Whole Systems Design for the Old Rainier Brewery turned Artist Community by Selina Hunstiger

Whole Systems Design for the Old Rainier Brewery turned Artist Community: cultivating food, culture, and community through a re-design of the Rooftop Network

Selina M. Hunstiger

Whole Systems Design for the Old Rainier Brewery turned Artist Community: cultivating food, culture, and community through a re-design of the Rooftop Network

Selina M. Hunstiger

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Landscape Architecture University of Washington 2010

Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of Landscape Architecture

University of Washington Graduate School

This is to certify that I have examined this copy of a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thesis by

Selina M. Hunstiger

and have found that it is complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the final examining committee have been made.

Committee Members:

___________________________________________________ Julie M. Johnson

___________________________________________________ Ben Spencer

Date:__________________________________

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at the University of Washington, I agree that the Library shall make its copies freely available for inspection. I further agree that extensive copying of this thesis is allowable only for scholarly purposes, consistent with “fair use“ as prescribed in the U.S. Copyright Law. Any other reproduction for any purposes or by any means shall not be allowed without my written permission.

Signature ________________________

Date ____________________________

University of Washington Abstract Abs tract Whole Systems Design for the Old Rainier Brewery turned Artist Community: cultivating food, culture, and community through a re-design of the rooftop network

Selina M. Hunstiger Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Julie M. Johnson Department of Landscape Architecture A post-industrial fabric stitched with skeletons of structures sits abandoned. Once a rhythmic, percussive soundscape, now only hints of this history are present. It is time for a remix, an old track to be scratched with new, innovative, inspiring marks. It is time to incorporate a record of the past with the present. Vacant rooftops are the perfect canvas to re-integrate a musical undertone back into these forgotten spaces. Through the integration of systems, urban ecology, arts and culture, this post-industrial landscape will become a fantastical dreamscape. The Arts Brewery, housing Tullyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s roasting plant and artist owned live/work spaces is smashed up against Interstate 5 in the industrial district of Seattle. It is a unique post-industrial complex with multi-tiered rooftops. In this experiential book I offer a score for these rooftops as a catalyst for transition of vacant rooftops into a network of multifunctional imagined, fantastical spaces. This book dictates feelings, sounds, movement, and spatial relationships. It seeks to inspire choreography set on a scene, and plays whole notes overlaid with melodic strings. It incorporates verses of words rhythmically recited. It offers a tune, with complex layers of intertwined harmonies. It sings a song with the hope its ideals and visions will inform the re-design of other postindustrial spaces.

TABLE OF CONTENTS COMPOSITION LIST OF FIGURES PRELUDE: INTRODUCTION

ii 1

“an instrumental work intended to precede a larger work“1

FIRST MOVEMENT: THEME AND VARIATIONS

PART ONE: THEMES and INSPIRATION

theme: “a complete, self-contained part within a larger musical work.“2

introduction to themes three themes systems integration urban ecology arts and culture variation on themes score inspiration design questions

variation: “a compositional procedure in which a theme is stated and then altered in successive statements. This is a melodic idea used as a basic building block in the construction of a composition.“3

SECOND MOVEMENT: STAGE/SET/SPEAKERS PART TWO: SITE introduction to site

site analysis

THIRD MOVEMENT: PERFORMANCE PART THREE: DESIGN concept: score

instrument: “mechanism that generates musical transmits them into the air.“4

vibrations

and

characters: rooftops voice beat rest chord bass

CODA: OVER TIME

7 8 13 17 23 29 35 36 39 43 45 46 50 67 69 73 79 89 99 109 119 129

“the last part of a piece, usually added to a standard form to bring it to a close.“5

ENCORE: REFLECTION ENDNOTES

135

BIBLIOGRAPHY

143

“an audience request that the performer(s) repeat a piece or perform another.“6

140

LIST OF FIGURES fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig.

1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31: 32: 33: 34: 35: 36: 37: 38: 39: 40: 41: 42: 43: 44: 45: 46: 47: 48: 49: 50: 51: 52: 53: 54:

Author’s first score..................................................................................................................................................ix Urban Nest...................................................................................................................................................................1 Abandoned structure, Seattle, mid 1990’s....................................................................................................................2 Abandoned Structure, New Orleans, 2008.....................................................................................................................3 Live in Music..............................................................................................................................................................4 Pieces thrown in the air........................................................................................................................................... 7 Sneak peak................................................................................................................................................................. 11 These three themes.................................................................................................................................................... 13 Solar water pump, Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead, Orcas Island, WA................................................................. 17 Multiple stories with functions stacked............................................................................................................... 19 Systems integration diagram part 1....................................................................................................................... 20 Systems integration diagram part 2....................................................................................................................... 21 Patch of green......................................................................................................................................................... 23 Diagramming change................................................................................................................................................ 25 Urban ecology diagram part 1................................................................................................................................. 26 Urban ecology diagram part 2................................................................................................................................. 27 Degenerate Art Emsemble, Life is Art, (source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasart).................................... 29 Greensboro performing arts, (source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vizitinc)..................................................... 30 Wabi-sabi aesthetic................................................................................................................................................ 31 Art and Culture diagram 1...................................................................................................................................... 32 Art and Culture diagram 2...................................................................................................................................... 33 These three themes of mine..................................................................................................................................... 34 Score as a mark....................................................................................................................................................... 36 Movement notation, (source: http://www.dancenotation.org). ................................................................................. 36 Dance and music notation, (source: http://www.davidbrassrarebooks.com/)............................................................ 36 Abstract score, (source: http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com)................................................................................. 36 Abstract note score, (source: http://paulrucker.com)............................................................................................. 37 The thread................................................................................................................................................................ 39 Author’s journals..................................................................................................................................................... 40 Happy, abstract score, (source: http://lizmeredith.files.wordpress.com)............................................................... 41 Marcy Kentz, Drawing from Life, 74....................................................................................................................... 41 Jacobs/Campbell Dance on Harlem rooftop, Lindsey Thoeng, (source: flickr.com).................................................. 41 How? diagram............................................................................................................................................................ 42 Behind the scenes.................................................................................................................................................... 45 Arts Brewery buildings and pipes........................................................................................................................... 46 Site exploration...................................................................................................................................................... 47 Site context............................................................................................................................................................. 48 Arts Brewery rooftops............................................................................................................................................. 49 Waiting in the parking lot.................................................................................................................................... 50 Site Analysis........................................................................................................................................................... 51 Materials on-site.................................................................................................................................................... 53 Site with larger context, (source: Google Earth)................................................................................................... 54 Building occupants.................................................................................................................................................. 56 Circulation.............................................................................................................................................................. 57 Sound travels........................................................................................................................................................... 58 Crescendo from rooftop to freeway......................................................................................................................... 59 Water main and lateral lines, (source: Washington State Geospatial Data Archive)............................................ 60 Path of water.......................................................................................................................................................... 61 View west from the Arts Brewery rooftops............................................................................................................. 62 View east from the Arts Brewery rooftops............................................................................................................. 63 Existing rooftop conditions and interior function.............................................................................................. 64 Play.......................................................................................................................................................................... 67 Hand of the artist................................................................................................................................................... 69 Score revisited........................................................................................................................................................ 70 ii

fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig. fig.

55: 56: 57: 58: 59: 60: 61: 62: 63: 64: 65: 66: 67: 68: 69: 70: 71: 72: 73: 74: 75: 76: 77: 78: 79: 80: 81: 82: 83: 84: 85: 86: 87: 88: 89: 90: 91: 92: 93: 94: 95: 96: 97: 98:

Physical layers, layered with layers of information........................................................................................... 73 Five Rooftops........................................................................................................................................................... 74 Five rooftops and their vertical relationships.................................................................................................... 76 Voice ....................................................................................................................................................................... 79 Freeway music.......................................................................................................................................................... 81 Voice Rooftop poem................................................................................................................................................... 82 Night concert........................................................................................................................................................... 83 Screens blend in with ‘the Jungle’ in the background........................................................................................... 84 Sliding platforms and sound screens...................................................................................................................... 85 Voice site plan........................................................................................................................................................ 86 Systems from an axonometric view.......................................................................................................................... 87 Beat.......................................................................................................................................................................... 89 Rhythm of Rooftop................................................................................................................................................... 91 Beat Rooftop poem.................................................................................................................................................... 92 Greenhouse and garden beds.................................................................................................................................... 93 Cycle of garden beds............................................................................................................................................... 94 Human and water circulation.................................................................................................................................. 95 Beat site plan.......................................................................................................................................................... 96 Systems from an axonometric view.......................................................................................................................... 97 Rest.......................................................................................................................................................................... 99 A green tapestry blankets the rooftop..................................................................................................................101 Rest Rooftop poem...................................................................................................................................................102 Rest Rooftop mounds, looking west.........................................................................................................................103 Rest Rooftop, looking north................................................................................................................................... 105 Rest site plan......................................................................................................................................................... 106 Systems from an axonometric view......................................................................................................................... 107 Chord....................................................................................................................................................................... 109 Sounds like water................................................................................................................................................... 110 Chord Rooftop poem................................................................................................................................................. 112 Water, light, sound sculptural tubes.................................................................................................................... 113 Pulling the chord................................................................................................................................................... 114 Chord site plan....................................................................................................................................................... 116 Systems from an axonometric view......................................................................................................................... 117 Bass......................................................................................................................................................................... 119 Magic carpet........................................................................................................................................................... 120 Holding sound......................................................................................................................................................... 122 Bass experience...................................................................................................................................................... 124 Bass site plan......................................................................................................................................................... 126 Systems from an axonometric view......................................................................................................................... 127 Over time................................................................................................................................................................ 129 ‘the Jungle’ hops over the freeway......................................................................................................................... 130 Reflection............................................................................................................................................................... 135 Storyboarding......................................................................................................................................................... 139 Final say................................................................................................................................................................ 142

Note: all figures created by author, except as noted.

iii

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you music, art, and dance without you this would not have been possible. Thank you friends for your smiles, hugs, positive criticism and reminding me to breathe. Thank you mama for your continual support, love, encouragement, and for the many hours of hanging out with indigo while I worked on this book. Thank you Indigo Miel for your sweetness, patience, and your constantly happy nature. Thank you Julie M. Johnson and Ben Spencer for encouraging me to follow a unique thesis format, for pushing me to constantly think of multiple ways of putting images and words together, and for making sense of my thoughts after many, many, many sleepless nights. + K. Wimble and Mikey Ninja you are amazing computer genies I can always count on ya to answer my random questions in a split second. thank you...

