wick

Project Narrative

Water is the impulse of every ecosystem and essential to the flow of energy on the planet. Its importance is proven in places such as Iowa, where agriculture thrives. However, its destructive power and contrasting lack of water can wreak havoc on both natural and human rhythms.

Across the globe, communities and ecosystems are suffering from the effects of water scarcity, and as populations grow in these areas, so does the need to shelter them. In Iowa, waterways are heavily polluted due to agricultural and urban runoff, inefficiently siphoned away or mismanaged, resulting in flooding. In West Ames, at the intersection of Lincoln Way and Dakota Avenue, a remnant of the natural landscape suffers from the negative effects of humans’ poor water management.

To open the minds of the community to protect and improve our waterscapes both locally and globally, we are proposing WICK, a center to showcase and develop strategies to generate, conserve, and manage water in new ways. On the site, over 23 million gallons of water fall annually, draining from impervious surfaces into the wooded site. Rather than blocking this flow, WICK hovers above the landscape on dual cores, straddling natural drainage routes. Inside, collected water is used in the toilets and conditioning system, while some are purified for consumption and inhouse hydrology research purposes. Additional water is extracted from the air via exterior fog-collecting mesh baffles and micro ridges on the surface of the ETFE facade, capable of collecting additional water in humidity and fog events.

WICK represents the charge towards a future where architecture responds more radically to the urgent water scarcity and flooding crises that we as a society must confront rapidly. Through the uncommon features of our proposal, we hope that the community would look at their most precious resource in a new light.

Site

42.023629, -93.679895

SURROUNDING BUILT/ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT

CONCEPT MASSING + SECTION

In order to design for a program that does not interfere with surface and groundwater movement on the site, the main focus was to elevate the structure above the earth and perforate it’s mass to allow groundwater infilitraion and purification. The resulting covered space acts as an outdoor classroom showcasing fog collecting baffles and a backdrop for the education auditorium.

“Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.”

LAO TZU

New York City is heralded as the center of the modern universe, but to whom does that statement really apply?

In a city built on immigration, industry, and culture, this daunting task begins with the roots of the problem, the fight between public and private space in a city where every square foot comes with a price tag.

In the Chelsea neighborhood, this fight is happening in real time. Land values and housing costs have skyrocketed 45% since the construction of the Highline park in 2009, far more than other neighborhoods in New York. This centralization of value around the park has created a boundary between classes that is pushing outwards, and in its path filtering out those deemed too poor to exist there. Both luxury and public life revolves around the High Line today, creating a highly policed area where the wealthy look upon and flaunt to those who amble past their shining towers.

To decentralize public space is to blur the boundaries between class. When the binary between those who gawk and those who flaunt is broken, public and private space can be intertwined and everyone can benefit from the city they reside in. Providing more accessible and usable public space in the culture and art-centric neighborhood that is Chelsea could be the seed of a solution.

This solution includes creating better connections to spaces residents value such as playgrounds, community gardens, walking space, and places for spontaneous activity and art and would create a more equitable community that no longer focuses on the wealthy’s desires to distance themselves from the public. Gardening, playing, skateboarding, climbing, are all things that require understanding that our environments, natural or human, are rhythmic yet chaotic in nature. How long will we let a price tag be placed upon the essence of community?