Urban Agriculture Facility Hannah Zhengxi Cao Thesis Documentation Virginia Tech 2012-2013
note of thanks
This book is dedicated to my parents who have trusted and supported me in countless ways. You have shown me what hard work looks like while reminding me to have some fun. I could never have gotten this far without your unwavering support. And thank you for asking if I have eaten (which I realized is another way of saying I love you), usually more than once in a conversation. I would also like to give special thanks to Aki Ishida. You have been so generous with your time and thoughts this past year. Thank you for your inspirations and enthusiasm in my work.
contents brief patchwork urbanism
01 02
existing condition -history -detroit -map -packard plant
07 09 12 17
case studies -plan obus -salk institute
33 37
intervention -intentions -sketch studies -master plan -office and lab space -sections -facade: a new horizon -exploded axon drawing -interior renders
43 45 47 51 53 57 63 65
works cited
69
elevation inhabitation drawing (on back cover)
brief This thesis is a response to the physical by-products of complex and intangible forces within a society. Built on the foundations of an old automobile factory, the creator of our nomadic nation, the Urban Agriculture Facility frames and preserves the auto legacy while still striving to give new life to left over abandoned spaces. Scaled to the city Scaled to the block Scaled to the man The facility, a wall, creates a hierarchy of spaces within and around it. The extensions of this wall are no longer absolute, allowing for a new porosity to saturate the area.
1
patchwork urbanism A patchwork of settled, partially empty, reconstructed, and empty areas. Shrinking cities, and cities in general, will always be incomplete, always in flux.
-Brent D. Ryan, Design after Decline3
3
EXISTING CONDITION
history Between 1950s-1960s a few attempts of mollifying the plight of declining cities were attempted though urban renewal projects3. These projects used federal funds and established urban policies to modernize transportation, attract commerce, and re-house citizens. However, urban renewal projects also prove to have destructive consequences as 20% of New Haven’s residents were directly displaced due to unsuccessful efforts. By 1970’s, President Nixon had brought the urban renewal efforts to a halt. Using the hugely failed Cedar-Riverside housing project as an example, they claimed modernists had promised an impossible Utopia and unrealistic results. From 1950-2000 there was also a great shift in the location of city growth in the United States. In the 1950s, Los Angeles stood as the only city in the Sunbelt that was listed in the ten largest U.S. cities. By 2000, seven of the top ten cities were Sunbelt cities (only New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia remained). Detroit, once a top ten city, now counts as one of the three “extreme losers” along with Cleveland and St. Louis. Patchwork Urbanism may partially account for the declining Detroit, a stage within the wain and waxing of all developed areas. However, the extremity of its current desolate condition requires the empty areas within the city to be reordered and activated, even if temporarily, for the city to resurgence.
7
Detroit is the most relevant city in the United States for the simple reason that it is the most unequivocally modern and therefore distinctive of our national culture: in other words, a total success. Nowhere else has American modernity so completely had its way with people and place...This makes Detroit the revealed “Capital for the Twentieth Century,” and likely the century ahead, because this is the place, more than any other, where the native history of modernity has been written. This same modernity has made Americans collectively, and globally, what we are all still becoming today, bringing along with us the rest of the so-called “developed” world. –Stalking Detroit2
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2011
1990
1970
1950
POPULATION CHANGE IN DETROIT
706,585
1,027,974
each figure represents 100,000 inhabitants
1,514,063
1,849,668
Population change in Detroit
Each figure represents 100,000 inhabitants
Since the 1950’s Detroit has lost over 50% of its population, leaving 40 square miles (30,000) vacant in a 138 square mile city6. Between 1978-1998, 108,000 demolition permits have been issued versus only 900 issued building permits2. Due to “white-flight”, 83% of the Detroit population consists of African Americans while the surrounding suburbs are 78% White6. 15.5% of those living in the city are unemployed and 35.5% of families live below the poverty line. During the 1900’s, Detroit had the largest percentage of single family homes in the United States2.
