Master Dissertation Nikki Schotte - Resilient Strategies for Coney Island Creek by Nikki.Schotte

Master Dissertation

Streetscape Territories - Resilient Strategies for Coney Island Creek

Nikki Schotte

International Master of Architecture - Architecture & Sustainability Master Dissertation Studio 2014-2015 - Coney Island Creek Prof Dr. Kris Scheerlinck

This publication presents a combination of research and analysis to build up my project, with a reflection about the architectural project itself. It is an attempt on showing what the challenges and opportunities of the site are and how the proposed architecture utilizes these elements. Brought as a coherent story, this publication offers an insight into the progress, and outcome of my master dissertation project. Cover image: Nikki Schotte The following people contributed and guided the development of this project and publication: Prof Dr. Kris Scheerlinck

Layout & editing: Nikki Schotte Printed & bounded by: nv De Nobele, Ghent Proofreading: Bart Vansteelandt All rights reserved under International Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or specific copyright owners. Work and publication made during the course of a personal master dissertation project. ÂŠ2015 by Nikki Schotte

This project was developed for the master dissertation project, within the project of Streetscape Territories around Coney Island Creek: Resilient Strategies proposed by KRIS SCHEERLINCK.

KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture Campus Sint-Lucas, Ghent Class of 2014-2015 www.arch.kuleuven.be www.internationalmasterofarchitecture.be

Contact: nikki.schotte@gmail.com +32 476 47 69 70

Streetscape Territories Streetscape Territories is the name given to an international research and design project that deals with the way buildings and properties are related to streets and how their inhabitants can give meaning to them. kris.scheerlinck@streetscapeterritories.com streetscapeterritories.wordpress.com

Index Introduction Coney Island - â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Nickel Empireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Project methodology: a casestudy

Coney Island... more than amusement

Strategic network

The failure of massive development

A first step towards a design strategy

Describing the history of the context and what it represented Describing the context of the project with its strenghts and weaknesses, highlighting its possible potential

Statement about the rigidity of large scale redevelopment and fragmented interventions and about the essence of small local interventions in a vulnerable area

Transition to a resilient network

Describing the importance of the existing social texture and the local distinctiveness, building up an argumentation for intervention

Research Question

Statement about the essence of the design strategy and how to develop a design proposal

The Importance of Retail

The importance of small retail for a vulnerable community

Street Value

The importance of interaction between the streetscape and the buildings that frame it

Public Realm

The importance of public space within an urban configuration

Urban Strategy - Food as incubator

Explaining the urban framework towards the design process

A reference project of a similar approach and design Strategies to enhance the current activity, variety of users and local production and businesses in the Creek area and its nearby surroundings Zooming in on locations

Architectural interventions

Zooming in on the design proposals

Materiality & Techniques

Existing architectural language and materiality New interpretations and uses

Conclusions

Concluding and reflecting on the project

Thank you note Bibliography List of Figures

Bronx

Manhattan

Queens

Brooklyn

Staten Island

Coney Island Creek

N 0m

2500m

5000m

Figure 1

The framework chosen for my Master Dissertation design studio at KU Leuven, International Master of Architecture is the Streetscape Territories research project directed by Prof. Dr. Kris Scheerlinck. The proposed site and program builds upon the relationship between the research and the characteristics of the streetscape focussing on the Coney Island Creek area in Brooklyn, New York, using the Streetscape Territories Project as a main framework. This Master dissertation is an extension and builds up on previous research projects and workshops. Streetscape Territories is the title of the research project linked to the way buildings and properties are related to streets and how their inhabitants can give meaning to them. This reseach project aims at studying and developing urban projects in an international context, part of different cultures and social networks, focussing on the territorial organisation of streetscapes. Steetscape Territories deals with models of proximity within a street, neighbourhood or region starts from the assumption that urban space, from the domestic scale till the scale of the city, can be understood as a discontinuous collective space, containing different levels of shared use that are defined by multiple physical, cultural or territorial boundaries.

Calvert Vaux

Coney Island Creek

Kaiser Park Seagate

N 0m

50m

100m 150m 200m

Gravesend

Six Diamonds

Neptune Avenue

Mermaid Avenue

Surf Avenue

Coney Island Beach

Figure 2

Coney Island ‘The Nickel Empire’ The peninsula of Coney Island is situated on the southern tip of the Brooklyn shore. The area developed over the 19th century and the early 20’s from a seaside resort with Victorian hotels and private beaches into its well known amusement park with theaters, bathhouses, arcades, dance halls and thrill rides. It became an entertainment destination for many New Yorkers and visitors.

local operators offering a wide variety of places to eat, different rides and different things that were for free. One did not have to pay an entrance fee which made it affordable for everybody. One could come and make fun no matter what your economic background was. If one only had money for a hotdog in Nathans you where still able to enjoy the atmosphere of the amusement industry.

Coney Island was renamed ‘The Nickel Empire’ because it provided accesible recreation for the working class of New York and the entire world. It was a democratic mixing place where the polyglot metropolis could escape, bathe and made fun under the seaside sun.

The quirky vitality of the amusement district infused within the area. It used to be a place that was representing change, innovation and liberty. A place to escape, where creativity and eccentricity was excepted and celebrated. People came to Coney Island, because here they could let their hair and dresses down. You could behave as you would not back in Manhattan thosedays. Forming its release from day to day life, highlighting its sense of freedom to do whatever you wanted, for whoever.

What made Coney Island was that it was completely different than the average corporate theme park, it was a mosaic of small and fragmented openair amusements. A clustering of small

When you bathe at Coney Island, you bathe in the American Jordan. It is holy water. Nowhere else in the United States you see so many races mingle in a common purpose for the common good. Guiseppe Cautela (1925)

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Figure 3

Figure 4

Coney Island ... more than amusement Coney Island represents more than amusement. What lies behind those fancifull rides and bizarre sideshows is what seems to be neglected. The land behind the amusement seems to have become an abandoned neighbourhood of conflicting utopias designed by redeveloppers. Besides the open-air amusement that still continues to draw millions of visitors each season, including the boardwalk and the beach, lies a community that is composed by a large variety of users. Coney Islandsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; community is mainly composed by mostly elderly residents in the older housing stock and younger, immigrant families, mainly living in the public housing units. A wide variety of nationalities and users live together in the same neighbourhood, but they are segregated from each other. These diverse populations are socially, racially and linguistically isolated from each other. On top of this, the area is suffering with diverse problems like a lack of accessibility and connectivity, a lack of services, local retail and healthy food options, vulnerable to extreme weather conditions, poverty, the highest unemployment rate of the city,... . Although all this different issues, we can conclude that the area behind the amusement district holds a lot of unused qualities and potential. They are in desperate need of a motor to activate the socio-economic potential of this area.

Figure 5

Coney Island ... more than amusement The maps show the different users patterns during the different seasons. The darker the area is marked, the more crowded the area is during the particular season. We can notice a highly volatile seasonal dynamic within Coney Island, making it such a specific and unique place. The amusement park and boardwalk are alternating between very high (during summer) an very low (during winter) intensity peaks, because of the open air seasonal activities of the park. The Kaiser Park area next to the Creek knows a peak of activity during summer and spring, but there are not that many users noticeable. While this area captures a great potential to be an active users zone for the residents, as well as for visitors. All year round we can notice very slow dynamics on Neptune Avenue, as well as on Mermaid Avenue. While this streets are intented to form the commercial heart of Coney Island, there is not a lot of activity noticeable due to the lack of interesting retail offers for both residents and tourists. By making the right changes within the area it seems possible to make a true alternation within the existing dynamics of the users. Creating a more cycled users patterns for the residents as well as for the tourists. By focussing the design on the empty patches and reinvigorating certain areas and make them attractive in relation to the seasonal and climatological changes. Creating a hybride landscape where the community can meet, act, produce, sell, act and interact again.

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Figure 6

Winter

Coney Island ... more than amusement

Figure 7 The map above shows the simplified topography of Coney Island. The lower parts are represented in grey and light grey, while the higher areas are represented in black. Marking the highway and the boardwalk as a barrier. The storm surges of Superstorm Sandy and the existing topography within this map show how vulnerable some areas are to floods, but also highlighting the issue of the rising sea level within the area. It is mainly visible how the area along the creek is the most vulnerable of them all and this is the particular area where we are focussing on within this master dissertation. The image represents also the crucial extent of water invasions on Coney Island and mainly in the Creek area. The neighbourhood reveals itself

when the flood risk areas are combined with the population density, the median household income and the value of property within the area. These maps will indicate why we should tackle the different challenges on the island itself. Coney Island has a far too great and dense population to relocate or to neglect. The rising of the sea level will directly have little impact on the island, the main challenge lies within the more frequent flood surges due to storms. The greater the frenquency of these severe floodings will be, will affect the waterfront residences and may lead to complete abandonment of the lower floors. (Re-)Consideration of the ground floors and coping with them in a more flexible way will be one of the main elements to focus on within the design of the buildings.

This map shows the concentration of high population densities near the waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge. The darker areas are characterized by residential towers as building typology. If you compare this map to the topography map (see previous page). Both maps are revealing that some of the highest densities, mainly high rise apartment blocks, are located within this particular areas and that these are extremly sensitive to flooding. Figure 8 These two maps show the median household income and the property value of houses and condos within Coney Island. The darker the area on the map the richer the community or the higher the property value.

