the neo nomad.

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the neo nomad.

a masters design study

anne m. zuercher 2010

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copyright 2010 by Anne M. Zuercher 445 Victoria Drive Moscow, ID 83843 605.222.2260 anne.zuercher@gmail.com

the neo nomad.

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a masters design study

anne m. zuercher


this book is submitted to the faculty of University of Idaho in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Architecture

May 2010

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contents and research agenda • • • • • • • •

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

introduction modes of transportation America and the Pacific Northwest Portland, Oregon docking structure prototype modular and pre-fabricated pod final design decision credits and notes

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• • • • •

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introduction

editorial essay editorial cartoon preface research agenda


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editorial essay

Travel is about discovery; experience; limitless opportunity. Known as one of the greatest ways to learn, travel is also one of the major contributors to both the economic as well as environmental crisis we are facing today. Global urbanization is growing at an unpredictable rate, scale and density. The cities in the twenty-first century embody extreme complexities of communication and interaction. Large city networks and systems are growing exponentially.

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As populations become increasingly urbanized, the evolution of cities will largely shape the outcome of our long dependence on natural resources. To create advancement that consists of an urban society in balance with its environment, a compilation of solutions that include sustainable economic systems, enhanced infrastructure, sustainable planning, energy policies and flexible, yet regulated, social systems must be implemented. This project will develop a way in which design systems can control different dynamic and innovative organizations of travel to contribute to the vital revolution in the future of the ecological and economical realm. Cultural richness and diversity in use, sustainability, and innovation as well as climatic influences in Portland are primary parameters that will lead design. The built environment is now the largest negative factor in the stability of ecosystems and the climate. Action must be taken to integrate realistic economical conditions and innovative technology. By blending sustainable strategies with a new interpretation of future transportation design, a vibrant complexity is found; solutions that address infrastructure in the economic, environmental and social aspirations of a growing world population. The challenge is to improve the quality of travel while substantially lowering carbon emissions and fossil fuel dependency. Part of this project will look at the drastic sprawled growth of our landscape, paying little attention to the tension between global interests and the environments ecological needs. This rapidly changing parameter can create vast areas which have become economically and socially depressed, congesting space and degrading environments. While cities undergo this inevitable transformation, infrastructure needs to be guided by policies and programs of development; a more enlightened approach to planning, design, and management of humane travel habitats for the future. Looking for new forms and modes of spatial organizations and infrastructure will challenge the forces of post-modernism, homogenization and standardization of urbanism. Many ancient, historic and contemporary implement transportation techniques that coincide with the complex parameters we deal with today, creating a symbiotic relationship with the built and natural environments. Using these precedent cities as research tools, a firm understanding of the processes involved in accomplishing this relationship will be identified. A proposal


for a vital and ambitious national transportation development system will be proposed. As the model, the city of Portland also must be dissected pragmatically throughout each district, region and overall geographical configuration considered in its means of transport. As a city named after its innovative system of transportation, Portland has great local, national and international infrastructural connection. At a nationwide scale and a local level, planning needs to be creative and backed up through political will, policy, and funding. Looking at the context and dynamics beyond the city of Portland will impact the project by seeking approaches for objectives to be implemented in the prototype; energy efficiency, sustainable materials and methods as well as architectural, spatial and social values. Potentially, the program will consist of an alternative national, and possibly international, transportation system as a sustainable approach to long-term travel in both urban and rural environments. The intention is to stimulate economic and progressive innovation with sustainable architecture and energy efficiency. The environment can be viewed as natural infrastructure that is an essential input into a wide range of human and natural productive processes.

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Learning

Adventures with

Clide

by Anne Zuercher

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editorial cartoon

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the burning of

fossil fuels like oil and coal cause

greenhouse gases to escape into the air. Global Warming is the increase in the average temperature of the earth. This process causes changes in climate, species extinctions and can effect our entire environment. To help keep our Earth happy, try to follow the rules of mother earth...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Plant a Tree

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This beautiful land was given to us in 1846 with the Oregon Purchase. Since then....

Wow...that’s alot of land!

it’s beautiful, and full of friends!

With the help of these natural resources we were able to create a network of interstates and highways connecting the East to West, North to South. What about everything that lives here? I do

That will create access for transportation all over the United States!! But what about the land?

exactly. we didn’t think about some of those things, and now we are in trouble. But you can help us!!

Educating the public and next generation is one of the most important aspects of sustainability. This editorial cartoon starts to simply explain the complexity of global warming and how it relates to architecture and the world around us.

I’m not so sure about this

maybe there’s a way we can have those nice things but still help keep our earth clean!!

country developed, natural resources were taken and used for commodities like cars and production

I like all the things our government has done to make our country nice for us...

What a brilliant plan!!!

