resilienCITY
The District The green outline encompasses the city’s designation of the Innovation Dictrict. We have added the Copper outline to provide the pull of the residential fabric into the district.
b o s t o n ’ s _ I n n o v a t i o n _ D i s t r i c t _ a s _ o r g a n i s m “A new approach is called for on the waterfront – one that is both more deliberate and more experimental… The massive expanse of the South Boston waterfront, with its existing knowledge base, opportunity for growth, and world-class infrastructure is ripe to produce world-class products and services.”
History The grey mass is the orginal (1620) coastline of Boston. This gives the depth to which so much of Boston was property of the ocean to begin with, giving us the precedent for our series of design strategies.
- Mayor Thomas M. Menino
Resiliency is defined as, “The capacity of a system, community or society potentially exposed to hazards to adapt, by resisting or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure. This is determined by the degree to which the social system is capable of organizing itself to increase its capacity for learning from the past…” (United Nations - International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), 2000)
Impact This blue mass represents a projected 4-foot sea-level rise (the top end of predictions) in the timespan of the competition. It is a mainspring of the design intentions. We say, “Let the water come. We’ll be better for it.”
Surfaces The brown mass represents the impervious surfacing for the district. As is quite evident by the scarcity of the small green parcels there is little respite from the oppressive nothingness. The yellowish mass is a toxic (permeable) site. Even the green spaces are actually green roofs of garages, not charging aquifers.
Trucking The light Purple boxes represent the low-density truck dependent program in the district. This traffic makes for a perpetuation of the wasteland. The darker Purple is a high density relocation for them. By doing this, roads are freed up for people (blue)
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Innovation District Land Area
47,916,000 SF
Amount Per Serving
Population
337,000
Energy Generation (kwh/year): 5,741,020,030 Used Produced 21,626,228,200 15,885,208,000 Net (differ.) Water Capacity (gallon): Rainfall 1,316,571,428 Used 2,500,000,000 Reused (grey water) 1,250,000,000 Net (differ.) 665,714,428 Waste Generation (lb): 541,222,000 Produced 541,222,000 Reused 0 Net (differ.) Caloric Capacity (SF): 6,367,175 Total 18.9 Avg. per person per year
*other random information relating to the neighborhood
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Urban Agriculture: Our design is of a lesser density than the allowable FAR and we dedicate 12% of our land, roofs, and building facades to urban agriculture.
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Ecological Waterflow: 100% of storm water and building water discharge will be handled onsite or through natural timed release methods such as biofiltration. Buildings will capture what they can and reuse water where they need and can. In cases where conditions limit that ability the system will be supported through a district cistern system.
Healthy Air: Among the standard means of healthy air, vehicular traffic has been substantially reduced in the ResilienCity by increasing public transportation and by relocating the tractor trailer trucks to a new Eco Industrial Zone
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Thanks to the FAA Height restrictions for Logan International Airport directly across the harbor, it makes the district a very strong solar candidate. Setting zoning to ensure equitable access is vital. The yellow is the only current solar. The orange is a natural gas power plant. We advocate a biogas conversion.
Net-Zero Water: ResilienCity gathers 100% water from captured precipitation and closed loop systems. Based on historical data, Boston receives 44 inches of rain every year. This amounts to 1.3 trillion gallons of rain on our 1100 acre site. In existing commercial buildings that do not have a storage capacity suitable, they will be eligible to tap into the District Cistern, created from an existing tunnel currently used for bus transit will be replaced by our cistern with a 20 million gallon water capacity, will also serve as RODI/UV Filtration Plant in order to provide potable water.
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Car Free Living: The District is now completely accessible by new public transportation trolleys, bicycle paths, and an innovative elevated bicycle called Shweeb. The design extends the existing subway system’s Green Line trolley along the currently underutilized Congress Street (we have closed an existing street). Curbs are eliminated in this car free zone. Bicycle paths are provided throughout. All of the existing truck traffic has been relocated to a separate shared facility in a new Eco-Industrial Zone that will shorten travel distances, isolate and treat exhaust, and provide for more efficient freeway access.
Civilized Environment: ResilienCity provides fresh air and daylight to every occupiable space. Our design for new commercial-scale buildings caps heights so that they don’t interrupt solar access to adjacent buildings. Our design also features centralized atrium spaces providing light corridors for typically internalized programs.
