SUBNATURE
Carmel, NYC Watershed Carla Lores | Michael Yarinsky
New York City’s Watershed is a site in crisis. Not only is there a larger demand for water due to the growth of the population, but due to further suburban development in upland areas, water catchment sites are not as hygienic as once thought. Within the Croton Watershed lies Carmel. This suburban town in Putnam County has large basins for water catchment integrated into a developed suburban community. The distributed system currently in place for the dispersal of sewage, though, has a very high risk of contaminating the watershed.
Based on a topological study using sand and cavities to represent the density and area of groundwater contamination risk, a landscape was generated. The areas that are highest upland have the highest ground water capacity and lowest contamination risk, and the areas downland have the lowest capacity and highest risk. This relationship is key to the remediation strategy, by creating a topography that channels e uent water to these specific sites. The exo-landscape is then populated with components that not only allow the material flow relationship but can also be modulated to allow for varying lighting conditions and the ability to contain soil and plants. This passive system is then activated by integrated pumps that draw sewage to biogas processing sites.
Using pastoral ideas native to the development of suburban landscaping, such as the sweeping vista, winding pathway, scenic overlook and grotto, we develop the landscape to be a desirable recreation site. Overlaid, layers of sewage, air, and water flow create a new material ecology within Carmel. Since the sites of highest contamination risk are protected, New York City’s Watershed is more protected than previously. Because the system is automated to deposit and process waste into the sites of highest capacity, the system as a whole has a larger capacity for sewage.
This project hopes to blur the boundary between what is considered clean and contaminated, synthetic and natural, and in doing so foster a modified suburban desire. This, through the intensification of existing conditions of a synthetic pastoral and the gizmo begins to challenge the boundaries that enabled the development of suburbia in the first place.
The City Is Here For You To Use
Adam Greenfield, the author of Everyware, has posted the table of contents of his upcoming book, The City Is Here For You To Use on his personal blog, Speedbird. As you can imagine, there are many intersections between Greenfield’s ideas and our current discussions on the nature of urbanism, utopic agendas, and the relationship between cities and infrastructure. You should thoroughly browse through his posts, and his links. Here are some sample posts:
Trash Tracker
Our friends at the SENSEable City Lab at MIT are in the Times today in a piece featuring researchers and the NYC Green Initiative who are tracking the flow and distribution of trash through various sites and locations. Sensors added to various pieces of refuse are thrown out and then tracked to map both itinerary and protocol through infrastructural networks concerned with garbage processing, collection, and distribution. The project is featured as part of the Sentient city exhibition now open at the Architectural League.
If Obama does nothing else…
…but truly support this initiative and choose the right people to implement it, he’ll have earned my vote. A radical transparency in government data will completely revolutionize the relationship between government and people. The most critical transparency will come in the area of government spending, and naturally that will be the most difficult to truly implement. I can only hope.