JanEstablishing Achilles Miller A Nodal Connection
ESTABLISHING A NODAL CONNECTION
Time of Study: Graduate School Fall ‘09 Project Location: Cleveland, OH Program Typology: Mixed Use Programs Used: Maya, Rhino, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign
1
The Cuyahoga River has provided the city of Cleveland with means of transportation and leisure, and most importantly has helped industry within the city thrive. The river throughout the twentieth century had been heavily polluted and only through recent efforts, has the river pollution been controlled. However, now the river faces another threat. The river is rapidly filling in with massive amounts of sediment, particularly around the oxbow near the Flats district, which is slowly making the river shallow and narrow. This oxbow is extremely important to the vitality of the river because the oxbow occurs right where the Cuyahoga River begins to meet Lake Erie. As a result, the Cuyahoga River Research Center (CRRC) is deployed as a means to encourage leisure, education, industry, research and stewardship around the oxbow near the Flats. The CRRC encourages visitors to restore the Cuyahoga by encouraging a sense of community within the Cleveland area. Using similar phenomena as an inspiration, the CRRC attempts to connect various activities into one unifying effort that will help to re-establish, environmentally friendly, economic growth to Cleveland. This will become a model for cities, and their resources, around the world that have also been subject to heavy amounts of pollution.
[Plastic Waste]
[Current Simulation] 1
The forces that are acting upon the discarded debris are magnetically drawn to one another, causing a clustering and combination into a single force.
2
Eventually, the clustered forces begin to reorganize themselves, and start to become less clustered and more random.
[Ocean Currents]
3
As the forces become more random, little pockets of clustering begin to be established. However, these occurances are small, and the overall is still quite random.
The forces acting upon the debris, starts to cause the debris to break apart and become less uniform. As this occurs, the debris acts in different directions.
The articles of debris are all drawn in a particle direction, becoming concentrated in areas. This concentration is in direct relation to the concentration of the acting forces.
Nods are connected to flags by springs. The flags are representational of articles of debris discarded by society, and the nods are the forces that effect them.
4
The pockets of clustering of forces slowly start to disband, shattering into different directions. As these pockets disband, the forces become weaker and weaker.
5
The forces have become totally unconcentrated. There are no instances of clustering. All of the forces are totally random, and interact with the debris randomly too.
[Plastic Decomposed]
When the debris acts in different directions, the pieces of debris begin to effect one another, in some instances even colliding with one another, turning the debris into forces.
[Uncomposable Waste]
6
As the forces continue to become more and more random, they slowly begin to be somewhat concentrated, in a loose accumulation of forces.
Within these dense clusters of debris, each individual particle of debris functions in a seperate direction or manner, causing interesting and unique moments to occur.
As the manner in which the debris interacts with one another becomes more complex, the debris starts to also create little areas of clustering, in a non-uniform manner.
7
After the forces begin to concentrate into pockets, they once again disband, and become random and less organized or powerful again.
The clustering of the debris has become very dense, with all of the pieces of each cluster effecting the pieces of its own cluster as well as the neighboring clusters.
Even though the forces attacking upon the debris has become dispersed, the debris itself becomes more and more complex with several types of clustering occuring.
8
The forces have become extremely dispersed. This dispersal is very uneven and covers a wider area. Because of this the effects that the forces are very weak.
The manner in which the debris begins organize itself is in a randomly dense pattern that is slowly becoming more and more complex as the forces become weaker.
[Netting Study] [Nature Study]
[Plastic Trash Study] [Biomimicry Element]
[Digital Netting Study] [Biomimicry Component]
[Modular Netting Study] [Built Form]
Cuyahoga Kayak Center
Kayaking
[River As A Source]
water, boats, equipment, people, docks, storage, lessons, transportation, maintaince
Park System
Leisure
space, grass, parking, water fountains, maintaince, WC, activities, pavilions, benches
River Center
Cleveland Cultural Center
river, people, facility, installation, pavilion, exhibits, computers, maintaince, information, donations, location
Cultural Center
[Effects On River]
Education
culture, history, people, facility, installation, pavilion, exhibits, computers, maintaince, information, donations, location
Bridge Reappropriation abondoned bridge, urban space, urban renewal, funds, location, people, donations, structure, river, pathway, highway, design
Hydro-Electric Power
Industry
water source, dam, generator, turbine, distribution system, maintaince, engines, location, reservior, tidal power
Storm Water Management sewer system, road systems, filtering system, swales, rain water, pollution, floods, groundwater, waterways, erosion
Trash Removal/Reuse trash, trash collection, sorting, recycling,
[Entire Ecosystem]
Research
disposal, facility, transportation, filtering system
Food Co-Op
agriculture, people, market, farms, pick-up locations, transportation, volunteers, income, donations
the focus of the cultural center is to educate people on the effect that they have on the river and the history of the city. there will be public installations and exhibits, as well as a place for locals and tourists to meet and enjoy Cleveland. there will be areas with scenic views as well as three dimensional interaction and traveling and permanent exhibits and three dimensional interaction
Sustainable Energy
this power plant will help to rehabilitate an old railroad bridge that has fallen out of use. the hydro-electric power plant will have turbines located in the river that generate power, the rest of the system will be located on the bridge that still can move vertically for ships to pass under it, allowing for the communities to be supplied with renewal energy, while not interfering
Recycling Laboratories Inc. research laboratories committed to filtering out waste from Cuyahoga river as well creating a healthier environment in the Oxbow region of the river. research will focus on storm water/waster management in the greater Cleveland area, as well as extracting trash out of the water systems in the area, and developing ways of recycling waste in a sustainable and efficient manner
Cleveland Co-Op Gardens Riparian Corridor
Stewardship
community kayaking and kayak related center located on the banks of the Cuyahoga, promoting people to explore the river, offers kayak rental, water polo, group trips, transportation to other locations, as well as community activites such as barbeques and lessons, the center houses boats that are suitable for both Cuyahoga river and Lake Erie
biofilters, vegetation, wetlands, river, environmental management, soil conservation, soil compaction, buffer zone
public park system located in the heart of the downtown Cleveland part of the the Greater Cleveland Metro Parks system. park system includes a riparian corrdior as well as spaces for a grounds for a community supported agriculture (csa), and well as a park system with gathering spaces and activities. part of an effort to allow natural rehabilitation
[Kayak Center Section]
Kayak Center
[Cultural Center Section]
Cultural Center
[Research Center Section] Research Center
[Northeast Perspective]
Co-Op Gardens
[Southeast Perspective]
Jan Achilles Miller
Email: jan@janachillesdesign.com Phone: (412) 608-4447 janachillesdesign.com