Habitat Archipelago: A Geofuturist Proposal for Architecture in the Anthropocene

HABITAT ARCHIPELAGO: A GEOFUTURIST PROPOSAL FOR ARCHITECTURE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

JESSICA LAPANO RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE 2014

THE FOLLOWING IS THE WORK OF

JESSICA LAPANO M. ARCH I

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF

CHRIS PERRY

STUDIO CRITIC

ABSTRACT

In the age of the Anthropocene, drastic ecological changes are needed to stop global climate change that will not be realized through technology alone. We need the assistance of socio-political movements as well as the integration of disciplines in order to be successful. This research analyzes the successes and failures of the Environmental Movement, beginning in the 1960s, as well as its integration of art, architecture, landscape, and technology in comparisons to their modern day environmental influences. By examining nature, through its various forms and ideologies, this research also seeks innovative ways to integrate disciplines as a means for understanding the process of social change.

Nature and technology can be designed symbiotically through architecture.

However, this change can only be achieved through the support and subsequent propagation of this idea though culture. Therefore, architecture’s processes must include sociological functions as well as ecological ones to redefine the relationship between Nature and Culture. At the culmination of this research, equipped with a new understanding of the nature-culture relationship, a theoretical architectural proposal seeks to engage the issues surrounding architecture’s unique ability to propagate social change and mediate between nature and technology.

“There are now so many of us, using so many resources, that we’re disrupting the grand cycles of biology, chemistry and geology… Almost all the planet’s ecosystems bear the marks of our presence.”

TOPIC RESEARCH

Pre-Environmentalism

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The Environmental Movement of the 1960’s and 70’s was sparked from influences in the post-WWII era of the 1950s. In Samuel Hayes’ Beauty, Health, Permanence, he argued that “the post-war decline of an industrial base and rise of the service sector raised the social, cultural, and economic importance of ecologically based ideas...

There was a shift from the ‘productionist’ ethic to the ‘consumerist’ ethic”.

From the postwar age came a host of ecological concerns. First, there was a realization of the dangers of rampant pesticide contamination came to light due largely to marine biologist/scientist/ ecologist Rachel Carson. Second, aboveground nuclear testing had multiple drastic failures. And third, agriculture became more industrialized. This separated man even further from nature, while at the same time the limit of the earth’s resources were realized.

Had these concerns been realized just in their respective fields, it may not have elicited

such an intense reaction. However these new events were timed with developments in the public spread of information that generated a mass awareness in the public view.

Rachel Carson became a highly publicized figure. Her books ‘The Sea Around Us’ and ‘Silent Spring’ discussed both the dramatic increase of aerial pesticide usage and contamination as well as the industry’s switch from organic to synthesized contaminants and the spread of diseases that occurred as a reaction to it. What really popularized her influence, though, was her exposure through mass televised media.

Along a similar line, debates of ecological issues began to be held in public, rather than only among experts. Both of these aspects showed a popularization in science, which acted as an influence of the integration of scientific and ecological technologies and trends into culture in the following years. Lastly, color photography emerged in National Geographic magazine as well as a popular hobby among society.

The sudden easy availability of color landscapes helped to create a mass appeal

and a desired connection between people and environment.

The culmination of these highly publicized environmental concerns in the 1950s led to the emergence of the Environmental Movement starting in the 1960s.

It created a social movement calling for change and resulting in the drafting of new environmental legislature , which ultimately influenced greatly the disciplines of art, architecture, and landscape architecture of the 1960s and ‘70s culture.

The resulting projects of this tension led to three main types of human/environment interaction.

Some like Reyner Banham and Buckminster Fuller directed their research toward the creation of synthetic, technical environments. Others, lik¬e Ian McHarg, advocated for building to follow the processes of nature. And lastly, there were those like the land artists that coinciding relationship with the earth.

The following research will discuss the

Pesticide Contamination Nuclear Fallout Agriculture

Concerns

Limited Resources Wilderness Preservation Environmental Movement Public Media Color Photography

Mass Awareness

Public Science realization of these elements as influences of the environmental social trends of the 1960’s and 70’s and analyze the way they manifest through a variety of exemplary people and projects and ultimately draw connections between those projects and events of today.

Figure :: 1

Human // Environment Interaction

Using Natural Process

Coincide with Nature

Ian McHarg

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty

Figure :: 2

Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project

Create a New Environment

Reyer Banham, The Unhouse

Buckminster Fuller, Expo 67 //9

1965 - 1975

Banham Archite of the Temp Environ

Cultural

Buckminster Fuller, Expo 67

Ian Mc Design Nat

Banham, the Unhouse

Earthworks Exhibition, Dwan Gallery

Political

1965

Tox Substa Cont Ac

Wilderness Act Reforms

Air Quality Control Act

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m, The ecture Wellpered nment

cHarg, n with ture

xic ances trol ct

Invention of the Universal Recyling Symbol

Smithson, Spiral Jetty

1975

1970

NEPA passed into law

Clean Air Act Water Pollution Control Act

United Nations Environmental Conference

Drinking Water Act

Figure :: 3 //11

The Unhouse Reyner Banham Architecture // 1965

Reyner Banham’s theoretical project tReyner Banham’s theoretical project the Unhouse, produced in 1965, used the flows of the building to create an implied enclosure rather than a physical barrier.

This project was a huge integration of architecture and technology, where Banham essentially created his own environment within architecture.

He states “When [a house] contains so many services … that the hardware could stand up by itself without any assistance, why have a house to hold it up?” This work was largely architectural, yet called for the architecture to be influenced by processes that would people would have relied on the environment and their existing environment to fulfill. In the Unhouse, Banham embraced the use of machines and the technological as a means of ecological building. He “called for architecture as the direct outcome of a techno-natural environment”. In terms of the current aesthetics of architecture, Banham recognized “classic modernism is timely, not timeless”, though he is clearly influenced by principles of modernism and functionalism. In this case, ‘form follows function’ applies so much that the form of the house is literally only its functions. It is highly reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s famous mantra, ‘A house is a machine for living in’. In the Unhouse, one would actually live amongst the mechanics and the space they create. This project is largely signifying his belief that architecture would form its own new style through the integration of contemporary factors, namely technology.

Banham wrote the book ‘The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment’, published in 1969, which acted as a contributor to the budding Environmental Movement.

However, in his work Banham “tends to deal with buildings as environmental management rather than building used in reality”. He also “does not entertain any serious analysis of vernacular buildings... and is equally dismissive of low-tech buildings”.

Later in his career, he also published ‘Marks on the Landscape’ from ‘Scenes of the American Deserta’ in 1982, in // 12

which he analyzes the tourist attractions of Tucson, Arizona. In this writing he has clear ideas between site and non-site relevant to Robert Smithson and the land artists (of which will soon be discussed). He notes that the tourist attraction of the striking white St. Xavier church is a stranger to the land, as it clearly came from European influences that were forced upon the vernacular.

Though he finds this church strange, he is comfortable around the technology of Tucson’s solar telescope. Speaking of the telescope, he says, “I identify with it … because it belongs to my

generation and people, the clever folks who came out of World War II determined to make over Western Culture according to a different rationality, however terrifying some of its by-products might be”.

This quote exemplifies his belief that the integration of technology, by accepting what it will become, will help society. This piece as a whole reflects how he was affected after the 1973 oil shock and his change of thinking about utopian and technical formalism.

“When [a house] contains so many services that the hardware could stand up by itself without any assistance, why have a house to hold it up?” //13

Expo 67 Buckminster Fuller Architecture // 1967

Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome for Expo 67 was built in the midst, and perhaps part of, the psychological warfare of the Cold War. Like Banham’s Unhouse two years before, Fuller used technology to create an alternate nature. Fuller, clearly influenced by the threat of nuclear war and the damage from fallouts of nuclear testing, looked to buildings as “environmental valves”. This meant that he intended the domes to act as a self-regulating shelter that would allow humans to live in hostile environments, such as those produced after nuclear war. Essentially, Fuller saw his domes as a way to “prevent humanity from self-annihilation”.

Though Fuller had plans for his domes to function as a series of self-sustaining systems, the commission for Expo 67 was for little more than the construction of the shell of the dome. The dome was intended to utilize a “self-regulating shading system” which unfortunately ceased functioning early in the exhibition and became static. However, the dome still stood as an exemplar of “the functionalist ideal of modern architecture as a set of progressively improving techniques for mediating between the natural environment and the human body”.

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Fitting with the rivalry of the Cold War, Fuller sought with this work to find a medium between “capitalism and communism, between free markets and central planning”. He was concerned not only for the countries involved in the tension, but in global humanity. According to Bragdon, Fuller used Pythagorean principles in the structure of his domes. Pythagorean principles are harmonic proportions, and symbolically promote ethos as selfless and necessary for democracy.