11
Vacancy rate for 1-4 unit residential structures12
not surveyed 0% - 7.02% 7.03% - 12.5% 12.51% - 19.55%
N
19.56% - 60.06%
0
1.25
2.5
5
miles
Under Mayor Bing, the city has a goal to demolish a total of 10,000 dangerous vacant and abandoned residential structures by the end of the mayor’s term in 201313. So far they have completed the demolition of 5,857 structures and ordered 7,121 more. Money from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program was used to fund the residential demolition program efforts.
13
image taken from Piranesi and the XVIII Centur
-Camilo José Vergara (American Ruins)
These tiny figures of homeless people, alcoholics, addicts, and prostitutes who live in the Cass Corridor are the modernday equivalents of the shepherds depicted among the ruins of antiquity by painters like Claude and Piranesi
-Camilo José Vergara4
ry View of Rome (Piranesi, Giovanni B, and Lucia Cavazzi)
15
drawing by Jules Guerin
The Packard Motor Car Company’s Building no. 10 allowed Albert and Julius Khan to establish a laboratory for the research of new construction techniques and new systems for labor management. Built from 1905-1910, the Building no. 10 offered the chance to use “The Kahn System” of reinforced concrete for the first time in place of traditional structural materials of iron, stone, and brick in a factory building1. This system of reinforcement composed of a steel skeleton supported by soldered wings angled upwards which, positioned according to the direction of the principal forces of compression, had the advantage of offering greater resistance while also simplifying the construction. Khan created a two-story building about 60’ x 322’ that demonstrated the advantages of a reinforced concrete structure to create free floor plans (30’ in each direction) and protection from frequent fire risks. The factory expressed the complete harmony between the study of shell to dress the underlying structure and the production function. Building no. 10 was a turning point in the budding American automobile industry, regarding the adaptation of concrete structures and flexibility of internal space. The resolution of the internal-external relationship corresponded to the manifestation of the construction principle, setting an early precedent for the Modern Movement to follow.
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surrounding 3 miles around Packard Plant
1000’
main roads
1000’
industry
1000’
schools
1000’
train tracks
1000’
green
1000’
airport
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Camilo José Vergara, 19914
January 18th, 2013
Packard grew until then end of World War II4. By 1956 the plant stopped producing automobiles. For the next few decades the space remained mostly empty with only small tenants who occupied a small fraction of the space. A garage-door-repair company, laundry cleaner, mechanic, paper recycling facility, bakery, storage space, illegal techno raves, and paint ball fields are a few listed among the assortment of occupations the plant at some point housed. By the 1990s only five maintenance men worked the half mile long, 3.5 million square foot plant.
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View toward old “Motor City Industrial Park” sign
Erosion of facade layers over building entrance
For the past decade the plant has stood completely empty.
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25
Facade study sketches
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Packard Plant: infill of frame catalogue
Packard Plant typical detail section of original two-story height
PACKARD PLANT TYPICAL DETAIL SECTIONS
2” plank section through 2nd flr window lintel sectin
section through 2nd floor side wall comlumns
section through 1st flr window lintel
section through 1st flr side wall columns
section through window sill grade
1’
5’
10’
cinders
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CASE STUDIES
Image of Roman aqueduct in the city11
Project proposal for city inhabiting the infrastructure11
Plan Obus Algiers, Algeria 1931-1934 (unbuilt) Le Corbusier Roman vestiges. Does this aqueduct, out of scale to the houses, destroy the harmony of the site? No! The aqueduct is the site! - Le Corbusier11
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Render of inhabiting the motor road megastructure11
Variations of possible plans and interior perspectives for living units11
Plan Obus is a never realized project for mass housing envisioned by Le Corbusier for the rough terrains of Algeirs11. The proposed project included a motor road 13 kilometers long and 26 meters wide along the coast, allowing easy entrance into the city center. This motor road also acted as a “high garden city” which has the capacity to house 220,000 inhabitants Under the motor road was a 14 floor substructure, each 4.5 meters high, where the parking, gardens, apartments, and villas would be. This superstructure becomes sliced into “artificial land” plots where the inhabitants created their own space according to their personal desires. Each unit has a frontage of the golf between 10 to 30 meters wide to allow residents an “unlimited view” out to the sea. Le Corbusier saw this project as the “utmost diversity in unity”. The floors would sit on a frame of reinforced concrete allowing a possibility of different living units based on the inhabitants’ desires. This superstructure proposed to bring all aspects of urban advantages together: views, generous space, sunlight, economy of water, transportation, and easy sewer and garbage administration.