DEDICATION for Indigo Miel. catch your dreams. conquer your fears one day at a time. live in music. fly.

fig. 1: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first score

vii

INTRODUCTION: PRELUDE an urban nest, perched up high nestled in the concrete jungle, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fly.

fig. 2: Urban Nest

PRELUDE slowly, slowly I turn the car right onto a street with no defined lanes, an extra wide street lined with colorful freight containers and no traffic. Railroad tracks embedded in the concrete dance between road edges. There are no sidewalks and no people but, there was something magical that spoke to me. Learning to drive in this neighborhood, led to my fascination, and obsession with defunct, crumbling, abandoned landscapes. As a teenager I thoroughly explored my neighborhood of vacant lots, abandoned houses, structures eaten by vines and vegetation gone wild. I captured these landscapes in photographs. The process of photography, the mystery and intrigue in exploration of these sites with a medium full of surprises in the processing and developing of film was all part of the thrilling experience. I spent high school in abandoned spaces and darkrooms.

fig. 3: Abandoned structure, Seattle, mid 1990â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

fig. 4: Abandoned Structure, New Orleans, 2008.

This obsession continues to this day, 15 years later. I have explored similar landscapes all around the world and still am incredibly inspired by these spaces. My heart beats strong when I pick up my camera and just think about exploring every hidden piece of these sites. I feel like a detective, trying to understand the history of the space. Every shot is a hint at uncovering the secrets of the past. I seek to capture the sublime, the everchanging essence of the space, to reveal layers of history and expose the underlying beauty and the imagined.

fig. 5: Live in Music

i live in music is this where you live i live here in music i live on c street my friend lives on b avenue do you live here in music sound falls round me like rain on other folks saxophones wet on my face cold as winter in st. louis hot like peppers i rub on my lips thinkin they waz lilies i got 15 trumpets where other women got hips & a upright bass for both sides of my heart i walk round in a piano like somebody else/be walkin on the earth i live in music live in it wash in it i cd even smell it wear sound on my fingers sound falls so fulla music ya cd make a river where yr arm is & hold yrself hold yrself in a music -Ntosake Shange7

PART ONE: THEMES and INSPIRATION FIRST MOVEMENT: THEME AND VARIATION if these pieces have a specific place they belong letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s throw them in the air and see where they land.

fig. 6: Pieces thrown in the air

INTRODUCTION TO THEMES Concrete, grey, low, flat, large, expansive industrial warehouses. Grey ground, grey sky. Hard, stable, strong, sturdy structures dominate the landscape. Smokestacks emit plumes of toxic gasses, wafting upward, slowing dissipating to become one with the cloud particles. Clang, clllaang, cheeechee.. cheee heee... grrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnnd clangg clangg clangg Constant sounds, layers of sounds, a symphony of industry. Each hummmm, bzzzzzzz, clang is evidence of a machine or a hand working to complete a piece of the puzzle. Each sound is proof of the birth of a creation with a unique function that is part of a system, one piece of the whole. This is the rhythm of a working landscape. Is this current landscape working? I am interested in post-industrial landscapes as a stage for systems to dance across, establishing creative, diverse interactions. Supporting ecosystem functions and re-designing urban systems to act and interact holistically will begin to heal the wounds opened and reopened by our toxic ways. Ecology needs to have strong presence in this urban setting. It is the key to the healing process. Designing with these elements as a foundation encourages innovative design solutions and offers an exciting opportunity to make imagined landscapes a reality.

9 My topic is important because finding diverse, creative ways to design with the whole systems approach has potential to create efficient, resilient, adaptable, flexible, long-lasting systems. Systems integration in the context of post-industrial facilities is a concept that has been discussed, but there are not many examples of successful project design and construction. There is not one specific way to design a whole system. Some research has been conducted and experimental sites containing â&#x20AC;&#x153;green design solutionsâ&#x20AC;&#x153; have been constructed, but understanding these complex systems and their relationships is at the root of sustainable design and I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel we have achieved this yet. Post-industrial warehouses are works of art, an aesthetic that reflects our industrial history. These significant structures are composed of strong, durable materials, which reflect the massive presence and materiality of industry. Because of the collapse of many industrial markets we now have many vacant warehouses that would take more energy to tear down than to adaptively reuse as affordable housing. Many of these recently abandoned structures should be adaptively re-used as affordable, creative, cooperatively owned live/work spaces. These warehouses are places full of opportunity for building and strengthening communities. Because of the scale, previous function, and form of these structures many have flat rooftops that are structurally sound and able to bear heavy loads and are accessible. The rooftops should be used as functional, magical, dreamscapes, offering inspiration, systems integration, and green space amongst a vast, cold, grey, monotonous, industrial landscape. Rooftops offer a different perspective, enhancing the storybook, fantastical quality, and essence of post-industrial spaces. Systems (energy, water, food, waste, etc...) should be well integrated with each other and the surrounding landscape. Functionality of these systems should be stacked to support one another, making the network function more efficiently as a whole. Feedback loops should be built into the design so, if one system fails the entire network will not crumble. They should be resilient and adaptable. Systems are likely to change their flow, temperature, and load overtime. In order to maintain a resilient system it is crucial to respect, highlight, and strengthen complex relationships involved. It is important to look at landscape design and place-making holistically and recognize