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Habitat Exchange: Our design incorporates a strategy of new canals that gives 100 acres of land back to the sea and provides for roof gardens and living walls throughout the district with the goal of re-establishing long lost ecological conditions. In total our proposal provides over 15 million square feet of green spaces for recreation and green roofs.
Net-Zero Energy: ResilienCity provides almost 400% of the project’s energy needs with systems that are both site and district supplied. We have calculated that 5,741,020,030 kwh/yr is required and are able to provide 21,626,228,200 kwh/yr. Our project is able to do this using a variety of processes including photovoltaic systems on building roofs and the roads, biogas using organic waste, and MicroCHP strategies at individual building scales.
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There “is” a transit connection in the district. A very inefficient Bus, that as noted by the dashed portion runs underground from South Station Commuter Rail Terminal across the channel. On weekends this service is non-existant. The abundance of parking hardly brings advocacy for greater service.
They are very hard to spot but the dark Blue dot represents the lone “groceria” for the district. The light Blue is a proposed largerscaled market. While there are a fair share of places to buy food, it advocates take-out over cooking and too often that is more expensive and less healthy.
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Limits to Growth: Our design proposal for Boston’s Innovation District reverses Boston’s expansion pattern by giving 100 acres of land back to the sea to help prepare for rising sea levels associated with global warming.
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Biophilia: ResilienCity provides environmental features like bioswales, living walls, new shade trees, and natural landscape elements including once threatened plant species provide a closer connection to the natural world. Our urban agriculture solutions help teach people about the sensitivity of natural systems. The Canal Districts residential development “softens” the existing hard edged granite seawall so that people can experience the changing of the tides on a regular basis
Red List: All buildings in ResilienCity will contain a building nutrition label that provides nutritional value to occupants. This label will provide information about energy, water, waste, and will also warn occupants of red list materials. In addition, the label will provide occupants with the current embodied energy “debt” related to the building construction. New buildings are being planned and constructed today that we know we will need to remediate in the 2035 ResilienCity. Embodied Carbon: In ResilienCity the carbon “debt” of a building will be public knowledge and building owners will need to advertise this information as mentioned above on the nutrition label. Companies seeking to rent space will also be required to pay for carbon offsets relative to their build out of space.
Responsible Industry/Appropriate Resourcing: We believe that due to our location in Boston we can do better than the restrictions shown in the Living City Appropriate Sourcing chart. It is intended that Boston’s Innovation District will be home to many companies from the green technology sector (50% of MIT faculty are working on sustainable practices at all scales) and as a result we are hoping to implement new strategies being developed in the neighborhood. We intend to source all materials and consultants within a 500 km radius of our project site. Conservation & Reuse: ResilienCity will renovate existing buildings and all of them will meet all petal intentions. For buildings that are deemed unsafe that cannot be reused materials will be salvaged for reuse in new buildings. Human Scale + Humane Places: The design & planning for ResilienCity is human-scaled throughout the district & the project embodies active design principles that encourage people to travel by foot or bike and discourages the use of the automobile. Bike share programs & covered parking for bicycles is provided throughout ResilienCity. We envision the car-free Congress Street Ramla to be thriving with pedestrian activity with restaurants & retail lining up both sides of the street. Democracy + Social Justice: This neighborhood of Boston has more lowincome & moderate income housing than any other Boston neighborhood. The existing condition between this neighborhood & the Innovation District is a heavily trafficked street and a street of industrial buildings. We propose to add extensions of the Green Line trolley system along this street edge to discourage car use. Our new Canal Districts also help to ease this transition by creating a lower scale of buildings that invite existing South Boston residents to the waterfront Rights to Nature: Currently most of the water’s edge at the existing site is inaccessible to the public. An existing 500 meter long industrial building runs parallel to the shoreline on our site. We have opened up the entire length of the building (see image) to provide full access to the water’s edge. All rooftops have full access to sun.
Beauty & Spirit: “We are going to have to find ways of organizing ourselves cooperatively, sanely, scientifically, harmonically and in regenerative spontaneity with the rest of humanity around earth...” - R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) Inspiration + Education: Currently most of the water’s edge at the existing site is inaccessible to the public. An existing 500 meter long industrial building runs parallel to the shoreline on our site. We have opened up the entire length of the building (see image) to provide full access to the water’s edge. All rooftops have full access to sun.
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