VERTICAL DENSITIES Productive Landscapes at the Urban Edge
Fall 2010
CHEN CHEN SCOTT MITCHELL AMY WHITESIDES
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Flying Electric Generator (FEG)
High-Altitude Wind Farm (x10 FEGs) = 5,000,000 kW/yr
= 100 kW
$
= $500,000 = 200,000 ft3 = 13,000 lbs. = 5.6 - 67.1 mph
$
= $0.02/kWh = 2,500 homes
PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES AT THE URBAN EDGE The South Weymouth Naval Air Station (SOWEY) is a 750 hectare ex-military base located at the convergence of 3 suburban towns. Highly contested plans for its redevelopment currently include a movie studio complex, retail shops and a planned community. The proposed plans for SOWEY do not address the region’s declining economic conditions, the existing excess of residential land, the lack of public open space or the current water shortages and the pressure the development would place on these resources. Current proposals view the site as an economic resource for a few businesses. Larger issues of wildlife conservation, public health and safety and environmental productivity are ignored. In contrast, our proposal considers the site as a regional resource and a potential prototype for decentralized urban development that places a premium on the environmental and public health services of open land often overlooked by typical urban expansions such as those proposed. We envision SOWEY as a public space that protects and replenishes freshwater resources, provides important flood control services, conserves habitat for endangered species, and serves as a testing ground for emergent high altitude wind generation technologies that could serve as an economic resource for the region. Traditional wind turbines are often unwanted due to noise, visual impact and bird kill. The FEGs to be tested on site are free from these common concerns. The small footprint they require allows the ground plane to be freed up to serve as recreation space and critical wetland and grassland habitat. In addition to providing habitat to migrating bird species, the wetlands collect storm water runoff from adjacent towns, direct it away from contaminated areas, and slow the flow of water from the site helping to replenish groundwater resources while limiting common downstream flooding events. The wetlands and grasslands are threaded with pedestrian walkways and service roads connecting the adjacent but disconnected towns to each other and to the commuter rail and highway that line the site’s western border. The result is an innovative treatment of the urban–rural edge that could be implemented at SOWEY or adapted and applied as a regional concept of how this edge space could be a richly layered economicallyviable resource for people and wildlife. 8
AERIAL DENSITIES
South Weymouth was the home of the US Navy’s state-of-theart lighter-than-air Atlantic surveilance operations during WWII. In the future it could become the home of cutting edge research in energy production from high-altitude wind generators. Wind Viability (120m)
Wind Viability (600m)
The site’s concentration of high altitude winds makes it a perfect site to test electricity production through emergent flying electric generation (FEG) technologies.
FALL 2010
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250
200
150
100
Population of surrounding towns: South Weymouth, Holbrook, Abington and Rockland
50
0
1968
1972
1977
1983
1994
2001
proposed Brockton desalination plant
2010
Indian Head River Discharge Rate Cubic feet per second
$70 million
$100 million 2010 Floods 3.5% state budget
2.5 % state budget
2.5 million gallons annually unused water
$4 million annual cost in unused water
Number of people per day who could use water from the aquifer on site at 65 gallons per day. 5,000 people
Part of the proposal involved a comprehensive analysis of resource use and management involving municiple supply operations, land management and groundwater recharge scenarios.
Recent developments in neighboring cities have led to the construction of a desalination plant less than 30 miles from South Weymouth, costing the state and municipalities millions of dollars annually.
In stark contrast, the French Creek/Atlantic watershed is has ample water resources available when utilized alongside sustainable extraction and recharge practices.
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AERIAL DENSITIES
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Important to understanding the implications of a vertical landscape are the historic changes to ground water and the possibilities for future cooperative best management practices.
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AERIAL DENSITIES
Implementation on site would involve a highly-coordinated and choreographed series of operations aimed at reducing impacts down stream while establishing dynamic natural systems to support energy infrastructures and new levels of fluvial and grassland biodiversity.
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Programmatic and grading considerations on the site emphasize the dynamic site systems and grant access to surrounding populations. Making visible these natural operations helps educated the communities to the functional qualities of open space and enhances their understanding through the thickened vertical landscape
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AERIAL DENSITIES
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Wetland function and health is the primary driver of the landscape’s morphology. Sedimentation, oxygenation and infiltration basins not only provide cleaning functions necessary for treating an urban watershed but provide valuable habitat to rare species of land, air and aquatic wildlife.
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AERIAL DENSITIES
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Construction of the site is through a series of operations: deforestation, restoration of the riparian corridor, establishment of wetland and grassland habitats as well as regular maintenance of the site. Existing airfield infrastructure will be reused both as a staging ground for site restoration and as a future territory for sustainable maintenance operations.
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AERIAL DENSITIES
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The entire South Weymouth site will welcome a new interaction between wildlife and the neighboring communities while restructing the way energy is produced. Biodiversity and conservation habitat are brought to foreground alongside regional urban infrastrutures.
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AERIAL LANDSCAPES
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South Weymouth has the potential to become a prototype of renewal for the northeast’s leftover spaces. By superimposing these spaces with recognized biocore habitat, potential flood hazards and sustainable groundwater resources we can begin to imagine a decentralized network of energy infrastructures that resituates these sites as productive, rather than exploited, landscapes
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AERIAL DENSITIES
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LANDSCAPE MORPHOLOGY
Fall 2010
CHEN CHEN SCOTT MITCHELL AMY WHITESIDES
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LANDSCAPE MORPHOLOGY
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This week-long workshop with landscape architect Phillipe Coignet of the Office of Landscape Morphology focused on the manipulation of ground morphology related specifically to water and flows. Our project examined the cross-secrtional variations of land and the responses of ground condition in response to slope, drainage and flow. Diagrid modules could be manipulated along the section as a direct response to cross-sectional slope or could be arranged in arrays that would alternately delay or enable flow.
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LANDSCAPE MORPHOLOGY
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LANDSCAPE MORPHOLOGY
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REPRESENTATIONAL PRACTICE Landform and Ecological Process Fall 2010
SCOTT MITCHELL
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REPRESENTATIONAL PRACTICE
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1.POI O NT MATRIX X
2.EME EMERGENT RGENT GRID
6.CONVERSI 6.CON VERSION ON TO NURB NURBS S
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4.SURFACE MANIPULATI U ON
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8.REARRANGEMENT
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11.TAPER
12.BEND QUERCUS RUBRA
LIRIODENDRON TULIPIFERA ACER PLATANOIDES TSUGA CANADENSIS I
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REPRESENTATIONAL PRACTICE
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