Seagate

Sheepshead Bay

Figure 9

Seagate

Sheepshead Bay

Figure 10

The first map reveals that the richer communities are located at both ends of the island, in Seagate and Sheepshead Bay. As well, on the second map we can notice that the properties with a higher value are also located on both ends of the island. However these two areas were equally hit by Superstorm Sandy, but they were able to recover more easily than the creek area where we are focussing on within this dissertation. Due to the fact that they were not hit as badly and that the richer communities are located within this area. They had more money to invest and recover their neighbourhood.

Figure 11

Coney Island The failure of massive development The Comprehensive zoning plan that was proposed in 2008 by the Bloomberg administration announced a rezoning plan for Coney Island. Turning it into a year-round open and accesible amusement destination, with affordable housing and different neighbourhood services. But the plan seems to grately reduce the open-air amusements and puts all its faith in entertainment, chain, franchizing and indoor amusement, leading many critics to assume that the plan would turn the historic amusement area into a charmeless mega mall on the beachside. Apart from this, they also introduce 27 storey high towers along the amusement, litterly overshadowing the remaining historic amusement buildings as Nathans Famous and others, but also putting the surrounding neighbourhood completely in the shades of the amusement. This design intention would also change the currently iconic skyline, which is defined by the Wonder Wheel and the Parachute Jump. Coney Island has always been a place where generations of inventiveness and artistic interventions have played a dominant role. It has always been an open-air and seasonal destination for a wide variety of users, owned by diverse small local operators, offering different forms of entertainment. It has always had multiple amusement operators and yet the rezoning plan forcees a different single

operator approach, dismissing the few remaining local businesses in the area and replace them for generic entertainment and franchizing. Turning Coney Island into a year-round destination with indoor entertainment seems to completely lose the philosophy of what Coney Island represented and what made it so unique and attractive. By making use of this cosmetic and generic approach they will lose the vibrant street life that dominated the area. The rezoning plan seems to be creating more problems, than solving them. The proposed space for amusement would be too small to provide space for new attractions and rides, leaving no space for future generations within the existing potential of Coney Islands amusement district. The quirkiness and diverse ethnic fabric of Coney Island, combined with the philosophy of being a democratic and affordable place for all, leads to distinctive economical advantages that just lays in its vulnerability and its potential to destingate them from others, being locally based and diverse.

Figure 12

Resilient

Transition to a Resilient Network

The ability to be able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed, the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

After Hurricane Sandy there was a lot of attention to the resiliency of New York cities physical sense in general. Focussing on Coney Island there where suggestions for a tidal wetland barrier for the Creek area, drainage improvements and a renourishment of the beach. Design competitions were hold to rebuild more resilient areas along the existing waterfront, but all of them seem to lack the basic means for creating a more resilient socio-economic network to strengthen the empowerment of the community and helping with the diversification of users in the area. Resilient means both ‘flexible’, but also ‘though’ and ‘resistent’ which in my opinion means creating and designing a soft as well as a hard infrastructure that is able to create a certain strength in the flexibility within a neighborhood that is threatened by extreme conditions such as floods and hurricanes. By means of an architectural intervention it seems crucial to build a framework that can both create a physical and social resilient neighbourhood. Creating essential connections between various actors and social groups that are now working on their own goal. Working together towards the empowerment and activation of their own neighbourhood. By strengthening the economic resiliency of the neighbourhood it would be possible to allow residents to have a certain flexibility to rebuild or build their social networks, offering them a job within the neighbourhood and empower the overall community feel for the residents.

Figure 13 The pictures above show the Coney Island Creek today and the renders of the suggestion for a tidal wetland barrier. The Coney Island Creek Tidal Barrier and Wetlands Feasibility Study is a critical element within the resiliency of planning for the existing communities and residents living around the Creek. This study investigates in a hydrological management strategy that would be able to prevent and soften the upland flooding, but the City says that also other goals can be accomplished at the same time: improvement of the open waterfront space, enhancement of the water quality and aquatic habitat, strenghten the connections between the different neighbourhoods, support economic development in the surrounding areas,... . However, we are not trapping the pollution with the integration of tidal wetland barriers?

Figure 14 The water quality of Coney Island Creek has been heavily polluted by historic industrial activities and by the ongoing release of raw sewage during heavy raining. Another issue is the natural design of the Creek. The width of the Creek ranges from 900 feet at the mouth to 150 feet at the head (East side). The tidal water that enters the Creek twice a day would be unable to properly flush. During Superstorm Sandy, the Creek area was the main source of innundation within the neighbourhood. The low edges of the Creek, in combination with the topography contributed to the backdoor flooding from the Creek that caused enourmous damage. A better and cheaper sollution than the suggestions for a tidal wetland barrier seems to be a restorement of the existing wetland that would be able to prevent flooding.

Research Question Can a comprehensive network, besides the existing potential of the amusement industry of Coney Island, function as a motor for the social and economical development of local businesses, contributing to the empowerment of the community and the diversification of the users in the Creek area by means of architectural interventions?

After hurricane Sandy a lot of the existing retail stores did not have the financial strenght to re-open business or they just did not come back to the neighbourhood. The residents around the Creek area are lacking healthy food options, due to the fact that there is no nearby qualitative retail available. 40% of the residents travel out of the neighbourhood to get their groceries. There are only two supermarkets in the area: FineFare and KeyFood, but they are too expensive and the quality of the food is poor and sometimes even expired. For the moment only 25% of the existing retail stores are owned by locals residents. Taking away potential job offers for local residents and young entrepreneurs within the existing neighbourhood.

Figure 15

Commerical + Office Buildings Mixed Commercial + Residential Buildings Industrial + Manufacturing Transportation + Utility Public Facilities + Institutions

The Importance of Retail Over the past decades, retailing in suburban neighbourhoods has hollowed out, leaving most of them with too little to support a healthy neighbourhood and a strong community. These results are apparent to the 21st century commercial streets mainly dominated by franchizing and chains, empty storefronts, an undersupply of essential goods and services, social problems, poor pedestrian and cyclists environments, amenities and untented streets and sidewalks. On top of that the region arround the Coney Island Creek suffered a lot after Superstorm Sandy. A lot of stores and retailers did not manage to re-open businesses again. The decline of the neighbourhood retailing has had a profound effect on the desireability of many neighbourhood residents and communities. Those without suitable retailing are dramatically weakened. The challenges of rebuilding a socio-economic network persists not only in low-income neighbourhoods, but also many other urban locations where retailing never recovered from the shift of our buying habits that led people to malls and shopping centers. Rebuilding retail streets is a difficult, long and complicated process. It is completly different from developing a suburban shopping center or a downtown shopping district. Innovative strategies are needed and must be used to restore the vitality and liveliness of the area. Over the years there has grown a large misperception about retail opportunities in the suburban neighbourhoods. Retail opportunities are percieved to be greater elsewhere and the many social problems faced, seems to be difficult to solve. As a result of this phenomena a lot of residents in Coney Island are forced to travel outside their own neighbourhood to go shopping, because there is no nearby retail offer. They are lacking healthy and qualitative food options in the area and their shopping streets are mainly saturated by car manufacturing, pharmacies and chinese take away restaurants.

But the opportunities to restablish retailing along the commercial streets (Mermaid and Neptune Avenue) in the neighbourhood is great. Through careful planning, new roles can be found within these streets to fill in the market and to serve the residents better. We can already notice a change, where suburban lifestyles are becoming more popular among singles, elderly, immigrants and non traditional households. A lot of immigrants are opening small businesses, stores and restaurants in parts of the commercial streets, because of the cheaper rents. But this positive trend alone is not enough to ensure the rebuilding of retail in the area. Retailers need to gain their interest again in these locations and streetfront retail needs to gain the favour of the consumers again. It will take far more effort in rebuilding a resilient socio-economic network than it took to destroy it. The challenge is for the community to work together to create an environment in which retailing can thrive. Gaining the publics commitment is a difficult, but a necessary challenge because within the area, retailers are faced with limited resources for the moment. New retail projects or revitalizing existing retail streets can act as a catalysator for further public and private development in the area. The philosophy behind retail streets is completely different than that from chain and franchises or other large corporations, that have multiple operations in various locations and that are somehow generic regardless of their location. Although even chain stores and franchises seem to put less effort. The McDonalds in Coney Island does not offer all the burgers and the shop does not have a play area for the kids. The main idea lies in the integration of Mom and Pop stores, a term for a small, independent family owned business. A Mom and Pop store usually has a single location that often occupies a physically rather small place. The store could be any type of business, such

as an auto repair garage, a bookstore or a restaurant. Mom and Pop can also refer to an inexpierenced investor who plays the market casually and does not rely on trading or to a significant supplement of their income. This provides new entrepreneurship opportunities within the neighbourhood and the opportunity to create jobs for residents. Successful commercial development can make a low-income neighbourhood into a more attractive place for working families and individuals to live, which can only result in a more mixed income community.