In his treatise, he wrote of ways to achieve “a workable system of mutual survival among individuals and societies”.

Fuller’s ‘geoscopes’ were “large occupiable globes displaying geographical, climatological, and sociological data”.

In Expo 67, Fuller attempted to bring people into the involvement of the Geoscope with his creation of the World Game, “a multi-player game that dramatized long-term planning of resources”. Though this was not an intended part of the Expo, Fuller’s dome became a greater integrator of social change as it became the place of protests held against the Vietnam War.

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Design with Nature Ian McHarg Landscape Architecture // 1969

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Ian McHarg’s work in landscape architecture, particularly his writing ‘Design with Nature’, was highly influential in beginning ecological planning, as well as providing a firm establishment for the discipline of landscape architecture and site-planning.

McHarg firmly believed in the scientific method and its ability to solve conflicts between design and nature. He was of the opinion that science “was a truth serum that would reveal the verifiable facts of nature to humans”, and that by discovering and following the laws of nature, humanity would be able to beautifully and efficiently plan sites. McHarg believed that science was the key to revealing nature’s truths to humanity. He was such a supporter of science in nature that upon starting the landscape architecture program and the University of Pennsylvania, he immediately hired Muhlenberg, a scientist with a background in forestry and ecology, as part of the faculty. While he revered nature, he was not a preservationist. He believed that by understanding natural forces would enable humanity to create landscape in accordance with nature, hence the title of his book, ‘Design with Nature’.

According to Herrington, “Creativity, for McHarg, was not an act exclusive to human artists but rather a directional process towards higher levels of order, which he thought occurred in the law of both thermodynamics and evolution – in living and nonliving systems”. Furthering this point, McHarg states, “Ecological design follows planning and introduces the subject form. There should be an intrinsically suitable location, processes with appropriate materials, and forms. Design requires an informed designer with a visual imagination, as well as graphic and creative skills. It selects

for creative fitting revealed in intrinsic and expressive form”.

McHarg supported the idea that site design and planning should be tested for its ‘ecological integrity’, just as scientific theories are tested. He states that, “We can accept that scientific knowledge is incomplete and will forever be so, but it is the best we have and it has that great merit … of being self-correcting”. A follower of Darwin, he stated that Darwin’s principles were often misinterpreted by the site designer in that the flora currently at the location was the best possible, rather than seeing natural selection as a “’better than’ principle, not an optimizing device”. Instead, McHarg believed that “ecological fitness must meet the evolutionary criteria of complexity, diversity, stability, and interdependence”.

In one part of ‘Design with Nature’, McHarg reveals his studies of high rat populations and compares them to the high densities of human inhabitants in cities, which he viewed as “the antithesis of nature”. He warned that in these rat populations there is a “direct relationship between high density and a decline in the size of litters, deformed young, and ultimately the failure of the mothers to provide milk, and cannibalism”. Though McHarg himself did not condone urban city areas, his work inspired many later landscape architects, especially some of his own students such as Anne Whiston Spirn and Michael Hough, to see nature to the urban environment and strive to bring a “humanist dimension to his ecological approach”.

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Earthworks

Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, Walter de Maria, etc.

Art // Landscape Architecture // 1968 +on

The Earthworks exhibit premiered as the starting show of the art season in the Dwan Gallery in 1968.

The effect it had on the rest of the art world and environmental culture was so great that the title of the exhibit became terminology, and the name ‘earthworks’ was used to describe art that incorporated land material (Boettger 135).

The timing of this exhibit was imperitive to its popularity. It took place “in a time of social upheaval” (135). In the year leading up to its debut, both Martin Luther King and Kennedy had been assassinated, massive demonstrations and student protests had occurred, and the Democratic National Convention had been violent (135).

This political unrest coupled with growing ecological concern lead to the massive popularization of Earthworks and its role as a // 18

rallying point for those starting the Environmental Movement.

Ironically, the artists overall had not intended to send such an ecological message and were concerned more with returning man and art’s interactions to their most basic. According to Boettger, “We can can assume they were also partial to environmental protection.

But in the late 1960s, ecological issues were not a direct source of Earthworks” (152). Though this may not have been their intentions, Earthworks’ artists opened the door for ecological artists and the idea to work with natural materials.

Their exhibit embodied the zeitgeist of their time, it “epitomizes 1968 as ‘annus mirabilis’, a year of wonders which had the vibrations of an earthquake about it” (152).

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2000 - 2013 Cultural

Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project

The High Line

Political

2000

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2005

Paul Crutzon, Announcement of the Anthropocene World Summit on Sustainable Development

Al G Inco

Gore, An onvenient Truth

Fresh Kills, James Corner

Scanning Double Negative Teshima Art Museum

Dark Optimism, MoMA PS1

Olafur Eliasson, NY Waterfalls

2010

Obama Elected as Energy First Black Independence President and Security Act

Occupy Wall Street

Rio +20, United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development

Obama’s Speech on Climate Change at Georgetown University

Figure :: 4 //21

Ecological Modernization 1960-70s

Social Movements

(second-wave feminist movement and end of civil rights movement)

Environmental Movement

Mutual Influences Figure :: 5

The momentum and passion of the environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s began to fade during the 1980s. According to M. Janicke, the ideas for environmental reform still existed, but were “no longer connected them to overall and massive social transformations that would alter industrial society beyond recognition” (f). This has led to the evolution of the concept of ‘Ecological Modernization’, a way of thinking that finds technology and innovation integrated into environmental policies, similar to ‘eco-efficient innovation’ that uses environment-friendly technologies to enhance productivity of a product (f-f558).

(F) cites two of the main forces that drive ecological modernization: 1.

“The role of ‘smart’ government regulation”, and 2. “Growing business risks for polluters in the context of multi-level environmental governance” (f 558). These two forces essentially boil down to the fact that in order for change on such a large scale, the government must be involved.

This theory is supported by the analysis Environmental Movement in the previous section. As shown in Figure: Timeline a large part of the success in the 1960s and 70s Environmental Movement came from the symbiotic relationship of culture and politics, where society was influenced by the legislature being passed, making the subject even more topical and influencing culture, which in turn influences more political acts, and so on.

In today’s society, much of the resistance for finding ecological solutions comes from those who stand to lose the most in the switch. According to (f 557), “In general, an environmental problem proves politically less difficult to resolve if a marketable solution exists. In contrast, if a solution to an environmental problem requires an intervention in the established patterns of production, consumption, or transport, it is likely to meet resistance” (f 557). According to (f 558), ecological innovations have to achieve three qualifications to succeed. First, the solution they // 22

Political Legislature

Now Environmentalism

Ecological Modernization

Social Movements Policies of Ecological Modernization Negatively Influence Necessary for its Acceptance

Economy Political Legislature

Wise Use Movement Figure :: 6

propose need to be to a problem that affects the global level (f 558).

Second, it needs to promote global industrial growth, which will heighten the demand for further environmental innovations (f 558).

Third, and most importantly, they need political and/or societal support (f 558) and preferably both. Without legislature to support it, eco-innovation will not be able to succeed. Even legislature from other countries, if it widely and strongly supported, can influence and apply pressure for global change. According to (f 562), “even the US has been forced to adopt a defensive position in the field of climate policy and cannot easily ignore political and technological innovations” (f 562).

problems’ of environmental policy – namely urban sprawl, soil erosion, the loss of biodiversity, the final storage of nuclear waste, or global climate change – all exemplify these limits. Also, the modernization approach is in general not a viable option when risk is acute and immediate defensive action is needed. Secondly, incremental increases in environmental efficiency can often not be considered a sustained solution since they tend to be easily wiped out by subsequent growth processes (rebound effect)” (f 562).

One proposed method of creating a mutually beneficial relationship between environmental regulation and our country’s competitive capitalism emerged in the early 1990s. This pro-regulation view claimed to improve industries in the following ways: first, “regulation can create or support markets for domestic industries” (f 559).

Second, “regulation, often initiated by regulatory trendsetters and leading to global harmonization, increases the probability of markets”. Third, companies affected by this regulation would “not have to worry about whether their competitors will enact the same measures”. Finally, “regulation also reduces internal impediments in companies to implement technological change … [and] companies do not have to look for a support within the value chain” (f 559). This view does have some support even in big businesses.

According to Jeffrey Immelt, [position] of General Electric, “Stricter environmental standards to not damage the national economy (…)

On the contrary, the country could benefit from higher standards if a core competence for environmental goods is developed” (f 560).

