LINDSAY BURNETTE 2015 PORTFOLIO
Lindsay Burnette 970.420.4946 lindsaywburnette@gmail.com This portfolio focuses on the links between communities and their physical environments, using a range of media including drawing, photography, digital mapping and sculpture. I see the landscape as a lens through which one can interpret cultural narratives, expressions of regional identity and evolving traditions. The dynamic and ever-changing systems, layers and processes that embody the urban fabric become keys to unveiling intricate vernacular histories and shaping future cities. As shown in this portfolio, I explore these ideas through research, writing, art, and community outreach.
MAPPING LANDSCAPE SYSTEMS
SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - GRAD. SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE - 2014
LANDSCAPE SYSTEMS STUDIO GROUP PROJECT
Through a graduate studio course in Seoul, I worked with 5 other students to map the geomorphology, soil, vegetation, water, potential vegetation, and historic occupation of the Gangnam district in Seoul. The maps reveal the various changes and problem areas throughout Gangnam-gu’s landscape between the 18th century and 2015, such as lost islands, dangerous infill development in flood-prone areas, and transformed river structures. The maps will be compiled with map collections of other Seoul districts, eventually completing a comprehensive database of Seoul’s landscape systems to be used by city officials, designers and students.
Map of Seoul
Gangnam District
THE NINE DRAGON’S BELT
LANDSCAPE SYSTEM ANALYSIS
SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - GRAD. SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
LANDSCAPE SYSTEMS STUDIO GROUP PROJECT
Guryong Village is a slum village located in the southwest corner of Seoul’s wealthiest district - Gangnam-gu. It is marked by precarious housing, a history of destructive fires and floods, and a lack of conventional sewage, water and electric systems, it stands today as one of Seoul’s few remaining informal villages. The “Nine Dragons’ Belt” project centers around the concept of spreading biodiversity, agriculture, and human leisure across existing manmade boundaries. The project’s core design is a green corridor, which strives to overcome the fragmentation of ecosystems, the separation between anthropogenic and natural spheres, and the isolation of Guryong village (a self-constructed neighborhood at the foot of Guryongsan) from the wider Gangnam area. In this way, the project creates a holistic natural system promoting biodiversity, recreation and educational activities, such as bee keeping, plant nurseries, orchards and vegetable farms. Many of these activities are already essential to the area, and further support and resources could help to strengthen, justify and empower the village.
SITE LOCATION
MASTER PLAN
DESIGN PROCESS
THE NINE DRAGON’S BELT ELEVATIONS
GROWING SEOUL
URBAN AGRICULTURE IN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
FULBRIGHT RESEARCH PROJECT - 2014-2015 Over the course of 10-months, I independently studied urban agriculture and its role in the urban regeneration of Seoul. I interviewed design professionals, preservationists and urban farmers, conducted site visits to six major urban gardens in Seoul, farmed at a community garden on a weekly basis, and attended conferences and classes on urban gardening. Urban agriculture is one of the most direct links between city dwellers and their landscape, and as a result, it serves as an honest lens into political motives, social dynamics, and traditional practices as they evolve in the contemporary urban space. My project begins with infographics on the social and environmental concerns throughout Korea, and then looks at agriculture as just one potential sollution. The following images are exerpts and photographs from my research while in South Korea.
URBANIZATION Over the past four decades, South Korea has urbanization at a record rate. Although this rapid urbanization has led to the nation’s economic success, it also poses challenges for the country’s cultural identity, social stability and environmental sustainability.
49 % 83%
SOUTH KOREA’S POPULATION LIVING IN SEOUL METRO AREA
SOUTH KOREA’S URBANIZATION (As of 2011)
URBAN AGRICULTURE AS A SOLUTION
In 2012, Seoul’s current mayor, Park Won-Soon, labeled Seoul as the next “Agro City” and declared that 2012 would be the year of “urban agriculture in South Korea.” The city pledged to produce 3,201,000 tons of local food, beehives were placed on the roof of Seoul City Hall, and the mayor himself demonstrated rice planting in Gwanghwamun Plaza. Around the world, urban agriculture helps to build community support systems, increase the beauty and livability of cities, support food security and local food systems, provide impoverished neighborhoods with a source of income, and increase cultural awareness. Is urban agriculture a viable tool for social and environmental regeneration in Seoul, and are the necessary systems in place to support such a movement? In what ways has the Seoul Metropolitan Government partnered with community organizations in these efforts? How has the history of agriculture in Seoul impacted existing efforts and their overall success and sustainability? This research explores such questions through an examination of three approaches to building urban agriculture in Seoul: governmental initiatives, community grassroots movements, and landscape architecture and design.
