Bradley Kraushaar
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Academic America’s Farm: US Route 281 MetroPort on the Rhine City Flux Infrastructural Ecologies Urban Gradients Recycling Infrastructure Surface + Edge The Constructed Landscape Future Ecologies View From Above
America’s Farm: US Route 281 GSD1325: Landscape Architecture Research Studio Critic: Rem Koolhaas, OMA Location: Rotterdam, NL / Midwest, US US Route 281 - the longest north-south highway in the US - runs 1,872 miles from Texas to North Dakota. To the people that use this highway it ’s known at “Custom Cutter Alley”. A “custom cutter” is a farmer who owns only machinery - no land - and travels farm to farm over the course of a season doing nothing but harvesting crops. This highly specialized farmer, and Route 281 which they traverse, embody the current state of US agriculture and offer the opportunity for deeper insight into the countryside. A semester of work has initiated this research; a summer of firsthand experience, on a harvesting crew has further developed the understanding. The current state of agriculture began with the mechanization of crop farming in the 19th century, allowing for the initial rapid expansion of farm size; the high cost of machinery demanded expansion to distribute the capital costs over more acres. With reduced units costs and a higher rate of return on larger tracts, farms size steadily expanded (over the past 30 years midpoint farm acreage has doubled ). However, the window to plant and harvest crops has remained constant. This requires longer days, working into the night, and the need for bigger, faster, more powerful equipment. This new equipment is extremely expensive. To lower the per-acre capital costs farmers are incentivized to use their new machinery on ever more acres, thus restarting the cycle.
Map US Route 281 Image Operator perspective from 2015 John Deere S670 combine in Sharon Springs, KS
The territories where these trends are playing out are already a place apart in their physical characteristics, demographics, economics, culture, and religion; they stand only to have this distinction and separation grow. As the reliance between urban and rural regions deepens simultaneously with the differences becoming more pronounced there are clearly grounds for continued investigation.
Route 281 Production, % of US Totals Source: USDA Crop Production Survey, 2015
Wheat
Cattle 51%
38%
1,045,609,000 Bushels
33.416,443 Head
Cotton
Corn 48%
6,175,000 Bushels
27%
3,702,430,000 Bushels
Soybeans
Hay 30%
39,439,000 Bushels
23%
890,000,000 Bushels
Source: USDA Crop Produc on Survey, 2015
Acres of Farm as Percent of Total Land, 2012 Source: USDA Census of Agriculture, 2012
Above/Lef t The states traversed by Route 281 disproportionately represent commodity production and exemplif y “farm country ”, where farmland comprises the dominate land use.
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // AMERICA’S FARM: US ROUTE 281
Coats, KS - Pop. 86 1,169,000 bu. grain elevator
p.4
Transition of Farm Work from Horses to Horsepower
Decreasing US Farm Population Density
Source: Binswager, 1984
Source: USDA, Census of Agriculture, 2012
Workstock
24,000
300M
0.040
Horsepower (Millions)
18,000
225M
12,000
150M
0.030
0.020
6,000
75M
0.010
(Discontinued)
1900
1920
1940
1960
1900
1980
Adoption of Mechanization in the US
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
Percent Increase/Decrease Population Density 1930-2000 Source: USDA, Ad Census 2012
Source: Biswanger, 1984
4,680
3,390
1,560
Lef t Side Rapid change in the source of farm power and the adoption of machinery Right Side Dramatic, historic population loss on farms an in farm country
920 10 1910
246 1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
Number of Tractors
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // AMERICA’S FARM: US ROUTE 281
p.5
Decreasing Captial Per Acre with Increasing Farm Size
Increase in Midpoint Farm Acreage in US
Source: USDA, 2013
Source: USDA, Farm Size and the Organization of US Crop Farming, 2013
$3,325
1,071
650 500 Lef t Side Economic incentives for farms to create larger farms Right Side Evidence that farmer have been following economic incentives and creating ever larger farms
$588 $242 <100 acres
100-250
> 2,000
1982
1992
2007
Increasing Rate of Return on Equity with Farm Size
Gain and Loss of US Farmland Acres by Farm Size
Source: USDA, Farm Size and the Organization of US Crop Farming, 2013
Source: USDA, Farm Size and the Organization of US Crop Farming, 2013
8.0
4.8
5.3
31,920,900
335,000
2.9 1.2 <100 Acres 100-249
250-499
500-999
1,000 - 1,999
-63,260,000
> 2,000 <10 Acres
-0.9
10 - 2,000
>2,000
1992 - 2012 Carter, MT - Spring Wheat
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // AMERICAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FARM: US ROUTE 281
p.6
Case IH, Steiger Tractor Advertisement, 2016
Images With constant planting and harvesting windows coupled with ever-expanding crop acreage, farmers and harvesters are forced to work more hours per day resulting in the frequent occurrence of night harvesting, shown here both at in advertising and in practice.