Problems with environmental modernization occur when marketable solutions are not available. According to (f), “the ‘persistant //23

Landscape Urbanism

From Criticism Paper for Ralph Ghoche: Though the Environmental Movement of the 1960s and 70s waned, its influences are being reincorporated today through a mix of architecture and landscape. According to Stan Allen, “The principles of landform building offer a new lens with which to reexamine phenomena as diverse as the megastructure of the 1960s, the current fascination with green building, artificial ski slopes, or the vast multi-use stadia being constructed today.” The inhabitation of the landscape is one key element that much of contemporary architecture has incorporated into its design. However unlike land art’s wild terrains, such as the salt lake of the Spiral Jetty or the vast desert of Double Negative, modern architecture has incorporated principles of landscape art into densely populated urban typology. Richard Serra began to bridge this gap between city and environment with his installations of CORE-TEN steel, but architects today have taken the installations from enormous metal sheets installed in blocks to the actual infrastructure of the urban background itself. According to landscape architect James Corner, “Urban infrastructure sows the seeds of future possibility, staging the ground for both uncertainty and promise”. ¬¬ Like the land artists, many contemporary works of architecture create a sculptural, inhabitable experience in its work. They work not with the ‘single surface construction’, such as the Modernist paintings hung in a gallery that the land artists so rejected, but instead creates a three-dimensional landscape structure. // 24

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The Weather Project Olafur Eliasson Art // 2003

Olafur Eliasson is commonly known as a climate artist, this generation’s version of a landscape artist. His work, The Weather Project, at Turbine Hall is an installation of an artificial sun hanging in the hall and one of his most influential projects. In this piece, Eliasson “decided to link the radical and intermittently chaotic structure of the museum/society, to another uncontrollable system, that of the weather” (j 22). “I’m thinking about the fact that the museum presents itself as non-representational, and yet is almost hyper-representational in its commodification of sensuality” (j RTD 68). The hall is filled with mist that constantly moves, forms, and dissipates, giving it an atmospheric quality. The ceiling is mirrored and provides a reflection of the floor below. Eliasson also uses mono-frequency lamps so that only the narrow frequency allows only black and yellow to be clearly seen (i). “By relocating the phenomenon of the weather from the external environment into the gallery space, where fog drifts around the confines of the museum and cool breezes nip the skin, Eliasson sets the viewer adrift from the refuge of predicted conditions and the mediating force of the forecast” (j 22).

Eliasson’s piece acted as a commentary of the role weather plays in our lives. He says, “I think there is often a discrepancy between the experience of seeing and the knowledge or expectation of what we are seeing” (i). According to (i), Eliasson “views the weather – wind, sun, rain – as one of the few fundamental encounters with nature that can still be experienced in the city” (i). Eliasson also controlled the publicity that was available to promote the exhibit beforehand, so that it would not influence visitors to form expectations before they had seen the work (i).

The method of construction of the artificial sun was chosen specifically so that the viewers of the piece would be able to see the mechanics of it. This plays into Eliasson’s theme of “see ourselves seeing”(j 18), and essentially drawing attention to the act of the viewer perceiving the world around us (i). Eliasson says, “The benefit of disclosing the means with which I am working is that it enables the viewer to understand the experience itself as construction and so, to a higher extent, allow them to question and evaluate the impact this experience has on them” (i). But for the Eliasson’s conscious exposure of the construction, his work could be mistaken for emulating “the spiritual and emotional sensibilities of Romanticism” (j 17).

Similar to the picturesque and the site-specific principles of Smithson and Serra, Eliasson places a strong “emphasis on the viewer’s passage through or across space. By interrupting steady and unconscious movement with unexpected topography, he engenders a heightened awareness of the body’s actions” (j 20).

“What’s the difference between this collective experiment and what used to be called a ‘political’ issue? Nothing. And this is precisely the point. The sharp distinction between, on the one hand, scientific laboratories experimenting on theories and phenomena inside their walls, and, on the other, a political outside where non-experts get by with human values, options and passions, is simply evaporating before our eyes” (j Latour 32)

“I think there is often a discrepency between the experience of seeing and the knowledge or expectation of what we are seeing.” // 26

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Scanning Double Negative Taylor, Chris Art // Architecture // Landscape Architecture // 2009

// When Double Negative was completed, the space was 50ft deep, 30 ft wide, and 1500 ft long. // In the last 40 years it has been significantly eroded. // Will it remain legible as a human mark on the land in another 40 years? // Land Arts of the American West at Texas Tech University spent four days creating a laser scan of Double Negative. The project involved establishing a geo-referenced base station and surveying optical targets to knit together multi-day scan data. // The images included are from the threedimensional point cloud of data

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Dark Optimism

MoMA PS1 Art // Architecture // Landscape Architecture // 2013 text and images copied from: http://www.momaps1.org/ expo1/module/dark-optimism/ EXPO 1: New York is an exploration of ecological challenges in the context of the economic and sociopolitical instability of the early 21st century. Acting under the guise of a festival-as-institution, EXPO 1: New York imagines a contemporary art museum dedicated to ecological concerns, featuring modules, interventions, solo projects, and group exhibitions that take over the entirety of MoMA PS1 along with presentations at The Museum of Modern Art and in Rockaway Beach.

EXPO 1: New York focuses on some of the most pressing environmental and sociopolitical issues of the day.

These concerns are described, examined, and addressed through different modes, including exhibitions of artworks in gallery spaces, educational lectures, interactive experiential environments, experiments in communal living, a prototype garden for educational purposes, and a regular program of moving images.

For the solo and group presentations at MoMA PS1, EXPO 1: New York takes the urgent and pragmatic sensibility of “dark optimism” as its position. Dark Optimism addresses ecological challenges set against the backdrop of economic turmoil and sociopolitical upheaval that has made a dramatic impact on daily life. In response to these global conditions, the magazine and editorial collective Triple Canopy calls for “dark optimism,” an attitude that encompasses both the seeming end of the world and its beginning, one that is positioned on the brink of apocalypse and at the onset of unprecedented technological transformation. Climate change has generated storms, droughts, and floods that occur with greater frequency and severity. Economic volatility around the world has precipitated political action, giving rise to manifestations and uprisings in regions such as Northern Africa, the Middle East, Western Europe, and New York’s Wall Street.

Meanwhile technological innovations and novel architectural initiatives offer the tantalizing promise of a brighter future. Recent advancements have facilitated rapid communication—which at times has helped organize political protests—as well as access to information with such ease and volume that it threatens to become overwhelming in scale. The works exhibited in Dark Optimism make note of these paradoxical conditions and the instabilities of both natural and artificial systems.

The position of “dark optimism” encompasses a monographic exhibition of works by Ansel Adams, an American master of photography whose prescient regard for nature continues to resonate today; the re-installation of Meg Webster’s serene ecosystem Pool, which was first presented at the museum in 1998; the group show ProBio that explores technology’s radical and accelerating impact on the body and the human condition; and other projects. The various exhibitions and modules that comprise EXPO 1: New York acknowledge the failures of Modernism’s regard for the environment while finding inspiration in the majesty of the natural world and humankind’s capacity to create a better tomorrow.

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FORMAL RESEARCH

Formal Study // Process Diagram

//Grid of ice blocks

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//Pour hot water into designated nodes

//Water erodes the ice and forms voids

//Poured wax fills the void and solidifies Figure :: 7

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Formal Study // Model Images

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Formal Study // Serial Sections

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Formal Process Arriving at Form

Iterations of Form

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Figure :: 8

Figure :: 9 //41

SITE RESEARCH

Coastal Typologies

Urban Waterfronts [l]//The social dimensions of urban waterfront regeneration plans have become increasingly important in urban politics. In coastal urban areas, the competition for waterfront space, the need for public access to the shore and the conservation of waterfront biodiversity as a natural resource have become an increasingly topical issue in urban policy // Use of the urban waterfront has been usurped by giant ports and extraneous uses, such as warehouses, factories and transportation.

Nevertheless, during the last decades, the attraction of the urban coastline has been recognized and efforts have been made to preserve what is left of it. Since the 1970s, numerous waterfronts have undergone a reorientation from dbrown fieldsT or dgreen beltsT to commercial, residential and recreational areas. New laws have been passed and planning tools developed in order to regulate what can be built near the water. It can

Cliffed (Abrasion) Coast [k] Cliffs are common coastal features. They formed by a combination of erosion and weathering, weathering working on the upper parts of the cliff and erosion wearing away the base of the cliff.

Steep cliffs are formed where the land consists of hard, more resistant, rocks, their height obviously being determined by the difference between the sea level and the level of the land.

