Contents
Ashes to Ashes Town of Saugus, MA
04
Park as Forest Franklin Park, MA
14
The Five Gardens Charles River, MA
24
Ashes to Ashes Waste-to-energy incinerators, scattered over Massachusetts, have been dumping ash into landfills for decades. Despite knowing the resulting environmental risks, this industry has only found new ways to improve the process of dumping. This proposal addresses both the inputs and outputs of the processes of waste incineration as valuable materials that can be put to good use rather than being burned or buried. Ashes to Ashes takes a closer look into Wheelabrator’s Waste-toenergy plant and adjacent landfill situated in the Rumney Marshes in Saugus Massachusetts, addressing the 31% of organic waste that is being burned and the 360 tons of ash being produced on a daily basis.
4
In an effort to divert 31% of Wheelabrator’s waste composition, localized vermicomposting facilities are built on underutilized big box store parking lots in the town using ash brick construction. In anticipation of Wheelabrator’s inevitable shutdown, the building is stripped and re-purposed to house an ash brick factory, while the neighboring landfill is excavated for ash material. As each phase of excavation is complete, compost produced from the vermicomposting facilities will be used to cover the landfill site as marshland restoration work takes place by the Rumney Marshes ACEC Salt Marsh Restoration Task Group.
Map of contract towns that send waste to Wheelabrator Saugus.
5
Map of current trash route from sample resident address.
Current trash cycle in Saugus, MA.
6
Map of proposed distances to vermicomposting facility based on sample resident address.
Proposed locations of vermicomposting facilities.
7
Components part of the vermicomposting cycle.
Axon view of the vermicomposting facility in a Stop & Shop parking lot, Saugus.
8
Excavating Ash
Ash Staging
Ash Grinding
Brick Drying
Brick Packing
Shipment Sorting 9
View of the central courtyard in the brick factory
10
View of ash extraction from landfill
11
12
Potential restoration of Rumney Marshes original area.
New proposed network: Wheelabrator starts to collect ash from neighboring ash monofills to produce ash bricks.
13
Park as Forest Franklin Park as a forest. Frederick Law Olmsted had intended the park “to be that of placing within easy reach of the people of the city the enjoyment of such a measure is practicable of rural scenery.” In short, the park was meant to be an accessible way to escape the urban chaos and encompass oneself in nature. This scheme fosters Olmsted’s intent by amplifying the contrast between the urban and natural by transforming the park into a forest . The scheme offers a new sequence of spaces that encourage visitors to explore beyond the park’s defined routes and boundaries, and become immersed in the natural environment of a forest. The scheme invites visitors to be
14
immersed in the process of developing forests, watching as tree species compete, thrive, decay, grow, and change throughout the course of their life cycle. In order to deploy a larger framework for the park, constructed codes are implemented on prototypical zones within the park, creating a land forming strategy, vegetation strategy, and social/circulation program that depend on following a prescribed code. The experimental coding will allow the scheme to be used in multiple sites within the greater network of urban parks in Boston.
EGLESTON SQUARE
WASHINGTON PARK
STONYBROOK
FRANKLIN PARK AREA 213 HA
FRANKLIN FIELD NORTH
FOREST HILLS / WOODBOURNE
FRANKLIN FIELDSOUTH
15
16
17
18
19
20
EDGE TREES PLANTED : LEYLAND CYPRESS
FILLER TREES PLANTED : AMERICAN BEECH
Rock Outcrop Pudding Stone or Asphalt Fine Fescue Grass (Wild) Festuca Rubra
TREE PLANTING YEAR : 6
TREE PLANTING YEAR : 13
Fine Fescue Grass (Mown) Festuca Rubra Tulip Tree Liriodendron
Rock Outcrop Pudding Stone or Asphalt
Red Oak Quercus rubra
Fine Fescue Grass (Wild) Festuca Rubra
American Linden Tilia americana
Fine Fescue Grass (Mown) Festuca Rubra
Leyland Cypress x Cupressocyparis leylandii
Tulip Tree Liriodendron
American Beech Fagus grandifolia
Red Oak Quercus rubra American Linden Tilia americana Leyland Cypress x Cupressocyparis leylandii American Beech Fagus grandifolia
Zone Uncovered by Canopy New Rock / Asphalt Outcrop Existing Rock Outcrop Filler Trees (American Beech) Edge Trees (Leyland Cypress) Existing Trees New Meandering Path
Zone Uncovered by Canopy New Rock / Asphalt Outcrop
21
SPRING
22
SUMMER
FALL
23
The Five Gardens This proposal was centered on a fifty-five acre segment of the Charles River Reservation, as this public park is one reach of a greater twenty-mile recreational landscape along the river. It is also a participant in a watershed encompassing one million residents in thirty-five cities and towns. In a time of rapid and uneven social and ecological change, this studio questioned how can the design of a landscape imaginatively invent new (and highly legible) frameworks for living with water? The Five Gardens seeks to of preserve the densest zones of existing vegetation while hyperdensifying the “in between zones” with new plant species creating connecting gardens from one part of the park to the next. While the extended
24
docks and artificial beach front will provide users more interaction with the river edge in response to Boston’s projected climatic conditions. After surveying the site and documenting existing vegetation, new ecological frameworks are embedded to enrich the existing biodiversity, through a series of shrub lands and wetlands that negotiate boundaries with the existing river’s edge, while also creating a flood buffer. The gardens act as connecting bodies between the existing islands of dense tree plantings, reviving the sub canopy and ground layer that are currently in decline.
25
26
27
28
29
View of the shrub land
30
View walking towards the beach front
31