin | Peechaya Mekasuvanroj
Manhattan’s extensive shoreline is known to be one of the city’s most valuable resources as well as one of the city’s oldest problems for many years. The existing edge condition performs only as a point where water and land meets in which there is a much higher potential of what this area can become. Since Manhattan’s urban culture continues to grow, there is a higher demand for recreational areas; where people can have the opportunity to relax and enjoy the scenery of water in an urban setting. There is also a higher demand for public access from the water and into the water. There is a necessity for the city to utilize the coastal resources efficiently and creatively.
With the high amount of water available along the edge of Manhattan, we decided to use this advantage to generate an alternative source of energy: Tidal Energy. The demand for energy continues to increase globally in which every country seeks for an alternative method due to the deficiency of resources and for the potentially greener environment. Tidal energy can provide a cleaner yet efficient form of energy. The energy can be distributed in much smaller scale but can be spread out more frequently. This form of energy can perform by itself with no need of excessive wiring system.
We want to define our nature of interest through a Long Tail infrastructure. Our proposal involves an infrastructure that functions as negotiator between land and water as it exploits the existence of water to produce tidal energy. The Long tail infrastructure will generate niche energy that can be distributed in small scale in large quantity throughout neighborhoods, using leisure area as an attractor to bring in consumers along with the energy itself. Tidal energy is a form of niche energy in comparison to other mass production of energy. They are self-dependent and they can be provided for communities that wish to consume this specific kind of energy. The infrastructure also consists of leisure area, which becomes the attractor that coexists with the tidal energy production. The attracting elements may vary throughout different neighborhoods depending on different groups’ interests, even ones that do not share common interests.