Mom & Pop a term for a small, independent family owned business

Figure 16

Figure 17

Reference Project: Fulton Mall

Fulton Street stretches for seven miles from Downtown Brooklyn almost to Woodhaven, Queens, but eight building blocks of this strip form Fulton Mall. Fulton Mall is located between Flatbush Avenue and Borough Hall, giving home to many Brooklyn retailers, also supporting smaller local merchants and street vendors. This mall is so specific and unique because it is only accessible for pedestrians, cyclists and public busses, making Fulton Mall one of the liveliest, most unique and well-used thoroughfares of New York City. Really celebrating the importance of the value of the street to create a successful public space and commercial street where retail can find its place. “Bringing more people in who will feel more relaxed to stroll and window-shop without the crowding and hazards of traffic.” by Meredith TenHoor. The delivery of goods and products happen through developped delivery routes within the side streets and through Fulton Street delivery vehicles are allowed before 7AM and after 7PM. ‘On Fulton Mall you can find Brooklyn’s most profitable restaurants, independent bookstores specializing in Afrocentric history and street novels, some of the best roti in the city, street vendors selling incense, oil, and children’s books, a non-denominational church with a Grammy Award winning choir, street preachers, highend sneakers, extreme bargain discounts, Brooklyn’s only children’s department store, exclusive mixtapes, bootleg DVDs of hard-to-find foreign films, hat and wig stores, scores of cell phones marchants, jewelers and

untill very recently, the largest selection of reggae and dancehall seven-inch records in the city. You can also ﬁnd some of the highest retail rents, on par with those of Manhattan’s great shopping streets. Colorful bus shelters, information kiosks, and concrete bollards installled in the early 1980s unify and variegated retail landscape.’ Out of the book ‘Street Value, Shopping, planning and politics at Fulton Mall’ by Rosten Woo and Meredith Tenhoor with Damon Rich (1977) Still a lot of cities and urban planners seem to assume that giving the priority to pubic transport and pedestrians in a retail area is both radical and self-evidently bad for local business. But nothing seems to be further away from the thruth if you look at Fulton Mall, one of the most successful retail strips in the city, outside of Manhattan. Today Fulton Mall is one of the most successful retail streets in NYC and the rent for retail is more expensive than anywhere else outside of Manhattan. People from all over Brooklyn come over to shop here. The pedestrianization of the area really helped things, because it made the neighbourhood feel more welcoming. The extra space of the street makes it more comfortable and creates more room for activities that were not possible on the narrow sidewalks. Now there is actually space for cultural activities to take root and happen within the streetscape. Prioritizing public transport, pedestrians and cyslists along Fulton Street has proven to be popular for shoppers and profitable for retailers.

Figure 18

Figure 19

Main Existing Typologies Exiting retail on Neptune & Mermaid Avenue 1. Single story

Mermaid Avenue

Food Center Fresh Fruits and Flowers Jiffy Cleaners Sneaker Town Best Choice Cleaners Grocery H&R Block Astella Development Mermaid Health Center Pharmacy Balaji Medical and Dental Plaza Surfside Deli and Grill Beauty Salon Elegance Fresh Mermaid Farm Family & Health Care Coney Island Pharmacy Le nails Salon Princess Beauty Supply Dominican Hair Stylist Not Ray’s Pizza Citibank Family Drugstore 99cents Deul Oriental Palace Chinese Restaurant Beauty Supply Washington Cherry

Neptune Avenue

Auto Repair Larry’s Radiator Shop Lev’s Auto Repair Body Specialist Auto Glass Romans Auto Diagnostics Inc. Best Buy Liquors Car Wash Dunkin’ Donuts A-Z BBQ Coney Island Gyro GulfAuto Repair Mechanical & Electric Exotic Motor Spirits Autobody & Repair Mart Low Gass & Diesel Neptune Body Inc. New York Bread Inc. Goldstar Chicken Bay Park Pharmacy Stationery Deli & Grocery Auto Repair Center Auto Repair of Brooklyn Jeans Restaurant Italian Tononno Collison Auto Repair Center Neptune Auto Repair

2. Commercial + Residential

Mermaid Avenue

Liquor & Wine Pawn Shop Mermaid Pharmacy Little Mermaid Market Cingular Pharmacy Inc. Brooklyns Best Slice Pizza C-mini Market Kennedy Fried Chicken and Pizza Laundromat Dental Care Crown Fried Chicken Coney Deli Grocery Beauty Salon Panda Chinese Restaurant Bargain Land Deli Store Alex Metro PCS Deli Market Meat Abb Ganny Grocery and Deli Goldfinger Jewelery Cellphone Doctor Barber Shop Mermaid Pizza Friendship Deli

Neptune Avenue

Guardians Real Estate & Property Three Cousins Deli & Bagels Larry’s Heaters & Gass Tanks Laundromat Pop’s Restaurent - Breakfast and Lunch Video Games and Electronic Supplies Italian Restaurant Biscotti Seasons - All natural food and juice Auto Repair Motor Service Corp. Sima Beauty Salon Papa John’s Pizza Gold Empire Pawns Dental Office Gourmet Grocery

3. Corner stores

Mermaid

Old Time JN Mini M You Gotta Believe - A Discount Wine Productos M Island Me Big Sam Foor Corpora Prince Deli & J&R Phar 24hrs Deli & Healthcare P NY Dental Imp Superior Market D Five Deli & Ocean Side P Deli and G

Neptune A

Conveni Deli and G Lucky Corner C

4. Warehouse (+ Parking lot)

5. Industrial/ Manufacturing

Figure 20 Avenue

Mermaid Avenue

Avenue

Neptune Avenue

Bagels Market Adoption Center es & Liquors Mexicano edical ation Deli & Grocery & Grocery rmacy & Grocery Pharmacy plant Center Deli & Grocery Grocery Pharmacy Grocery

ience Grocery Chinese Food

Fine Fare Supermarket Rite Aid Pharmacy Dunkinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Donuts

Key Food Supermarket

Calvert Vaux Home Depot

Mermaid Avenue

Neptune Avenue

Phyliss Transportation Corporation Abilene Best Boilers Robin Carousel Collison Active Auto Repair Verizon

A city sidewalk by itself is nothing. It is an abstraction. It means something only in conjunction with the buildings and other uses that border it, or border other sidewalks very near it. The same might be said of streets, in the sense that they serve other purposes besides carrying wheeled traffic.

Jane Jacobs

Street Value It seems to be that over the centuries we have forgotten that streets are alterable. The streets are designed for traffic instead of for the users and the surrounding functions the streets carries with it. They are designed by human, but the main focus needs to be altered. Designing on and for what surrounds the streets, because the street should be more than just the abstraction of a tool to carry wheeled traffic. Unfortunatly, throughout the latest centuries it were mostly and only traffic engineers that designed our current streets. Viewing the city from a top-down view and visioning the street as a problem to be solved for the car. With as a result: the American city that we all know today. Problems as sprawling, chocked traffic, hostile to cyclists and pedestrians, no interaction or connection between the buildings that surround the street and completely depending on a continuous, never ending flow of oil and automobiles. The value of the street has changed and it is time to make a new change again. Streets can and should be so much more than just a place for movement and storage of private motorized vehicles. The street of today and tomorrow should be a livable, safe and complete street where pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders feel at ease. It is important for neighbourhoods and citizens to re-envision the streets as their public playground.

The approach that Jan Gehl (Gehl, 1996) in his book ‘Public spaces, Public life’ adopts is to turn the design process upside down by making the well-being of people the main fundament of urban planning. He first looks at the existing potential for the life within the community, the existing activities and attraction points. Can they be developped and into what can they be transformed? Together with this he looks at how the spaces in the area would best be organised in order to support the public life and then, only then, he starts to consider the design itself. Gehl’s main guiding principle and main purpose lies within creating a sustainable environment and to promote a holistic lifestyle. His view is that ‘A city should open up, invite and include people, having different activities and possibilities and thereby ensure multiplicity and diversity.’

Figure 21

QUALITATIVE PUBLIC SPACE

From a street to a qualitative public space: what are the different components of creating a qualitative public space in the right of way? Understanding the site considerations, reviewing how the site is used, propose a new activity programme that is adaptive, flexible and that is able to respond and react to the user needs, seasonal and climatological changes. We can not forget the detailed scale and the physical elements that are helping to provide a safe environment where community interactions and uses are stimulated.

Figure 22

Traffic calming is the combination of mainly physical measures that reduce the negative effects of motor vehicle use, alter driver behaviour and improve conditions for non-motorized street uses. Institute of Transportation Engineers

Streetscape The existing infrastructure - Neptune Avenue The current streetscape of Neptune Avenue is mainly dominated by the car. Although the usage and the amount of traffic along the street changes, the streetscape stays the same. Pedestrians and cyclist are pushed away within this configuration. The pavement and the existing bicycle path is occupied by parked cars from the surrounding car businesses. The four lane street is really wide, which makes it really difficult to cross safely.

40m

80m

LIGHT TRAFFIC STREET Kaiser Park area - publicly accesible waterfront and parkland, mainly dominated by leisure and residential purposes.

LIGHT TRAFFIC STREET Mark Twain School for the talented and gifted and (vacant) industrial buildings.

Neptune Avenue

340m

Figure 23

680m

Figure 24 MEDIUM TRAFFIC STREET This particular part of Neptune Avenue is mainly dominated by (vacant) industrial buildings and some car repair shops.

HIGH TRAFFIC STREET This particular part of Neptune Avenue is mainly dominated by car manufacturing and heavy industrial use and utility assets.

Highest

Lowest

PRIORITY Movement EfďŹ ciency

Infrastructure

COST Lowest

Today the street is dominated by the car and problems are solved for the car, this in combination with high infrastructure costs. We should be making pedestrians and cyclists a priority on the streets of tomorrow. Creating a walkable and liveable neighbourhood that is more efficient, less expensive in infrastructure and that captures more different movement.

Highest

Figure 25

The pedestrian was there to rescue the commercial life on the street, before his natural enemy started to dominate his habitat.

Lee Harris Pomery

In Jeff Speck’s (Speck, 2012) book Walkable City - How downtown can safe America, one step at a time, he describes a few key ingredients that would help to create a liveable and walkable neighbourhood that could help to increase the current street value. Most of them redress the damagable effects caused by allowing the car to dominate the urban, public space and streetscape for decades. Putting cars in their place The car-first approach has hurt the urban fabric and mainly the American cities, also in Coney Island. The streetscape is dominated by motorized vehicles. This phenomena has brought unanticipated consequences, not only on freeways but mainly in the neighbourhoods downtown. This has caused streets that are not treated as a public space for animating city life anymore, but as parking lots for cars. They are appropriating public space and blocking the pathways for pedestrians.