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Photographs by Peter Aprahamian7
Salk Institute for Biological Studies La Jolla, California 1959-1965 Louis Kahn I do not like ducts; I do not like pipes. I hate them really thoroughly, but because I hate them so thoroughly, I feel they have to be given their place. If I just hate them and took no care, I think they would invade the building and completely destroy it. I want to correct any notion you may have that I am in love with that kind of thing. - Louis Kahn7
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4
1 laboratory 2 portico 3 service tower 4 mechanical wing 5 office 6 wcs
3
2
1
5
N
6
0’
30’
The Salk Institute was designed for a closed scientists community involved in concentrated research. Kahn distinguishes between large, free-plan spaces of the laboratories and the rooms for privates study with the use of wooden paneled apertures set in bare concrete walls. Due to his dislike of exposed pipes and a required complex HVAC system, Kahn provisioned large mechanical spaces between the laboratory floors to hide the pipes. These mechanical spaces allows for flexible and uncluttered laboratory floors. Studies are grouped in pairs and are aligned with the mechanical rather than laboratory floor levels to maintain a sufficient physical and psychological distance between the two. Each laboratory block has five study towers, with a diagonal wall allowing each of the thirty-six scientists using the studies to have a view of the Pacific.
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INTERVENTION
Spring research and preparation for planting
Summer agricultural economy filling empty spaces
Fall community interactions and education
Winter growing, packaging, living and storage
This is the exploration of an Urban Agriculture Facility (UAF) in the abandoned Packard Automobile Plant, an update to the concept of factory in the community. The existing plant is over half a mile long, appearing as an inconsiderate and depreciative “wall” to its adjacent residential neighborhood. The UAF perforates the exiting plant to create a “new wall” which grows, collects, and distributes produce goods to the surrounding areas. The factory is no longer a place only dedicated to production, but also for research and education, creating both a visual and metaphorical new horizon. Kahn’s structure, an artifact from the past, is preserved as a monumental memory of the once proud city. The new skin, cuts, and insertions respect and allow the old structure to be of today. Together, the new and the old complete a unity which projects the events within the facility to be read on the exterior of the building. This delicate interweaving enables a new Detroit to grow from the decay and ruins, preserving the rich memories of the city’s past while creating new possibilities for its future development.