Average Planting and Harvesting Windows in US Source: Usual Planting and Harvesting Dates for U.S. Field Crops, USDA, 1997 Peak Activity
5% Completed
95% Completed
XX
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
Barley (ND)
Corn (IA)
Soybean (IL)
Spring Wheat (ND)
Planting
Bradley Kraushaar
Harvesting
ACADEMIC // AMERICAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FARM: US ROUTE 281
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Increasing Horesepower and Scale in Agriculture
Increase in One Person’s Daily Harvesting Capacity
Source: fendt.com, 2016
Source: Dream Reaper, 1996
2.5 Acres
5.7 Acres
2014 Hand
New York City Block
Mid-19c.
1952
25
8.5ft
Horse + Combine
Fendt F15 Dieselross (15hp)
Early-20c.
Above Signaling the fundamental shif ts in the energy intensity of production agriculture, the explosion of high-horsepower tractors has caused the USDA to create a statistical category specifically for tractors with >500 hp
50
20.1 ft Fendt Vario 1050 (500hp)
2016
Steam Engine + Combine Mid-20c.
1956 250 10 ft John Deere Planter No. 446 4Row
120 ft
40hp (John Deere 60)
Capacity The Guinness World Record for most wheat harvested in 8 hours is 1,758,530 lbs - on 198 acres - by a New Holland CR10.90 combine in Linconshire, UK in August 2014
John Deere DB120 48Row30 Minimum 370hp Tractor (John Deere 9R 4WD)
Diesel Combine Present Day
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // AMERICA’S FARM: US ROUTE 281
p.8
Lef t A new John Deere S670, with 394 hp, costs between $350,000 - $500,000 Above This John Deere 9570RX 4WD tractor, with 570 hp, was selling for $550,000 Below The increase in farm acreage combined with constant planting and harvesting windows demands, in addition to longer days, bigger, faster, more powerful equipment. This enhanced machinery is very expensive, encouraging its use over increased acreage, thus restarting the cycle of expansion, growth, and specialization.
Increasing Price of Equipment with Increasing Power Source: Morgan Stanley, 2014
Compact Utility Tractor <40 hp Utility Tractor 40 - 100 hp Row-Crop Tractor 140 - 360 hp 4WD Tractor 360 - 550 hp Combine Harvester Cotton Stripper Cotton Picker Sugarcane Harvester
$0
Bradley Kraushaar
$100,000
$200,000
$300,000
$400,000
ACADEMIC // AMERICAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FARM: US ROUTE 281
$500,000
$600,000
$700,000
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MetroPort on the Rhine GSD1323: Landscape Architecture Option Studio Critics: Henri Bava (Agence Ter) Site: Strasbourg, FR The city of Strasbourg (FR) is disconnected from the Rhine river. The large river-island between the city and the river is occupied by an international shipping port. This project seeks to reconnect the city to the river through two major actions: first, the creation of a new hydrologically-responsive blue-green open space network; and second, the development of an urban fabric, influenced by proximate urban typologies and landscapes, which embraces and supports the new blue-green network. The blue-green network has two components: one that is responsive to the Rhine and its physical fluations, characteristics, and history; and one that is connected to the Strasbourg canal system making a litteral and figuative extension of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobility and recreation network. The proposed urban fabric draws from the four major landscape typologies in the Upper Rhine region: the River, the Forest, the Field, and the City. Spatial, experiential, hydrological, and physical differentiation between building typologies creates distinct portions of the new city, each with its own relationship to the water and the surrounding city. Some areas seek a new occupation of a reimagined alluvial forest, other serve as urban collectors and cleanser of stormwater.
City
Field
River
City
Field Forest Forest River
Historic Core
Residential Neighborhood (FR)
Educational Housing
Neighborhood (DE)
City
Field
Forest Logistics Hub
Social Housing
River Lef t Catalogue and spatial analysis of exemplary and/or relevant building typologies and neighborhoods near Strasbourg Above (& Previous) Project concept diagram showing the four regional landscape typologies .
