Sewage | Crisis Fronts

Incubator of Coexistence_Research Midterm

Newark, New Jersey is among one of the most significant industrious cities along the North East, due to its location, trade and transport capabilities. It is these capabilities which hinder Newark from progressing forward. Industrial expansion and overdevelopment have turned Newark into an impermeable landscape. The in-proportional ratio of hardscape to softscape has effectively limited the growth of the city and has in turn affected the city’s vitality and its ability to recover from self inflicted issues. Among the issues plaguing Newark are groundwater runoff and the high risk of transmission of the Passaic River.

Due to population growth the demand for water has intensified. Newark’s drinkable water supply, like many other major cities, is supplied from reservoirs at significant distances usually in remote locations. Sometimes in an effort to alleviate the growing populations demand for water in major urban centers, reservoirs have had to be created artificially. It is during this process that reservoirs have induced the destruction of other communities in order to accumulate the necessary space. Destroying indigenous communities should not have to be the answer to such a problem. Thus, we are introducing a repository system with the ability to coexist with the city it serves. The repository instead of being displaced from the zone of service, would in turn occupy the undesirable sites within the city domain. The site would include but is not limited to the underground sewer system but also produce a network that would encompass different levels of the city. More specifically, the underground system, the street system, and the sky system would be manipulated to serve as the program. The repository system would encompass the capability to collect water autonomously and redistribute it for a multitude of uses, whether that is providing drinking water or hydroelectric power to the city. Harvesting both the forces of water and gravity the repository system has the ability to generate electricity and reduce the city’s dependence on the grid.

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Nov 06, 2011 | Categories: Research | Tags: ACICOS, canal, coexistence, fall 2011, incubator, midterm, Newark, pratt, Research, sewage, water | Leave A Comment »

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 euent 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.

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