Figure 26

Mixing the uses Different researches show that neighbourhoods with a variety of uses: places to walk, bicycle routes, open public spaces, parks,... have significantly more walkers or users that completely pedestrianized ones. Although the uses are mixed in Coney Island it is still mainly dominated by the automobiles. Get the parking right Big parking lots encourage driving, that maybe would not occur without it. We can notice a huge oversupply of free and underpriced parking lots in the suburban areas, mainly due to minimum parking requirements for buildings and businesses. A different side effect is the adaptive reuse of historic properties, where there is not enough sufficient space to create parking, that space should be required for the buildings’ new uses. A solution to this phenomena would be shared parking places for multiple businesses and a higher price on the other parkings. Let transit work “Walkability beneﬁts from a good transit infrastructure, but a good transit also relies completely on a good walkability as well.” by Jeff Speck. Downtown neighbourhoods have an insuficient residential density, combined with too much parking space. In Coney Island some bus

routes are completly separated from the most vibrant areas, or there is just no bus connection at all. This in combination with infrequent services and a lack of mixed-use walkable neighbourhoods near the stops. It would be a huge improvement to support a ten minute headway, working simultaneously on both transit, urban fabric and the offer of retail on those parts. Public transportation is a mobile form of public space and thus it should be treated with respect and made pleasurable to use.

Public transportation is a mobile form of public space Darrin Nardahl

(Transportation planner)

Protect the pedestrians “The safest roads are those that feel the least safe.” By Jeff Speck. But this relates again to the automobiles. Roadway ‘improvements” that facilitate mainly car traffic, where there are wider lanes or one-way streets, encourage higher speeds. Instead we should narrow the lanes and two-way streets to limit the speed of the car traffic. This intention lies within the idea that, if drivers feel that they might hit someone or something they will slow down or change routes. For example the integration of the curbside parking (see figure 27) where the sidewalk and the cyclist route is buffered from the moving vehicles.

Figure 27 Welcome bikes This step is only minimally about walkability, except for the point that bike traffic slows down car traffic. It is mainly about making the cities more hospitable for cycling, which is lacking in the most downtown neighbourhoods for the moment.

Shape the spaces “Get the design right and people will walk in any climate.” by Jef Speck. Providing a sense of enclosure, because we have the need to feel safe and comfortable for walking. And once again the main villain is the car. Mainly in the form of surface parking, along or even on the walkway (see figure 26). Besides that the amount of density to support a good city or neighbourhood walkability does not require tall buildings. On the contrary, it is mainly the function on the first floor that influences the walkability of the place by the variety of mixed-uses on the groundfloor. Plant trees “It is best not to pick favourites in the walkability discussion - every individual point counts - but the humble American street tree might win my vote” by Jeff Speck. Even though street trees correlate with fewer automobile accidents, many traffic transportation agencies seek to limit them because they believe that the trees interfere with the visibility. But Jeff points out that in addition to contributing to car safety, the trees provide a lot of public benefits: including natural cooling, reduced emmissions and energy demand for air conditioning and reduced stormwater pollution.

Friendly and unique facades “Pedestrians need to feel safe and comfortable, but they also need to be entertained” by Jeff Speck. The walk appeal plays a crucial role, holding on that how far we will walk, is interlinked with what we encounter along the way. Stores and businesses with street-level windows in combination with vertical building lines and architectural details help attracting customers and improves the walkability of the neighbourhood. Eventually it comes down to picking your winners. “Where can spending the least money make the biggest difference?” because in the real world it is not possible to do everything. But it is important to focus on adapting vulnerable downtown neighbourhoods to make them safer and more walkable, not only will the residents benefit from it in a social way, but also small local shops will have the opportunity to benefit economically from this, making the street more attractive for costumers.

Figure 28

Public Realm What is public realm? Public realm can be defined as any publicly owned street, pathways, parks, publicly accesible open spaces, right of ways and any public and civic building or facility. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The public realm includes all exterior places, linkages and built from elements that are physically and/or visually accessible regardless of the ownership. These elements can include, but are not limited to: the streets, pedestrian ways, bikeways, bridges, plazas, nodesm squares, transportation hubs, gateways, parks, waterfronts, natural features, corridors, landmarks and building interfaces. The public realm is organized into four categories: parks, streetscapes, coastal areas and public places.â&#x20AC;&#x153; by Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council The quality of the public realm is highly important for a successful neighbourhood and for the increasement of community feel within the specific area. Public realm is a vital element that cannot be forgotten in designing or redesigning environments where people want to live and work. It embraces the external places in neighbourhoods and cities that are accessible to a wide variety of

different users. These are the everyday spaces where people move, interact, linger, live and play. It is important to create new, imaginative, elegant and mainly practical solutions within a broad facet of the public realm design. The solutions should be informed and fed by the historical context, natural elements, vulnerabilities, culture and the character of the area with its specefic residents, as it will highlight and represent the main sense of the area. Aiming to find qualitative solutions that can enhance the locality of the place and its personal identity. Different elements as: materials, features, innovations should be combined to (re-)design a functional and unique streetscape that is able to function at day and night times. Adapting the current streetscape to the daily needs, means also taking into account: the flexibility, permeability, interaction with the surrounding buildings and functions, future proofing and mainly the low maintenance. Focussing on the balance between retaining and enhancing the potential qualities of the landscape and the built environment, and mainly taking into account the conflicting demands of traffic and infrastructure on the public realm in the urban area.

School and Education

Adequate, Safe and Accesible

Mobility

Parks and Greenery

Safety Frequency in service

Adequate, Safe and Accesible

PUBLIC REALM Liveable and walkable street Civic amenities

Housing

Local Job Opportunities

Proximity to jobs Close to amenities Variety of users

Lowering unemployment Reduced travel time

Retail Offer

Wide variety of healthy food options Reasonable prices

Figure 29

The invisible harm done by traffic Social Interactions Heavy Traffic

‘We need the car to go shopping.’

Moderate Traffic

Light Traffic

‘I know the neighbours, but we aren’t friends.’

People are afraid to go out, because of traffic.’’

‘Everyone knows each other.’

‘Used to be nice, people were friendly.’

‘Our kids love to play outside, on the streets.’

‘I don’t feel alone. It is a warm street!’

Figure 30 Donald Appleyard shows in his study (1981) how the neighbourhood environment, urban planning and design can affect the living conditions for the residents. He published the book Liveable streets based on his research into how people experience streets with different traffic volumes. The image above shows the environmental impact of traffic on the social interactions within the neighbourhood and how residents percieve their homes and neighbourhood. The lines on the image represent the social interactions of the residents within the neighbourhood. It is highly noticeable that there is an enourmous difference in the amount of interactions within the high traffic street and the light traffic street. In the high traffic street we see that there are less social ties. Due to traffic, there is less interaction with their own neighbours, but also with the people who live accros the street, because it feels too dangerous to cross. While in the moderate or light traffic street there are more social interactions, also on the opposite side of the street. Because

there is less traffic, people feel safe and are more likely to cross and interact. People in the light traffic street know more people and have more friends. So we can conclude that light traffic conditions are helping to knit the community together. The dots on the image represent the gathering points on the street. There is only a handful of places where people would gather in the high traffic street. The residents are more attracted to gather in the light traffic street. This phenomena also affects how residents will make use of the neighbourhood services and retail. People feel safer and they are more likely to shop within the neighbourhood. It is more liveable and walkable. High traffic within the neighbourhood is invisibly harming the community and the empowerment of it. Traffic can hugely affect the socioeconomic interactions within a neighbourhood. Highlighting the reason for calming traffic if the neighbourhood is in need of revival.

Home Territory Heavy Traffic

Moderate Traffic

Light Traffic

‘Noise intrudes our house.’

‘Our street is so enjoyable to live.’

‘In my building I feel at ease.’ ‘Just the apartment... not even...’ ‘Ooh.. my block is my extended home.’

‘I don’t feel alone. It is a warm street!’

Figure 31 The image above shows the extent of the home territory of the residents in the different neighbourhoods in combination with the amount of traffic on the street. The areas indicated on the images are the areas people indicated as ‘their’ home territory. The threat to our safety, the noise, the pollution,... from traffic have a diminishing effect on what they felt was part of their neighbourhood or home territory. People in the heavily traffic street marked their aparment, or in some cases their whole building as their home territory. So people defined their home territory as just the individual space in which they are living or maybe the building. While if we analyse the lightly traffic street most of the people are defining their entire street or even the complete block as their home territory. When in the moderately traffic street some people still said it was just their apartment. But there were more people marking their whole building and you had a few people that defined their territories as being their whole street. These invisible harms are things that people

need to be aware of, they need to be conscious of the fact that when they drive, their driving affects the people around them and the surroundings in which they are driving. The residents were also asked to draw their street. What this shows is that on the heavily traffic street the residents just drew the entirety of the street with very little details. As you get to the moderately traffic street, people start drawing more details about the specific buildings. And when we get to the lightly traffic street, people started to include details of buildings, plantings,... We can conclude that the residents in the lightly traffic street just know their street a lot better.

Streetscape Proposed infrastructure change - Neptune Avenue N

40m

80m

Figure 32 LIGHT TRAFFIC STREET By reducing the car out of the streetscape and offering a safe and accesible public realm for residents, visitors, pedestrians and cyclists. They will be more likely to interact within the neighbourhood. Opening up the possibility to create a stronger community network within the area itself.