Below Sectional catalogue of four distinct and varied building typologies around Strasbourg-Kehl
45m
33m
25m 74m
12+ stories
18 stories
38m
14m 4 stories
3 stories
Kehl
Bradley Kraushaar
12 stories
9 stories
Duex Rives
Social Housing
ACADEMIC // METROPORT
High-Rise Housing
p.11
Extension of Existing Street Alignment Existing Street Network
Providing Clean Water to Strasbourg Canal System
Primary Blue/Green Transportation Corridor Storm Overflow Capacity
Historic Rail Line Primary Street Orientation to Blue/ Green Corridor
Primary Trunk of Blue Network
Secondary Street Lateral Orientation to Blue/Green Corridor
Large Block Division
Urban Stormwater Management // Cleansing
Acknowledgement of Recent Development
Urban Cleansing Canal
Existing Street Extension
Connection to Strasbourg Canal Network 1째 Stormwater Collector Street 2째 Stormwater Collector Street
Primary Street (pedestrian + car) Secondary Street (primarily pedestrians)
Type 1 (Urban Cleansing Canal)
Block Division
Type 2 (1째 Stormwater Collector Street)
Existing Street Network
Type 3 (2째 Stormwater Collector Street)
Above (L to R) Street Stormwater Function, Circulation Alignment, and Street Hierarchy diagrams
Below Speculative, floodable building typologies to accommodate intrusion of water into the built areas
Floating Stilted
Structure floats as water rises
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ACADEMIC // METROPORT
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Self-Sufficiency (solar)
Stilts // Expendable Floor
Storage
Flotation
Block Structure
Permeability
Public Space
Corridor + Cluster
Flotation
Stilts // Expendable Floor
Below Existing street grid/block size analysis to determine blocks for new urban development University Quartier des XV
100 m
Bradley Kraushaar
Kehl
Neudorf South
100 m
100 m
Historic Center
200m x 125m
Above Building/block typology catalogue focusing on public space and hydrological accommodations
Deux Rives
100 m
100 m
100 m
100 m
ACADEMIC // METROPORT
p.13
Residential // Commercial
Deux Rives Development
Industrial
Logistics Hub
Connections to Existing Waterway
Dues Rives Development
Deux Rives Development
Proposed Forest Connection
No-Flood
Existing Shipping Port
· Grid · Block Structure / Street Grid · Urban
Kehl City Center
Flood · Clustered · Spine / Corridor · Resilient
Transportation // Infrastructure Corridor
Logistics Hub
Flood + Forest · Dispersed · Autonomous · Immersed
Above Existing conditions analysis Lef t (top) Alluvial forest rendering Above Building typology zones and transitions
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // METROPORT
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Rhin e
l Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;il
Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ill
Lef t New urban development center and canal network connection diagram Right Responsive urban extension into alluvial landscape typologies and Rhine inlet diagram
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ACADEMIC // METROPORT
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FOREST + FIELDS Floatation House
Disposable First Floor
Raised / Overlook Housing Absorptive Wetland
Alluvial Field
Rhine River
Alluvial Forest
Barrier River Island
CITY Secondary Stormwater Street
Roof Terraces
Forested Courtyards Existing Highway
Logistics Hub
Bike/Ped Facilities
Rec reation Avenues
Public Plaza
Courtyard Typology
Central Blue/Green Corridor
Above Two typological urban-river interface sections (Forest + Fields, City)
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // METROPORT
p.16
Flood +2.0
Flood +1.0
Flood +3.0
+ 3.5
+ 2.5
+ 1.5
+ 0.5
L to R Flooding phasing and associated flood level diagram (in meters, relative to the Rhine)
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // METROPORT
p.17
Above Positions of encampment are developed through section
Above Positions of encampment are developed through section
City Flux GSD1212: Landscape Architecture Core IV Critics: Chris Reed (STOSS) & David Mah Site: Jamaica Bay, New York City Partner: Liza Langer Jamaica Bay represents one of the most significant contiguous patches of estuarine salt-marsh in the Northeast, serving as a critical habitat for shorebirds and migrating species. It is also a constructed, polluted ecology resulting from dredging and filling, and was at the epicenter of the flooding from Hurricane Sandy. The purpose of this project is to develop a strategy for city-making that engages dynamic ecologies. An overall site framework is derived from adaptive processes and married to operational requirements for urban and hydrological infrastructure. Forthcoming is an detailed investigation of urban form and multiblock strategies tuned to the flux of open-ended environmental phenomena.
