Vertically Layered Ecologies

V E R T I C A L LY L A Y E R E D E C O L O G I E S MONIKA L. OUM Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture B. Arch. Final Project 2011 Advisor : Mark Mistur

MONIKA L. OUM Vertically Layered Ecologies IN>Form | PER<Form EcoLogics : An Architecture of Complicity and Consequence Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture B. Arch. Final Project 2011 Final Project Advisor : Mark Mistur Permanent Committee Member : Thomas Mical ii. |

VERTICALLY LAYERED ECOLOGIES TABLE OF CONTENTS State of the Built Environment.....................................................................2 + PrĂŠcis........................................................................................................4 + Thesis......................................................................................................14 Layered Ecologies......................................................................................18 + The Tropical Rainforest...........................................................................22 + Fishing Villages along the Tonle Sap Floodplain....................................25 + Ghats along the Ganges River in Varanasi.............................................27 + Speculative System Synthesis................................................................29 + Operational Explorations : Hovering.......................................................33 The Belle Isle Marsh..................................................................................38 + Background.............................................................................................42 + Salt Marsh Ecology.................................................................................43 + Significance to the Thesis.......................................................................46 Rethinking Educational Spaces.................................................................49 + Critique of the Double-Loaded Corridor typology...................................51 + Merging Synthetic and Natural Systems.................................................53 Lanterns in the Salt Marsh.........................................................................54 + Design Conception and Concentration...................................................59 + The Tower................................................................................................63 + The Finger Buildings...............................................................................73 + Programmatic Considerations...............................................................79 Final Presentation and Conclusions..........................................................86 + Physical Model........................................................................................87 + Critique and Directions for Further Investigation....................................91 Bibliography...............................................................................................93 Image Credits.............................................................................................95

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State of the Built Environment |2

Until the early twentieth century the public occupied the shared external space between all building types, with urban liveliness dependent on the mix of adjacent uses. In the mid-twentieth century a different flawed model was developed ... in which public space was absorbed into massive amalgamated buildings such as shopping malls and mixed-use centers. Here, public leisure is controlled; corralled into amalgamated buildings in which encounters are predictable.1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 1.1 (Overleaf) Aerial view of a typical suburban neighborhood 1 Ros Diamond and Simon Henley. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Good Lifeâ&#x20AC;?. Building Happiness | Architecture to Make You Smile. Black Dog Publishing, September 2008.

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PRÉCIS Much of today’s built environment is not so much designed as much as it planned and optimized for purposes of speed, efficiency, and economy. Aesthetic, experiential, social, cultural, natural, and other abstract concerns have become, at best, secondary considerations.

Buildings and their events are often positioned as autonomous of their surroundings and each other. These hyper-functional program containers have no specific place; they are essentially boxes that can be situated anywhere due to technological advances in synthetic environmental control and simplistic parameters used to govern their planning and construction. Any complications that may present themselves over the course of planning and construction are addressed through technology rather than through an open-minded and creative reconciliation of differences.

Through cultured use and experience, buildings can teach people how to inhabit and use their space, and in some cases, how to feel in them. If the different facets of our experience of the built environment are compartmentalized and disconnected from each other and any kind of context, the resulting architecture (or NONarchitecture rather) is unresponsive to instinctual human desires for rich and fulfilling experience and interaction and engagement with their surroundings and each other. Much of today’s built environment creates and reinforces a sense of isolation within the subconscious of its inhabitants, doing little to nothing to promote a sense of awareness of and concern for one’s surroundings or an understanding of one’s role within a larger context. Much of today’s built environment is also governed by predetermined patterns of activity, occupation, and use.

These patterns are not only dated, irrelevant, and arbitrary, they also easily become monotonous and forgettable, offering little to no potential to leave a positive and lasting impression on individual and collective memory and identity.

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One can begin to understand the dichotomy of the designed environment versus the optimized environment by considering the following analogies...

American suburbs are usually associated with the idea that everyone has a similar living situation, consisting of a generic 1-2 story home with a front porch, driveway, garage, backyard, and maybe even a white picket fence. Meandering roads, pockets of forest, and vast picturesque landscapes are also characteristic of American suburbs and they mainly serve as boundary markers that separate instead of connect. In general, the idea of the suburban condition tends to conjure thoughts of safety, predictability, control, homogeneity, and isolation. Cities, on the other hand, are characterized by thick multiplicities of cultural and economic backgrounds, activities, and spatial conditions. Cities are associated with density, difference, and diversity. Suburban conditions constitute an environment free of conflict and discomfort, but to the detriment of its unique nature and its significance to a community, its history, and its culture(s).

This relates the suburbs to the concept of a mechanically optimized environment. Urban conditions are characterized by the confluence of many different trajectories that may benefit from or conflict with each other, but function and coexist regardless. This notion relates the urban condition to the concept of a designed environment because of the need to reconcile and cater to many differences.

The dichotomy of the designed environment versus the optimized environment can also be analogized to specific architectural terms.

Consider the plan and section, two fundamental technical devices for the articulation of architecture. Plans primarily express spatial organization while sections communicate spatial experience. This is not to say that sections are better or more important than plans, but this observation segues into a broader discussion of horizontal and vertical space and which should be the focus of an architectural design scheme. A focus on developing vertical space signifies the most literal way in which one can effect a change and make a statement locally; It can be difficult to look at a plan and fully envision, understand, and position ourselves within the full scope of horizontal space it is articulating but in vertical space, it simply takes looking up to start to notice new and different relationships and possibly see the world through a different perspective. Much of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s built environment spreads out horizontally instead of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;growingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; vertically.

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These analogies suggest an emphasis on verticality in robust architectural design. Rem Koolhaas offered special insight on the notion of verticality in Delirious New York...

For the first time, Manhattan’s inhabitants can inspect their domain, to have a sense of the island as a whole is also to be aware of its limitations, the irrevocability of its containment. If this new consciousness limits the field of their ambition, it can only increase its intensity.2 Koolhaas was talking about traversing vertical space to get to a point higher than what one would normally occupy. His insight discusses the use of vertical space as a platform, a vantage point from which one can observe, understand, and appreciate his surroundings and thusly, reflect upon his own role and potential to effect an impact within that realm.

The need for a healthy level of diversity within an environment pairs the concept of verticality with that of layering. Referring back to the analogy between designed/optimized environments and sections/ plans, the concept of layering is also emphasized in the section. It is easier to conceive of and express a high degree of diversity at a single point in a section than at a single point in a plan.

Today’s built landscapes may be sterile and there may be many reasons for why that is unfortunate, but their very nature as such sets up a unique opportunity for the design and construction of a layered ecology that reframes and unites disparate elements.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 Koolhaas, Rem. “Prehistory”. Delirious New York | A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. The Monacelli Press, December 1997.

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UBIQUITOUS STERILE BUILDINGS...

Shopping malls, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, commercial strips, educational facilities, suburban houses. Generally unremarkable structures in terms of design and/or program, with very few exceptions. These comprise a built environment with which I (and most likely many others, architects and non-architects alike) am most familiar.

In the past 30 years, an arts building type has emerged in which the container is the attraction itself. The Centre Pompidou in Paris was one of the first ... it has unwittingly led to the popularization of a genre of bloated public buildings in which the architecture has become the detractor to the detriment of its contents. [...] This amalgamated building type is what Mark Pimlott refers to as the ‘continous interior’, exemplified by the retail mall, a twentieth century phenomenon which has been applied variously, as an organizing device to education, healthcare, transport hubs, and mixed use schemes. The result is the self-perpetuation of deep internalized public space which always needs to pay its way, be rented and managed.3 This sector of building and program typologies can be understood as program containers. Program containers are the spatial manifestation of the values and principles of a consumerist society. They are not designed by architects, but are, rather, planned by developers and agents for the generation of monetary profit.

The true purpose of architecture is to help make human existence meaningful. All of the functions such as satisfaction of mere physical requirements can be achieved without architecture. Without architecture, buildings are reduced to a schedule of rooms formatted in size, shape, and distribution in accordance with their primary functional requirements.4 Like architectural projects, program containers are planned and constructed in accordance with certain parameters and intentions, only these governing factors do not address abstract and humanist concerns and they may even be of a less than savory nature. A critical consideration of the spatial layouts of some of these typologies illustrates this notion very clearly...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figures 1.2 - 1.4 (Opposite page) The exterior treatment of program containers demonstrates just how expendable these buildings are; they are everywhere and they are more or less the same.

3 Ros Diamond and Simon Henley. “The Good Life”. Building Happiness | Architecture to Make You Smile. Black Dog Publishing, September 2008.

4 Bradley, Keith. “The Happiness In-Between”. Building Happiness | Architecture to Make You Smile.

Black Dog Publishing, September 2008.

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Figure 1.5 Atrium of a typical shopping mall

Shopping malls are now more widespread throughout the world and they have come to represent an increasingly global and modern economy. Victor Gruen, an Austrian commercial architect, pioneered the design of shopping malls in the United States. He is the namesake of the ‘Gruen transfer’, a term that describes the moment when people walking in a mall subconsciously succumb to its ‘intentionally confusing layout’ and shift from being conscious consumers to ‘impulse buyers’.5 This casts the shopping mall as a metaphorical social drug that hinges on competitive and confusing advertising (an empty concept of choice if you will) and getting people to spend most, if not all their money; whether it’s necessary or not, whether it’s beneficial to the consumer or not.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 Crawford, Margaret. “The World in a Shopping Mall”. Variations on a Theme Park | The New American City and the End of Public Space. Hill and Wang, March 1992.