Hard rocks erode and weather slowly, and the less fractured the rock is, the better it will resist breaking down.

Igneous rocks such as granite and basalt form rugged vertical cliffs such as those along the Cornish Atlantic coast at Lands End. Granite is a very strong rock and such cliffs can withstand constant pounding by Atlantic storm waves.

Softer rocks, such as clay, shale and some sandstones erode more easily and can create more gently sloping cliffs, although this is not always the case. // 44

Coastal Desert

// http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/types/

Coastal deserts generally are found on the western edges of continents near the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They are affected by cold ocean currents that parallel the coast.

Because local wind systems dominate the trade winds, these deserts are less stable than other deserts. Winter fogs, produced by upwelling cold, currents, requently blanket coastal deserts and block solar radiation. Coastal deserts are relatively complex because they are at the junction of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric systems. A coastal desert, the Atacama of South America, is the Earth’s driest desert. In the Atacama, measurable rainfall--1 millimeter or more of rain--may occur as infrequently as once every 5-20 years.

Flat Coast //From Wiki, find other source

At a flat coast, the land descends gradually into the sea. Float coasts can be formed either as a result of the sea advancing into gently sloping terrain or through the abrasion of loose rock.

They may be basically divided into two parallel strips: the shoreface and the beach.

Flat coasts consist of loose material such as sand and gravel. Wind transports finer grains of sand inland over the dunes. The sea washes pebbles and sand away from the coast and dumps it at other locations.

Beaches are usually heavily eroded during storm surges and the beach profile steepened, whereas normal wave action on flat coasts tends to raise the beach. Not infrequently a whole series of parallel berms is formed, one behind the other. There is a consequent gradual increase in height with the result that, over time, the shoreline advances seawards.

Wetlands and Marshes //From Wiki, find other source

A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. Primarily, the factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation that is adapted to its unique soil conditions.

Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, and shoreline stability. Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems.

Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica. They can alos be contructed artificially as a water management tool, which may play a role in the developing filed of watersensitive urban design.

Wetlands perform two important functions in relation to climate change: they have mitigation effects through their ability to sink carbon, and able to store and regulate water. //45

Climate Change and Coastal Env

Coral Bleaching

Sea Level Rise

Rising water temperatures has been the cause of growing reports of coral bleaching around the world. Corals have a symbiotic relationship with algae that live in their tissues [g 840]. It is from this algae that coral gets its color. When temperatures get too hot, the algae leaves the coral [g 843] and the coral becomes white, or ‘bleached.’

Two main factors contribute to the rising sea level: “thermal expansion of sea water due to ocean warming and water mass input from land ice melt and land water reservoirs” [h 1517].

This phenonmena can occur both at local scales or throughout entire reefs [g 842]. The mortality rate of the bleached coral depends on the length of time the water temperature remains elevated [g 858]. Even if the coral later recovers the algae, “increased temperature affects coral populations by reducing reproductive capacity” [g 858]. “Reef-building corals provide much of the primary productivity of coral reef ecosystems” [g 860].

The damage to this ecosystem will affect human populations as well. Many reef areas depend on the tourism the reefs bring to their economy.

The unbalaced marine life will also affect

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Immediate effects of sea level rise include the flooding and submerging of coastal regions. However long term effects are also projected to occur as the now-submerged coastline adjusts to its new state. These include the “increased erosion and saltwater intrusion into ground-water,” and “coastal wetlands such as saltmarshes and mangroves will also decline unless they have sufficient sediment to keep pace with SLR. These physical impacts in turn have both direct and indirect socioeconomic impacts, which appear to be overwhelmingly negative” [g 1518].

“Most countries in South, Southeast, and East Asia appear to be highly threatened because of the widespread occurrence of densely populated deltas, often associated with large growing cities ... Egypt and Mozambique are two ‘hot-spots’ for potential impacts” [g 1519].

Adaption and protection measures are good options, but they will not solve the problem. Protection measures also may encourage more lower land level building, which is not currently a good idea. “We must choose between protection, accommodation, and planned retreat adaption options. This choice is both technical and sociopolitical, addressing which measures are desirable, affordable, and sustainable in the long term ... In one of the few strategic plans to respond to SLR, the Netherlands is planning to upgrade protection ... by building their North Sea coast seaward using beach nourishment” [g 1519].

vironments

Coastal Erosion

Wetlands Inundation

//From Wiki, find a new source

//From Wiki, find other source

// Coastal erosion is the wearing away of land and the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents or drainage. //On non-rocky coasts, coastal erosion results in dramatic (or non-dramatic) rock formations in areas where the coastline contains rock layers or fracture zones with varying resistance to erosion. Softer areas become eroded much faster than harder ones, which typically result in landforms such as tunnels, bridges, columns, and pillars. //Corrasion (abrasion) occurs when waves break on cliff faces and slowly erode it. As the sea pounds cliff faces ti also uses the scree from other wave actions to batter and break off pieces of rock from higher up the cliff face which can be used for this same wave action and attrition. //Corrosion or solution/chemical weathering occurs when the sea’s pH corrodes rocks on a cliff face. Wave action also increases the rate of reaction by removing the reacted material. //Factors: 1. Hardness of sea-facing rocks; 2. Rate at which cliff fall debris sis removed from the foreshore depends on the power of the waves crossing the beach; 3. Stability of the foreshore, or its resistance to lowering; 4. The adjacent confiiguration of the sea floor; 5. Rising sea levels. There has been great measures of increased coastal erosion on the Eastern seaboard of the US. Locations such as Florida have noticed increased coastal erosion. In reaction to these increases Florida and its individual counties have increased budgets to replenish the eroded sandds that attract visitors to Florida to help support its multi-billion dollar tourism industries.

//In Southeast Asia, peatswamp forests and soils are being drained, burnt, mined, and overgrazed, contributing severely to climate change. As a result of peat drainage, the organic carbon that was built up over thousands of years and is normally under water, is suddenly exposed to the air. It decomposes and turns into carbon dioxide (CO2), which is relaeased into the atmosphere. Peatlands form only 3% of all the world’s land area, however, their degradation equal 7% of all fossil fuel CO2 emissions. //Over-fishing is the major problem for sustainable use of wetlands //Wetlands have historically been the victim of large drainnig efforts for real estate development, or flooding for use as recreational lakes. By 1993 half the world’s wetlands had been drained. //To replace these wetland ecosystem services enormous amounts of money had to be spent on water purification plants, along with the remediation measures for controlling floods: dam and levee construction.

//47

Coral Reefs

Coral Reef :: n., a ridge or hummock formed in shallow ocean areas by algae and the calcareous skeletons of certain coelenteratesv.

:: Coral reefs provide protection for harbors and beaches, which are often found behind reefs because the reefs provide natural protection from heavy wave action caused by coastal storms(water.epa.gov)

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// (m 215) Supply vast numbers of people with good and services such as seafood, recreational possiblities, coastal protection as well as aesthetic and cultural benefits // (m216) Cover 0.1-0.5% of the ocean floor, but almost a third of the world’s marine fish species are found there // More than 100 countries have coastlines with coral reefs. In thouse countries at least tens of millions of people depend on coral reefs for part of their livelihood or for part of their protein intake. // On decline - in particular those in embayments, near shallow shelves in densely populated areas, reefs affected by deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanization, and consequent increases of nutrient and sediments loads and pollution // Connection with other systems such as mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and open ocean // Coral reefs serve as physical buffers for oceanic currents and waves, creating, over geologic time, a suitable environment for seagrass beds and mangroves // (m 217) Reef-related fisheries constitute approximately 9-12% of world’s total fisheries // Potentially useful substances with anticancer, AIDS-inhibiting, antimicrobial, antiinflammatory and anticoagulating properties among the seaweeds, sponges, molluscs, corals and sea anemones of the reefs // Coral skeletons are proving promising in bone graft operations // (m 218, Table 2) Ecological Services: Physical structure - shoreline protection, build up of land, promoting growth of mangroves and seagrass beds, generation of coral sand; Biotic Services - Maintenance of habitats, biodiversity and a genetic library, regulation of ecosystem processes and functions, biological maintenance of resilience, export of organic production and plankton to pelagic food webs // (m 220) Without coral reefs protecting the shoreline from currents, waves, and storms there will be loss of land due to erosion // (m 221) Some coral reef organisms migrate back and forth between adjacent ecosystems. Examples of such ‘moble links’, i.e. species that link one ecosystem to another, are fish that migrate to mangroves and sea-grass beds and use them as nursery grounds // Coral reefs function as nitrogen fixers in nutrient poor environments // Reefs appear to act as sinks for carbon dioxide over geologic time scales, but are net sources of carbon dioxide in time perspectives relevant for humans // Coral reefs can transform, detoxify, and sequester wastes released by humans, thus providing a cleansing service. For instance, petroleum products in the marine environment are detoxified by microbes, turning hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and water. // Reef corals function as climate records // (m 223) The existence of a reef framework which creates a three-dimensional, complex habitat is the basis for the diversity of fishes and other reef dwelling animals. The structure also breaks waves and generates a diversity of ecological services. // (m 226) Four major biogeographic regions of tropical oceans; the Indo-West Pacific; Eastern Pacific; Western Atlantic; and the Eastern Atlantic // (m 229) Human impacts on coral reefs can have far reaching consequences on adjacent ecosystems such as mangroves, sea-grass beds and the open ocean, and vice versa. Therefore, coral reefs cannot be managed in isolation.

