The Vartan Gregorian Elementary School Wetland Community Garden Final Project 12/7/2015 Nadine Zaza
THE vartan Gregorian elementary school as a means of Visualizing Providence School District community gardens: For my project i’ve offshot my section’s civic engagement project. I wanted through design to map out a possible community garden for the vartan gregorian elementary school. one that had expressed interest in the possibility of a more integrated curriculum with the environment. This has entailed 3D modelling the site specifically catering to how the urban conditions play a role imagining a garden scenerio. I’ve created creating plans and perspectives, renderings of possibilities in response to sun paths and variants for the different seasons in a mean radiation mapping to define the ideal areas in which a community garden could exist. The plants and system of the community garden that i created will work enhance the educational aspects of providence as well as environmental changed in the area, that being considered through the recreation of a wetland. of this project. I wanted to create an understanding of what existed in the parts of providence before this school I had originally started to research a series of schools and date the land back using historical mappings and accounts and overlap that with ideas for the garden for the future. the gregorian school had the most influential mappings of all the schools in civic engagement project, with a direct connection with Wetlands and marshes. These historic and current conditions can be brought into the visualization and add depth to students understanding of their environment and how urbanization (their environment as they know it) is forever changing. My studies are creating a visual realization for this schools, something I feel is incredibly important for students learning and also the greater providence community.
Background Information on school The Vartan Gregorian Elementary School with a population of 413 students, of which 56% of them are from minority groups. The school is located at 455 Wickenden Street, in Fox Point Providence Rhode Island. The 21:1 student to faculty ratio is higher than the state average of 15:1 and there are 49% Male and 51% Female. The Gregorian School does not have a community garden,because as the Providence Community Gardens Liaison, Fritzi Robinson explains the School does not have green spaces on campus that could be transformed into a community garden. While the school expresses interest in a garden and is confident that there would be parental and communal involvement, they are still unable to do so due to toxic levels found in the soil. From the survey given to these liaisons, information was gathered on the level of interest community gardens have been to schools in providence. With the Gregorian School on a scale of 1-5, the degree of environmental engagement in the learning process is a 2, and the degree of environmental engagement in extracurricular activities also on a scale of 1-5 is also a 2. An interesting find, considering of all the schools that we have surveyed, the Gregorians school location is most tied geographically to the largest body of water being the Green Jacket Shoal, the area where the Seekonk and Providence River meet in comparison to Schools that are in not in such a close proximity to Water. With that in mind when asked in the survey if there are green spaces/ community garden within a mile that could facilitate learning the answer was no. I found this quite interesting since the land in which the Gregorian School sits on was a wetland, and I find that there is quite a bit of potential of what existed to resurface through community gardens and lesson plans. especially with a 4 out of 5 interest in creating a community garden I think there is a possibility especially with the way in which I am approaching it, both architecturally and historically to create a viable learning garden.
From information gathered from the Rhode Island Geographic Information Systems, in What’s the scoop on wetlands, I found that water ponds on the properties such as the one on the Gregorian School, flows across the land even occasionally. The land as shown in these maps where the Gregorian School exists currently have wetlands. Nearly 25% of the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants on the property are those listed in the Freshwater Wetlands Act definitions, which is an indication that there were wetlands, and from the maps it proves that there were possibly 60% or more those plants due to the water edge and nature of the harbor side.
Overlapping Historic Maps of Providence and Current Condtitions + Wetland Significance Wetlands cover about 9% of the earth’s surface and are estimated to contain around 35% of global terrestrial carbon. Wetlands act as sinks for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, especially if their vegetation is protected and their natural processes are maintained. Coastal wetlands, such as saltmarsh like the ones that exisisted in thePox Point region, are likely to have the highest rates of greenhouse gas sequestration, and the drainage of melaleuca and would turn them from carbon sinks into carbon sources. Saltmarsh can bury an average 1.51 tonnes of organic carbon per hectare per yearexternal link and mangroves an average 1.39 tonnesexternal link. These rates are several times higher than the rate of carbon burial calculated for the Amazonian forests, an important global carbon sink. This highlights the importance of protecting intact wetlands in helping to limit the impacts of climate change. Although the goal of this Project is to recreate wetlands to an extent as a community garden, the plants and ideology of the wetland holds the same important and impactful lessons of Global environemtnal Change and how Providence development specifically has been a part of the changes in the natural regional systems.