Clockwise L to R Infrastructure/ housing study model; contour plan exploring responsive land form interventions; and urban infrastructure typologies
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // CIT Y FLUX
p.19
05 - 10 year marsh growth 10 - 20 year marsh growth
05 - 10 year marsh growth 10 - 20 year marsh growth 20 - 40 year marsh growth
1
2
Backbone node with two permanent pedestrian/biking paths. Major flux housing development.
Permanent pedestrian/biking node. Minor flux housing development.
10 - 20 year marsh growth 20 - 40 year marsh growth
05 - 10 year marsh growth
Above Lateral urban development diagram of infrastructural and hierarchical development Below Secondary development diagram of secondary occupation expansion from primary infrastructure core
10 - 20 year marsh growth
05 - 10 year marsh growth
4
5
Backbone node with one temporary pedestrian/biking paths. Major flux housing development.
Backbone node. Major flux housing development.
Above Site Details illustrating potential urban nodes arranged around infrastructural backbone and secondary networks
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // CIT Y FLUX
p.20
Right Transportation/ infrastructural backbone detail section Top (L to R) Composite infrastructural core; infrastructure attachment typology catalogue; landform catalogue; and infrastructure backbone section details
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // CIT Y FLUX
p.21
Right Typological temporal sections with urban fabric, canal depth, and vegetal extent diagrams
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // CIT Y FLUX
p.22
Lef t Phasing Plan; lef t to right vegetal progression and concomitant projective urban development Right Urban Assembly typologies
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // CIT Y FLUX
p.23
Infrastructural Ecologies GSD1211: Landscape Architecture Core III Critics: Pierre Belanger + Andrea Hansen Site: Cape Cod Canal, Massachusetts Partners: Lief Estrada + Han Xu The Cape Cod Canal (CCC), first opened in 1914, connects Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay. It currently serves coastal-tanker and commercial-barge traffic. It is, however, obsolete infrastructure: the economics of shipping is dictating ever larger ships; with shrinking budgets, government is looking to divest itself of costly, unnecessary assets; and the canal currently only benefits a few, distant corporations, while the burdens (an ecological desert, oil spills, and limited occupational opportunities) are born locally. The purpose of this project is to develop vegetal strategies to catalyze long-term change to landforms, ecologies, and occupation. By investigating and understanding the detailed function of vegetation they can be leveraged; systemic change can be spurred through seeding interventions. This proposal transitions the CCC from its current condition to an ecological infrastructure.
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // INFRASTRUCTURAL ECOLOGIES
p.24
Lef t Vegetation analysis examining life-cycle, response to slope, salinity, light, and innundation
Above vegetation detail for Zostera maritima showing vegetal and sexual propagation characteristics Below timeline showing transition of canal profile, shipping volume, and vegetal composition
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // INFRASTRUCTURAL ECOLOGIES
p.25
Above Perspective showing intervention in brackish transitional zone between fresh upland spawning site and saline canal Right Intervention catalogue: granite blocks, planted Spartina, dredge berms
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // INFRASTRUCTURAL ECOLOGIES
p.26
Above Perspectives showing canal storm surge and bio-fuel berm interventions, and residential retreat Below Typological landforms from transitioned canal
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // INFRASTRUCTURAL ECOLOGIES
p.27
The Blind Landscape: Field + Permiability Harvard First-Semester Core Studio Gary Hilderbrand Imaginary Site Text Goes Here
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // INFRASTRUCTURAL ECOLOGIES
p.28
Lef t (previous) Analytical plan(s) exploring watershed connectivity, slope adjacencies, and existing aquatic infrastructure Above Sectional and temporal model of canal bathymetry
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // INFRASTRUCTURAL ECOLOGIES
p.29
Urban Gradients GSD1211: Landscape Architecture Core II Critics: Anita Berrizbeitia & Luis Callejas Site: Franklin Park, Boston Franklin Park is a 527-acre park in Boston designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted in the 1880s. The park is the southernmost component in the string of parks known as the Emerald Necklace, which begins in the Back Bay and winds through the city until its termination in Dorchester, where the park is located. Focusing on the northeastern portion of the park, the site is large, with dramatic topographical change, and weak spatial, material, and programmatic definition. Attempting to work with the park â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s palimpsest, the proposal reintroduces a re-imagined version of the original Greeting to address spatial, social, and programmatic goals. In contrast to the uniformity of the original mall, the new Greeting contains a path whose width and extent responds to existing vegetation and topography to create rooms and hallways through manipulation of vegetation and the ground plane. The path itself is a hallway with the interior recreation areas as rooms; expanded and diverted moments along the path represent rooms within the path.
