THE SCOPE

01 Urban Archipelago

Systematic Study of Design Principles and Multiple Design Methods

Project Type: Individual Academic Project Studio: 2021 Spring | Urban System Instructor: Elizabeth Dean Herman Site: the Northend, Newport, Rhode Island, USA

My project is called the urban archipelago, which represent my understanding of Newport and my ambition of turning the Northend of Newport into a more resilient, vitalized place and benefits people who have been living there and who may move to there. It is from the core studio - Urban System in 2021 spring semester. I had a very inspiring and meaningful experience with Doctor Elizabeth Dean Hermann and my final grade is A and become the teaching assistant of this course next year.

My instinct of Newport or starting point of understanding how the urban system works in Newport is through water. And in this part, I investigate the settlement history of Newport and how the character of water changes over these periods.

After understanding the settlement history of Newport, I would investigate the future of Newport. Newport as a part of Aquidneck Island is challenged a lot by storm surge problem and sea-level rise. Think about when storm coming, all the bridges would be shut down and Newport literally become an isolated island which cannot be supported from other cities in Rhode Island.

Then I investigated our site - the Northend. Unlike the downtown and southern Newport which are filled with wealthy and middle-class people. People in Northend are need help. The gentrification, the complicated topography and abandoned development project by government make these communities very vulnerable.

Using water as the key to enhance identity of communities, new transportation and propose different infrastructures taking use of the abundant run-offs and provide resources.