Dead coral reef

Live coral reef Figure :: 11

Figure :: 12

:: Healthy coral reefs have rough surfaces and complex structures that dissipate much of the force of incoming waves; this buffers shorelines from currents, waves, and storms, helping to prevent loss of life, property damage, and erosion.

Up to 90% of the energy from windgenerated waves is absorbed by reefs, based on the physical and ecological characteristics of the reef and the abundance of the adjacent seagrass and mangrove ecosystems. In fact, coastlines protected by reefs are more stable, in terms of erosion, than those without. Reefs are also a source of sand in natural beach replenishment (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

m 218

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Jetties

Jetty :: n., any variety of structures connected with river, harbor, and coastal works designed to influence the current or tide or to protect a harbour or beach from waves (breakwater)t. It prevents longshore drift by holding sand in place and preventing it from washing awayu.

Figure :: 15

// (wi) Jetties at the coast that have been raised and extended help prevent long shore drift and therefore slow down beach erosion // [Jetties and groins] are often used interchaneably to refer to the short, shore-perpendicular structures that are built along a shoreline to hold sand in place. However, technically speaking, groins and jetties are not the same thing. Groins are the smaller shore-perpendicular structures, built to trap sand and stabilize a sandy beach. Jetties are large structures typically used to stabilize inlet channelsw. // Groins (beach jetties) are usually constructed from amterials including steel, timber, or stone. The length, elevation, and spacing between groins should be designated on the basis of local wave engergy and beach slope. Groins that are too long or too high tend to accelerate downdrift erosion because they trap too much sand. Groins that are too short, too low, or too permeable are ineffective because they trap too little sand. Flanking may occur if a groin does not extend far enough landward. Groins are going to be constructed in groups called groin fieldsw. // (wi) If a groin is correctly designed, then the amount of material it can hold will be limited, and excess sediment will be free to move on through the system. However, if a groin is too large it may trap too much sediment, which can cause severe beach erosion on the down-drift side. //Offshore breakwaters, aslo called bulkhead, reduce the intensity of wave action in inshore waters and thereby reduce coastal erosion or provide safe harborage. Breakwaters may also be small structures designed to protect a gently sloping beach and placed one to threee hundred feet offshore in relatively shallow water. //A breakwater structure is designed to absorb the energy of the waves that hit it, either by using mass or by using a revetment slope (i.e. sloped structures of stone, etc) // 50

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Coastal Megacities // (p 1) Megacity: a city whose population exceeds 8 million // In 2010, there are 12 in Asia (including Istanbul), three in South America and one in Africa // Many of the coastal megacities are built on geologically young sedimentary strata that are prone to subsidence given excessive groundwater withdrawal. // Each city requires independenct assessment // Most of these actual and projected megacities are found in coastal setting where they are susceptible to one of the most certain impacts of anthropgenically-induced climate change accelerated sea-level rise. Other possible coastal implications ... include changing storm frequency and intensity, changing patterns of run-off and more intense rainfall events. The protection of cities is expected to be a major cost of accelerated sea-level rise. // The definition of a megacity as coastal was simply based on the position of the city relative to

Istanbul

New York City

Tokyo

Los Angeles Cairo

Osaka-Kobe

Shanghai Karachi Kolkata

Dhaka

Guangzhou-Guangdong Shenzen

Mumbai

Manila

Chennai Lagos

Jakarta

Rio de Janeiro

Buenos Aires

Figure :: 16

the coast, inlcuding the likelihood that a 50 cm rise in sea level would have significant physical impacts within the city boundaries. // (q 48) Although only less than 4 percent of the total world’s population resides in coastal megacities, their impace on environment is significant due to their rapid development, high population densities and high consumption rate of their residents. // According to the UN, megacities are defined as urban agglomerations with at least 10 million inhabitants // (q 49) In this study, coastal megacities are defined as cities located in an area within 100m elevation and 100 km distance from the coastline and exceeding 10 million inhabitants. According to these parameters, the total number of 14 coastal megacities in the world can be established for the year 2007, majority of them settled in the developing countries. // The DSPIR framework starts with ‘drivers’ or ‘driving forces’, which emerge from people’s needs to satisfy their primary (food, water, shelter, energy) and secondary requirements (mobility, entertainment, culture). Drivers lead to ‘pressures’ on the environment, which are usually the result of production and consumption processes, such as an excessive use of resources and emissions into the environment. // (q 50) Urban expansion, also known as ‘urban sprawl’, along with the construction of urban, tourism and transportation facilities, is highly related to the decrease in arable land, loss of habitat and biodiversity, and the degradation of air and water quality. // Different types of energy sources are predominant in different megacities: oil in Manila, natural gas in Mumbai, coal in Shanghai and Kolkata, and hydro-electric power in Los Angeles // Different types of industries have different levels of energy consumption and hence, different ‘roles’ in environmental impacts // Urban transport is the main driver of air pollution in urban areas, especially in the megacities of developing countries // (q 51) Rapid development of megacities’ harbours, especially the ones in Asia, exterts environmental pressures such as oil spills, loss of habitat, algal blooms and the introduction of alien species through the ballast waters discharge // Urban growth increases the demand for food but, at the same time, reduces the availability of arable land. Increased incomes lead to a nutrition shift in terms of greater animal protein demand, especially in certain groups of urban population // Generally, coastal megacities in the developed countries generate more waste than the ones in the developing countries, but also have a much higher efficiency of waste collection. For example, Tokyo generates around 66,000 t2/day of solid waste while Dhaka generates ‘only’ 780 t2/day. However, at the same time, Tokyo collects 99% of its waste while Dhaka collects only about 50%.

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Urban Waterfronts The 2-mile (3.2 km) long boardwalk has a total of three amusement piers plus a myriad of other carnival games, souvenir shops, food stands, water parks, and lots of rides including world-class roller coasters. The Boardwalk started out as a mere 150 feet (46 m). It has actually been moved closer to the ocean twice. Today, the boardwalk stretches from 38 blocks from 16th Ave in North Wildwood to Cresse Ave in Wildwood Crest. The Wildwood Boardwalk is said to have more rides than Disneyland. Kiddie rides include a convoy of airplanes, trucks, dune buggies, boats, and trains, along with bouncy giraffes, flying elephants, teacups, mini-Ferris wheels, and a traditional carousel to round out the mix. The Boardwalk piers also boast several water parks and a lot of other rides, and six roller coasters, including four major ones.[not in citation given][2] In 2008-2009 a section of the boardwalk was rebuilt using ipe tropical hardwood, even though the town pledged to use domestic black locust.[3]

Wildwood, NJ

Santa Monica has had several piers over the years, however the current Santa Monica Pier is actually two adjoining piers that long had separate owners. The long, narrow Municipal Pier opened September 9, 1909,[3] primarily to carry sewer pipes beyond the breakers,[4] and had no amenities. The short, wide adjoining Pleasure Pier to the south, a.k.a.

Newcomb Pier, was built in 1916 by Charles I. D. Looff and his son Arthur, amusement park pioneers.[5] Attractions on the Pleasure Pier eventually included the Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome building (which now houses the current carousel and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places), the Blue Streak Racer wooden roller coaster (which was purchased from the defunct Wonderland amusement park in San Diego), the Whip, merry-go-rounds, Wurlitzer organs, and a funhouse.

In the 1950s Enid Newcomb suggested to family friend Morris “Pops” Gordon that his two sons, George and Eugene, purchase and operate the Pier’s arcade. It didn’t take much persuasion, for the Gordons instantly

Santa Monica, CA

In the late 1930s, the city council decided to build a promenade for separation between bathing areas and hiking or promenading paths.

It extended from Bugrashov beach to where Geula beach is located nowadays. The introduction of the promenade was a turning point in common perception of the city’s coastline.