Wetland Diagram: Showing the Overall environmental concerns are essential to the specialized study of soil. Based on environmental perspectives, soil is an aggregate of unconsolidated mineral and organic particles produced by the combined physical, chemical, and biological processes of water, wind and life activity. The composition relies on: (a) the type of geological material from which it originated, (b) the vegetative cover, (c) length of time that the soil has been weathered, (d) topography and (e) the artificial changed caused by human activity.Soil, then is a dynamic environment; almost a living structure. In understanding this reading and especially in relation to the applicability of wetlands and community garden that can host them, a water source: hydrology, water loving plants: hydrophytes and the presence of Wet or Hydric Soils would determine the adequacy of land. With the information gathered by the School however, it’s shown that the soil contains toxic levels and the adequacy of the land is therefore an undesirable location for such plants. Its definite that wetlands have existed here, however due to human activity it has been jeopordized
How It would Work:
Wetland grasses
Thick, Alkaline, dark,, very rich in humus
Clay and Calcium Compounds and Parent Material
Wetlands provide important locations for scientific research and play an important role in educating people about biodiversity and natural processes . Educational institutions exisit to accomodate these wetlands in learning and allow students to conduct research into the ecological response of river flows, flooding and environmental watering of wetlands, and the response of plants and animals such as colonial nesting waterbirds, to environmental watering. All things that still happen in the harbor area. Wetlands are incredibly vitale to the harbors ecosytem. Specifically about the soil and with indication to he diagam, wetlands are responsible for Erosion Control. The Providence and Seekonk rivers used to deposit a lot of sediment into the ocean. The sediment is from the top soil that has been eroded and washed away that is rich in humus. with wetland plants firmly rooted in the muddy bottom but with stalks that rise high above the water surface, they are able to radically slow the flow of water. As a result, they counter the erosive forces of moving water along lakes and rivers. Wetlands also act as a natural water purification system. They filter out sedimentation, decomposing vegetative matter and converting chemicals into useable form. The ability of wetlands to recycle nutrients makes them critical in the overall functioning of earth. No other ecosystem is as productive, nor as unique in this conversion process. In some places artificial wetlands were developed solely for the purpose of water purification.
CASE STUDY: Architects Propose ‘Soft Waterfront Infrastructure’ to Protect NYC From the Next Big Storm “The Museum of Modern Art invited Architecture Research Office and landscape architecture firm DLANDSTUDIO to re-imagine Lower Manhattan in response to rising sea levels as part of their 2010 "Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront" exhibition. Based on Architecture Research Office's previous research into climate change's impact on the city, the exhibition presents the work of five design teams who have each reinvented sites throughout New York City.” The ARO (Architecture Research Office) proposed a new paradigm for ecology and how that weaves into the urban fabric. They designed an ecological Our project proposes a new paradigm for ecology within the city by inserting a new ecological infrastructure that works in parallel with the city's existing infrastructure. I found their approach interesting and relevent to the issues of the site and inserting the wetland community garden. The ARO’s reinvention of the "street" is how I wanted to reinvent ground, and its treatment. Their proposal for the city can be supported by a newly integrated and mutually beneficial infrastructure similarly to how I have approached the Wetland garden in this project moving forward.
how the city could live with the larger natural phenomenon instead of walling it off,” said Yarinsky in an interview with Fast Co.Design. “That failed catastrophically in New Orleans. It’s about wetlands edges.”
'Islands and marshes would be constructed along the edges of the city to diminish the force of storm surges. The design also calls for more porous pavement which would prevent the city from shutting down in the event of a flood.
it combines natural forms of green infrastructure with the urban landscape is sure to bring a much needed makeover to the aging concrete jungle.
These Shadding masks indicate the Sun path diagram of the Site both anually (on the left) and Daily (on the right). The School highlighted in red shows both anually and on a daily basis in the Month of June that the Sun path hits the ground of the site, where there is currently a basball field, however in understanding the site as one that can not add additional green spaces, an alternative could be to use the roof top which hold just as much sun value, and shadding for more of the marsh, wetland type plants that do not require constant sun. The Site historically has proven adequate for these plants to exist, it is merly an integration of the land or in this case of the buildings ‘land’.
Radiation/ Sun Map
This Raditaion Map of the Site is a clear indication of the amount of sun the space gets anually. This mapping was done with the a Providence annual sun path calculator and does not account for things such as trees and other shadding, however this mapping shows that the space itself holds a lot of potential for ecological diversity. With the amoung of infastructure on the site the fertility of the soil has been at risk and with the little knowledge of the toxicity, the land itself becomes a natural disturbance for regrowth. However from the case study and understanding soil compostion it is very likely that green roofs can be created and this radiatoon/ sun map shows that the roof similar to the ground can host an adeqaute amount of sun conditions, especially because the surrounding building are low rise and can permit a green space to exist without over cast.