Figure 33 LIGHT TRAFFIC STREET By reducing the car in this area we are able to create a safer environment and an interesting public realm. Offering a transition zone between the school itself and the changed streetscape. Making this zone safer and more interesting to meet, act and interact. Giving the possibility to strenghten the social ties within the neighbourhood.

A proposal to change the current streetscape of Neptune Avenue to the amount of traffic and the functions along the street, making it more safe and attractive for pedestrians and cyclist to use and interact within the neighbourhood, stimulating them to meet, act and interact within their community.

Figure 34 MEDIUM TRAFFIC STREET Transportation in this part of Neptune Avenue is still an important feature due to the industrial activity that is still happening there and that plays a crucial economical role for the residents within Coney Island. The proposal suggest an adaptation of the current streetscape, making it a safer environment to park vehicles and move as a pedestrian or cyclist by the integration of the curbside.

Figure 35 HIGH TRAFFIC STREET The car repair shops are pre-dominating this area, offering local job opportunities and forming the last highway connection to the rest of Brooklyn. This thorougfare is important, for this reason the streetscape remains with its main focus on motorized vehicles, but adapted so pedestrians and cyclists can move safely inbetween.

Streetscape Light Traffic - Kaiser Park

Publicly accesible waterfront and Parkland CURRENT

-4 lane street configuration, only used for light traffic -Slight lines for turning vehicles are impeded by parked cars

Figure 36 - Scale 1/250

Pavement

4 Lane stre

PROPOSAL

-Integration of a bus only lane, a good connection to public services, stimulates the use of it -Creating a new public realm where pedestrians and cyclists feel safe -Reduction of the number of traffic lanes

Pavement Figure 37- Scale 1/250

Bus Only

New Public

eet - Light traffic

c Realm

Parking

Pavement

Conflict

Parking 1 Lane Pavement

Figure 38 - Scale 1/250

Figure 39 - Scale 1/250

4 Lane street - Too d

Streetscape Light Traffic - Marc Twain School & (vacant) Industrial buildings

dangerous to cross (for children)

ew Public Realm - Safe zone

CURRENT

-Long and unsafe crossing for pedestrians and kids -4 lane street without clear seperation -No bus stop nearby the existing school

Parking

Pavement

Conflict

PROPOSAL

-Integration of a bus only lane -Reduction of the traffic lanes, for safer crossings -Buffer zone before the school, creating a new public realm where people can interact -Clear parking space

Bus Only

Parking

1 Lane

Pavement

Streetscape Medium Traffic - (vacant) Industrial buildings CURRENT

-Conflict between loading vehicles and pedestrians -No clear seperation between vehicle movements -Pedestrians need to cross along unprotected desire lines

Paveme

PROPOSAL

-Loading vehicles and parked cars use the curbside lane so there is no conflict with the pedestrians -Clear parking spots, no conflict with moving vehicles -New safer and shorter crossings (pedestrian island)

Bike Pavem

ent

Figure 40- Scale 1/250

Parking

4 Lane Street - Medium Traffic

Conflict

Parking Pavement Conflict

Parking

e ment

Curbside

Parking

2 Lane street

Island

2 Lane street

Parking Bike Pavement Curbside

Figure 41 - Scale 1/250

Streetscape Heavy Traffic - Car industry & manufacturing Heavy industrial use & utility assets CURRENT

-Vehicles are randomly spaced -Speeding and weaving occurs as vehicles are more free to move -Pedestrians and left turners conflict -Driving vehicles need to pass unevenly spaced vehicles -Street feels chaotic and unpredictable -Double parked cars on the pavement -Long indirect crosswalks

Figure 42 - Scale 1/150

Pavement

4 Lan

Parking Conflict

PROPOSAL

-Traffic is orderly and grouped -Bikers, parked and turning vehicles are protected due to the curbside -Extra light infrastructure increases the safety feel at night -Street feels predictable, safe and manageable -New shorter crossings (pedestrian island) that accommodate desire lines

Pavement Bike Curbside Figure 43 - Scale 1/150

Parking

2 Lane street

ne street - Heavy traffic

Parking

Pavement

Conflict

Island

2 Lane street

Bike

Parking Pavement Curbside

Streetscape 3d impression of the adapted streetscape of Neptune Avenue. Creating a more intresting and safe public realm where pedestrians and cyclists can linger and move safely without the interruption of motorhized vehicles. Giving the opportunity for formal and informal interactions to happen within the streetscape.

N 0m

15m

30m

Urban Strategy Food as incubator

The idea of growing food within cities is by no means a new principle. Agriculture has been practiced in urban areas for millenia, often out of necessity or to provide a small part of the food security to protect against sudden food shortages, but nowadays there are different factors which modern cities need to deal with. The growing interest in urban agriculture can be linked to various factors. The last years there is an explosion of interest in all things related to urban agriculture in NYC. There is a wide variety of issues which are seen as critical to the ungoing sustainability and livability of the urban environment: public health, healthy food access and options, green space, air and water quality, economic development and community engagement. Urban agriculture represents a tangible and mainly accessible opportunity for city residents to become involved in issues of food provenance and food security and to reconnect with a different food system than the

one they are used to. Mostly food is produced and processed thousands of miles away and suddenly appearing on the supermarket shelves for consumption. Urban agriculture therefor functions mainly as a ‘catalyst’ or ‘activator’ that has the potential to change the current food system and create a different consumption culture. Urban agriculture is consistent and is being fed with various new approaches to urban design and development of communities and neighbourhoods. Emphasizing on informal, community based actions and initiatives, open space, green space and soft edge interventions. It combines an understanding of the existing public environment, mixed with the various on site actors to integrate cities or neighbourhoods into a continuous productive landscape combined with the right services to adress a wider group and enhance the community feel by food, as well in the growth, the production and the distribution of it.

Bissel Garden

La Familia Verde Coalition

Taqwa Community Garden

Intervale Green Rooftop Farm

La Finca Del Sur Farm

Eli’s Zabar’s Rooftop Hell’s Kitchen Farm Brooklyn Grange Eagle Street Rooftop Farm Eagle Street Rooftop Farm Tenth Acre Farm

Hattie Carthan Community Garden

Bushwick City Farm The Secret Garden Farm Rescue Mission Red Stuy Farm

Added Value Red Hook Prospect Farm

East New York Farms Hands and Heart Garden

BK Farmyards Ujima Educational Farm & Community Garden

N 0m

2500m

Figure 44

5000m

This map gives a general overview of the state of existing urban agriculture in NYC. Including rooftop gardens, greenhouses, indoor farms, ground level farms, community and educational farms.

Project Methodology: Reference Project Eagle Street Rooftop Farm Eagle Street is a 6,000 square foot green roof and organic vegetable farm that is located on top of a warehouse roof owned by Broadway Stages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This rooftop farm lies next to the shoreline of the East River and has a breathtaking view over the Manhattan skyline. During the Manhattan growing season, the farmers at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm are supplying an onsite farm market and bicycle fresh delivery to various area restaurants.

Rooftop Farms are very beneficial within cities like New York where there is not a lot of vacant land available and the vacant land that is available might not be appropriate. So it is really attractive to use the rooftops. They are able to run like a regular farm. They are able to grow various types of herbs and crops: lemon grass, basil, lavander, chili peppers, sage, oregano, thyme, carrots, cale, tomatoes, arugula, raddishes, spinach, lettuce, ... but they also offer fresh eggs and honey.

Rougher to grow on the roof?

Even though they have an exeptional view and that it is an unusual space, a lot of the things they teach and learn are really applicable, no matter what the situation is. But they are dealing with a lot of the same city issues. There is more wind than on ground level farms, it gets quite hot and they are growing in shallow soil. A lot of the things they teach is what do you do when you live in the city and you are dealing with small spaces and you want a high production? One of the unique things about farming on the rooftop is that they tend to plant their crops much closer to each other than you would do on a ground level farm in a more traditional setting. The result of that is that they are growing a lot of micro-greens. They need to make sure they are using every bit of soil available. Therefore they need to grow different, because they are dealing with slightly different conditions. They cannot grow things that grow in deeper soil, because they only have a limited depth.

Growing from scraps

In farming, soil is your investment. You need to create a rich ecosystem, where you can plant literary anything. But with rooftop farming they are dealing with a more artificial environment, because the soil was brought up, which is made from a mixture of shale and clay and the rest is postindustrial mushroom production compost mest. In Eagle Street Rooftop Farm they are also producing their own compost mest, because a rich soil is really important. They are able to do this because they are located in an urban environment where a lot of people in the neighbourhood and restaurants are bringing their food scraps and coffee grounds.

Food Security

Especially in cities it is much easier for people to become disconnected from their food systems and from where their food comes from. In the cities most of the food gets imported, mainly from all over the world. It is important for people to see how things grow and where it comes from. They have a lot of city kids that are visting the farm, where it is the first time they ever see a tomatoe grow and where they also get the opportunity to even pick that tomatoe and eat it. And they might have never even liked a tomatoe before, because they were never really able to try a really fresh one.

Locals to the locals

They are delivering fresh goods by bicycle during the NYC growing season to the restaurants with a radius of 1.5 mile, that is as far as they go. In this way they are able to get the fresh food within 15 minutes to the restaurant kitchens.

Is there more to a green roof?

There are a lot of benefits to a green roof. It reduces storm water run off, which is really essential within a city. Especially in NYC because they are dealing with older sewer systems, which is not able to handle all

of the water. Green roofs are also able to reduce the electrical costs, because they improve the insulation of the building. Helping it to keep it warmer in winter and cooler in summer. But introducing green roof in the city is also majorly helping with building a healthier environment and ecosystem attracting more insects, lowering the heat island effect,... .