At the same time, World War II started in September 1939, and the British Mandate Regime prohibited bathing in the beach. As a result of that, the city’s beaches were abandoned and neglected. In addition, the developing new city was pouring its sewage to the sea and the beaches were banned for bathing for sanitary reasons. Seaside hotels and cafés were turning into questionable bars, gambling joints and brothels. The public abstained from the area, and the city’s recreational centers were transferred to the city center, to streets such as Dizengoff Street. In 1942, London Square was founded in the northern part of the promenade. In 1953, Gan-haAtsmaut (Independence Garden) was

Tel Aviv Promenade, Israel

Barcelona beach was listed as number one in a list of the top ten city beaches in the world according to National Geographic[49] and Discovery Channel.[50] Barcelona contains seven beaches, totalling 4.5 kilometres (3 miles) (2.8 mi) of coastline. Sant Sebastià, Barceloneta and Somorrostro beaches, both 1,100 m (3,610 ft) in length,[36] are the largest, oldest and the most-frequented beaches in Barcelona. The Olympic Harbour separates them from the other city beaches: Nova Icària, Bogatell, Mar Bella, Nova Mar Bella and Llevant. These beaches (ranging from 400 to 640 m/1,300 to 2,100 ft) were opened as a result of the city restructuring to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, when a great number of industrial buildings were demolished. At present, the beach sand is artificially replenished given that storms regularly remove large quantities of material. The 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures left the city a large concrete bathing zone on the eastmost part of the city’s coastline.

Barcelona, Spain

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Coastal City Damage Information from (r) Flood zone; Approximate area inundated by the storm Building colors indicate severity of damage Destroyed Major damage

Atlantic City Flooding

Manhattan Flooding and Damage

Coney Island Flooding and Damage // 54

2007 FEMA Projection of Coney Island flood zones

Actual flooding and damage to Coney Island from Hurricane Sandy

Damage to Coney Island

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Coney Island, NY

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//57

Coney Island, NY

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//59

Coney Island, NY Coney Island is a residential neighborhood, peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southwestern Brooklyn, New York City.

The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill. The residential portion of the peninsula is a community of 60,000 people in its western part, with Sea Gate to its west, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, and Gravesend to the north.

Coney Island is well known as the site of amusement parks and a seaside resort. The attractions reached their peak during the first half of the 20th century, declining in popularity after World War II and years of neglect.

Coney Island is the westernmost part of the barrier islands of Long Island, and is about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide. Formerly it was an island, separated from the main part of Brooklyn by Coney Island Creek, which were partially tidal mudflats, but it has since been developed into a peninsula.

There were plans early in the 20th century to dredge and straighten the creek as a ship canal, but they were abandoned, and the center of the creek was seriously filled in for construction of the Belt Parkway before World War II. The western and eastern ends are now peninsulas.

Due to Coney Island’s location—easily reached from Manhattan and other boroughs of New York City, yet distant enough to suggest a proper vacation—it began attracting holidaymakers in the 1830s and 1840s, when carriage roads and steamship services reduced travel time from a half-day journey to just two hours.

The original Coney Island Hotel was constructed in 1829, with The Brighton Hotel, Manhattan Beach Hotel, and Oriental Hotel opening soon after, with each trying to provide an increasing level of elegance. Coney Island became a major resort destination after the American Civil War, as excursion railroads and the Coney Island & Brooklyn Railroad streetcar line reached the area in the 1860s, and the Iron steamboat company arrived in 1881. The two Iron Piers served as docks for the steamboats until they were destroyed in the 1911 Dreamland fire.

When the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company electrified the steam railroads and connected Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge at the beginning of the 20th century, Coney Island soon turned from a resort to a location accessible to day-trippers from New York City, especially those escaping the summer heat.

Charles I. D. Looff, a Danish woodcarver, built the first carousel at Coney Island in 1876. It was installed at Vandeveer’s bath-house complex at West 6th Street and Surf Avenue, which later became known as Balmer’s Pavilion. The carousel consisted of hand-carved horses and other animals standing two abreast, with a drummer and a flute player providing the music. A tent-top provided protection from the weather. The fare was five cents.

From 1885 to 1896, the Coney Island Elephant was the first sight to greet immigrants arriving in New York, who would see it before the Statue of Liberty became visible.

In 1915 the Sea Beach Line was upgraded to a subway line. This was followed by upgrades to the other former excursion roads, and the opening of the New West End Terminal in 1919, thus ushering in Coney Island’s busiest era.[13] Nathan’s Famous original hot dog stand opened on Coney Island in 1916 and quickly became a landmark. An annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held there annually on July 4 since its opening, but has only attracted broad attention and television coverage since the late 1990s.

After World War II, contraction began seriously from a number of pressures. Air conditioning in movie theaters and then in homes, along with the advent of automobiles which provided access to the less crowded and more appealing Long Island state parks, especially Jones Beach State Park, lessened the attractions of Coney’s beaches. Luna Park closed in 1946 after a series of fires, an // 60

increase of prostitution in the area, and the New York street gang problems of the 1950s spilled into Coney Island. The presence of threatening youths did not impact the beach-goers, but discouraged visitors to the rides and concessions which were staples of the Coney Island economy. The local economy was dealt a severe blow by the 1964 closing of Steeplechase Park, the last of the major amusement parks.

Between about 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. At its height it contained three competing major amusement parks, Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park, as well as many independent amusements.

Astroland served as a major amusement park from 1962 to 2008,[31] and was replaced by a new incarnation of Dreamland in 2009 and of Luna Park in 2010. The other parks and attractions include Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, 12th Street Amusements, and Kiddie Park, while the Eldorado Arcade has an indoor bumper car ride. The Zipper and Spider on 12th Street were closed permanently on September 4, 2007, and dismantling began after its owner lost his lease. They are to be reassembled at an amusement park in Honduras.[32] On April 20, 2011, the first new roller coasters to be built at Coney Island in eighty years were opened as part of efforts to reverse the decline of the amusement area.[33] The Coney Island Mermaid Parade takes place on Surf Avenue and the boardwalk, and features floats and various acts. It has been produced annually by Coney Island USA, a non-profit arts organization established in 1979, dedicated to preserving the dignity of American popular culture.

Coney Island USA has also sponsored the Coney Island Film Festival every October since 2000,[38] as well as Burlesque At The Beach, and Creepshow at the Freakshow (an interactive Halloweenthemed event). It also houses the Coney Island Museum.

The annual Cosme 5K Charity Run/Walk, supported by the Coney Island Sports Foundation (CISF), takes place on the last Sunday of June on the Riegelmann Boardwalk.

In August 2006, Coney Island hosted a major national volleyball tournament sponsored by the Association of Volleyball Professionals. The tournament, usually held on the west coast of the United States, was televised live on NBC. The league built a 4,000-seat stadium and twelve outer courts next to the boardwalk for the event.[citation needed] The tournament returned to Coney Island in 2007 and 2008.

In April 2009, Feld Entertainment, parent company to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, announced that “The Greatest Show on Earth” would perform on Coney Island for the entire summer of 2009, the first time since July 16, 1956 that Ringling Bros. had performed in this location. The tents were located between the boardwalk and Surf Avenue, and the show was called The Coney Island Boom-A-Ring. In 2010, they returned to the same location with The Coney Island Illuscination.[citation needed]

Map of Manhattan; Brooklyn

Figure :: 17

Coney Island; Brooklyn Roads

Figure :: 18

Subways/Rail Infrastructure //61

PROPOSAL

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Proposal Project Propsal Introduction _Habitat Archipelago proposes a series of inhabitable, synthetic barrier islands surrounding Coney Island. Coney Island was chosen as the site of the installment for a variety of reasons. Its recent damage due to Hurricane Katrina [see Figure 5.2], despite its current jetty system, exemplifies the need for a new geologic intervention in order to protect its shore and residents. Because of its popularity as a vacation spot, the built environment is very dense and the natural wildlife has lost much of its environment. As we will discuss, Coney Island also is a culturally rich area with a longstanding relationship with technological innovation through its provocative attractions.

In the culmination of this research, Habitat Archipelago creates an interdisciplinary, Post-Environmentalist geologic structure that both incorporates Kepes’ ideal of the role of the artist as well as radicalizing the interaction between nature and culture.

Coney Island Culture _Coney Island has a history of innovation through recreation, though perhaps it should be said oddities or eccentricities. Coney Island constantly pushed technology through these eccentricities, creating new attractions, recreations, and monsters. In Latour’s analogy of likening Frankenstein to technology and nature, he says, “Dr. Frankenstein’s crime was not that he invented a creature through some combination of hubris and high technology, but rather that he abandoned the creature to itself.”105 Though Coney Island is still a popular resort from the city, in many aspects it has been abandoned from its original status and push towards innovation. This history makes Coney Island an ideal location for the first installation of the interdisciplinary Archipelago as it makes use of Coney Island’s past innovation through recreation, as well as providing a way for innovation to return to its ‘creature’.