10 that all things are connected. Not only are energy, water, waste, vegetation, animals, and humans involved in systems but equally beneficial and often overlooked are art and culture. Art and cultural exchange through food, cooking, performance, music, and dance, is a basic need and should be an integral part of in flexible, adaptive, whole system design solutions, management of resources goods and services. In the field of Landscape Architecture it is necessary to be able to communicate with a diverse group of people. The ability to communicate visually, verbally, and in writing is essential but, equally invaluable is having knowledge of the language of movement, ecology, cultures and to be open to alternative forms of communication. I believe knowledge and ideas should be accessible and expressed in an appropriate language, which for me is in the experiential, visual, poetic nature. Therefore my final design proposal and thesis are in a book format that is legible and accessible to a wide range of people and not restricted to an academic audience. I see this book as a piece that will inspire, provoke curiosity, and act as a catalyst for innovative, whole system designs.

fig. 7: Sneak peak

THREE THEMES... THEMES AND

AND

VARIATION...

INSPIRATION...

systems integration: whole systems design urban ecology: landscape urbanism arts and culture: performance, art community, experience in space

fig. 8: These three themes

14 systems integration: whole systems design

urban ecology: landscape urbanism

Systems integration involves connecting systems, figuring out what holds them together and supporting these relationships. This term is commonly used in the fields of engineering and information technology as “the bringing together of the component subsystems into one system and ensuring that the subsystems function together as a system. It is the process of linking together different computing systems and software applications physically or functionally.“8 The end goal is the creation of a more efficient system.

Urban ecology is “the interaction between organisms in an urban or urbanized community, and their interaction with that community.“9

In landscape architecture, systems integration involves complex systems relationships incorporating multi-dimensional relatioships that are in many cases are fluid and unpredictable. It seeks to integrate human-made systems in symbiotic relationships with “natural“ systems. In landscape architeture taking a whole systems approach to system integration requires an incredibly diverse, multidiciplinary design team composed of social and natural scientists, engineers, planners, designers, and artists.

Supporting urban ecology throughout the design process leads to healthier and better managed communities. This approach in landscape architecture is strongly tied with the concept of landscape urbanism, which involves the fusing of landscape and city. It acknowledges the need for adaptable and resilient design catering to dynamic processes.

15 arts and culture: performance, art community, experience in space Art can be defined as, “the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings.“10 Culture can be described as “the total of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge, which constitute the shared bases of social action.“11 In landscape architecture arts and culture are essential components in determining modes of communication. Knowledge of arts and culture is a useful tool for effectively communicating design intent as well as designing sites that reflect and support all the groups involved. The underlying goal of design is to create an experience on site which encourages cultivation and growth.

SYSTEMS INTEGRATION: whole systems design The air smells moist, crisp, fresh, dewy. Pine needles dust the forest floor, vine maple, snow berry, salal, oregon grape, and oxalis coat the understory and cover the ground. Green everywhere, birds chirping, insects creeping and crawling on bark and logs. As I walk in the forest I observe an ecosystem that appears to be flourishing. Vegetation with healthy, deep green foliage, fluffy layers of organic matter blanket the forest floor in various states of decomposition, insects feed on soil. What is the secret to this healthy ecosystem?

fig. 9: Solar water pump, Bullockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Permaculture Homestead, Orcas Island, WA.

WHOLE SYSTEMS DESIGN: permaculture as a foundation One approach to systems integration and whole systems design is permaculture, which is a set of techniques and principles for designing sustainable human settlements. “The word, a contraction of both ‘permanent culture’ and ‘permanent agriculture,’ was coined by Bill Mollison, a charismatic and iconoclastic one-time forester, school teacher, trapper, and field naturalist, and one of his students, David Holmgren. Mollison says the original idea for permaculture came to him in 1959 when he was observing marsupials browsing in the forests of Tasmania and jotted in his diary, ‘I believe that we could build systems that would function as well as this one does.’“12 Permaculturalists focus the design of relationships and interconnections between plants, animals and humans. We all live and operate in social systems that are inextricably linked with the ecological systems in which they are embedded; we exist within social-ecological systems. Changes in one domain of the system, social or ecological, inevitably have impacts on the other domain. It is not possible to meaningfully understand the dynamics of one of the domains in isolation from the other.13 Interconnections are what turns a collection of unrelated parts into a functioning system, whether it’s a community, a family, or an ecosystem.14 Stacking functions and designing with use of multiple stories, are two techniques used in permaculture design that I have chosen to employ in my approach to whole systems design. Whole systems design involves integrating systems so their functions or unique qualities support one another rather than functioning as individual systems. This method of design seeks to optimize the whole rather than strictly focusing on the parts. It seeks to close the loop within itself. Resources are cycled, reused, and recycled back into the web creating a closed loop therefore eliminating waste.

waste = useful, beneficial, resourceful

19 FOOD

COMPOST

WATER (GRAY, BLACK)