FLOATING IDLY: A DAY IN SONGDO, SOUTH KOREA FULBRIGHT RESEARCH WRITING SAMPLE - 2014
Central Park is empty. The sounds of construction collide with drifts of slow, unrecognizable classical music wafting out of an oversized piano oddly equipped with wings. Benches sit untenanted, devoid of the scattered cigarette butts or coffee cups that might allude to a once present park visitor. A tour boat floats languidly down the Venetian canal, carrying half a dozen dazed passengers. Newly planted trees stand meek below the undulating skyscrapers; dwarfed, like small children recently scolded by their parents. Absent are the sounds of laughter, chatter, cars honking, or urban life. From behind me comes the whistle of a bird calling. In the silence I can hear it call again, the cheerful call of a bunting searching for its mate. I turn, scanning the trees for this small trace of life, hoping to catch a glance of the comrade sharing this deserted space. Eventually my eyes fall on a nearby light post. Attached is a small, discretely placed speaker. I wait a moment, and alas, out of the speaker comes the small bird’s call. This is Songdo. A city built in just 10 years, atop 1,500 acres of former wetland, or as developers claim, “wasteland.” Songdo is one of the newest additions to Seoul’s eastern neighbor cityV of Incheon. It serves as Incheon’s international business district, and is part of the free economic zone established in 2003. The floating city was designed to be a hub for global business, leisure, and entertainment, its construction made possible by massive investments from corporate conglomerates such as Samsung. Although the city of Songdo has cost developers more than $40 billion, it is currently home to less than 70,000 people, barely 28% of the 252,000-person population it was built for. I visited Songdo five months ago for one of my first interviews, one that I would later record as “strikingly depressing.” I was meeting with a woman named Jade, a scientist working with the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) . The EAAFP works to save migratory water birds and their habitats, and I had travelled the 40 miles out of Seoul to ask Jade about land and wildlife conservation in South Korea. Being only three weeks fresh to Korea, I had yet to learn that these are not popular topics in and around Seoul. The interview itself lasted all of 10 minutes. Jade thought it best to explain things while looking at Songdo city, so we headed up to the observation deck of her office building, the “G-Tower.” On the deck I felt for a moment that I’d been teleported into an architect’s master plan or a futuristic sketch of a developer’s
utopia. The city is sparkling and everything is in order. Large eight-lane roads sit waiting for some hidden onset of traffic, young trees stand obediently in undeviating lines next to the perfectly oscillating curves of Central Park’s Grand Canal, and skyscrapers rise effortlessly out of the flat terrain, reflecting the cool greens of the grass and blues of the open sky. Across the deck’s glass barriers the cost of Songdo’s major structures and infrastructure are listed: Neat Tower: $430 million, Samsung Biologics: $1.9 billion, Incheon Bridge: $2.2 billion. “See that tiny patch of water?” Jade points to a dot of water on the horizon, miles away and barely visible behind the massive glass skyscrapers. “Starting from there, this is all manmade land that didn’t exist 10 years ago.” She chuckles and points to a 20-story hotel below us. “That hotel wasn’t there when I left for Australia 3 weeks ago. And see that patch of land with nothing on it yet? That is a wetland preserve that is about to be developed for a casino.” While standing on the deck I ask her a series of questions: has the organization had any success in preserving wetlands in Korea? Are the birds still able to find their way through this development to what wetlands remain? Have there been many reactionary movements in support of wildlife protection? The answers are “very little,” “rarely” and “no.” Finally, Jade cuts me off. “There’s no hope and no possibility of changing the development direction. These projects cost billions of dollars, so how can we as conservationists compete with that? This is the future.” Down below the G-Tower, I explore the city, hoping to make sense of the grim picture Jade just painted. In many ways Songdo seems to be the perfect model city; it’s safe, clean, convenient and thoughtfully designed. Despite its wide streets, Songdo’s transportation system is fairly progressive – shops and businesses are just a 15-minute walk from Central Park, many parking lots are placed out of sight and underground, and the city boasts 25 km of bike lanes. Most Songdo apartment and office buildings are equipped with a truck-free garbage disposal system, using chutes that feed into a central dump where eventually 76.3% of the waste is recycled . Songdo planners have even designed ethnic villages, apartment complexes specifically for international immigrants hoping to build a new life in South Korea; and for residents and tourists looking for historical ties, Songdo has its own traditional Korean hanok village. Songdo’s design and building feats are impressive. For many designers, planners and developers, having the space, resources and support to build an efficient and smart city like Songdo is a dream come true. Yet some things about Songdo feel quite ironic and out of place. Songdo claims to be “one of the world’s greenest cities,” but what is so green about hundreds of apartments sitting empty on a former endangered bird habitat, or fake bird calls playing out of park speakers? How did the EAAFP end up with its headquarters on the very land it had been fighting to conserve? Can we really create rich and authentic urban environments through pre-designated cultural spaces and out-of-context historic replicas? For many, Songdo represents the future potential of urban design. While Songdo brings a propitious and exhilarating opportunity for fresh and innovative development using environmentally considerate technology and design, it also gives us a moment to reflect on our existing cities. How do people shape and create community and their environments over time? What makes a city so special and can this be emulated through a top-down planning approach? What do the buzz words “green,” “eco,” and “sustainable” really mean, and how can we bend and rework our existing cities to make them more accommodating to these ideas and our growing needs? As I continue to explore Korea’s cultural landscapes and urban development, Songdo stands out as an urban Disneyland, where typical city concerns such as gentrification, preservation and regeneration are irrelevant and culture and history are fabricated to meet the common expectations of the residents or visitors. Songdo is a reminder of what makes the gritty streetscapes, chaotic infrastructure the complex histories of evolving cities so rich and invaluable.