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Figure 1.6 The aisles of a supermarket ... another venue for selling an empty notion of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;choiceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Supermarkets have also become more widespread throughout the world and for similar reasons as those of the shopping mall : they cater to a strong middle class with extra time and money from jobs that contribute to the modern global economy. The layout of a supermarket is also dependent on advertising and the strategic arrangement of merchandise, which accounts for the fact that many supermarkets appear and feel very similar to one another, no matter where in the country (or even the world) it might be. Recently, supermarkets have been criticized as a component of a fundamentally flawed food system in the United States; proliferating a collective sense of detachment from food and facilitating a monoculture of food production and consumption, placing local food producers and businesses at an impossible and multi-faceted disadvantage.

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Figure 1.7 A high school hallway that leads to nowhere

Michael Benedikt offers an insightful critique of the design of American high schools ...

Visit a suburban American high school, vintage 1965 or later. Very likely it will be a building as bland as a warehouse, as hardened as a prison, one where you are inspired to do nothing but escape its echoing din. [...] If teenagers are to learn from books and blackboards and teachers’ faces, they shouldn’t need to look out windows.

Therefore classrooms had few, high, or no windows. If teenagers are messy, then schools should be easy to clean--all linoleum and tile. ... Misbehavior? Video cameras scanning every room, stair, and hallway. ... Furniture abused? Make it steel and rock-hard plastic, and bolt it down.6

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6 Benedikt, Michael. “Environmental Stoicism and Place Machismo”. Harvard Design Magazine.

Winter/Spring 2002.

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Benedikt’s description of the typical American high school building alone makes a strong statement : whether intended or not, these buildings bear subliminal messages about impressions and expectations of their inhabitants. Judging from these three examples, program containers express indifference and even contempt towards their inhabitants. Their space is intended to monitor, confuse, manipulate, and control. Benedikt presents a theory claiming that these building and program typologies create and reinforce a sense of numb detachment from our environments, specifically the buildings we inhabit ...

The ability to endure or tune out places that are cheap or neglected, depressing or demeaning, banal, uncomfortable, or controlling-places to which people would normally react with despair--is what I call environmental stoicism.7 It is easy for program containers to seem “cheap and neglected”; due to air-conditioning, artificial lighting, and other technological advances in synthetic environmental control, they can be placed anywhere. They can be mass produced and distributed. They bear no information about a specific place, community, or culture. They don’t engage any specific site conditions (natural ones especially).

This is the current state of much of the built environment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 Benedikt, Michael. “Environmental Stoicism and Place Machismo”. Harvard Design Magazine.

Winter/Spring 2002.

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Playtime directs us to look around at the world we live in (the one we keep building), then at each other, and to see how funny that relationship is and how many brilliant possibilities we still have in a shopping mall world that perpetually suggests otherwise; to look and see that there are many possibilities and the play between them, activated by the dance of our gaze, can become a kind of comic ballet, one that we both observe and perform...8

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8 ...In reference to the Jacques Tati film Playtime... Jonathan Rosenbaum via Roger Ebert. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Playtime (1967)â&#x20AC;?. RogerEbert.com. Accessed January 1, 2011.

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ARCHITECTURAL THESIS Through unexpected and polemical juxtapositions between program, building, and context, and by framing and emphasizing the relationships these associations promise, architecture can produce vertically layered ecologies that set up fertile conditions for the emergence of resonant patterns of activity and interaction.

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TERMS OF THE THESIS What is an unexpected and polemical juxtaposition?

A polemical juxtaposition can be defined as an operation whereby two entities are placed side-by-side and perhaps made to engage with each other as a deliberate and critical challenge to long-accepted norms and/or established rules. Designing and building a skyscraper in the suburbs would be a polemical juxtaposition. Repurposing a dead shopping mall as housing would be a polemical juxtaposition.

Building on a protected natural area such as, say, a salt marsh, would be a polemical juxtaposition.

How can architecture frame and emphasize relationships?

If we are fully immersed in an environment, our awareness of and appreciation for it actually may not be as keen as it could be.

Architecture can frame and emphasize relationships by creating ‘fences’, creating the feeling of being near yet far, by holding us back in certain respects. By limiting our participation in certain situations, positioning us as outsiders (in an objective manner, as opposed to a hostile or contemptuous one), our senses are heightened and they can be directed towards observing and reflecting on certain FRAMED aspects of our environment.

Physical spaces can create opportunities for people to interact with each other, but if they simply force large numbers into contact, then residents adopt a strategy of withdrawal and avoidance--either physically or psychologically. Literally and metaphorically, ‘good fences’ give people the power to choose when and where to interact with others, and make it easy to do so when they want to.9 What is a vertically layered ecology?

A vertically layered ecology can be defined as the condition where two or more distinctly different entities/systems are engaged in a relationship of mutual respect and/or benefit. The minimum qualifying characteristics : they must closely coexist and continue to function fully and healthily without hindering each other and within the same spatial realm (hence the emphasis on verticality). This status is elevated if there is a degree of interdependence among the entities/systems involved, if they provide each other with sustaining feedbacks. The intricate food webs of the tropical rainforest biome are layered ecologies.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9 Halpern, David. “An Evidence-Based Approach to Building Happiness”. Building Happiness | Architecture to Make You Smile. Black Dog Publishing, September 2008.

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Why is the emergence of resonant patterns important? What IS a resonant pattern?

When considered by itself, the actual word ‘emergence’ may not mean much. But consider it in comparison with the word ‘appearance’. The word ‘appearance’ is easily associated with the instantaneous, the ephemeral, the short-lived. This highlights opposite connotations for the word ‘emergence’, which implies aggregation, accumulation, or growth over time.

For architecture to effect an impact, to have a special significance to a specific place and its respective communities and cultures, it needs to have some sort of temporal dimension. This is where the idea of resonant patterns comes in.

A resonant pattern is a continuous dialogue (similar to the mutual respect and benefit of layered ecologies) between two or more entities/systems, built and enhanced over time. If architecture played a strong role in the emergence of resonant patterns, it will have done its job in effecting an impact in a specific environment because it was largely responsible for setting into motion something that could last longer than its actual physical construct.

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Layered Ecologies | 18

Architecture transcends site and program, but to transcend is also to engage, expand, and exploit them to a new condition of inextricable mutual cooperation and more. To speculate toward an architecture of continuity, one that creates a complicity between site and program with the ultimate objective of linking the human enterprise, and ‘being’ itself, with site operations and programmatic purpose, requires a bidirectional approach. The inner structures and ecologies on the one hand, and external influences and intention on the other, must be integrally considered, not opposed.1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 2.1 (Overleaf) “Little was known about [the rainforest canopy] until relatively recently when scientists discovered efficient ways to study the canopy. However, even with modern techniques of study, many species, systems, and relationships of the canopy are still mysterious and much is still left to be discovered.” --Rhett Butler, MongaBay.com 1 Mistur, Mark. “IN>Form | PER<Form Ecologics : An Architecture of Complicity and Consequence”.

September 2010.

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The idea of layered ecologies came about through an exercise in gathering information on and critically analyzing a multi-scalar range of different systems, both natural and synthetic. The idea of ecology was a crucial dimension to the discourse; Were our chosen research topics eco-logics? Answering this question required a rigorous process in the definition of the term ‘ecology’ and what constitutes an eco-logic.

General preliminary research suggested certain phenomona that can be considered as criteria for constituting an eco-logic. For example, Farshid Moussavi presents Gothic architecture as an exemplar of the desired consequences of architectural form...

The Gothic system resulted in long sound reverberations which obscured the clarity of speech and music. As a consequence of this acoustical effect, a whole series of developments emerged in the institution of the church. Chanting, choral music, and other slow-paced musical styles gradually evolved to cater to the long reverberation time.2 A whole genre of music and a community dedicated to that genre and its craft were generated from the physical form of the Gothic style, creating a resonant dialogue between the discipline of architecture and the institution of the church. The eco-logic criterion implied in this case is the idea of permutations within a given system generating new patterns. This notion backs up the thesis and speaks to the idea that architecture should do something more than just contain; that it should contribute to the history and functioning of a specific site, any communities associated with it, and their respective cultures.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 Moussavi, Farshid. “The Function of Form”. The Function of Form. Actar and Harvard Graduate School of Design, November 2009.

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Connotations of the very term ‘ecology’ often associate it with ideas of sustainability, environmental conservation, and reviving and engaging with nature and biodiversity. But the ‘eco-’ prefix does not necessarily have to apply to just nature. A positive paradigm shift is signified by our recognition of the detrimental impact of our lifestyles and institutions on our environment and natural resources, but we are attempting to devise solutions through a perspective that is actually part of the problem. This is made clear through Mohsen Mostafavi’s critique on what he would consider an erroneous discourse on sustainable architecture. He references the way sustainable design has come to be considered in an isolated monocultural kind of scope.3 If our buildings are designed for sustainability, then that ought to address our most pressing environmental issues with regards to the architecture and construction professions, right? Not necessarily.

In the case of the type of sustainable architecture that is the focus of Mostafavi’s critique, there is little consideration for purposes of engaging with a larger network, fostering a sense of community, and inspiring aesthetic delight and wonder that many architects aim to fulfill in their projects. Mostafavi is ultimately criticizing the practice of addressing sustainability issues primarily through Tier-3 techniques.4 This practice is not all that dissimilar from constructing a container and then loading it up with air-conditioning and artificial lighting systems ... ultimately producing a program container.