43
Initial concept sketches and diagrams
45
stree
train
seco 250’ 100’
N
elect
trees
Existing neighborhood condition around Packard Plant
Proposal for agricultural intervention
concrete surfaces packard plant buildings electrical posts trees train tracks streets
KEY
sidewalk permanent crops
concrete surfaces
larger fields requiring rotation
mixed annual and biennial plants
existing plant
packard plant
10’
50’
100’
250’
houses
buildings
lamp posts
electrical posts
trees
trees
train tracks
train tracks
streets
streets
sidewalk
sidewalk
permanent crop
permanent crops
rotational crop
larger fields requiring rotation
mixed crops
mixed annual and biennial plants
10’
50’
100’ 47
Orchards planted to fill the massing of old factory’s removed wings
49
Space studies of flexible labs and offices
office
lab
office
closet
hall
office
lab
expandable lab spaces
corrugated light/shadow walls wide hall for light
Iteration of office/lab spaces fitted into extended building plan
exterior
new facade interior existing facade angled office views
shared lab
removable walls for expansion
drainage/water shaft
balcony
elevator
mechanical shaft
interior
double height storage/loading space
existing facade operable facade
N
exterior
1’
10’
15’
30’ 51
Sections showing South Facade responding to the programmed spaces
short-term apartments
A → operable to outside air
conference room
C → always double skinned A
office space
E → alwa
B → operable to air gap
laboratory
D → hallway open to air gap B
Section through entire building with summer afternoon sunlight in space
lounge area
E → always open to air gap
sidewalk
street
15’
30’
1’ 5’
y
p C
D
E
53
View of South facade interacting with production activities
55
Cell size:
150 squares
100 squares
50 squares
original (12138px × 3000px)
Pixelization: technique used in editing images or video, whereby an image is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower resolution. It is primarily used for censorship14. Physiognomy : judging character from facial characteristics Physiologist Claude Bernard, the notion of the milie intérieur, or interior environment, was introduced to describe the internal space in which the regulatory function of organisms are performed10. The resulting tripartite assemblage - structure, function, environment came to define the regulatory processes of organized bodies. Using pixelization of the activity behind the facade allows for a physiognomic reading of the building. The building then takes on different characteristics at different scales and distances.
57
New facade skin pattern at different viewing distances
scale of the man
scale of the block
scale of the neighborhood
59
Rooftop greenhouse glowing in neighborhood
Night view of North Elevation
61
Exploded axonometric drawing of building
0’
10’
20’
50’
rooftop greenhouses and bridge connection
3rd floor with facade condition responding to activity behind
ground floor with open shed doors for flow of produce
63
Third floor with a view down into production levels
Ground floor shed activities
Section through North Facade stair and ground floor arcade
65
Rooftop greenhouse and “forest” of rain water collection pipes
67
works cited 1.
Bucci, Federico. Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993. Print. 2. Daskalakis, Georgia, Charles Waldheim, and Jason Young. Stalking Detroit. Barcelona: Actar, 2001. Print. 3. Ryan, Brent D. Design After Decline: How America Rebuilds Shrinking Cities. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. Print. 4. Vergara, Camilo J. American Ruins. New York: Monacelli Press, 1999. Print. 5. De, Botton A. The Architecture of Happiness. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006. Print 6. Gregory, Siobhan. Detroit is a Blank Slate: Metaphors in the Journalistic Discourse of Art and Entrepreneurship in the City of Detroit. EPIC 2012 Renewal Conference, October 2012. 7. Steele, James. Salk Institute: Louis I. Kahn. London: Phaidon Press, 2002. Print. 8. Piranesi, Giovanni B, and Lucia Cavazzi. Piranesi and the Xviii Century View in Rome. Roma: Artemide, 1998. Print. 9. de Botton, Alain. The Architecture of Happiness. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006. Print 10. Martin, Reinhold. The Organizational Complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2003. Print. 11. Le, Corbusier. La Ville Radieuse, Éléments D’une Doctrine D’urbanisme Pour L’équipement De La Civilisation Machiniste: Paris, Genève, Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Montevideo, Buenos-Aires, Alger, Moscou, Anvers, Barcelone, Stockholm, Nemours, Piacé. Boulogne (Seine: Éditions de l’architecture d’aujourd’hui, 1935. Print.
electronic sources 12. http://datadrivendetroit.org/data-mapping/ 13. http://www.detroitmi.gov/DepartmentsandAgencies/ MayorsOffice/ResidentialDemolitionProgram/tabid/2992/ Default.aspx 14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelization
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In essence, what works of design and architecture talk to us about is the kind of life that would most appropriately unfold within and around them. They tell us of certain moods that they seek to encourage and sustain in their inhabitants... They speak of visions of happiness. -Alain de Botton
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