Information out of the video: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=uycgepG8pUE

Figure 45

Figure 46

Figure 47

Figure 48

Figure 49 1. Rooftop farm - 6,000 square ft of farm on the roof of manufacturing 2. Onsite Farming Market - open during NYC growing season 3. Chicken run - Providing fresh eggs 4. Educational and Volunteering farmers - During NYC growing season open for public 5. East River - Skyline of Manhattan 6. Bicycle Fresh Delivery - Transporting fresh goods to the nearby restaurants 7. Beekeeping - Beehives to grow their own honey

Project Methodology: Reference Project Red Hook - Added Value - Ground Level Farm Added Value is a non-profit organization located in the South of Brooklyn, New York. This organization is promoting the sustainable development of Red Hook by nurturing a new generation of leaders. The complete organization is aiming to create opportunities for the youth of South Brooklyn, where they can expand their knowledge, develop and grow new skills. In this way young people would be able to engage positively with their community and they would become socially responsible, because of the urban farming enterprice.

History

The Added Value ground level farm began in 2000 by gathering community stakeholders and various experts to discuss the lack of meaningful eductional activities and employment opportunities for youngsters within the Red Hook neighbourhood. In 2001, Red Hook’s only full service market closed down and there was a lack of healthy affordable food options within the area. After being cut off for a while from the food supply, in 2003, Added Value opened the Red Hook Community Farm and they created a farmer’s market to bring fresh food options back into the neighbourhood.

Community engagement & empowerment

In 2003, Added Value transformed an entire city block from an abandoned playground into a center for urban agriculture. They are sowing, nurturing, growing and harvesting plants on a 2.75 acre urban farm, where they are mainly focussing on 3 main initiatives: Growing a healthy and fresh food system, empowering youth and

farm based learning and eductional programs. Added Value mainly helped wih the revitalization of local parks, transforming vacant land into a vibrant urban farm, improving the access to healthy, safe and affordable food and growing an economy that supports the needs of their community. Since Added Value opened their doors they were able to provide long-term training to more than 150 teenagers form the neighbourhood between the age of 14 and 19. They provided over hundreds of local elementary school students with educational programs and they worked with thousands of volunteers to build a sustainable future for the community and the neighbourhood. The Red Hook Community Farm has become a vibrant community resource where young and old work, grow and study together. The farm is a space where different generations are able to interact and create meaningful job opportunities for the neighbourhood youth, generating money by socio-economic development and activities and it is mainly able to improve the food security from the neighbourhood community.

Sustainable Development

Added Value’s farmer’s market is the only market in the Red Hook serving a neighbourhood of around 11,000 people. It has become a really valuable resource for their neighbourhood, because it gives back to the community in many various ways. Added Value continues to promote sustainable development in Red Hook and really nurtures a new generation of young entrepreneurs that are given them a chance to undertake. Information out of the video: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=LRNpPLc0CBU

Figure 50

Figure 51

End User/ Consumer

Compost & Waste Reduction

Retail & Shops

Storage & Assembly

Urban Farm

Commercial Kitchen

Figure 52

Closed Loop System Nature takes away life in order to create new life. Within this circular pattern plants grow and take up nutrients. Once they die, they decompose and these nutrients are given back to the soil. For example: nutrients from the bottom of the ocean are pulled up by waves to more shallow water where they become food for different organisms, which will eventually die and sink to the bottom of the ocean, only to be recycled again. This phenomena happens within various cases: water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle,... . This might raise the question of why we are relying on a linear form of production. We continually extract large amounts of raw products, use them to make goods and than discard them into landfill where they are designed to stay indefinitely. Different sources are (becomming) scarce; however they are never leaving the system, because matter cannot be created or destroyed, it simply changes forms or location.

To move towards a more circular model of production, we have to take into account the ‘Cradleto-Cradle’ mindset. This means when we are creating products, the responsibility is not lost once it leaves the manufacturing or when it is purchased. The manufacturer takes the responsibility of the complete life cycle of his products. This approach requieres designing with the intention of making a product that is easily broken down and reused or recycled. However, also the consumer needs to be more aware and responsible of what he is purchasing and mainly about what he is throwing away. The linear model of production might have been sufficient when our resources were still abundant, but in today’s economy with a growing population and enourmous high demand for goods, there is no way to sustain the linear producton model. The problem lies with the idea that they only take into account the beginning, but there is also an end.

Strategic Network Food as socio-economic activator New architectural interventions Existing social facilities Network between interventions Connection existing social facilities

Homeless Facilities

Soup Kitchen

Figure 53

A first step towards a design strategy First proposal - Kitchen Incubator Current configuration - Old water pump station

Conceptual design proposal - Kitchen incubator

Transport - import and export of fresh goods Collecting waste and transporting it

First design appoach Section Design Proposal- Kitchen incubator

Top Floor// affordable office space First Floor// Commercial kitchen (wet/dry/wash/mixed) Ground Floor// Freezer/fridge & loading/unloading/packing

Figure 54 - Scale 1/400

Weekly market for the neighbourhood Offering fresh grown goods

Adapted streetscape

Figure 55 - Scale 1/400

Figure 56 - Scale 1/400

A first step towards a design strategy First proposal - Rooftop Farm and Waste Recycling Current configuration - Home Depot Current configuration - The Home Depot

Conceptual design proposal - Rooftop farm & waste and recycling center

Rooftop Farm on top of the existing manufacturing Benefitting from the existing space without taking extra space Increasing the food security within the neighbourhood, offering healthy food options for the neighbourhood

design appoach - Rooftop farm & waste and recycling center Section DesignFirst Proposal

Figure 57 - Scale 1/400

Existing parking lot

Composte and waste collector (from neighbourhood, kitchen incubator, schools, restaurants,...) Recycling kitchen scraps and waste from the organic production of foods

Figure 58 - Scale 1/400

Figure 59 - Scale 1/400

N 0m

Figure 60

10m

ARCHITECTURAL INTERVENTION STORAGE AND WORKSHOP SPACE

By integrating a storage space where the produced goods and products of the kitchen incubator can be stored and that in combination with a (cooking) workshop space for the community, formal and informal activitities get the chance to blend into each other. The ground ďŹ&#x201A;oor of the buildings works as an extention of the public realm and in that way it functions as a vibrant mixing place for the users, where there is the possibility to approach the Creek from the streetside.

STORAGE AND WORKSHOP SPACE Ground ďŹ&#x201A;oor +00

N Scale 1/500

Leisure

Logistics dock

Storage

Packing and unloading Logistics

Leisure dock

Temporary storage

Figure 61

STORAGE AND WORKSHOP SPACE Groundﬂoor +01

N Scale 1/500

Indoor storage

Logistics office

STORAGE AND WORKSHOP SPACE Groundﬂoor +02

N Scale 1/500

Indoor Storage

Community (cooking) workshop space

Figure 62

Storage platform

Figure 63

STORAGE AND WORKSHOP SPACE Sections - Sequence of the streetscape Scale 1/300

Storage platform

Community (cooking) workshop space

Temporary storage wait

Leisure dock

Indoor storage

Indoor storage - Logistics offices

Storage - Loading and unloading

Logistics dock

Figure 64

Figure 65

Figure 66

Impression of the storage and workshop space. Highlighting the extention of the adapted streetscape where cyclists and pedestrians can move and interact safely without being interrupted by motorhized vehicles. By opening up the groundfloor the building offers an extentions of the public realm, where formal and informal activities are blended into each other.

ARCHITECTURAL INTERVENTION KITCHEN INCUBATOR

With the introduction of a kitchen incubator or a commercial kitchen. The neighbourhood gets the chance to use affordable kitchen equiment and space to produce and cook their own products with fresh supplies, which they can sell in their own stores or allowing them to provide the neighbouring restaurants, retail stores, the amusement park,... . By introducing the principle of an incubator, the neighbourhood would be able to create a resilient socioeconomic network where food could play the crucial role. In this way new entrepreneurs are given a chance to start up their own bussinesses in a vulnerable area without the huge costs of starting it up from scratch, but also shutt down bussinesses, after Sandy, are given a chance to re-open. New jobs are offered and they are able to create healthy and various food options for the area.

N 0m

7.5m

15m

Figure 67

KITCHEN INCUBATOR Ground ďŹ&#x201A;oor +00

N Scale 1/500

Cooled storage for fresh goods

Assembly and packaging

Covered market space

Pack&go

Distribution

Figure 68

KITCHEN INCUBATOR First ďŹ&#x201A;oor +01

N Scale 1/500

Lifted platform

Washing up

Delivery and washing

Meat Fridge Cooled storage for fresh goods

Kitchen incubator

Dry Kitchen

Hot Kitchen

Rentable Office space

Figure 69

KITCHEN INCUBATOR Second ďŹ&#x201A;oor +02

N Scale 1/500

Accessible roof platform

Office and meeting room

Figure 70

DISTRIBUTION CENTER Facade Scale 1/300

Section Scale 1/300

Figure 71

Figure 72

KITCHEN INCUBATOR Tranverse section Scale 1/300

Longitudinal section Scale 1/300

Figure 73

Figure 74

Impression of the weekly grocery market in front and on the square of the kitchen incubator. Freshly produced products and freshly grown vegestables and fruits that are grown on the rooftop farm are sold once a week.

Figure 75

Impression of the architectural interventions within the streetscape of Coney Island. Showing the sequence of the streetscape.