Mostafavi also makes a reference to Felix Guattari’s concept of “ecosophy”, where the meaning of the ‘eco-’ prefix is broadened to describe relationships between entities within a linked and interdependent network.5 This allows the ‘ecology’ term to be applied to our synthetic environments, in addition to our natural environments.

These synthetic environments do not always have to be physical; they could be characterized by institutions and ideas about the way we settle down, live, and adapt to change. A good example to illustrate this notion of synthetic environments as ecologies would be Stuyvesant High School in New York City. After school hours, its pool facilities are open to the public.6 This suggests that architecture can be the uniting factor for a multiplicity of demographics, deepening its significance to the specific place that sustains those demographics.

It is an example of a socio-cultural ecology that architecture can create and/or enhance.

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THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST It is estimated that 30 unique species of insect may be dependent on each species of tree. In turn, a tree species may be dependent on a number of species to complete its life cycle : a bat for pollination, a bird to process and disperse its seeds, and so on.7 This passage pertains to the rich ecology of the tropical rainforest biome. It illustrates another criterion that constitutes an eco-logic : the condition where two or more entities are linked through positive and sustaining feedbacks they offer one another.

The tropical rainforest biome is located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, just north and south of the Equator.

The sun is very strong in these regions of the earth, so there is a consistent amount of daily sunlight and warmth throughout the year, keeping the climate relatively stable. On average, tropical rainforests receive more than 80 inches of rainfall per year. All of these climatic characteristics allow this biome to support extremely diverse and abundant sectors of plant and animal life; it is home to more than 50 percent of all plant and animal species on earth. The climate is also cause for the rainforest’s stratification into four distinct layers...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 Mostafavi, Mohsen. “Why Ecological Urbanism, Why Now?”. Harvard Design Magazine. Spring/ Summer 2010.

4 A three-tier approach is used to guide and measure environmentally responsible building design. The first tier encompasses aspects of basic building design, the second tier encompasses passive systems, and the third tier encompasses mechanical equipment. It is generally preferred that an architect depend primarily on the first and second tiers in addressing heating, cooling, and lighting loads. ... Lechner, Norbert. “Heating, Cooling, and Lighting as Form-Givers in Architecture”. Heating, Cooling, and Lighting | Design Methods for Architects. Wiley, December 2000.

5 Guattari, Felix. The Three Ecologies. Athlone Press, January 2000.

6 Lau, Olivia. interview with author. October 2010.

7 Butler, Rhett. “Rainforest Canopy - Canopy Trees”. MongaBay.com. Accessed October 2010.

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THE EMERGENT LAYER (115-165 feet) features a small number of trees that can grow to heights of 150-180 feet, towering over the rainforest canopy. The tree tops exist in almost a different climate from that of the canopy because the air is significantly drier and winds are stronger. These tree species have adapted to and taken advantage of these conditions for reproductive purposes, using the winds for seed dispersal. Animals that make their home in the emergent layer include sloths, spider monkeys, macaws, hummingbirds, a broad range of bat species, and large birds of prey such as the harpy eagle.

165 FEET (50 METERS)

130 FEET (40 METERS)

100 FEET (30 METERS)

65 FEET (20 METERS)

35 FEET (10 METERS)

Figure 2.2 Rainforest stratification

THE UNDER-CANOPY (45-80 feet) is comprised of plants with large leaves meant to capture what little sunlight reaches this layer. It is dark and humid and home to an abundance of insect species. Other species found in this layer include jaguars, tree frogs, and leopards.

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THE CANOPY (80-115 feet) is the densest and most biologically diverse of all the layers. Trees grow to heights of 100-150 feet and are so [relatively] abundant that they provide a continuous cover of foliage. The canopy filters the sunlight that reaches subsequent layers, thereby playing a strong determinant role in the overall nature and day-to-day functioning of these layers. Animals found in this layer find most or all of their food high up in the trees so they rarely, if ever, venture outside of the canopy. Animal species include toucans, orangutans, lemurs, sloths, spider monkeys, and macaws.

THE SHRUB LAYER (0-45 feet) is darker and more humid than the under-canopy so it is able to sustain little to no plant life. These conditions also facilitate the rapid decomposition of biological matter, although this does little to improve the soil quality. Like the undercanopy, this layer is home to an abundance of insect species and large mammals such as jaguars, tigers, okapis, and anteaters. | 24

Figure 2.3 Tonle Sap Freshwater Swamp Forest

Figure 2.4 Tonle Sap Mangrove

FISHING COMMUNITIES ALONG THE TONLE SAP FLOODPLAIN The Tonle Sap is a combined lake and river system of great economic, socio-political, and ecological significance to the nation of Cambodia.

The flow of the river changes direction twice a year, causing the lake to drastically increase and decrease in size with the seasons.

Fishing communities have accumulated along the floodplain where freshwater swamp forests and mangrove ecosystems are dependent on phytoplankton and macrophyte vegetation. These communities are comprised of approximately 3 million people. The Tonle Sap accounts for 75 percent of Cambodiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inland fish production. The lake is home to 200 fish species, 70 of which are of commercial value. Agricultural production (primarily rice-farming) supports approximately 1.2 million people.

Fishing communities exist in two conditions : fixed (diagrammed below) and floating. Small boats and floating fish farms are characteristics of both conditions.

FLOODPLAIN NORMAL SEASON (NOVEMBER - MAY) WATER LEVEL AT NORMAL SEASON SHORELINE : 3 ft. (1 m) AREA OF LAKE : 1,045 mi2 (2,700 km2)

Figure 2.7 The fixed fishing village as a synthetic ecology

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Figure 2.5 Fishing community -- Floating condition

Figure 2.6 Fishing community -- Fixed condition

The floating condition is comprised of houseboats and small buildings constructed on floating platforms. One could argue that the floating village is the more streamlined condition because its components can move around and rise and fall with the floods.

The fixed condition is characterized by stilted houses and elevated platforms and walkways. The stilted houses are architectonic responses to [and representations of] the flood cycles of the lake.

Their sections accommodate the different water levels as the lake floods and drains. Accumulation of these houses also sets up a unique scenario where the [sub]urban condition shifts with the changing water levels. The lower levels are larger in area and are connected by small bridges to form an open and public ground condition that graduates to private upper levels. This is a type of organization of vertical space that has come to be associated with mixed-use high rises in dense urban settings. So the vertical urban condition transforms into a horizontal suburban condition as the lake floods to the maximum water level.

INTERMEDIARY ZONE WATER LEVEL AT NORMAL SEASON SHORELINE : 15 ft. (5 m)

MONSOON SEASON (JUNE - OCTOBER) WATER LEVEL AT NORMAL SEASON SHORELINE : 30 ft. (9 m) AREA OF LAKE : 6,180 mi2 (16,000 km2)

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Figure 2.8 The built environment is linked to the Ganges river through the public space of the ghats

GHATS ALONG THE GANGES RIVER IN VARANASI The city of Varanasi--the ghats especially--is a prime example of the polemical juxtaposition of many different demographics, institutions, and environmental systems, natural and synthetic.

It is located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated on the banks of the Ganges river and is a city of deep religious importance to Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains. A common religious belief holds that bathing in the water of the Ganges River cleanses away sins.

A ghat is a series of steps that descend into a body of water. Varanasi has almost 100 ghats and they all have their own distinctive character, depending on what they are used for. Some ghats are devoted primarily to tourism, serving as a gateway between the riverfront and patches of hotels, shops, and restaurants. Some are used to carry out everyday tasks such as laundry and tending to livestock. Some are, of course, used for religious purposes such as ritual bathing, funerary cremation, and propping up temples and religious icons.

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Figure 2.9 Manikarnika -- The main ghat for funerary cremation

Varanasi is a unique example of an area that has been completely taken over by human activity. The city has become defined by the variety of faiths and profoundly different demographics--locals and tourists and religious pilgrims from all over India and the world--that gather and converge in the city, especially in the spatial construct of the ghats. This range of trajectories produces impacts on the environment that seal the unsustainably synthetic nature of the city.

For example, as a result of the broad range of uses for the ghats, this segment of the Ganges River has become densely and almost irreversibly polluted.

Religion and tourism are two of the most notable aspects of the city and yet these two ideas are diametrically opposed to one another.

Religion is supposed to be something sacred, intangible, and in some ways, intensely personal. It is supposed to be characterized by a path towards the highest and most complete truth and reality.

Tourism, on the other hand, is a device of commerce. It depends on the construction of a certain desirable image and experience that is not always consistent with reality.

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FISHING COMMUNITY

RAINFOREST LAYERS

Figure 2.10 What is the result of the synthesis of these systems?

Figure 2.11 Translation and superimposition of systems

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MERGING HUMAN INHABITATION INTO THE RAINFOREST CANOPY This study is a direct response to Rhett Butler’s discussion of the different ways in which people have tried to study the rainforest canopy and just how much information about it is still left unknown.

It involves translating the fixed fishing community building typology for application in the space of the canopy. The stilts of the original typology are made horizontal so that the house can rest on the branches of the canopy trees.