ENERGY

HUMANS

ANIMALS

PLANTS

KNOWLEDGE

ART

CULTURE

Multiple Stories

TREE = habitat, protection from the elements, wood for building and heating

An ecological garden has many layers, from a low herb layer through shrubs, vines and small trees to large understory, each layer contains diverse species, which may include varieties for food and other human uses, wildlife plants, and flora for building soil and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Together the layers provide diverse habitat, many products, and plenty of visual interest.15

ROOTS = break up compacted soil control erosion facilitae nutrient cycling

LEAVES = compost, food and shelter for insects

Nitrogen fixing plant =

BERRIES =

Supports ecosystems processes provides shelter

food for humans and animals

fig. 10: Multiple stories with functions stacked

Stacking Functions Everything in nature has more than one function which makes it function very efficiently. For example a shrub doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just cast shade. It feeds winter-starved birds with its berries, offers shelter, mulches the soil with its leaves and blocks the wind.16 Whole systems design is multifunctional. Functions are stacked, meaning they are layered in a way which they support other systems. These qualities are beneficial to other species.

20 growth. people. diversity. continual flow. Integrate, relate, permeate.

relationships. multifunctional.

palimpsest. interrelate. complex palimpsest. connections. symbiotic. mix. metabolize. join together. interrelate. complex assimilate. network. support. overlap. integrate. layer. palimpsest. interrelate. overlap. integrate. layer. connections. complex relationships. multifunctional. symbiotic. mix. connections. symbiotic. mix. metabolize. join metabolize. relationships. multifunctional. together. assimilate. network. support. join together. palimpsest. interrelate. complex assimilate. connections. symbiotic. mix. network. metabolize. join together. support.overlap. assimilate. network. support. integrate. layer. overlap. integrate. layer. relationships. palimpsest. interrelate. complex multifunctional. connections. symbiotic. mix. metabolize. join toget palimpsest. interrelate. complex integrate. layer. relationships. multifunctional. connections. symbiotic. mix. metabolize. join together. assimilate. network. support. overlap. integrate. layer.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;systems behave in ways far more complex than their individual part.â&#x20AC;?17 -Sim Van der Ryn

fig. 11: Systems integration diagram part 1

“A water Hyacinth and a flourishing

ther. assimilate. network. support. overlap. .

mat of duckweed and Azolla float on the surface. Underneath, the root hairs of the hyacinth constantly strain the water for nutrients, providing a home for various microorganisms. Decaying organic matter accumulates on the bottom, forming a kind of park for the playful water fleas and detritivores. Elsewhere, copepods swim in their characteristic herky-jerky fashion, tiny amphipods roil about, and snails slowly sweep the sides of the jar. Hundreds of species interact in this microcosm, their natural histories crisscrossing in a tiny world structured by roots, detritus, air and water.“18 -Sim Van der Ryn

“Imagine the natural world and the humanly designed world bound together in intersecting layers, the warp and woof that make up the fabric of our lives. Instead of a simple fabric of two layers, it is made up of dozens of layers with vastly different characteristics.“19 inner-city, vacant, unused spaces, feeding the city, -Sim Van der Ryn

diversity of people, diversity of crops, maximum planting in minimum space, urban agriculture, rooftop veggies fig. 12: Systems integration diagram part 2

URBAN ECOLOGY: landscape urbanism If I get down on my hands and knees I am able to see a blade of grass sprouting in the crack of the sidewalk, growing from a small collection, a gathering of soil particles that have accumulated from dust and grime that happened to settle here. Here in a sea of grey hardscape a single piece of green growing, a sign of life. Rust, peeling paint, corrosion and decay are evidence of industrial materials, history slowing being eaten away. Marked by weather. Marked by humans. Marked with secret spottings of green growth. The places in between, interstitial, underused, leftover, forgotten, void, between buildings merging with vegetation and ecosystems. A symbiotic fig. 13: Patch of green

relationship between buildings and â&#x20AC;&#x153;nature.â&#x20AC;&#x153;

LANDSCAPE URBANISM: post-industrial landscapes as a canvas. Urban landscapes especially underutilized patches of cities should be woven into the urban fabric. These spaces should be accessible to people, animals, and as locations of resource harness and use. There is so much potential for these empty spaces to become part of the existing fabric and this is an opportunity to pioneer the rethinking, reworking, recreating the current concrete landscape, hardscape into a new redefined vision of landscape. We need to continue exploring and creating integrated, diverse options for establishing and increasing the relationship between city and forest. This dichotomy should be less green and grey and more of a gradient of systems relationships each supporting specific site situations. From groundplane to vertical, to elevated experience.

symbiotic relationship

support system

more resilient

“Resilience is the capacity of a system to undergo change and still retain its basic function and structure.“20 - Brian Walker and David Salt “If

we design for the long-term with flexibility and adaptability as key components, a postindustrial skeleton, combined with innovative systems integration, the result should be a magical, inspirational, and curious, seamless, porous landscape for all creatures. Resilience thinking is about seeing the systems within the social-ecological system that we’re all a part of- as one interlinked system. We are all actors playing a role in that system.“21 - Brian Walker and David Salt EMPTY SPACE

OPPORTUNITY

POTENTIAL

available, alternative options to c u r r e n t situation. economical, available, alternative options to c u r r e n t situation. economical, available, alternative options to c u r r e n t situation. economical, available, alternative options to c u r r e n t construct. deconstruct.s iexisting t u a t i o n .structure. technology. materiality. e c o nomical, reuse. recycle. reinvent. reframe. rework. available, history revealed. adaptable. resilient. alternative options to c u r r e n t situation. economical, available, alternative options to c u r r e n t situation. economical, available, alternative options to c u r r e n t situation. economical, available, alternative options to c u r r e n t situation. fig. 14: Diagramming change c u r r e n t situation. economical,

flexible. fluid.