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“Governments of many of the world’s advanced countries took a leading, proactive role in intercity transportation development. In the United States, however, the intercity transportation system, consisting of facilities, vehicles, services and institutions, arose from contests between desparate private interests in markets and political areas.� Individuals created the system as they maneuvered in pursuit of profit and advantage, while governments played reactive, supporting roles. Over the past three-quarters of a century, the intercity rail passsenger services in the United States went badly. Within this layer of study, I wish to examine the extent to which passenger train desappearance reflected consumer wants and needs. Through this investigation, I will pose past and current problems with intercity transportation. This research will lead my proposal for a national infrastructure system, designed around the wants and needs of our people while not compromising the wants and needs of all others inhabiting our planet.

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preface

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The first layer of exploration involves our country as a whole, at a macro level. Societies thoughout history have been known to succeed through cooporaion - the art of shaping the built landscape, which has formed over time by many different actors and actions. It is not primarily an individual’s act, but is a civic, collective undertaking. The tasks at this level may have definite ends or be ongoing. This aspect of my project is concerned with design ideas and possibilities to adjust to and suit the people of our society without harm to others, in a healthy way. My project focuses on the processes for shaping large environments with the experiential quality of the physical forms and spaces that result. Further investigation will continue, narrowing the scope to conceptualize, define, and analyze design problems and opportunities at the urban scale.

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To develop urban design concepts in the major districts throughout Portland, using the city as an example of what could become a tangible prototype. The research done on the City of Portland will help to analyze and evaluate the performance of the conceptual national travel project, to understand the processes which generate productive, innovative and experiental urban travel. This second layer of study will synthesize strategies for implementation in urban design involving public and private development actions.

Thinking at a human scale, the site of the project will involve technologies for moving the individual shipping containers to and from the station and the structure. Portland’s train station is located in the Pearl, a booming district for residential development, the chosen site for the structure is located at the terminous of the Northern park blocks, within range for mechanisms to situate units where necessary. The units are designed for people wanting alternative, ecologically sound accommodations in which users are able to travel and live at the same time.

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1.

modes of transportation

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history and evolution of transportation conceptual visions alternatives and system integration


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history and evolution of transportation

Centuries of artificially cheap energy have established an expectation of ubiquitous personal mobility and freight transportation in the developed economies of the world. This expectation has caused four problematic consequences: serious ecological degradation, urban congestion, human health issues, and rapid depletion of finite energy sources. As developing economies aspire to the same levels of materialism and mobility as the rest of us, our global community faces an untenable future. We are all faced with an enormous and complex problem that needs radical solutions. There are tremendous opportunities to break some historically bad habits and create innovative, smart ways to mobilize ourselves. Accelerated by some inevitable truths about energy that we will have to face in the near future, such changes are possible.

“Human beings are inclined to change when they see that it will improve on what they already experience. This is where the role of the designer comes into play.�

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This diagram, found on Good Magazine’s website seemed like an interesting way to show the evolution of transportation and exponential growth in both speed and energy consumption. The red line indicates 10 miles while the blue line indicates 200 miles.

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conceptual visions

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The Futurama exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair is often credited with instilling in Americans our current ideas about transportation. The exhibit, sponsored by General Motors, imagined a world two decades in the future as a vast network of high-speed roadways, connecting disparate suburbs with massive urban centers.

In the 1970s, NASA commissioned a series of explorations about space colonies, and had artists render some of the concepts. The idea of space settlement is predicated on the notion that someday, humans will need to travel beyond earth and colonize space.

NASA recently has designed the Puffin one-man experimental plane to show case what can be achieved using electric propulsion. In principle, NASA’s Puffin can cruise at 240 kilometers per hour with a top speed of 480 kph. Due to its electric propulsion it has no flight ceiling and is not limited by thin air which other air-breathing gas engines are. Allowing it to cimb to a staggering 9,150 meters before its energy runs low.

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“America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world,� -President George Bush, 1. 31. 2006

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alternatives and system integration

Transportation investments drive land development and have an enormous impact on the way we design our built environment. The current federal transportation program’s emphasis on increasing highway and road capacity has caused rapid expansion of land use patterns that require more driving and are hard to serve by transit.

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Similarly to land use changes, the United States has a chance to grow through transportation. Although many cities throughout the united states are starting to implement public transportation, subway and light rail systems, the funding, accessibility and knowledge seems like it might not quite be there yet.

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2. • • •

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America and the Pacific Northwest case studies long distance rail Pacific Northwest


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case studies

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China Railway

“To help put such enormous numbers into perspective, China is spending $600 billion over the next two years on infrastructure, $88 billion on intercity rail alone; and dozens of billions more on metropolitan bus, subway, and light rail transit. As Rep. Reter DeFazio recently explained, what Congress has got on the table is about one-fifteenth of that.�

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Canada Railway via rail other bus services British Columbia Railway Algoma Central Ontario Northland limited service Amtrak ferries

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long distance rail

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canada

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mexico

1962 US Intercity Passenger Rail 120

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canada

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US Intercity Passenger Rail 120

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hub city

three times daily six times daily

at least daily service

“The railroad was a reliable, efficient, high capacity, all weather, and democratic mode of transporation. It enabled America to become one nation and expand on a continental basis.�

less than daily service

improving services

moving towards HSR

awaiting appropriations actively planning

operating HSR service

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2009 Amtrak increases in fare 120

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“Existing federal policy is out of date and out of touch with the reality of public transportation’s growing importance to Americans and their communities. Only 18 cents of every transportation dollar supports transit.”