This reinterpretation of the original typology has two main purposes; to ‘free’ the built environment from its conventional physical adherence to an orientational ground condition and to extend human inhabitation of the rainforest canopy beyond a mere short-term period of observation. The new typology aggregates to form a sitespecific network that respects the ecology of the rainforest canopy and almost becomes an integral part of it.

Figure 2.12 Ascending into...

Figure 2.13 ...and inhabiting the canopy.

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FISHING COMMUNITY

RIVERFRONT GHAT

RAINFOREST LAYERS

2.14 What is the result of the synthesis of these systems?

Figure 2.15 Translation and superimposition of systems

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INTRODUCING NEW MICROCLIMATES SEGMENT OF THE GANGES RIVER

TO

VARANASIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S

This study involves translating the fixed fishing community building typology for application in the space of the ghats and the Ganges river in Varanasi. The result is a module [of variable shape and size] with an inhabitable interior space enclosed by stepped walls and propped up just a few feet above the river surface. These modules aggregate to form a fragmented extension of the ghat space further towards the other side of the river.

A further iteration of this study incorporates the concept of forest stratification. In this iteration, some of the modules are inhabitable while others are dedicated to the planting and maintenance of mangrove trees. These trees can attract wildlife species, revitalizing this segment of the Ganges river as a habitat for natural biodiversity.

The inclusion of mangrove trees also enhances the vertical layering of the riverfront; with the mangrove forest canopy as the top-most layer and the modulesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; collective roofscape, their interior space, and the river itself constituting subsequent layers.

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OPERATIONAL EXPLORATIONS ... HOVERING hov·er, \ˈhə-vər, ˈhä-\ 1 a : to hang fluttering in the air or on the wing b : to remain suspended over a place or object 2 a : to move to and fro near a place, fluctuate around a given point b : to be in a state of uncertainty, irresolution, or suspense The abstract and thesis set up a discourse that is partially rooted in the act of taking a conscious and critical look at our relationship (or lack thereof) with any entities and systems that comprise our surroundings. What do our environments make us think and feel, how do we engage with them, what is the nature of our ‘mutual cooperation’, if there is any? A search for insightful and useful answers to these questions can begin with something as simple and seemingly rudimentary as zooming in on and critically analyzing a building’s physical relationship to the ground.

The idea of nature is inevitable to this discussion. In the case of program containers, any semblance of nature is stamped out and replaced with a layer of asphalt, ensuring the convenient and expedient construction of the program container, but creating a sterile outdoor environment with which people have little interaction outside of parking their cars. A direct critique on this practice and its inherent ideas and attitudes is exemplified by an exploration of hovering as a design operation.

When employed as a design operation, hovering creates a space between two entities; in this case, the building and the ground. The nature of this space is ambiguous; it can be inhabitable or barely intelligible but either way, it is ‘breathing room’ that allows a more nuanced dialogue between the two entities. By this operation, the concept of hovering calls into question the idea of permanence and its significance to architecture, encouraging a more in-depth exploration into alternative methods of effecting a lasting and resonating impact within an environment [besides building an unchanging structure that is presumed to last forever].

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Figure 2.16

Figure 2.17

Figure 2.18

The first study is characterized by an exploration of the idea of volumes hovering within a matrix of space defined by two gridded end-frames and a series of infrastructural members that span the space in between. The shapes and sizes of the volumes are based on the end-frame grid. This study also demonstrates one possibility of a dynamic and changeable architecture, as the volumes can slide from one end-frame to the other.

Figure 2.19

Figure 2.20

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Bunching members creates a heterogeneous spatial support web that implies the following volumetric projections (implications of potential architectural form)

Second sequence volumes can be further extruded to take advantage of residual vertical â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;bunchingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; space.

Figure 2.21

Residual volumes demonstrate the potential of pockets in the spatial web not occupied by the first sequence volumes.

The second study is characterized by a suspended grid frame from which a series of flexible strand members (one for each point in the grid) hang. A differentiated spatial framework is formed when groups of members are bunched together. This operation produces a hierarchy of layers, where the primary layer of the spatial web determines what can occur in subsequent layers--the branching out and rebunching of the strands and what formations they imply by that operation. This can be interpreted as an abstract three-dimensional diagram of how the tropical rainforest layers function.

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Members are bunched in multiple sequences; the first sequence implies a series of pyramidal volumes.

Members bunched together in the first sequence branch out and rebunch to form the second sequence. Again, a series of pyramidal volumes is implied, only they occupy different points in plan.

Residual and second sequence volumes occupy similar points in plan so they can be merged to form the largest volumes possible in the spatial web.

All volume permutations form a heterogeneous network united by the spatial web.

Figure 2.22

Figure 2.23

Figure 2.24

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The Belle Isle Marsh | 38

The Belle Isle Marsh Reservation preserves 152 acres of the 241acre Belle Isle marsh, Boston’s last remaining salt marsh. A unique place to explore, the reservation exemplifies the type of wetlands that once lined the Massachusetts Bay shore. Centuries of flourishing plant life have made the marsh more fertile than the richest farmland.

Its protected waters are nurseries to fish and shellfish and are critical habitat to many salt marsh plants and wildlife rare to the metropolitan area. In addition to preservation of natural areas of the marsh the Department of Conservation and Recreation manages 28 acres of landscaped park with pathways, benches, and an observation tower.1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 3.1 (Overleaf) The Belle Isle marsh Figures 3.2 - 3.5 (Opposite page) Zooming in on the Belle Isle marsh 1 “The Belle Isle Marsh Reservation”. Mass.gov. Accessed November 2010.

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Figure 3.6 View of the Belle Isle marsh faced southwest towards the Boston skyline

Figure 3.7 Smooth cordgrass at low tide in the Belle Isle marsh

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BACKGROUND During the 1600s, coastal wetlands along the Massachusetts Bay were used for grazing sheep and cattle and harvesting salt hay.

By the mid-twentieth century, portions of repurposed marshland had long been occupied by residential, commercial, industrial, and recreational settlements. The DCR acquired the reservation from the Massachusetts Port Authority in the 1970s and in the mid-1980s, it was reopened as a public park and a major wetland reconditioning program was implemented.2 During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the tides responsible for the periodic daily flooding and draining of the coastal wetlands were significantly strained due to the construction of roads, railways, ditches, and dikes. The dikes and ditches were intended to limit floodwater mosquito breeding and encourage lowland agriculture. During the late 1990s, a tide restoration program was implemented to allow seawater to naturally flow in and out of salt marshes, thereby setting into motion a restorative ecological domino effect consisting of native plant growth and attraction of appropriate wildlife species. In the case of the Belle Isle marsh, ditches were dug in the southeastern region (along Lawn Avenue and Palermo Street), disrupting the natural distribution of flood waters, stifling the growth of native salt marsh vegetation, and ultimately diminishing the quality of that salt marsh region as a safe and sustaining habitat for all dependent organisms.3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2, 3 â&#x20AC;&#x153;About Usâ&#x20AC;?. Friends of the Belle Isle Marsh. Accessed September 2011.

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SHEEPSHEAD MINNOWS

KILLIFISH

GRASS SHRIMP

PERIWINKLES

MICROSCOPIC ALGAE

BLUE CRAB

POLYCHAETES

CORDGRASS

RIBBED MUSSELS

FIDDLER CRABS

SPRING HIGH TIDE

HIGH TIDE

LOW TIDE

Figures 3.8-3.32 Salt marsh zones : Stratification of wildlife and vegetation

SUBTIDAL CHANNELS ... This zone is an important habitat for many aquatic species at low tide. It also allows the proper flooding and draining of the mudflats.

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MUDFLATS ... Smooth cordgrass is the only vegetation species that can tolerate the high water salinity and frequent changes in temperature and water depth in this zone.

It is also the most important producer in the estuary food web; when the grass dies each fall, bacteria feed on the stems and turn them into detritus, a main food source for many aquatic species that pass through the salt marsh.

SEAGULLS

SHOREBIRDS

WADING BIRDS

MINKS

SALT HAY

SALT GRASS

MUSKRATS

MARSH ELDER

INSECTS

MIGRATORY BIRDS

GROUNDSEL TREES

PHRAGMITES

DIAMONDBACK TERRAPIN

MEADOW VOLE

SALT MARSH ZONES The salt marsh is one of several types of coastal wetlands. It is a transitional zone between terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems so it features characteristics of both. It also features a complex stratification of vegetation and wildlife due to spatial and temporal irregularities in floods brought on by the ocean tides.

LOW MARSH ... This is also a zone where only smooth cordgrass can grow, although the grass here can grow much taller because it does not deal with as much stress from the frequent changes in water level. The low marsh is also a good habitat for shorebirds and wading birds.

HIGH MARSH ... the high marsh forms where sediment trapped by daily flooding had built up over time. More plants are able to grow in this zone and most of them have special adaptations that allow them to tolerate very salty soil. | 44

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Figure 3.33 The living and functioning segment of the Belle Isle marsh [with high and low tides shown]

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SIGNIFICANCE TO THE THESIS It is important to preserve coastal wetlands still robust with a functioning ecology of tidal activity and interdependent sectors of plant and animal life because they are vital nodes in the life cycles of many aquatic species. Salt marshes are essentially nurseries that provide food and shelter for young fish, crabs, oysters, clams, and other marine creatures. Young fish grow in the salt marshes until they are large enough to swim into the estuaries and then out into the ocean. Almost all the seafood caught along the Atlantic Ocean coast has spent a significant portion of its life in a salt marsh. Tide restoration is key because it not only ensures favorable conditions for the growth of appropriate vegetation species; it also reduces the risk of adverse effects on natural chemical cycling in the estuaries, ultimately protecting water quality and marine habitats.

