EDGELESS A TYPOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO WATER MANAGEMENT IN GEORGETOWN, GUYANA RACHEL KALLICHARAN
E dgel ess A Typological Response to Water Management in Georgetown, Guyana
A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in par tial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture in the Depar tment of Ar t, Architecture, Ar t and Planning of the School of Architecture and Interior Design by by Rachel Kallicharan Bachelor of Ar ts in Architectural Studies Boston University, 2015 Committee Chair: Michael McIntur f, M.Arch Committee Member: Thomas Bible, M.C.E
I
nfrastructure is the skeleton which gives a city shape, function and order. It includes structures, networks, services and facilities that support the growth of a city. Georgetown, Guyana is a coastal city that operates with the same infrastructure today that was established by the Dutch upon colonization in the early 17th century. With a coastal elevation below sea level, the city is at risk of suffering severe impacts of climate change. This proposal re-choreographs the urban fabric of Georgetown through a series of inhabitable infrastructures. This network of interventions operates to promote a denser, ever-evolving and sociable Georgetown. Edgeless redefines the way that the city manages water. The resulting proposal consists of a densified neighborhood lining the revitalized canal systems with peripheries designed to embrace and absorb water as opposed to the existing that attempts to reject water. Punctuating the neighborhoods are vertical bathhouses that doubly treat the water before they are flushed into canals. As evident in urban centers all around the world, the strategy of resisting the sea is a decreasingly substantial solution moving forward. Consequently, the new city is a collage of negotiated moments rather than hard edges.
seawall
canals
hydrological infrastructure
pumps sluices
Georgetown’s topography lies 3 feet below sea level. The inhabitants of the city struggle to manage water due to inadequate infrastructure.
Georgetown should be visualized as a n
Can the landscape hold the wate
network of inhabitable infrastructure.
er instead of attempt to reject it?
explora
a city shaped
ation 01
d by canals
explora
a city shaped
ation 02
d by bridges
exploration 03
a city shaped by mangroves
Design Constraints In choreographing a revised urban fabric, it is mandatory to maintain and celebrate the dazzling, whimsical, uniquely ridiculous and colorful DNA of the city.
Edgeless is a cit
reimagining the flow of water fo
The new city mus
negotiated moments, r
ty wide strategy,
or a more resilient Georgetown.
st be a collage of
rather than hard edges.
Edgeless unfolds
uiterwaarden
a terrain that operates as a filter between land and water rather than a division
densified
utilizing the peripheries o soakable landscapes =
s in three scales
d housing
of canals for productive, = displacing residences
the tower
water shall be cleaned before flushed into the canal
Case Study Site: L
The neighborhood is sprinkled with a m middle income residences. Many of th running water nor plumbing. Consequ
La Penitence Canal
mix of informal settlements to lower to hese residents do not have access to uently, the canal is littered with waste.
A successful version of Georgetown is
+
+
create streetart
+
+
grow food
+
worship
+
hang clothes
+
bathe
+
party
+
+
gather
+
play
+
air dry laundry
s one where its residents are able to:
+
+
practice yoga
+
+
wash clothes
+
shop local
celebrate holidays
access clean water
+
walk to family
+
+
+
+
dry fish
+
cook outside
+
take care of goats
6_laundry
5_men’s bath + toilet
4_women’s bath + toilet
3_2_micro wastewater treatment plant
2_micro wastewater treatment plant
1_water tank
The vertical bathhouse becomes an opportunity for social gathering while also bringing attention to water management.
The tower ancho It is a beacon, symbolizing
ors the neighborhood, appearing all over the city. a new, accessible water system the city desperately needs.
The principal infrastructure of any city plan is the street.
A principal infrastructure of
the c
The waterfront evolves into a bustling, chaotic, co
Wastewater is treated in the tower then flushed into the canal.
rice paddies
f Georgetown’s city plan is
The canal begins to behave as a street does:
canal.
omplex, productive, culture-specific, civic space.
wetlands
On a map land + water are To respond to climate change, this line
Productive landscapes blur the ed
e drawn separated by a line. e is better represented as a gradient.
dge where the water meets land.
The new image of the city
It is reminiscent of the quirks and nuan But it is a more intelligent landsca
is different but the same.
nces that define the Guyanese people. ape. It is a responsive landscape.
Edgeless is a typological approach to
The proposal could be applied to the entire obsta
o water management in Georgetown.
e city as well as other cities facing similar acles.
“There are no solutions to clima engineered hard an
- Jerry v
ate change, only combinations of d soft protections.�
van Eyck