26 Picture the city as a forest, living, breathing, growing, supporting …… community.

“contemporary landscape urbanism practices recommend the use of infrastructural systems and the public landscapes they engender as the very ordering mechanisms of the urban field itself, shaping and shifting the organization of urban settlement and its inevitably indeterminate economic, political, and social futures.“22 -Charles Waldheim

“Significant potentials of landscape urbanism: the ability to shift scales, to locate urban fabrics in the regional and biotic contexts, and to design relationship between dynamic environmental processes and urban form.“23 -James Corner

fig. 15: Urban ecology diagram part 1

construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct

construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct

c c c

- C h a rl e s W a l d h e i m

ru ct ural systems.“26

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c ha

ee r e

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(engin

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construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct

James Corner

“i implicit advan t

Cities and infrastructures are just as ‘ecological’ as forests and- rivers.24

and fl

“Even those who have included the city in ecological equation have done so only from the perspective of natural systems (hydrology, air-flow, vegetational communities, and so on). We have yet to understand cultural, social, political, and economic environments as embedded in and symmetrical with the “natural” world. The promise of landscape urbanism is the development of a space-time ecology that treats all t forces and agents working in the urban field and considers them as continuous networks of interrelationships.“25 -James Corner ages of la

infrast

ndscape urbani

construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct construct

“Referring to horizontal surface… or ground plane. These surfaces constitute the urban field when considered across a wide range of scales, from the sidewalk to the street to the entire infrastructural matrix of urban surfaces. This suggests contemporary interest in surface continuities, where roofs and grounds become one and the same; and this is certainly of great value with regard to conflating separations between landscape and building.“27 -James Corner

fig. 16: Urban ecology diagram part 2

ARTS AND CULTURE: performance, art community, experience in space I step into the sea of darkness. I can feel the presence of others but, cannot hear or see anything. I feel the bouncy, rubber floor under the soles of my feet as I silently, slowly step into position. Bright, hot lights blast on, blinding me and everything is clear. The music begins and I move across the stage my body fully extended, costumed in smooth, silky, scarves. I am dressed in character, giving all I have within. My insides are exposed and vulnerable as I present my interpretation of the choreographerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision. My body is an instrument. I am one with the music, one with the other dancers. I feel completely present, completely hypnotized by the movements we have rehearsed time after time. fig. 17: Degenerate Art Emsemble, Life is Art, (source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasart)

I am complete.

PERFORMANCE, ART COMMUNITY, ExPERIENCE IN SPACE: I am a dancer. I am a musician. My body is my instrument. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing.â&#x20AC;&#x153;28 -Zimbabwean proverb

We are all unique individuals. We are all an integral piece of systems thinking. Our unique qualities as individuals are strengthened when we come together as a community. When we interact with each other, we exchange knowledge through creative expression and encourage, imagine, celebrate, dream.

fig. 18: Greensboro performing arts (source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vizitinc)

31 We have different ideas of beauty and are attracted to spaces we find aesthetically pleasing. Therefore the aesthetic of place is important to our experience, desire to interact with, and establish a relationship with place and each other. Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic that creates a distinctive feeling containing a sense of mystery, equates beauty with the imperfect, incorporates a variety of material qualities, and allows one to question time by bringing the viewer to the present. I feel this aesthetic not only celebrates the history of place as well as provides a record of time, allows and appreciates change but also reminds the participant to be in the moment.

The evidence, marks, and traces of natural processes are ever present in post-industrial landscapes and utilizing wabi-sabi in the re-design of these landscape highlights the beauty of systems interaction and evolution as part of the on-site experience. This aesthetic finds the beauty in imperfection and acknowledges the perfection of imperfection. Imperfection involves the viewer in the process by allowing him/her to complete images in his/her mind using imagination.29 This aesthetic finds strength in using natural processes such as degradation, attrition, corrosion and contamination, to make its expression richer.30 In Landscape Architecture multi-sensual components on-site creates a more holistic experience for the participant. This connection of body to space allows a deeper connection to the environment and each other.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The sense of self, strengthened by art and architecture, allows us to engage fully in the mental dimensions of dream, imagination, and desire.â&#x20AC;&#x153;31 -Juhani Pallasmaa fig. 19: Wabi-sabi aesthetic

Harnessing interior artistic energy, bringing to the exterior. exposure.