The Belle Isle marsh is a transition zone not only in an ecological sense but also in an urban sense. It is accessible through public transportation (by the Blue Line on the T) and it is situated between the dense urban fabric of downtown Boston (southwest), the beaches along the Broad Sound coast (northeast along Winthrop Parkway and Ocean Avenue), and the small and tight-knit coastal neighborhoods in the towns nearby (Winthrop in the southeast, Beachmont in the northeast, and Revere in the northwest).

As of now, for purposes of salt marsh conservation and maintenance of obstruction-free airways (due to the reservationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proximity to Logan airport), the reservation is a protected area where any kind of construction or settlement is prohibited. This definitely makes sense, given conditions outlined in the prĂŠcis. If repurposing of the marsh were permitted, very likely it will become the site for more program containers. But this is precisely why the Belle Isle marsh is an ideal site for this thesis investigation.

Projecting an architectural design onto the site of the Belle Isle marsh is, in itself, a polemical juxtaposition. The Belle Isle marsh is one of the few remaining salt marshes in the Boston area. It is vital to the natural balance of many ecosystems, both oceanic and terrestrial, making its conservation essential. Why build on it, right? Wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that just kill the marsh?

The thesis challenges this conventional wisdom by the implication that, through architecture, the salt march ecology and the human enterprise can be made to coexist and function in a state of mutual benefit, where physical and institutional constructs put into place through architecture may exploit, but also help maintain and even enhance the day-to-day functioning of the salt marsh ecology. | 46

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Reimagining Educational Spaces | 48

School facilities are powerful indicators of community values and aspirations. They not only support the academic needs of students they serve, but can also address the social, educational, recreational, and personal needs of the members of a broader community. It has been argued that successful schools strengthen a community’s sense of identity and coherence.1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 4.1 (Overleaf) “School buildings should be built more in the manner of museums, with long commodious galleries with well-lit sides chapels as workrooms. There will be fewer classrooms, for the classroom is competitive and dominant, representing the knowledge of things that are rather than the search for things yet to come.” --Frederick William Sanderson via Keith Bradley 1 Sanoff, Henry. “Foreword”. Schools for the Future | Design Proposals from Architectural Psychology.

Hogrefe Publishing, December 2008.

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The vehicle for this thesis is characterized by reimagining typologies that comprise the typical contemporary American high school environment and carefully and thoughtfully placing them within and integrating them with the context of the Belle Isle marsh.

This institution is to be public, liberal-arts-oriented, co-educational, and college prepatory.

This particular programmatic proposal comes as a direct response to the site and the current condition of our built environment as landscapes upon landscapes of sterile program containers.

Schools are the venues for some of the most critical stages of human growth and development. This would mean that the design of educational buildings would require a special sensitivity and empathy towards their intended inhabitants but on the contrary, many contemporary school buildings exhibit the same bland disregard one might associate with a generic program container.

Typical secondary education facilities demonstrate many conditions identified in the prĂŠcis; their design (or NON-design, rather) has been optimized merely for necessary circulation, egress, and speedy construction. Their non-design is intended to monitor, control, and prevent or shield against bad and destructive behavior, focusing on the negative and implying a contempt for the students they are supposed to serve.2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 Benedikt, Michael. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Environmental Stoicism and Place Machismoâ&#x20AC;?. Harvard Design Magazine.

Winter/Spring 2002.

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Figure 4.3 A high school hallway that leads to nowhere

Figure 4.2 Double-loaded corridor building typology

Figure 4.4 A college dormitory hallway

CRITIQUE OF THE DOUBLE-LOADED CORRIDOR TYPOLOGY The spatial layout of the buildings in question can be best described as a single or series of double-loaded corridors. In this building typology, rooms line the sides of a single hallway that serves as the primary (and in most cases, ONLY) circulatory space.

This is the same building typology used, at a larger scale, for shopping malls and it has also been extensively applied to college dormitories.

David Halpern speculates about the psychological and sociological effects of such a typology...

The problem with student corridors is not just that the students are forced into unwanted social situations, but also that the corridor space is long and narrow and generally without windows or views out. There is no function to the corridor apart from travel. It is not designed for good social interaction. It makes you feel vulnerable because there is no escape other than your own door.3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 Halpern, David. â&#x20AC;&#x153;An Evidence-Based Approach to Building Happinessâ&#x20AC;?. Building Happiness | Architecture to Make You Smile. Black Dog Publishing, September 2008.

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An exploration into deconstructing and reimagining the double-loaded corridor typology begins with expanding and differentiating the circulation, giving the rooms â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;space to breatheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

The second iteration is a reference to the idea that it is easy to conceive of and express a high degree of diversity at a single point in a section [rather than at a single point in a plan]. The conventional articulation of this concept is the atrium.

The third iteration signifies an ideal middle ground between the two previous, more extreme iterations. It is characterized by a series of entities floating within a defined matrix of space (similar to the premise of the hovering operational studies). This adds more diversity and nuance to the range of visual and circulatory moments.

Figures 4.5-4.7 Deconstructing and reinterpreting the doubleloaded corridor typology

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THE HIGH SCHOOL INSTITUTION ADMINISTRATION FACULTY STUDENTS ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS ADVANCEMENT EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ATHLETICS Figure 4.8 Merging synthetic and natural ecologies through interspersing strata

MERGING SYNTHETIC AND NATURAL SYSTEMS The design of a secondary education facility would benefit from the application of the concept of a layered ecology (combining the ideas of layers and verticality) because it would render the high school as a more robust environment with a broader and more diverse range of outcomes in terms of spatial experience, social interaction, community outreach, and interdisciplinary awareness and collaboration.

Placement in and integration with the site would be mutually beneficial for both the institution and the Belle Isle marsh because it would provide students and faculty [and any other demographics using the facility] with an intimate firsthand knowledge of the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural complexity and richness, building a strong foundation from 53 |

THE BELLE ISLE MARSH SALT MARSH ZONES FLOODS VEGETATION VIEWS TO THE BOSTON SKYLINE VIEWS TO NEARBY NEIGHBORHOODS VIEWS TO THE OCEAN HORIZON PERIPHERAL TREES

which a community can contribute to the protection, conservation, and potential regeneration of ecologically vital coastal wetlands.

This programmatic proposal, in conjunction with the site, also emphasizes the notion of merging rich and vital natural ecologies with the human enterprise. As demonstrated in the diagram above, the secondary education institution (a synthetic ecology) and the salt marsh (a natural ecology) are conceived of as separate stratified entities. When they merge, their layers intersperse, creating a hybrid ecology with new and potentially polemical juxtapositions, of which the parties involved influence each other towards new outcomes.

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Lanterns in the Salt Marsh... | 56

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DESIGN CONCEPTION AND CONCENTRATION The high school is conceived of as three scaleless satellite towers that are connected by a thin boardwalk with offset fingers and auxiliary structures. This gesture casts the high school as an open campus, the boundaries of which are ambiguous. The boardwalk connects not only the towers, but also pre-existing microclimates of the Belle Isle marsh such as the alive and functioning marsh zones, the dead marsh, and the manicured public park space and accompanying pathways. It also serves to frame and draw attention to the site--the mudflats especially--inspiring an appreciation for its natural richness.

The northernmost tower and its corresponding fingers and auxiliary structures mark the main entrance into the school and the Belle Isle marsh, so for the purposes of this thesis investigation, focus is concentrated on their development.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 5.1 (Pages 55-56) View of the design proposal from Bennington Street, facing northwest Figure 5.2 (Overleaf) Full scheme plan Figure 5.3 â&#x20AC;&#x153;The northernmost tower and its corresponding fingers and auxiliary structures mark the main entrance into the school and the Belle Isle marshâ&#x20AC;?

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TOWER FORM A design investigation of the ideas of interdependent layers and verticality suggests a reinterpretation of the quintessential architectural manifestation of such concepts : the skyscraper or tower. A typical tower may consist of a ‘pancake’ floor configuration threaded together at a single planar point by a structural and circulatory core.

The tower is conceived of as a matrix of space defined by folded and intertwined ribbons. The ribbons’ turns and folds, the tower’s overall plan shape, and the structure are derived from a 9-square grid based on a unit length of 25 feet. The tower’s core (comprised of two elevators and a fire stair) occupies one square of the grid.

The ribbon folds bear a portion of the structural load, reducing the number of columns needed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 5.4 (Overleaf) Plan of a tower, fingers, and the theater Figure 5.5 Tower, exploded axonometric

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Enclosures are placed at the ribbons folds, effectively creating rooms around which the ribbons â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;wrapâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; themselves. The manner in which the ribbons are intertwined causes the enclosures to approach in a way such that new and different visual and physical connections between different regions in the tower are possible.

Opportunity to build on this potential is afforded by additional square footage left available after the placement of the enclosures. This space is used for dispersed moments of vertical circulation and it implies a unique condition of interior exteriority.

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-----------------------------------------------------------Figure 5.6 Visual (blue) and circulatory (red) connections on the different â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;levelsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of the ribbon matrix

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VISUAL CONNECTIONS AND CIRCULATION The strategy for generating the tower’s form creates a building in which rooms can technically occupy the same floor/level, but there’s no circulatory connection between those rooms on that same floor/ level. This creates an effect where the inhabitant can be in close proximity to certain programmatic events and/or experiential moments, but he would only be able to observe those events, and not be able to directly access and participate in them.