Previous Planometric sections Above Detail plans of path and vegetation strategies
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // URBAN GRADIENTS
p.31
Clockwise Perspective; site plan of circulation and vegetation; and programmatic serial sections
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // URBAN GRADIENTS
p.32
Recycling Infrastructure GSD1211: Landscape Architecture Core II Critics: Anita Berrizbeitia & Luis Callejas Site: Fischer Hill Reservoir, Boston This student project is based in an abandoned reservoir in a hilltop residential neighborhood. This proposal aims to craft the atmosphere of the reservoir (the air space between the bottom of the tree canopy and the ground plane) through the careful modulation of light transmission. To achieve this, the reservoir is planted in a regularizing grid with species selection based on canopy light transmission values and leaf characteristics to balance performance and experience. Each of the three segments of the grid contains a specific ratio of three different categories of trees to both manage the overall amount of light reaching the reservoir floor and to create contrasting light experiences. Further, the strict maintenance of the bottom of the trees creates a flat plane, intended as an indexical registration of the historic water level, in which the visitor would exist. This registration is reinforced by a change in material color along the reservoir berm.
Above Sections of lighting experience, heat mapping, and radiation absorption
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // RECYCLING INFRASTRUCTURE
p.34
Clockwise Site Plan showing planting variation and leaf characteristics; perspective of light transmission; and study model photograph
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // RECYCLING INFRASTRUCTURE
p.35
Surface The Blind + Edge Landscape: Field + Permiability GSD1111: Landscape Architecture Core I Critics: Gary Hilderbrand & Silvia Benidito Site: Seaport District, Boston
This student project focuses on conceptualizing a new urban square at a waterfront site in South Boston. With inspiration from Mathur and Da Cunha’s SOAK, the focus of the project was the indeterminate boundary between the water and the land. Harvard H ar var vard d FFirst-Semester irst-S irs t-Seme emee st ste te r C Core ore St Studi Studio ud do The Leça pools Gary Gar y Hild H Hilderbrand lderb erbran ran rand an n dby Alvaro Siza were the precedent landform forSit Imaginary Imagin Ima gi ary Si Site ithe t e design. The concept of platforms and the relationship between regular and irregular landforms were Textthe Tex Goes Goe oe primary e s He Here e re r concepts carried forward. The project contains a terrace platform, estuary platform, and water platform. In an inversion of Leça, the existing site is regular, and the irregular forms protrude therefrom. The project creates an indeterminate land-water boundary by creating a walkway across the site that at times is 40m removed from the ocean and other times is completely enveloped by water.
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TYPE TYPE // // PROJECT PROJECT PROJ OJECT C NAME NAME
p.19 p.1 p .1 19 9
Above Perspective of land-water interface at mean tide.
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // SURFACE + EDGE
p.37
The Constructed Landscape SD6242: Ecologies, Technologies, Techniques IV Alistair McIntosh + Niall Kirkwood Meyer Gate, Harvard University Partner: Devin Dobrowolski The constructed landscape is explored through the relationship between an existing built landscape work and design detail. This exercise looks to reconstruct the Meyer gate between the Old Yard and the Science Center Plaza with details that evoke traditional New England stone walls, by the removal of existing design flourishes. The proposed design references the existing brick design through the vertical width of the proposed stone units.
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // THE CONSTRUCTED L ANDSCAPE
p.38
Future Ecologies GSD6241: Ecology, Technology, Techniques III Peter Del Tredici North Common Meadow, Petersham, MA Projecting old-field succession requires a systematic understanding of plant communities, site conditions, environmental trends, and human intervention. This field-study projection examines the sectional change to a portion of a meadow site recently transitioned to an un-managed condition. Speculating on temperature, moisture, and climatic changes mature trees are anticipated to shade out existing grasses and vines are expected to flourish.
Below Tree morphology study
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // FUTURE ECOLOGIES
p.39
View From Above GSD2142: Landscape Representation III Luis Callejas + Fadi Masoud Avalanche Structures, Siglufjรถrรฐur, IS This student project is a thorough exploration of a precedent project through the production of over 20 drawings of the site -- ranging from atmospheric perspectives to figure-ground drawings. The process emphasizes the exhaustive depiction of the ground plane and the exploration of phenomenological qualities over time, while simultaneously exploring the range of current representation techniques.
Avalanche Berms
Town
Mountain
Ocean
Avalanche Defense S
Clockwise Context plan; hypsometric tint color ramp, exploded axonometric diagram, vegetation growth cycle diagram
Bradley Kraushaar
ACADEMIC // VIEW FROM ABOVE
p.41