“Public spaces are firstly the containers of collective memory and desire, and secondly they are the places for geographic and social imagination to extend new relationships and sets of possibility.”32 -James Corner

“A peculiar landscape beauty can be found on contaminated sites, such as Landschafts Duisburg-Nord’s yellow moss atop slag heaps, or its forest of birch trees and its thickets of willow and butterfly bush colonizing contaminated railroad right of ways.“33 -Elizabeth Meyer

fig. 20: Art and Culture diagram 1

“What might happen if that experience of beauty within risk caused a collectivity of individuals to act differently in their everyday lives?“34 -Elizabeth Meyer

imaginative. fantastical space. creative. dreamscape. wabi-sabi. flexible gathering and performance space. nooks. shoots and ladders. mystery. unexpected. hidden. sensual. surprise. tune. music. movement. rhythm. repetition. rhyme. syncopation. harmony. orchestra. musical score. dance. expression. experimentation elegance. performance. perspective. poetry.

“Landscape urbanism suggests a reconsideration of traditional conceptual, representational, and operative techniques. The possibilities of vast scale shifts across both time and space, working synoptic maps alongside the intimate recordings of local circumstance, comparing cinematic and choreographic techniques to spatial notion, entering the algebraic, digital space of the computer while messing around with paint, lay, and ink, and engaging in real estate developers and engineers alongside the highly specialized imagineers and poets of contemporary culture.”35

-James Corner

fig. 21: Art and Culture diagram 2

fig. 22: These three themes of mine.

VARIATION ON THEMES: score These three themes of mine: systems integration urban ecology art and culture

are not stagnant.

They sing, dance, have rhythm, tonality, movement. They overlap, intertwine, nest, stack, and relate to each other in many fashions.

SCORE: where whole systems design, urban ecology, post-industrial landscapes, art, culture, and community join forces. Score can be defined as a mark, notch or incision on a surface.36 Score is refered to in music as the written form of a composition for orchestral, vocal parts or for a specific instrument.37 It is the notation of a musical work or for dance. Scores are the process leading to performance.38 It is the script, a foundation for the performance. fig. 23: Score as a mark

I envision a score as much more than a notation form that visually describes the relationship between instruments and how the sounds these instruments will be performed. This is the first layer. The first mark. The first score.

fig. 24: Movement notation, (source: http://www.dancenotation.org).

fig. 25: Dance and music notation, fig. 26: Abstract score, (source: http://www.davidbrassrarebooks.com/). (source: http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com).

fig. 27: Abstract note score, (source: http://paulrucker.com).

Systems (water, energy, waste, etc.) are among the instruments that a score might orchestrate. The performance of these systems is a piece of art, a poem, a composition. What if the compostition is a landscape? How does the concept of a “score“ translate as a design tool? According the Lawrence Halprin, scores “... allow the activity itself to generate its own results in the process. They communicate but do not control. They energize and guide, they encourage, they evoke responses, they do not impose.“40 What does this relationship look like? What possibilities are there? on scores. “environments and people can be scored together in a choreography of motion.“41

INSPIRATION: the thread I continue to tug with increasing interest. Books, drawings, photos, maps, poems, music, conversation, facial expressions, layout, design, the guy next to me rocking out with his headphones on. The glass of tea steaming in front of me. The corner of a page I tore off from a math assignment in seventh grade. Perhaps everything is an inspiration or leads to an inspiration, therefore it is an inspiration to inspire. Maybe the real question is what doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t inspire?

fig. 28: The thread

fig. 29: Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journals

fig. 32: Jacobs/Campbell Dance on Harlem rooftop, Lindsey Thoeng, (source: flickr.com).

fig. 30: Happy, abstract score, (source: http://lizmeredith.files.wordpress.com). fig. 31: Marcy Kentz, Drawing from Life, 74.

fig. 33: How? diagram.

DESIGN QUESTIONS: things to consider and reconsider... HOW? How do I create a well integrated whole system designed rooftop network? How can I celebrate the interior function of the building in the exterior space? How do I design a multifunctional, fluid, flexible space? How do I design rooftop landscape, which encourages discovery, mystery and imagination?

PART TWO: SITE SECOND MOVEMENT: STAGE/SET/SPEAKERS let’s explore behind the scenes.

fig. 34: Behind the scenes

fig. 35: Arts Brewery buildings and pipes

INTRODUCTION TO SITE Dance, movement, body as an instrument, form of expression. I grew up dancing, choreographing; sounds, words, movement, costume, performance. “5, 6, 7, 8... you get 5 counts of 8 for your solo, then I’ll lift you while Nicholas finishes lifting Carly on 1, 2.“ Overlapping movements, a series of counts, beats, subtlety followed by flamboyance of movement. Every dance has a theme, story, attitude, lighting, and music that heightens the awareness and the intention of the choreographer. Costumes, facial expressions, and make-up help to strengthen and emphasize the choregrapher’s intent. This enabled me to look at life as a theater, stage, set, complete with a soundtrack, costumes, and rhythm. I see daily life as a musical theater, full of inspiration, humor, and fantasy. Dance led me to experience the Arts Brewery.