The tower’s overall form as a spatial matrix of folded ribbons diffuses the core’s typical ‘monopoly’ on vertical circulation. Some areas of the tower are accessible through only the core, some through only an alternative means of circulation, and some through both, or a combination of both. Alternative means of circulation is provided through a series of stairways distributed throughout the tower. Due to the unique form of the tower and its interior spatial conditions, these stairways can be configured in a number of different ways to achieve different aesthetic and spatial effects.

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Figure 5.7 Implied indoor-outdoor spaces

Placement of the enclosures at the ribbon folds implies a play between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ space within the overall matrix of the intertwined ribbons, informing a network of indoor ‘outdoor’ spaces connected by a series of stairways distributed throughout.

The indoor-outdoor spaces serve several purposes : some are extensions of adjacent rooms, fulfilling circulatory necessities and serving as lounge spaces. Some are accessible only through the core, making them retreat nooks, associated with no specifically programmed area in the building.

Since the indoor-outdoor spaces are not enclosed, they also serve as vantage points from which an inhabitant can gauge one’s position within the building with respect to other indoor-outdoor spaces, enclosed rooms, and the stairways that tie them all together. This is one instance of the design’s critique on conventional configurations of vertical space at play.

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Figure 5.8 Volumetric analysis of enclosed rooms and indoor-outdoor spaces

Inhabitants are invited to furnish the indoor-outdoor spaces however they choose, depending on their uses of the space and how they may relate to programmatic events in the enclosed rooms. Some of the indoor-outdoor spaces can be outfitted as green space to add more nuance to the condition of interior exteriority.

The enclosures and indoor-outdoor spaces can be interpreted as entities floating within a discreet matrix of space, similar to the premise of the hovering operational studies. This prompts the above volumetric analysis. Each ribbon with its enclosures houses different academic departments. When the ribbons are intertwined, the resulting network of indoor-outdoor spaces causes these departments to layer and sort of bleed into each other, as shown above. This creates adjacencies that would afford visual and/or physical connections between programmatic events that might not normally cross paths. | 68

FOLDED RIBBON clad in wood

INTERIOR FACADE RAILS begin to form a skeleton for the glass curtain wall

INTERIOR SPIDER JOINTS attach the interior facade rails to the glass sheets

Figure 5.9 Preliminary design development investigation of the facade

The tower’s facade serves to further define the condition of interior exteriority only vaguely implied by the resulting form of the enclosures and the folded ribbons. It also visually unifies the tower’s spatial, systemic, programmatic, and material diversity into a single abstract whole. It consists of two main material systems : colored vertical fins and structural glass sheets. The vertical fins form a screen that is the outermost layer of the tower. The long and short sides of their rectangular cross-sections are red and blue, respectively. This color treatment gives the facade (and ultimately the whole tower) an iridescent effect as one moves about the building. The structural glass sheets form a skin that hovers in the narrow gap between the folded ribbons and the vertical fin screen. This skin fulfills the requirements of the facade to provide a continuous and closed weather barrier for the building’s interior. Some of the glass sheets are operable, providing the option of making the indoor-outdoor spaces truly open to the elements.

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STRUCTURAL GLASS SHEETS are sealed together with silicone joints to form the curtain wall

EXTERIOR FACADE RAILS provide an outlet for the attachment of the colored vertical fin screen

EXTERIOR SPIDER JOINTS attach glass curtain wall to exterior facade rails

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-----------------------------------------------------Figure 5.10 (Overleaf) View from within the northernmost tower, facing southeast Figure 5.11 Fingers exploded axonometric

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and

theater,

THE FINGER BUILDINGS A design investigation into the concept of bi-directional layers yielded the combination of a boardwalk connecting the three satellite towers, a series of ‘finger’ buildings, and a theater.

The boardwalk and finger buildings hover just a few feet above the salt marsh grasses so as to leave the site’s soil, vegetation, and overall natural ebb and flow [and all dependent organisms and processes] as undisturbed as possible. This also gives the boardwalk and fingers a dynamic temporal dimension for they not only hover above the salt marsh grasses, but also above the shallow floods that slowly permeate and empty out of the grasses every 6 hours.

The finger buildings are spaced 10 feet apart to allow the growth of grasses and salt-tolerant trees in between, creating the effect of the site and the building bleeding into each other.

The enclosures of the fingers are meant to be translucent to allow views to the outdoors and into each other, thereby horizontally layering disparate programmatic events, views to the marsh and neighborhoods, city, beach, and ocean beyond, and immediate elements of the site into a single frame of one’s view at certain points on the boardwalk and within the finger buildings.

The roof space of the fingers and theater comprise a ‘natural’ space secondary to the salt marsh itself. They are accessible through stairways at small bridges between the fingers. This green roof space reinforces the idea of vertical layering within this portion of the scheme; it creates the effect of enclosed inhabitable space being sandwiched between two different conditions of natural green space.

Those who inhabit the green roof space are given an experientially refreshing perspective for they are placed in an uncommon physical position with respect to the trees, grasses, and their peers and events occupying the fingers.

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-----------------------------------------------------Figure 5.12 Roof plan of a tower, fingers, and the theater

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CANADA MAYFLOWER

CAUCASIAN STONECROP

ALLEGHENY SPURGE

EASTERN TEABERRY

TASTELESS STONECROP

WOODLAND STONECROP

Figures 5.13-5.19 Typical green roof detail and plants appropriate for Massachusetts green roofs

Outfitting the finger and theater roofs as green space is in line with the intentions of the thesis not only because it enhances the vertical layering within this system, but it also sets up the scheme for the development of microclimates with its own ecosystems. This is one instance of the emergence of a resonant pattern as a result of the design. Benefits of green roofs include reduced heating and cooling loads (by addition of mass, thermal resistance, and evaporative cooling), reduction of stormwater run-off, creation of natural habitats, improved air quality (by filtering out pollutants and carbon dioxide), sound insulation, and potential agricultural space. Above is a sample catalogue of vegetation species appropriate for green roofs in Massachusetts.1 Not all plants, trees, or shrubs can withstand the high degree of variability in temperature, water level, and salinity inherent to the salt marsh. Salt can absorb moisture from the plant tissue, causing desiccation and burn. It can also stunt the growth of stems and leaves.2 Below is a sample catalogue of trees with a high tolerance for saline soil.

APPLE SERVICEBERRY

BALD CYPRESS

BITTERNUT HICKORY TREES

ENGLISH OAK

HORSE CHESTNUT

WHITE OAK

Figure 5.20-5.31 Salt-tolerant trees

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PROGRAMMATIC CONSIDERATIONS Each ribbon houses different academic departments, which are then juxtaposed in interesting ways in terms of vision and circulation when the ribbons are intertwined.

RIBBON 1 is the longest ribbon, has to most turns and folds, houses the most rooms, and covers the entire height of the tower. These characteristics make it an ideal architectural and programmatic interface between its own academic departments and those housed by the other ribbons.

RIBBON 2 is closest to the site and covers the lower levels of the tower. This creates an opportunity for a site-specific science curriculum. Classes in subjects directly related to the salt marsh can take advantage of a rich and immediately available resource of tactile knowledge of the nature and workings of a salt marsh. This curriculum can be immediately applied for the purposes of protecting, conserving, and regenerating coastal wetlands in the Massachusetts Bay area.

RIBBON 3 covers the uppermost levels of the tower and it features the largest enclosed room that overlooks the whole marsh. This makes it the preferred observation platform that is also conducive to academic subjects that warrant open in-class discussions.

The FINGER BUILDINGS lend themselves as venues for education in the performing arts due to their convenient proximity to the embedded THEATER. The theater can also be used for lectures and special presentations by and for other academic departments.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 5.32 (Overleaf) View from within one of the fingers, facing southeast Figure 5.33 Programmatic diagram

PERFORMING ARTS Theater Education [Production - Lighting and Sound - Set Design - Costume Design - Acting] Music [Singing - Instruments] - Dance

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FINE ARTS - SOCIAL STUDIES TECHNOLOGY Painting - Sculpture - Illustration Animation - History - Geography World Languages - Ethics - Cultural Studies - Computer Science - Film Production - Engineering - Digital/ Manual Fabrication

HUMANITIES - MATHEMATICS Language Arts - Philosophy - World Religions - Algebra - Geometry Calculus - Statistics - Logic - Applied Mathematics

SCIENCE Physics - Chemistry - Biology - Anatomy - Botany - Environmental Science - Ecology - Geology Marine Biology - Oceanography - Conservation

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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 5.34 Longitudinal section cutting through the tower, the theater, and one finger

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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 5.35 First transverse section cutting through the fingers

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 5.36 Second transverse section cutting through the theater

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Final Presentation and Conclusions | 86

Figure 6.2

Figure 6.3

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Figure 6.4

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Figure 6.5

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Figure 6.6

Figure 6.7

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Figure 6.8 Final presentation boards

CRITIQUE AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE INVESTIGATION The site and the discourse surrounding it were the focus of the most important and constructive feedback. Many of the criticisms, suggestions and comments could be traced back to and rooted in these subjects. The research and presentation lacked in-depth, specific, and informative site analysis. Without these tools to further inform the design process, the proposed scheme was not engaging the site [and validating the thesis] to its fullest potential.