In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge allowed Coney Island to be accessed by the masses of New York City. The draw of Coney Island was the different environment that it offered from city life of Manhattan, yet with the mass exodus of the city to the coastline, it itself began to be changed to the same urban settings.106 As Rem Koolhaas said in Delirious New York, “To survive as a resort – a place offering contrast – Coney Island is forced to mutate: it must turn itself into the total opposite of Nature, it has no choice but to counteract the artificiality of the new metropolis with its own Super-Natural.”107 As a result, the urbanization of Coney Island was intensified, and from this super-urbanity grew the Parks and their attractions designed to destabilize the perception of the visitor.

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Each park contained its own theme and its own method of escape from reality. It is this desire that necessitates innovation of the attractions to create more perceptive distortions for Coney Island’s inhabitants. Electric engineers were constantly called upon to create new ways of lighting the ethereal Luna Park, which featured thousands of bulbs while still in the early stages of electrical popularization108 [see Figure 5.3]. The design of lights in Luna was so fantastic that it essentially created two parks in one: one by day, and one by night.109 The creation of a park that was designed to be specifically featured accentuated the hyper-urbanization of the site, as well as evolving a feature of Coney from 1890: Electric bathing. Coney’s coast was lined with lights, so that, as Koolhaas described, “the sea can be enjoyed on a truly metropolitan shift-system, giving those unable to reach the water in the daytime a man-made, 12 hour extension.”110 Electric bathing, and later Luna Park itself, allowed the inhabitants of the ‘City that never sleeps’ to bring their insomnia with them. As Charles I. D. Loof, designer of Luna Park, said, “You see, this being the Moon, it is always changing. A stationary Luna Park would be an anomaly.”111 For Luna, electrical innovation created a dynamic environment where the perceptions between day and night became irrelevant.

The evolution of electricity was prevalent through even its non-permanent attractions. When one of Coney Island’s elephants was deemed dangerous and sentenced to be put down, Thomas Edison used this as a way to warn the public of the dangers of – his competitor’s – AC electric current by electrocuting Topsy the elephant.113 The animal’s death became another strange spectacle of Coney Island.

Through gruesome, the experiment served its purpose of displaying AC power and its results in part led to the creation of the electric chair.

Methods of transportation were improved through Coney Island. The great demand of the public to reach Coney Island led to the installation of the trolley, subway, and automobile routes. Even Coney Island’s attractions celebrated the transportation innovation; a few attractions consisted only of transportation, such as a train, or driving cars around a track.114 This was particularly the case in Steeplechase Park, whose attractions included the Scenic Railway115 and a mechanical horse track for which the park is named. In addition, its roller coasters and attractions such as the Human Roulette Wheel [see Figure 5.4] and Earthquake Stairway called for feats of engineering to complete.

Even health care was included in the innovation of Coney Island. At the time, care for premature babies was not common practice in hospitals. In 1903, Dr. Martin Couney

started the Baby Incubator exhibit originally as part of Dreamland, and charged a quarter for the opportunity to walk by the glass and see the hospital ward. Because of the revenue from the exhibit, Couney was able to fund his healthcare research without charging parents of the premature babies for the care.117 Together, these technologies and attractions of the Coney Island Boardwalk encapsulated the techno-culture mindset that pushes for innovation. Coney Island was a free place to explore technology and push limits. As Koolhaas called it, a “Technology of the Fantastic: a permanent conspiracy against the realities of the external world.”118 With Coney Island as its site, Habitat Archipelago returns to this earlier mindset and applies its innovative push toward the environment and eco-technology to create an integrated nature-culture relationship.

Geologic Functions When the currents of a growing wave pass through the coral reef around the island, the reef absorbs much of the waves’ force, therefore causing it to lose momentum and break farther from the shoreline.122 With the creation of a new buffer zone for Coney Island’s shoreline, the current jetty system’s primary function then becomes acting as a means of circulation to the islands nearest to the shore [see Figure 5.7].

The archipelago, which replaces the geologic function of a traditional jetty, functions similar to a coral reef; it slows down waves and causes them to break further from shore.

By integrating technology into the structure, it also takes advantage of tidal and wave forces that pass through the structure. The type of force utilized is determined by island’s distance from shore and how much the water level surrounding the island changes with the tide. The water level of islands far from shore changes very little as tides go in and out, so these structures rely on waves and ocean currents for power. The sides of the structure under the water and perpendicular to wave forces are open, so the island is permeable. Rotating turbines are connected various beams of the structure [see Figure 5.8]. When waves and ocean currents pass through the structure, the forces turn the turbine and that energy is collected.

For islands that are near the shore, tidal forces are used to collect energy [see Figure 5.10]. The water level surrounding these islands changes throughout the day depending on the tide. For these islands, the sides of the structure are solid, but water permeable, and again contain turbines. The interiors of the islands are gated and can open and close in order to selectively seal in the water collected or block out the rising ocean. Using this process, the islands complete a twice-daily cycle of letting ocean water in and out. Because the tides change slowly, the forces of the incoming and outgoing tides are not enough in themselves to spin the turbines. The process behind the island structure, then, is to block water from entering the hollow interior of the island until high tide has come in. At that point, the island’s interior gates will open and allow water to flow through the turbines and fill the center of the island. Allowing the water to fill the void all at once creates a greater force than that generated by the slowly moving tides and will collect larger amounts of energy.

This process is inversely repeated at low tide. The island’s interior gates stay shut and hold in water at the level of the

high tide until the surrounding water level has completely receded. It is then released from the structure all at once, again passing through the turbines and collecting energy.

Ecological Modernization As discussed earlier in the research, Ecological Modernization an idea is highly successful; integrating ecological ideals into today’s capitalistic society is integral for changing throw-away trends. However, Ecological Modernization, as of yet, is still too isolated for mass propagation. Habitat Archipelago creates a solution for this problem.

Through their collection of energy, Habitat Archipelago benefits both ecology, by harvesting a renewable energy, and capitalism, by offering a profitable aspect of the project: energy can be sold. In addition, wave and tidal energy is extremely dependable as a resource – ocean tides will continue to go in and out regardless of weather or any exterior circumstance.

By creating the Habitat as a series of individual islands, it becomes an item that is more easily able to be marketed.

Individual islands can be customized, organized into various patterns within a group, or potentially even mass produced. From its installation on Coney Island, islands of Habitat Archipelago could grow from their installation on Coney Island [see Figure 5.11], to the population of the New York coastline [see Figure 5.12], to their transposition to coastlines anywhere in the world.

Habitation Each individual island of Habitat Archipelago incorporates various zones of habitation and function [see Figure 5.13].

Taking influence from Ian McHarg, the processes of the surrounding nature were studied to design the Habitat.

The archipelago’s facade is rough and pocketed in order to support marine life; the rough exterior allows plants and mollusks to grip the outside, begin to take root and grow.

The exterior’s pockmarks and holes provide space for crabs and fish to burrow into the structure, giving them a shelter in which to hide. The highest zone of the island belongs to the sea birds of the area, designed as rocky outcroppings where birds can land and nest.

Like works of land art, this leaves the Habitat’s façade open changes from its surrounding environment. When the archipelago is first installed, the exteriors will be clean. Yet as time passes, the façade is subject to entropy from wind and waves above the water, and the ocean currents below. It also, eventually, will be covered in growth of the sea plants that take root, the mollusks that cling to the side, and the marine life that dwell in and around the structure. In time, each individual island’s façade will be unrecognizable from its original installation as it will eventually sustain its own micro-ecosystem.

Boardwalk Integration Humans are able to inhabit the structure on the exterior surfaces closest to the water level as well as the interior of the structure below. On the surfaces of the Habitat, visitors are free to walk around the surface, sunbathe, and even dive off the side to the ocean below. Swimming within the middle of the island, when the ocean in the archipelago is at high tide, of course, is highly encouraged. When //67

swimming in the archipelago, visitors are able to get a close up look for themselves of how the turbine technology is working as well as the tidepool-like ecosystem being cultivated by the structure; the turbines become an attraction themselves while also promoting the integration of nature and technology.

The sensory distortion present in many of the attractions of Coney Island is represented also in Habitat Archipelago through the human habitation in the interior, extending Coney’s Island’s boardwalk program into the new structure.