Our government has set aside a considerable amount of the stimulus package towards infrastructure. I’ll leave you with these two US maps, depicting the passenger rail network in 1962 and the projections for rail through the stimulus package. How we evolve this projection will help to posivitively or negatively shape our country for years to come.

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Pacific Northwest

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Getting the opportunity to spend some time in the Pacific Northwest, the next few pages focuses on sketches and photography from around Portland.

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Burnside, Portland, OR

site photo


Amtrak, Cascades

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site photos

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Pearl district, Portland, OR

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Pioneer Plaza, Portland, OR

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site photo

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Amtrak train, Portland, OR to Seattle, WA

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3. • • • • • •

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Portland, Oregon city case studies Portland bridge study transportation districts municipal zoning and building code site and formal analysis


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city case studies

Techniques used to increase environmental quality, social equity and economic vitality, starts to outline a human-scaled, transit oriented community. Trees located around streets act as a barrier, dividing automobile and public transportation from pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Major roads are simply and easily connected to public transportation, which is the next key element to sustainable communities.

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Urban planning studies as well as mapping exercizes informed me about ways to develop site infrastructure and represent the information in a simple manner.

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Also known as the City of Bridges, Portland’s history began in 1842 at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia River. Portland’s location gave it a key advantage over surrounding cities, helping the city establish a foundation. This gave Portland versatility between its modes of travel, making it an ideal port destination. Although there are many modes of circulation throughout this city, the bridges of Portland are the key connection that allow the integration of these paths to work.

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Portland bridge study

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transportation

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vehicular transportation

grid system 2

TC

3 4 Z A

Y B

X W

Z Y

C D

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A

B

X C

W D

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public transportation

bus system 2 3

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alternative transportation

mixed paths


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major arterials

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interstate and highways

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transit system

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railroad 2 3

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bicycle paths

proposed paths

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portland, OR Northwest

hwest

llyod llyod

old tow chinatown

pearl

the pearl

eastsid

eastside downtown

ntown

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districts

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northwest Northwest

typical residential units

pittock mansion

new housing development

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eastside

oaks amusement park

jupiter hotel

thrifting

eastside

doug fir lounge

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downtown

ira’s fountain

downtown portland art museum

willamette boat tours

brewery blocks

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lloyd

irving park

llyod

lloyd center

public trans

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old town

white stag sign

union station

portland farmer’s market

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the pearl

bicycle parking


the pearl

commercial building

gerding theatre

Northwest

ecotrust building

twelve west tower

commercial building

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zoning

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site and formal analysis

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vegetation

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adjacent land-use


public transportation

street grid and major arterials

figure-ground

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4. • • • •

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docking structure prototype case studies conceptual studies program process


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case studies

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Numerous case studies led to decisions through conceptual studies, schematic and even design development.

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conceptual studies

Abstract physical modeling helped to derive a parti organization for the overall structure. Systems and layers have been articulated in the photography of these pieces.

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program

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program and infrastructure development

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Quick process sketches and drawings help ask questions about the formal qualities of space and form. These parti diagrams look into the spatial quality and over structure on the site. The process continues, pushing through questions of realistic and conceptual design challenges.

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process

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physical modeling

Helping familiarize myself with the city and site of my project, I chose to physically model part of the Pearl district. From the train station to the Northern park blocks, this model is a projection 50 years into the future.

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final structure design decision

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west elevation


roof plan

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exterior perspectives

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The structure is designed to simply serve as a loading dock and an exterior space for the pods and human inhabiting them. The pod is lifted into its position on a ‘turn-table’ machine, allowing for easy transitions and great views within personal space.

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6. • • • • • •

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modular and pre-fabricated pod shipping container study conceptual studies case studies program process systems


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shipping container study

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This study, entitled “Travel Eurphoria”, looks at the idea of going anywhere in your own space.

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conceptual studies

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Alchemy: Alchemy Current: weeHouse: 0. Cad Documents: 2008 CAD Documents : 2008 weeHouse Overview 2.0

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2X4 2150 SF

4X4 2090 SF © Alchemy LLC, 2008

Pricing at www.weehouse.com


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case studies

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Working from an adaptive reuse project for shipping containers to a conceptual pre-fabricated pod, these were a few of the steps taken towards the final design.

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process

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physical modeling

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final design decision

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thank you.

to all who dream of exploration.

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