A vast patch of asphalt is not going to argue with you as you build another worthless and expendable program container on it ... it really is important to be working with a dynamic site that will â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;talk back to youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Even more important is documenting and diagramming this site thoroughly and thoughtfully, so as to extract important design informants.

The panel imparted useful insights regarding program and how it can relate to the site. The choice of an educational facility as a programmatic proposal was well-received, but it was suggested that it be recaliberated to cater to a younger and more impressionable

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demographic that could engage with the salt marsh on a more primal level and possibly gain more from it.

The towers’ potential as additional (and more programmatically engaging) observation towers prompted a suggestion to look into scheduling the facility’s use for different purposes and by different demographics on weekends and before and after school hours.

Relating this suggestion back to the site, the idea of using the Belle Isle marsh’s daily flood time tables to inform this scheduling came to mind.

In terms of further development, there are, of course, the other two towers and their respective fingers/auxiliary structures.

They represent at least a year’s worth of additional investigation, experimentation, and development. I would definitely focus more time, energy, and thought on documenting and diagramming the site; I’ve only recently begun to realize it’s true complexity and its rich potential as an architectural form-giver. I would also further my research to include phenomenology, since my site and program choices are so dependent on zooming in on and intimately working with the interface between humans and their environments.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Benedikt, Michael. “Environmental Stoicism and Place Machismo”.

Harvard Design Magazine. Winter/Spring 2002.

Bradley, Keith. “The Happiness In-Between”. Building Happiness, compiled by RIBA and edited by Jane Wernick. Black Dog Publishing, September 2008.

Butler, Rhett A. “Rainforest Information”. MongaBay.com. [http:// rainforests.mongabay.com/]. Accessed October 2010.

Crawford, Margaret. “The World in a Shopping Mall”. Variations on a Theme Park | The New American City and the End of Public Space, edited by Michael Sorkin. Hill and Wang, March 1992.

“Creatures of the Salt Marsh”. North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources. [http://dcm2.enr.state. nc.us/wetlands/Coastal_Explorers/cpfmodule/bhi/bhi_marsh3.htm].

Accessed November 22, 2011.

E. Dinerstein, C.J. Loucks, S. Pimm. “Tonle Sap Freshwater Swamps”. Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific : A Conservation Assessment. Island Press, December 2001.

Friends of the Belle Isle Marsh. [http://www.friendsofbelleislemarsh. org/index.htm]. Accessed November 22, 2011.

Guattair, Felix. The Three Ecologies. Athlone Press, January 2000.

Halpern, David. “An Evidence-Based Approach to Building Happiness”. Building Happiness | Architecture to Make You Smile, compiled by RIBA and edited by Jane Wernick. Black Dog Publishing, September 2008.

Jonathan Rosenbaum via Roger Ebert. “Great Movies : Playtime (1967)”. RogerEbert.com. [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/ pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040829/REVIEWS08/408290301/1023].

Accessed January 1, 2011.

Koolhaas, Rem. “Prehistory”. Delirious New York | A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. The Monacelli Press, December 1997.

Lau, Olivia. Interview with the author. October 2010.

Mistur, Mark. “IN>Form | PER<Form Ecologics : An Architecture of Complicity and Consequence”. September 2010.

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Mostafavi, Mohsen. “Why Ecological Urbanism, Why Now?”.

Harvard Design Magazine. Spring/Summer 2010.

Moussavi, Farshid. “The Function of Form”. The Function of Form.

Actar and Harvard Graduate School of Design, November 2009.

“Tonle Sap Fisheries : A case study on floodplain gillnet fisheries in Siem Reap”. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. [http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/ab561e/ab561e06.htm].

Accessed November 22, 2011.

“Tonle Sap (Boeng Tonle Chhma)”. WorldLakes.org. [http://www. worldlakes.org/lakedetails.asp?lakeid=8672]. Accessed November 22, 2011.

Ros Diamond and Simon Henley. “The Good Life”. Building Happiness, compiled by RIBA and edited by Jane Wernick. Black Dog Publishing, September 2008.

Sanoff, Henry. “Foreward”. Schools for the Future | Design Proposals from Architectural Psychology, written and edited by Rotraut Walden. Hogrefe Publishing, December 2008.

Wechlser, Doug. Salt Marsh Life. [http://saltmarshlife.com/index. html]. Accessed November 22, 2011.

“Zones of a Salt Marsh”. North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources. [http://dcm2.enr.state. nc.us/wetlands/Coastal_Explorers/cpfmodule/bhi/bhi_marsh2.htm].

Accessed November 22, 2011.

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IMAGE CREDITS Figure 1.1 (Pages 1-2) : Markham Suburbs. November 2005. [http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Markham-suburbs.id.jpg.jpg]. Accessed December 8, 2011.

Figure 1.2 (Page 7) : Jason Damas and Ross Schendel. Smith Haven Mall, Lake Grove, New York. May 2009. [http://www. labelscar.com/new-york/smith-haven-mall]. Accessed December 13, 2011.

Figure 1.3 (Page 7) : Maxtron Builders, LTD. Fast Food Restaurant/ Burger King. [http://maxtronbuilders.com/fast_food_restaurant__ plaza]. Accessed December 13, 2011.

Figure 1.4 (Page 7) : This Should Scare The Socks Right Off Your Feet!. April 2010. [http://philippa-pippasplace.blogspot. com/2010/04/this-should-scare-socks-right-off-your.html]. Accessed December 13, 2011.

Figure 1.5 (Page 9) : The Thing About Shopping For A Diamond In A Mall. May 2011. [http://www.thefastertimes.com/ diamonds/2011/05/17/15/]. Accessed December 8, 2011.

Figure 1.6 (Page 10) : Fear and Loathing in Spinneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Supermarket.

October 2011. [http://beirutbeats.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/fearand-loathing-in-spinneys-supermarket/]. Accessed December 8, 2011.

Figure 1.7 (Page 11) : Mater Dei High School Hallway. [http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Materdeihallway.jpg]. Accessed December 8, 2011.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 2.1 (Pages 17-18) : Costa Ricaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hanging Bridges of Arenal Volcano. January 2009. [http://ecointeractive.wordpress. com/2009/01/26/costa_rica_arenal_volcano-hanging-bridgesfortuna/]. Accessed September 24, 2010.

Figure 2.2 (Pages 23-24) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 2.3 (Page 25) : Deichmann, Gunther. Tonle Sap Freshwater Swamp Forests, Kampong Phluk - Cambodia. November 2010. [http://www.deichmann-photo.com/files/category-cambodia-articles. html]. Accessed December 11, 2011.

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Figure 2.4 (Page 25) : Lai, Luke. Rowing through the mangrove on a small boat. December 2008. [http://lukelai-eng.blogspot. com/2008_12_01_archive.html]. Accessed December 11, 2011.

Figure 2.5 (Page 26) : Michelson, Rona. Buying fruits and vegetables. June 2009. [http://drsavta.com/travelkosher/2009/06/ cambodia-tonle-sap/]. Accessed September 15, 2010.

Figure 2.6 (Page 26) : [http://villageearth.org/pages/Projects/ Cambodia/blog/2007/02/update-for-feb-07.html], Accessed September 14, 2010.

Figure 2.7 (Pages 25-26) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 2.8 (Page 27) : Alamgir Mosque by the Ganges ghats, Varanasi. July 2009. [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Alamgir_Mosque_by_the_Ganges_ghats,_Varanasi.jpg].

Accessed September 14, 2010.

Figure 2.9 (Page 28) : Funeral pyres burning at the sacred Manikarnika Ghats. April 2010. [http://myyatradiary.blogspot. com/2010/04/incredible-boat-ride-along-river-ganga.html].

Accessed September 14, 2011.

Figure 2.10 (Page 29) : Original graphic by Monika Oum, using Figures 2.1 and 2.6 Figure 2.11 (Pages 29-30) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 2.12 (Page 30) : Butler, Rhett A. Spiral staircase leading up canopy tower. [http://travel.mongabay.com/pix/peru/manuManu_1024_2912.html]. Accessed December 17, 2011.

Figure 2.13 (Page 30) : Mamu Rainforest Canopy Walkway. [http:// webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/07/15/6-amazing-rainforest-treetopwalks/]. Access December 17, 2011.

Figure 2.14 (Page 31) : Original graphic by Monika Oum, using Figures 2.1, 2.6, and 2.8 Figure 2.15 (Pages 31-32) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 2.16 (Page 34) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figures 2.17-2.19 (Page 34) : Original images by Monika Oum

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Figure 2.20 (Page 34) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 2.21 (Pages 35-36) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figures 2.22-2.24 (Page 36) : Original images by Monika Oum -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 3.1 (Pages 37-38) : Original image by Monika Oum Figures 3.2-3.5 (Page 40) : Google Maps screenshots Figures 3.6-3.7 (Page 41) : Original images by Monika Oum Figure 3.8 (Page 43) : Binkley, Mark. Cyprinodon variegates, sheepshead minnow, wild. [http://jonahsaquarium.com/JonahSite/ picincvariegatus.htm]. Accessed October 16, 2011.

Figure 3.9 (Page 43) : Saunders, Alex. Madagascar Killifish.

November 2009. [http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-magazines/ freshwater-and-marine-aquarium/november-2009/madagascarkillifish.aspx]. Accessed October 29, 2011.