In its heyday, Coney Island welcome the use of technology to create the fantastic, but in this modern installation, the physical reality of the external world is exploited to create the inhabitant’s destabilization of the senses. The Archipelago is designed to promote an awareness of natural processes as an integrated part of the structure, thus influencing a new relationship-between nature and culture on Coney Island. Visitors to Habitat Archipelago arrive on the surface of the island either by swimming or using the jetty as a walkway. The surfaces on the face of the island are rough, angular forms. From this area, though, the visitor is able to enter into the structure and begin to traverse down and through it. As they progress, the visitor’s path transitions from textured angles to smooth, organic forms. This continues until the visitor reaches the area at the bottom of the island, where they find themselves in aquarium-like spaces made of curved floors, flowing furniture, and glass walls. This is Habitat Archipelago’s integration of Coney Island’s perceptive destabilization. The unsteady and in-motion nature of the island’s interior works in conjunction with the movement of the ocean surrounding the inhabitants. Floors of tensioned fabrics create literal movement inside the Habitat. This destabilization further integrates the new perception and, like Kepes’ water sculpture, creates cultural awareness through the structure’s natural functions as both human recreation and marine habitat. As Latour says, “What’s the difference between [a] collective experiment and what used to be called a ‘political’ issue? Nothing. And this is precisely the point. The sharp distinction between, on the one hand, scientific laboratories experimenting on theories and phenomena inside their walls, and, on the other, a political outside where non-experts get by with human values, options and passions, is simply evaporating before our eyes.”

New York Aquarium Habitat Archipelago can integrate nature and culture even further by working with the New York Aquarium, located on Coney Island’s boardwalk. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which leads New York’s five parks including the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and Queens Zoo, has the mission to “save wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature.”124 Habitat Archipelago shares the same goal of inspiring people to value nature, but in working with the New York Aquarium, it emphasizes the need not only for wildlife conservation but for the creation of a new kind of human and wildlife interaction. In most aquariums, visitors look in on exhibits from the outside while the animals are behind glass. In Delirious New York, Koolhaas called the aquarium part of the “definitive eradication of Coney’s original urbanism...The aquarium is a Modernist revenge of the conscious upon the unconscious: its fish – ‘inhabitants of // 68

the deep’ – are forced to spend their lives in a sanatorium.”125 However in Habitat Archipelago, it is the visitors that are in the glass case while the ‘exhibit’ is actually their surroundings. Though the visitors are still observing marine life, they are the ones that seem to be the outsiders, yet voluntarily enclosed.

Conclusion Architecture of the Anthropocene must provide solutions to global climate change. More important than simply treating the symptoms of climate change, architecture must work to integrate nature to find a symbiotic coexistence with it and technology. For these changes to be accepted by society, it must also revolutionize the relationship between nature and culture. Through the creation of Habitat Archipelago, this proposal offers solutions to the environmental concerns facing Coney Island’s coastline, and draws attention and cultural awareness to this integrated solution by making the solution itself function as an attraction to be inhabited.

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Formal Analysis // Geologic Infrastructure

Mangrove Root Formation

natural geologic process

Coral Formations

Erosion Formal Study

synthetic geologic process

This proposal uses influences from both formal research as well as natural processes to influence its design. The synthetic barrier zone, as shown on the far right, draws principles from the barrier reef’s formation surrounding the island.800’ 100’ 200’ 400’

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Edge Condition

Current Edge Zone

Proposed Edge Zone

Wave Movement

This proposal redefines the current edge condition of the shoreline. It transform the coast from the hard edge of the protuding jetties to the soft edge of the growing structure. The proposed edge zone incorporates the joining of the land and the water into a ‘buffer zone’.

The proposed structure starts to slow the wave much further from the shore, so that the force of the wave is already diverted before it is able to reach land. Waves that do reach land would be greatly diminished after passing through the dense structure.

Currently, the jetties act as a wall-like barrier that the break the waves when the waves hit the jetty. When the waves pull back into the ocean, they do so at a less severe angle.

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Turbines

Water Flow In

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Energy Production

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Tidal Energy

Incoming High Tide

As the high tide comes in, the structure remains closed and at a lower water level

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High Tide

When peak high tide is reach, the structure opens and allows water to rush in at once, therefore turning the turbines and collecting more energy than a gradual rise in water level. Once the water level inside reaches the equilibrium level with the high tide outside, the structure is sealed again.

Interior Gate Closed

Water is not able to flow between interior and exterior

Interior Gate Open

Water is allowed to flow between interior and exterior

Outgoing Low Tide

As the tide goes out again, the structure remains sealed and keeps the water inside at the level of high tide.

Low Tide

When low tide is reach, the structure will again open and let all of its water out at once and therefore turning the turbines. When the water level inside has completely receded, the structure will be sealed again and the process from high tide to low tide will repeat

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Wave Energy

Incoming Tide

Wave Energy islands feature a permeable structure on the sides perpendicular to the water’s current, so the ocean is allowed to flow freely through the stucture. During the incoming tide, the waves and oceanic forces push toward the shore, turning the turbines on the structure. // 76

Outgoing Tides

Wave Energy islands feature a permeable structure on the sides perpendicular to the water’s current, so the ocean is allowed to flow freely through the stucture. During the outgoing tide, the oceanic forces pull back from the shore, turning the turbines on the structure in the opposite direction. //77

Perceptive Destabilizations of C

Coney Island Cyclone

Parachute Jump

The track today is 2,640 feet (800 m) long (including six fan turns and twelve drops) and a 85-foot (26 m) drop at its highest point; the first drop is at a 58.1 degree angle. Each of the three trains is made up of three eight-person cars, but only one train can run at a time.

The ride’s top speed is 60 miles per hour and it takes about one minute and fifty seconds

The ride was based on functional parachutes which were held open by metal rings throughout the ascent and descent. Twelve cantilevered steel arms sprout from the top of the tower, each of which supported a parachute attached to a lift rope and a set of surrounding guide cables. Riders were belted into a two-person canvas seat hanging below the closed chute, then hoisted to the top, where a release mechanism would drop them, the descent slowed only by the parachute.

Funhouse: Hall of Mirros

Human Roulette Wheel

Where people tried to play King of the Mountain, but if they didn’t reach the top center, they were flung off the spinning platform by centrifugal force.

Where people tried to play King of the Mountain, but if they didn’t reach the top center, they were flung off the spinning platform by centrifugal force.

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Coney Island

Wonder Wheel

Barrel of Fun

Eccentric wheels differ from conventional Ferris wheels in that some of the passenger cars are not fixed directly to the rim of the wheel, but instead slide on rails between the hub and the rim as the wheel rotates.

Located at the entrance of Steeplechase Park, visitors must pass through either the large revolving cylinder known as the Barrel of Fun or the gaping red mouth of the Funny Face in order to enter the park.

Witching Waves

Habitat Archipelago

It was one of the most popular rides at Luna Park, invented by Theophilus Van Kannel, who also invented the revolving door.

The ride consisted of a large oval course with a flexible metal floor.

There were hidden reciprocating levers that produced a wave-like motion. The floor itself did not move but the moving wave propelled two seated small scooter-style cars with two seats, which could be steered by the riders.

After climbing the jetties or swimming out to an island, visitors are able to enter into the cave-like rock face of the archipelago.

After travelling deeper and down into the structure, the rock begins to change into more and more organic shapes until the vistor’s emerges into glass bubbles at the bottom of the sea. The furniture, floors, and interior structure are curvy and organic, reflecting the movement of the water that surrounds the outside. //79

Coney Island: Innovation as Rec

Transportation

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Electricity

creation

Engineering

Health Care

Environment

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Site Plan

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100’

200’

400’

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600’

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These areas are design as the main attraction of the structure. As glass modules under the water, visitors are able to watch the marine life habitat and participate in the attraction of sensory destablization

Aquarium Modules for Human Inhabitation

The permeable structure consists only of structural members. The gaps allow marine life as well as tidal forces to pass freely through the structure.

Permeable Structure

The turbines collect energy from tidal forces. As the tidal forces pass through the structure, they turn the turbines, thereby allowing the structure to be self-sustaining in its energy supply.

Turbines

Axonometric View

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Synthesized Structure

Visitors to the structure are able to circulate through the interior of the solid structure. The exterior facade becomes a habitat to the natural marine life.

Fish: scup; shortfin mako; striped bass; summer flounder tautog; weakfish; winter flounder Crustaceans: American lobster; blue crab; horseshoe crab Mollusks: Atlantic bay scallop; Atlantic surfclam; Eastern oyster; hard clam

Solid Structure

featured on Coney Island.

Section

50’

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100’

200’

400’

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Final Models

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