Mark Twain School for the talented and gifted

Green connection towards the Creek

The kitchen incubator

Distribution space

Industrial dead end street

Active industrial buildings

Dead end street

Car repair shop with fenced parking lot

Green connection towards the Creek

0m The storage and workshop space - blending formal and informal activities

Connection towards the Creek

Existing gas pump station

7.5m

15m

Figure 76

ATERIALITY & TECHNIQUES KITCHEN INCUBATOR - LIGHT

Hydroproof TL lighting (Groundfloors and storages)

Characteristics: Protection against moisture and dust: IP67 Water and humidity resistent T8 & T5 Fluorescent lamps Emergency version available

Industrial hanging LED light (Kitchen space) Characteristics: Axially symmetrical light distribution for linear lighting LED 250 lux Cool light oval flood Humidity resistent (10-99%) Reduced energy consumption (50-80%)

Figure 77

Projector - Outdoor Industrial Led (Outside platforms) Characteristics: Spotlight can go from a very narrow to a very wide beam Symmetrical light distribution LED 12W-48W 1200lm-6360lm Wide flood

Downlights - Oval Floods (offices, restrooms,...) Characteristics: Axially symmetrical light distribution for linear lighting LED 18W-28W 1800lm-3600lm Oval Flood

ATERIALITY & TECHNIQUES

STORAGE AND WORKSHOP SPACE - LIGHT

Hydroproof TL lighting (Groundfloors and storages)

Characteristics: Protection against moisture and dust: IP67 Water and humidity resistent T8 & T5 Fluorescent lamps Emergency version available

Figure 78

Projector - Outdoor Industrial Led (Outside platforms) Characteristics: Spotlight can go from a very narrow to a very wide beam Symmetrical light distribution LED 12W-48W 1200lm-6360lm Wide flood

Downlights - Oval Floods (offices, restrooms,...) Characteristics: Axially symmetrical light distribution for linear lighting LED 18W-28W 1800lm-3600lm Oval Flood

IME LAPSE

OCCUPATION DURING THE DAY KITCHEN INCUBATOR - CYCLE OF PRODUCTIVITY

WEEKDAY - Occupation

+ 4AM

6AM

8AM

10AM

12AM

8AM

10AM

12AM

WEEKEND - Occupation

4AM

6AM

Figure 79

Once a week - weekly grocery market - fresh food supply

2PM

4PM

6PM

8PM

10PM

Possibility for a food festival or other festivities

2PM

4PM

6PM

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10PM

IME LAPSE

OCCUPATION DURING THE DAY KITCHEN INCUBATOR - CYCLE OF PRODUCTIVITY

WEEKDAY - Occupation

4AM

6AM

8AM

10AM

12AM

8AM

10AM

12AM

WEEKEND - Occupation

4AM

6AM

Figure 80

2PM

4PM

6PM

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10PM

2PM

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6PM

8PM

10PM

Conclusion The greatest enrichment from this master dissertation project comes from the interaction between researches on various themes: streetscape territories, public realm, the importance of retail, urban farming, the implementation of incubators,... combined with a convergent design process. There is a lot of added value of working simultaneously within a theoretical discourse on depth configurations within the urban design and the architectural design process. This combined relation has given the opportunity to broaden my vision and go further and deeper in understanding the complex relation between territorial systems within the public realm and how it affects the way people are acting within it. The broad background and characteristics of the Coney Island Creek area are accentuated and pre-dominated by the existing spatial arrangements and the collective use of the streetscape. This particular facet combined with the economical problems such as: high unemployment rates, low eductation, the lack of nearby local retail and the lack of healthy food options within the neighbourhood became the set-up for the architectural interventions within this master dissertation project. Coney Island is still well known for its outdoor amusement park that is completely different than the average corporate theme park. It has its own quirky and vibrant atmosphere, offering affordable amusement and entertainment by a mosaic of small local amusement operators. The food production for the amusement park used to be located on Coney Island itself. The food industry was producing qualitative food offers for the amusement park and a lot of local residents used to work in this

particular industry. Coney Island is still well known for its amusement park, but this local philosophy got lost and nowadays they are importing cheap, nonqualitative, prefabricated sandwiches and burgers form elsewhere and this in combination with the threath of the Comprehensive Zoning Plan proposal by the Bloomberg Administration. This plan proposes to replace the small local facilities by generic chain and franchizing and putting the amusement in hands of one operator. This could radically change the existing atmosphere of Coney Island in the future, taking away its personal quirky identity. Although development should be stimulated within this vulnerable area, but mainly by activating the local economy and strenghten and empower the neighbourhood community by inner city food production facilities for local purposes, with the possible extension to a broader network to increase the food security for a wider asset. The intent was to setup a specific resilient network that could activate the social and economical activity within the specific area with attention for the environment and for the wide cultural variety of users and residents. Combining various issues of flooding, food security, unemployment, low education and mainly the empowerment of the community. Proposing a closed loop system, where food would be used as the main activator for the neighbourhood. By proposing: a rooftop farm on top of an existing buiding, a high performance industrial kitchen incubator that is able to offer affordable kitchen equiment and cooking space for small local entrepreneurs to start up their own business or to re-open business after being destroyed by Superstorm Sandy, a storage and workshop space for the community and a recycle and composte facility.

The sustainability of this master dissertation project has been tackling the various pilars of the sustainability matrix: social, economical, environmental and cultural during the various steps of the design process.

On social level, this project brings the possibility to create a strong and resilient socio-economic network that is able to employ young, poor and less educated people within the neighbourhood and stop the segregation by race, age and income. With the integration of a commercial kitchen they are able to combine their forces and talents, increasing the social interactions between the residents. By using food as an activator, they are able to create and strenghten a sense for the common good, elaborating the social cohesiveness of the area by local participation and by the integration of various activities such as: a community workshop space, a weekly grocery market, the integration of a new public realm, the kitchen incubator,... .

On economical level, this project offers a lot of new local job and business opportunities. Increasing the commercial activity and strenghten the food security within the neighbourhood, reducing the commuting time of residents, because now they will be able to combine living and working. Offering

active and affordable office, kitchen and storage space. Stimulating local businesses and giving young residents a chance to set up their own business within their own neighbourhood, regardless of educational attainment, financial background, work history or past social barriers. The integration of the closed loop system increases the economic security for the residents giving them a chance to enhance the local retail and services within the area, bringing new life and activity within the vulnerability of the Creek area and bringing life to new or vacant storefronts, increasing the social interactions between the residents within the streetscape.

On environmental level, this project is able to create and activate an ecological and healthy food system within an area that has difficulties with its current food network. (Re-) activating the economical activity by local retail became the main backbone of this project, to keep and create local jobs in a vulnerable area as the Creek. What makes it attractive and interesting to stay and live in Coney Island, living with a continuous threath by climatological changes as the rise of the sea-level, hurricanes and flash floods? This question brings us full circle to the need of a strong and resilient socio-economic network, to ensure the islands diversity and creative vitality, its economical well-being and the employment and

of food. By changing the current streetscape there is an encouragement of public transport and foot traffic, creating a more interesting and green public realm. The proposed architectural interventions are designed in a way that they are still able to function during flash floods and normal floods with adapted techniques such as: hydroproof lighting, electrical sockets connected on the ceiling of the buildings, a kitchen scrap digestor that is able to produce bio-gas offering an alternative energy supply to keep the kitchen incubator active during climatological threats,... .

On cultural level, this project is able to (re-) connect the wide variety of cultural backgrounds of the residents of the Creek neighbourhood by food, by sharing their cultural food background and habits with each other, they have the possibility to strenghten the community feel between the various actors on site by sharing something universal as food and eating, a primary need. With the integration of the closed loop system they have the possibility to learn and change their current approach towards food. Teaching the locals how to grow, produce and distribute their own freshly grown and cooked products they are able to extent their knowledge and create a new mindset and approach towards healthy food, attracting new consumers and changing the approach and culture towards fast-food and take-away.

Given this opportunity, first of all I would like to thank some people who helped to create this master dissertation project and to complete it successfully. First I would like to thank my academic promotor Prof Dr. Kris Scheerlinck for his dedication, insight and knowledge that he shared during the weekly consults and for his patience, clear and concrete feedback during this research and design project. Additionally, I would like to thank: Jeroen da Conceicao van Nieuwenhuizen, Sandy Debruycker and Hannes Vandamme for the usefull comments during the design process. I truly appreciate all of their time and assistance. Furthermore I would also like to thank my parents Marilyn Dewulf and Patrick Schotte and my boyfriend Bart Vansteelandt for their faith, patience, encouragement and continued support over the years. Thank you, Nikki Schotte

Bibliography BOOKS

Sassen, S. (2014). Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Scheerlinck, K. (2014). Coney Island street scape: Territories notebook. Leuven: Dag Boutsen, KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture. Woo, R., TenHoor, M. & Rich, D. (2010). Street Value: Shopping, Planning and Politics at Fulton Mall, New York: Inventory Books.