Figure 3.10 (Page 43) : Grass Shrimp (with sharp rostrum). [http:// siera104.com/bio/ecotrip.html]. Accessed October 14, 2011.

Figure 3.11 (Page 43) : Wechsler, Doug. Periwinkle (Littorina irrorata). [http://saltmarshlife.com/salt-marsh/invertebrates.html].

Accessed October 14, 2011.

Figure 3.12 (Page 44) : [http://jennashworth.co.uk/2010/08/lessthings/]. Accessed October 16, 2011.

Figure 3.13 (Page 44) : Eskin, Howard B. Clapper Rail. June 2008. [http://www.howardsview.com/Brig/Brig.html]. Accessed October 29, 2011.

Figure 3.14 (Page 44) : Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias). [http://www.eaglewingtours.com/016_WhalesandWild/2752_ EagleWingWhal.html]. Accessed October 18, 2011.

Figure 3.15 (Page 44) : Florida Nature : Florida Mink. [http://www. floridiannature.com/evergladesmink.htm]. Accessed October 16,

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2011.

Figure 3.16 (Page 43) : National Ocean and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). Microscopic Algae. [http://dcm2.enr.state. nc.us/wetlands/Coastal_Explorers/cpfmodule/bhi/bhi_marsh3.htm].

Accessed October 16, 2011.

Figure 3.17 (Page 43) : A Chesapeake Bay male or “Jimmy” blue crab. [http://www.daybreakfishing.com/trotline.html]. Accessed October 14, 2011.

Figure 3.18 (Page 43) : Oxford Scientific. Earthworm. [http://www. arkive.org/earthworm/lumbricus-terrestris/]. Accessed October 16, 2011.

Figure 3.19 (Page 43) : [http://www.biloxischools.net/schools/ beauvoir/wetlands/main%20pages/grasses.htm]. Accessed October 16, 2011.

Figure 3.20 (Page 44) : Salt Hay at High Tide. November 2007. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/dah_professor/3061708639/].

Accessed October 18, 2011.

Figure 3.21 (Page 44) : salt grass in bloom. July 2008. [http://www. flickr.com/photos/ophis/2704579639/]. Accessed October 18, 2011.

Figure 3.22 (Page 44) : January 2011. [http://thefalconsnest. wordpress.com/2011/01/06/worst-songs-the-captain-tennilemuskrat-love/]. Accessed October 14, 2011.

Figure 3.23 (Page 44) : marsh elder. August 2008. [http://www.flickr. com/photos/48232993@N00/2821052885]. Accessed October 18, 2011.

Figure 3.24 (Page 43) : Wechsler, Doug. Ribbed Mussels. [http:// www.saltmarshlife.com/salt-marsh/mollusks.html]. Accessed October 14, 2011.

Figure 3.25 (Page 43) : Essen, Marty. August 2007. [http:// coolcreatureshotplanet.com/22.html]. Accessed October 29, 2011.

Figure 3.26 (Page 44) : [http://www.healthyhuman.net/df.php].

Accessed October 18, 2011.

Figure 3.27 (Page 44) : Whitehouse, Frank. Salt Marsh Ducks. July 2004. [http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_America/United_ States/Northeast/New_Hampshire/Rye/photo76768.htm]. Accessed

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October 18, 2011.

Figure 3.28 (Page 44) : Ross, David. Groundsel, Groundsel Tree 2. November 2003. [http://www.cloudforestvoices.com/Plants%20 Page.htm]. Accessed October 18, 2011.

Figure 3.29 (Page 44) : Dacko, Paul. [http://www.lakekatherine.org/ field_guide/natives.asp]. Accessed October 18, 2011.

Figure 3.30 (Page 44) : July 2009. [http://leeloveshottrends.com/ diamondback-terrapins-catwalk-on-the-jfk-runway/]. Accessed October 16, 2011.

Figure 3.31 (Page 44) : A Meadow Vole also known as a field mouse. December 2008. [http://www.wildaboutpets.net/info/ innewsdetail.asp?nid=25&ID=981]. Accessed October 29, 2011.

Figure 3.32 (Pages 43-44) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 3.33 (Page 45) : Original graphic by Monika Oum, using Figure 3.5 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 4.1 (Pages 45-46) : [http://twinsmummy.wordpress. com/2010/06/30/74-days/]. Accessed December 9, 2011.

Figure 4.2 (Page 49) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 4.3 (Page 49) : Mater Dei High School Hallway. [http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Materdeihallway.jpg]. Accessed December 8, 2011.

Figure 4.4 (Page 49) : [http://trumpethope19.wordpress. com/2008/06/02/whats-so-wrong-with-it/]. Accessed October 31, 2011.

Figure 4.5-4.7 (Page 50) : Original graphics by Monika Oum Figure 4.8 (Page 51-52) : Original graphic by Monika Oum, using Figure 3.6 and an image of Wausau East High School, retrieved from its website : [http://www.wausau.k12.wi.us/east/] -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 5.1 (Pages 55-56) : Original graphic by Monika Oum

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Figure 5.2 (Pages 57-58) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.3 (Pages 59-60) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.4 (Pages 61-62) : Original graphics by Monika Oum Figure 5.5 (Pages 63-64) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.6 (Page 65) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.7 (Page 67) : Original grpahic by Monika Oum Figure 5.8 (Page 68) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.9 (Pages 69-70) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.10 (Pages 71-72) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.11 (Page 73) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.12 (Page 75) : Original graphic by Monika Oum Figure 5.13 (Page 76) : Riley, Trish. Greening Our Rooftops. [http://drive2.subaru.com/Win11/greenRoofTops.htm]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.14 (Page 76) : St. John, Kate. Signs of Spring : Canada Mayflower. May 2010. [http://www.wqed.org/birdblog/2010/05/ page/2/]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.15 (Page 76) : Fenwick, David. Sedum spurium – Caucasian Stonecrop. July 2006. [http://www.aphotoflora.com/d_ sedum_spurium_caucasian_stonecrop.html]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.16 (Page 76) : Cook, Will. Allegheny-spurge (Pachysandra procumbens). May 2010. [http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/papr. html]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.17 (Page 76) : Howes, Terry. Eastern Teaberry – Gaultheria procumbens. October 2007. [http://picasaweb.google. com/lh/photo/2l8HiQIWzQl9lbZPSoiVEw]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.18 (Page 76) : Fenwick, David. Sedum sexangulare – Tasteless Stonecrop. [http://www.aphotoflora.com/d_sedum_ sexangulare_tasteless_stonecrop.html]. Accessed November 23,

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Figure 5.19 (Page 76) : Lea, Bill. Woodland stonecrop (Sedum ternatum). October 2011. [http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/ southern/PaintFork/index.shtml]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.20 (Page 76) : [http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/ showimage/132626/#b]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.21 (Page 76) : Smeding, Huub. Apple serviceberry (Amelanchier lamarckii) colorful autumn leaves, Europe. [http:// www.nationalgeographicstock.com/ngsimages/explore/explore.jsf ;jsessionid=EBFD393896287CE11E530FE1B4A696C3.worker2].

Accessed November 24, 2011.

Figure 5.22-5.23 (Page 76) : [http://www.tree-land.com/trees_bald_ cypress.asp]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.24 (Page 76) : Common Bitternut Hickory. June 2003. [http://www.personal.psu.edu/peb3/plant_web/Juglandaceae/ Bitternut_Hickory_Plant.html]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.25 (Page 76) : Carya cordiformis – Bitternut Hickory. July 2008. [http://departments.bloomu.edu/biology/ricketts/Carya/C_ cord/C_cord.html]. Accessed November 24, 2011.

Figure 5.26 (Page 76) : City of Littleton. English Oak – Quercus robur. June 2009. [http://www.littletongov.org/publicservices/trees/ treedetail.asp?treesID=13]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.27 (Page 76) : ENGLISH OAK (quercus robur). [http:// www.wildforms.co.uk/english-oak-(quercus-robur)-tree.html].

Accessed November 24, 2011.

Figure 5.28 (Page 76) : Flowering horse chestnut tree on Crookbarrow Hill (‘Whittington Tump’). [http://www.panoramio.com/ photo/35343425]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.29 (Page 76) : [http://wallpapers.free-review.net/42__ Horse_Chestnut_Leaves.htm]. Accessed November 24, 2011.

Figure 5.30 (Page 76) : Sometimes as wide as they are tall. [http:// www.ohio-nature.com/white-oak-tree.html]. Accessed November 23, 2011.

Figure 5.31 (Page 76) : Cook, Will. White Oak (Quercus alba). July 2009. [http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/qual.html]. Accessed

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November 24, 2011.

Figure 5.32 (Pages 77-78) : Original graphics by Monika Oum Figure 5.33 (Pages 79-80) : Original graphics by Monika Oum Figure 5.34 (Pages 81-82) : Original graphics by Monika Oum Figure 5.35 (Pages 83-84) : Original graphics by Monika Oum Figure 5.36 (Pages 83-84) : Original graphics by Monika Oum -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 6.1 (Pages 85-86) : Original image by Monika Oum Figures 6.2-6.3 (Page 87) : Original images by Monika Oum Figure 6.4 (Page 88) : Original image by Monika Oum Figure 6.5 (Page 89) : Original image by Monika Oum Figures. 6.6-6.7 (Page 90) : Original images by Monika Oum Figure 6.8 (Pages 91-92) : Original graphic by Monika Oum

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