Community Connections

Hunts Point, Bronx, NYC; Santiago, Chile

Chapter Author - Michael Sheridan Architect(s) - Alejandro Aravena; Bruner Foundation, Inc.

Integrating value and concepts of the ‘numinous’ provide equal opportunity for all citizens to have equal access to the assets of their city. Spirituality is considered “a process of human life and development focusing on the search for a sense of meaning, purpose, mortality, and well-being;” in relationship with one’s self, others, and the universe. The Bicentennial Children’s Park designed by 2016 Pritzker prize winner Alejandro Avarena both respects and takes advantage of the topography in the site’s existing condition. Before the construction of this adult & children’s playground, in Santiago, Chile, there was nowhere for an individual to take a long leisurely walk without being interrupted by a street. Alejandro’s Bicentennial Park answers directly to Martha Nussbaum’s notion of the “thresholds” required by everyone to pursue a dignified and flourishing life. In particular, the pillar of “play” is heavily felt in this place. This is an individual’s ability to laugh, play, and enjoy themselves.

Martha Nussbaum emphasizes the interactive nature of social human justice and stresses that the capabilities are “not just abilities residing inside a person, but also the freedoms or opportunities created by a combination of personal abilities.” She further comments on how some living conditions deliver life to people that is worthy of their human dignity, while others neglect these needs. She goes on to discuss the notion of an individual’s “threshold” into a just society, and how this threshold is identified by one of the ten required capabilities: life, bodily health, bodily integrity, senses & imagination, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, relationship to the world, play, and one’s control over their environment. The numerous must be accessible to all people, which is why to aid those most marginalized by society, designers must design within the margins of the city.1

Architecture impinges on spiritual growth when it limits the individual and presents boundaries within the built environment. The Hunts Point Riverside project located in the Bronx, NY, galvanizes community and ecology by removing conceptions of boundaries and transforming the edge of a city as a destination. The project transformed a degraded industrial area into an ecological community sanctuary located on the waterfront of the Bronx. In many cities, the harbor is zoned for the water-dependent industry due to the harbor providing many main economic benefits both for the city and federally. However, this has led to a decline in the environment, on an individual’s spiritual growth, and has created boundary conditions within our built environment. Not only does the project address the needs of both the

Medium: Vellum, led pencil, Tombow ABT Watercolor Pen to be. This project galvanized the community in its ability to make a dramatic change by providing access to the waterfront and connecting back to more neighborhoods. Our society has suffered the consequences of severing ourselves from nature, and Hunt’s Park takes initiative to reconnect the city to the coastline.