CIRCULATION & TOPOGRAPHY
TOPOGRAPHY AND MATERIALITY
CAREER DISCOVERY, IMAGINED LANDSCAPE, SUMMER 2013
HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN
This project explores the permeability of landscape through a study of materiality and the manipulation of topography. I moved beyond the surface and into three dimensional space using clay, Bristol, foam core, and pins and thread as performative tools. I then analyzed the site-less or imaginary landscape I had created and projected upon it various modes of circulation and use, given the topographical features.
LANDSCAPE TOPOGRAPHY MODELS
Interactive Natural Resource Area: 1. Unfarmed - untouched land 2. Restored Land - Plants replaced and removed 3. Previously Farmed Land - left untouched 4. Continuously Farmed Land
Corridor for Grazers: White Tailed Deer Coyote Red Fox Buffalo
1. Human Intervention and Circulation: An Interactive Natural Resource Area created to explore human’s relationship with nature and various forms of landscape restoration Spine Leaf Yucca Buffalo Grass Foxtail Brome Grass Little Blue Stem
Fossil Clam Limestone
White Ash White Poplar Black Walnut Red Elm Red Oak
Patch with diverse vegetation
2. Watershed and Vegetation During the rainy season, the steep topography, permeability of the loess, and high density of deep drainage ways lead to constrasts in soil moisture and temperature, and a wide variety of fauna and flora
3. Topography: Unique sedimentary formations and deep river channels create a corrugated terrain via strong winds heading north
SITE ZONING - SOCIAL
CYCLICAL WASTE
CAREER DISCOVERY, MCGRATH HIGHWAY, SOMERVILLE, MA, SUMMER 2013
HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN
The McGrath Highway and Poplar Street transect is defined by waste. Wastewater puddles the streets, truck loads of trash and hazardous waste are dumped daily, and below ground, sewage combines with wastewater and often runs untreated into the rivers. This project capitalizes on close links in waste programing through the reconfiguration of physical and social infrastructure. By closing and rerouting loops within Somerville’s waste cycle, this design brings to life a complex, transparent and self-sustaining system for waste disposal and reuse. Out of the pre-existing systems emerges a solar heated containerized compost farm, a bioswale built atop a landfill, recycling and hazardous waste educational centers and bicycle powered compost, trash and recycling systems. This design takes a once bleak and disconnected site and transforms it into a fresh flow of social, educational and environmental activity, still closely tied to its long standing systems and identity.
THE TRANSECT SITE ZONING UTILITIES
Massachusets, USA
Boston Metro Area
Somerville, MA
McGrath Highway and Poplar Street Intersect in Somerville, MA
CYCLICAL WASTE SECTION AND PROGRAMING DIAGRAMS
Project Design
Project Diagram
Landfill and Bioswale Phasing Phase 1 Construction (7 month period)
Phase 2 Planting and Implementation (4 month period)
• Construct and incorporate • Accumulated trash is new bike lane system shredded, torn, com• Collect Somerville trash pacted and spread in and transport to holding lined hole facility • Site is covered with • Excavate site for landfill a thick layer of plastic, • Construct Containerized clay and soil • Surrounding vegetation Compost Farm planted • Compost cycle begins
Vegetative Strategy
Compost system demonstrating reuse of community waste throughout the seasons Phase 3 Community Engagement and Education
Phase 4 Long-term evolution
• Open hazardous waste • Repeat Phases 1 and treatment area and 2 in succeeding sites waste holding facility • Continue Phase 3 to the public and begin educational programs • Start surrounding community gardens • Export completed compost to surrounding neighborhoods and bioswale
DRAWING
LEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE AND FULBRIGHT, SOUTH KOREA
WE ARE ONE - 2011 PASTEL ON PAPER
COMFORT WOMAN PORTRAIT OF KIM BOK-DONG CHARCOL AND ACRILYICS ON PAPER
BONES CHARCOL AND CHALK ON PAPER CONQUERING FEARS CHARCOAL AND CHALK ON PAPER