Ground: Currently the space is occupied by a Baseball field and Park. It was definied in the survey that the school does not have available green spaces as well as the ground containing toxic levels possibly due to the constant infastructural workings on that occured along the harbor historically and the ramifications of that are uncertain in its affect on the students. Roof Top: holds surface Value, as well as Urban understanding in environmental conditioning.
Plan: Ground level Conditions of the Site
Wetland Styled Garden
Reordering the ground condition to other possible flat accessible areas on the site
Schools site
exploded diagram of intervention
A Perspective Imagined view of children interacting with the garden. Being able to not only integrate Disciplinary Core Ideas in Earth and Space Science courses as presented in the “The NSTA Quick -Reference Guide to the NGSS,K-12.. The Courses in which the Wetland garden could be included through the Course descriptions include: ESS2. Earth’s Systems, with subjects such as Earth Materuals and Systems, The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes, Weather and Climate, Biogeology, ESS3:Earth and Human Activity Courses like Natural Resources, Natural Hazards, Human Impact on Earths Systems and Global Climate Change. Ultimately covering 70% of the Core Ideas in Earth and space science. The Garden as a design problem when integrated on Roof surface can also adress topics of the Disciplinary Core Ideas in Engineering, Technology and Application of Science with ETS1: Engineering Design - Defining and Delimiting an Engineering Problem (In this case the Community Garden is that) Developing Possible Solutions and Optimizing the Design Solutions. All of which can be taken from the project. The Garden can also function to in the inclusion of the Disciplinary Ideas in Life Science in the forms of Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy and Dynamics specifically how the wetland is part of ecosystem dynamics, functioning and resilience as well as cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems. Ultimately the Garden can serve in more than 18 Courses in varying degrees.
conclusion Through design I’ve explore the themes within sustainability and in doing so allowing a visualization of these in a very important apart of the city, an educational environment, be the catalyst of reversing environmental decline and awareness of wetland degredation. Through the series of mappings, sun diagrams, drawings, and collaging I wanted to address questions of the growing salience of the global agendas of sustainable development and how design can re-imagine urban forms and processes to be more inclusive and compatible with the environmental problems. Throughout the process I tried to address how my understanding of wetland and Providence can re-imaginative sustainable design. In the context of the prevailing forces of urbanization and environmental sustianability, the urban contours in Providence can be revitalized to its orignial healthy state, and that begins in schools. With that understanding I want for students in the reimagination to question “how their impact on the city is a part of a larger agenda, and how environmental identities of their surroundings cab be reconciled with regional histories and local culture to pave pathways to sustainable development?� Questions I think can be answered through a design analysis and also through the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) that the Providence School District is moving towards.
bibliography “Maps.” RI DEM Geographic Information System. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2015. “What’s the Scoop on Wetlands.” RIDEM/Water Resources - What’s the Scoop on Wetlands? (2008): 2-48. Web. 03 Nov. 2015. Duane L. Winegardner,”The Fundamental Concept of Soil” in An Introduction to Soils for Environmental Professionals (1996), 415, Chapter 12. Soil and Agriculture, Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology, Yale University Press Survey Analysis sent out as a part of my Sections work with the Healthy Communities Office and the Providence Public School District to assess outdoor learning and garden-based education programs in local Providence schools + Mapping of the Schools. “Healthy Communities: Lots of Hope.” Providence, Rhode Island. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2015. In addition to the Talk and Resources given to my Section Donald Worster, from “Transformations of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in History” (1990), pg 650 from Environment Textbook Williams, Daniel Edward. Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning. Hoboken: Wiley, 2007. Print. Page 3, “Urban Systems Maps: Community Design and Green Infrastructure Connection” Page 74, “Urban System: Community Design and Green Infrastructure Connection” Page 94, “Neighborhood as Systems” Meyer, Han, and Daan Zandbelt. High-rise and the Sustainable City. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Giron, Will. “Architects Propose ‘Soft Waterfront Infrastructure’ to Protect NYC From the Next Big Storm.” Inhabitat New York City Architects Propose Soft Waterfront Infrastructure to Protect NYC From the Next Big Storm Comments. Inhabitat NYC, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 05 Dec. 2015.