INTERNET SOURCES

Benfield, K. (2012). The ten steps of walkability. http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/the_ten_ steps_of_walkability.html Bowles, J. et al. (2008). Coney Island Visions. https://nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/ConeyIslandVisions. pdf Coney Island is a world-famous, iconic amusement destination enjoyed by all New Yorkers. But the future of Coney Island is at risk. (n.d.). http://www.saveconeyisland.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/scibrochure-web.pdf Investopedia. (n.d.). Mom And Pop. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/momandpop.asp Jackson, M. & Longlands S. (n.d.). The role of independent food retailers, markets and community food initiatives in local centres: Summary of a report by CLES for Manchester City Council. http://www.cles.org. uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/The-role-of-independent-food-retailers-markets-and-community-foodinitiatives-in-local-centres.pdf Land Use, Zoning, and Public Policy. (n.d.) http://www.nyc.gov/html/oec/downloads/pdf/dme_ projects/07DME014Q/07DME014Q_SFEIS/07DME014Q_FEIS_02_Land_Use.pdf MAS Presents Initial Results for Imagine Coney. (2008). http://www.mas.org/mas-releases-new-vision-forconey-island/ MAS Releases New Vision for Coney Island. (2008). http://www.nyinc.uber.matchbin.net/printer_ friendly/8886882 Mehaffy, M. (2011). The Power of Jane Jacobs’ “Web Way of thinking”. http://www.planetizen.com/ node/53128 Stanton, J. (1998). Coney Island: Development of Rail & Steamboat Lines to the resort. http://www. westland.net/coneyisland/articles/transportation.htm Willemse, T. (2013). Dynamic Dunelandscapes. http://cityinenvironment.blogspot.be/2013/05/dynamicdunelandscapes.html

VIDEO

PolicyLink. (2012). Added Value’s Red Hook Community Farm. [Online Video]. October 19th. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRNpPLc0CBU Press, E. (2010). Revisiting Donald Appleyard’s Livable Streets. [Online Video]. November 1st. http://www.streetfilms.org/revisiting-donald-appleyards-livable-streets/ Shearer, L. (2014). Eagle Street Rooftop Farm – Annie Novak – Guest of Glass – Google Glass. w[Online Video]. June 23rd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uycgepG8pUE

ARTICLES

Ackerman, K., Et al. (2012). The Potential for Urban Agriculture in New York City: Growing Capacity, Food Security, & Green Infrastructure. Bautista, E., Et al. (2013). Coney Island: Sustainable Communities Studio. Burden, A., Et al. (2013). Coastal Climate Resilience: Urban Waterfront Adaptive Strategies. Busà, A. (n.d.). Rezoning Coney Island: The crisis of routine-development and the struggles over “The People’s Playground”. Gaton, E., Et al. (2013). Assessing the Needs of Small Businessess Post-Hurricane Sandy. Good Jobs New York. Jacobus, R., Chapple, K. (2010). What difference can a few stores make? Retail and Neighboorhood revitalization. NYC Planning. (2013). Proposed: Flood Resilience Text Amendment. Scheerlinck, K. (n.d.). Depth Configurations. Proximity, Permeability and Territorial Boundaries in Urban Projects. The Municipal Art Society of New York. (2009). Coney Island Rezoning: Testimony for the New York City Planning Commission. Vesterlund, C.J., Betancour, A., Scheerlinck, K. (n.d.). Landscapes of manufacturing.

List of Figures Figure 1//

Map of Coney Island in relation to the five boroughs, made by Nikki Schotte

Figure 2//

Map of Coney Island marked with the most important surrounding streets and areas, by Presentation Master Dissertation, Kris Scheerlinck.

Figure 3//

Coney Island Beach with the Parachutte Tower, by Time & Life Pictures, Getty Image

Figure 4// Coney Island Beachfront in 1913, crowded by visitors small local retailstores in the back, by CityPictures, website Figure 5//

Showing the wide variety of users within the area, figures by Harvey Stein, book ‘Coney Island - 40 Years’ published in 2011

Figure 6//

Images showing the different users patterns during the different seasons, the darker the busier, by city in Environment, website

Figure 7//

Simplified topography of Coney Island divided in lower (grey) and higher (black) areas, marking the highways and the boardwalk, by City in Environment, website

Figure 8//

Population Density Coney Island, the darker areas are characterized by residential towers as building type, by City in Environment, website

Figure 9//

Median Household Income, both ends of the island have richer communities, by City in Environment, website

Figure 10//

Median Value of House or Condo, the higher ends show a much higher market value, by City in Environment, website

Figure 11//

Coney Island, what lies behind the amusement park, Corner of Surf Avenue and West 12th Street, by Steve Minor published in 2010

Figure 12//

Figure 13//

Coney Island Creek today, by nycedc.com, website

Figure 14//

Coney Island Creek, a rendering of the Creek with a series of tidal barries credits NYC Economic Development Corporation, by nycedc.com, website

Figure 15//

Mapping of the existing commercial activities and other public functions within the Coney Island Creek neighbourhood, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 16//

Closed Storefronts after Superstorm Sandy, by Streetscape Territories - summer workshop 2014

Figure 17//

Map location of Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 18// Importance of small local retail of Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn, downtownbrooklyn.com, website

Figure 19// Importance of small local retail of Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn, therealdeal.com, website Figure 20//

Existing store typologies, figures by Nikki Schotte

Figure 21//

Elements that include street and city life, by Gehl Architects

Figure 22//

Scheme of the element for a qualitative public space, Scheme out of the Adaptive Street Handbook, prototypical streets in Seatle Washington, by Gehl Architects

Figure 23//

Map of Coney Island Creek, highlighting Neptune Avenue, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 24//

Map of Neptune Avenue with the existing streetscape and infrastructre, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 25//

Scheme the relation between infrastructural costs and the priority of movement and effeciency, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 26//

Parked cars appropriating the pavement, picture by Nikki Schotte

Figure 27//

The integration of the curbside parking, extension of the pavement, by Urban Design guide, website

Figure 28//

Coney Island Cropsey Avenue, the value of the street, picture by Nikki Schotte

Figure 29//

Scheme highlighting the features that influence the public realm, scheme by Nikki Schotte

Figure 30//

Invisible harm done by traffic in relation to social interactions, based on Donald Appleyardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s study in 1960, by safestreetstrategies.com, website

Figure 31//

Invisible harm done by traffic in relation to the home territory, based on Donald Appleyardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s study in 1960, by safestreetstrategies.com, website

Figure 32//

Design proposal, light traffic street, publicly accesible waterfront and parkland, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 33//

Design proposal, light traffic street, Mark Twain School & (vacant) industrial buildings, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 34//

Design proposal, medium traffic street, (vacant) industrial buildings, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 35//

Design proposal, heavy traffic street, carmanufacturing, heavy industrial use & utility assets, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 36//

Section of the current street configuration, light traffic street, Kaiser Park, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 37//

Section of the design proposal street configuration, light traffic street, Kaiser Park,

drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 38//

Section of the current street configuration, light traffic street, Mark Twain School & (vacant) industrial buildings, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 39//

Section of the design proposal street configuration, light traffic street, Mark Twain School & (vacant) industrial buildings, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 40//

Section of the current street configuration, medium traffic street, (vacant) industrial buildings, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 41//

Section of the design proposal street configuration, medium traffic street, (vacant) industrial buildings, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 42//

Section of the current street configuration, heavy traffic street, car industry & manufacturing, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 43//

Section of the design proposal street configuration, heavy traffic street, car industry and manufacturing, drawing by Nikki Schotte

Figure 44//

Map giving an overview of the existing urban agriculture within NYC, information based on the booklet of The Potential of Urban Agriculture in New York City, Growing capacity, Food Security and Green Infrastructure, map by Nikki Schotte

Figure 45//

Map location of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, Brooklyn, map by Nikki Schotte

Figure 46// Overview of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm over the Manhattan skyline, by rooftopfarms.org, website Figure 47// Overview of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm over the Manhattan skyline, by inhabitat.com, website Figure 48// Overview of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm over the Manhattan skyline, by mindfuleats.com, website Figure 49// Drawing of the programatic infill and location within the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, by brooklyneur.com, website Figure 50//

Map location of the Red Hook, Added Value Ground level Farm in relation to Ikea, map by Nikki Schotte

Figure 51//

Picture of the Red Hook, Added Value Ground level Farm, by offmetro.com, website

Figure 52//

Scheme showing the elements and the methodology of a closed loop system, scheme by Nikki Schotte

Figure 53//

Scheme integration of the closed loop system within the neighbourhood, 3D drawing by group Master Dissertation - Resilient strategies for Coney Island Creek Scheme by Nikki Schotte

Figure 54//

Section of the current building and existing streetscape - old waterpump station, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 55//

First conceptual proposal for the kitchen incubator, highlighting the various functions and the adapted streetscape by Nikki Schotte

Figure 59//

First section proposal for the rooftop farm and waste and recycling center, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 60//

Axonometric - 3D impression of the storage and the workshop space, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 61//

Plan ground floor +00 within the surroundings of the storage and workshop space, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 62//

Plan first floor +01 of the storage and workshop space, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 63//

Plan second floor +02 of the storage and workshop space, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 64//

Section of the storage and workshop space - informal part - within the sequence of the streetscape, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 65//

Section of the storage and workshop space - formal part - within the sequence of the streetscape, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 66//

Impression of the ground floor and the extention of the public realm within the adapted streetscape, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 67//

Axonometric - 3D impression of the kitchen incubator, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 68//

Plan ground floor +00 within the surroundings of the kitchen incubator, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 69//

Plan first floor +01 of the kitchen incubator, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 70//

Plan second floor +02 of the kitchen incubator, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 71//

Facade of the distribution center, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 72//

Section of the distribution center, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 73//

Tranverse section of the kitchen incubator, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 74//

Longitudinal section of the kitchen incubator, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 75//

Impression of the ground floor and the connection towards the park, highlighting the weekly market activities in front of the building, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 76//

Sequence of the streetscape with the architectural interventions, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 77//

Light scheme in section of the kitchen incubator, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 78//

Light scheme in section of the storage and workshop space, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 79//

Time lapse - the cycle of productivity - occupation during the day of the kitchen incubator, by Nikki Schotte

Figure 80//

Time lapse - the cycle of productivity - occupation during the day of the storage and workshop space, by Nikki Schotte