47 The first space inhabited in the transition of the old Rainier Brewery into artist live/work spaces was a Capoeira (Brazilian art/dance/fight/way of life) Studio. I had been training with this Capoeira school for a couple years prior to moving into this new space and when we became the first group to set the tone for this newly developed arts community I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been happier. We danced inside and out on the rooftops. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d fantasize about dancing between rooftops and designing a rooftop network that would be a dreamscape complete with the freeing, feeling, of flying that Capoeira embodies. I dreamt of enlivening the unique stacking structure of the roofs with vegetation, performance space, and creating a magical landscape that encompassed the feeling I got from dancing, hearing music, gardening, and exploring abandonned structures and sites. The sensation of hitting the right combination of musical notes, harmony, a chord that makes you body melt with sweet satisfaction. A beat you feel deep in your soul as if it were an internal rhythm. A bass so strong it booms through your body with a vibration that makes you feel one with every tone. A voice smooth as satin, with lyrics that speak your mood so accurately you just have to sing along at the top of your lungs. A rest or pause in music that leaves you eagerly anticipating the next sound as well as content and appreciative of the break that allows you to appreciate sounds even more intensively after experiencing silence.

fig. 36: Site exploration

SITE, Sight, sighhh T. The Old Rainier Brewery, Tullyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s roasting plant, also known as the Arts Brewery is a smattering of buildings; tall and narrow, short, wide and windowless to spaces completely enveloped in natural light. This building complex is smashed up against interstate five, on the edge of the Industrial district of Seattle.

This former brewery is in the process of being converted into live/ work spaces, recording studios, performance spaces, and offices for non-profits. When completed the Arts Brewery will be Seattleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest artist community. The spaces are rent to own in which the renters/owners have signed a 15-year lease agreement with the intention of creating a cooperatively owned facility, which supports an artist community. There are several buildings all with roofs at different elevations. These spaces currently serve different functions and could become a common link and green space amongst a neighborhood filled with toxic waste, large boulevards catering to semi trucks, and disjointed populations. I see the rooftops as potential for strengthening a mixed-use community- as a multifunctional space, where people can cultivate food and culture. fig. 37: Site context

fig. 38: Arts Brewery rooftops

SITE ANALYSIS â&#x20AC;&#x153;This complex is huge,â&#x20AC;&#x153; I say to myself as I wait in the parking lot for the site manager to let me in the building to access the rooftops. The series of buildings towers above me from the parking lot below. The freeway makes itself known by voicing a rhythmic cliiinankk chorus of cars singing as they bounce over metal joints holding together the massive interstate. The freeway is elevated approxemately 20 feet off the ground and is remarkably close to the Arts Brewery. Getting to some of the rooftops can be a bit of a maze. Several are potentially publicly accessible, while others are strictly for the building residents. We enter the building, ride the elevator to the last stop, exit on the roof level, open a door and we are on the tallest rooftop in the complex.

waiting in the parking lot

fig. 39: Waiting in the parking lot

fig. 40: Site Analysis

PROCESS: site exploration I explored the Arts Brewery through on-site observation-

In my journal I took notes about my experience on site. After allowing my rooftop experience to percolate I reviewed these notes and wrote poems reflecting the current nature of the roof combined with my future design vision. I took visual notes through diagramming system flows. I experienced the site through the act of photographing the network of rooftops. Photographing the various spaces helped my to zoom in and out of various scales and visually explore connections between spaces. In recording sound I became more aware of the dynamic nature of sound and recognized its daily and seasonal fluctuation.

fig. 41: Materials on-site

CONTExT downtown Seattle

Let’s zoom out, more context, where is this site?

Puget Sound

Harbor Island

The ‘Jungle’

Beacon Hill

West Seattle bridge

fig. 42: Site with larger context (source: Google Earth)

Now we know the ideas I am exploring and the site in which I will be exploring these ideas on. I described the process of site exploration, now what are the specific questions I am considering? How am I going about conducting this project design? My intent in creating designs for this rooftop network is to examine possibilities for whole systems design that are multifunctional on the rooftops of an existing industrial building. This whole system will seek to acknowledge and celebrate the interior and exterior relationship in cultivating food and culture. In my design of this roof network I hope to reflect the creative energy of the interior space by exposing it on the outer skin. I wish to establish a symbiotic relationship between the building inhabitants and the outdoor space. By introducing a network of functional, fluctuating, fluid, transformative outdoor nooks, rooms and performance spaces I will allow the interior and exterior spaces to merge. How do I create a well-integrated whole system designed rooftop network? How can I celebrate the interior function of the building in the exterior space? How do I design a multifunctional, fluid, flexible space? How do I design a well-integrated, whole system designed rooftop landscape, which encourages discovery, mystery and imagination?

BUILDNG OCCUPANTS

The five rooftops I have chosen to design are all structurally able office and retail space

artist live/work space, private, residential access

Tullyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s owned and operated facilities

Tullyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cell owned phone interior, towers, residential no roof access access

publicly accessible

Outdoor performance future space community center music recording and practice space

fig. 43: Building occupants

potential public access

to support significant additional weight.

you can travel from this roof to

island

this roof

you can travel from here to

there

without going inside.

CIRCULATION fig. 44: Circulation

SOUND TRAVELS

freeway to rooftop

interior to exterior

fig. 45: Sound travels

fig. 46: Crescendo from rooftop to freeway

WATER

Puget Sound

Lake Washington

fig. 47: Water main and lateral lines, (source: Washington State Geospatial Data Archive)

fig. 48: Path of water

VIEWS

View looking west form the tallest rootop. It includes the Industrial District, West Seattle, downtown Seattle, and the Olympic mountain range.

fig. 49: View west from the Arts Brewery rooftops

“The Jungle“ viewed from the tallest rooftop looking east above across Interstate 5.

fig. 50: View east from the Arts Brewery rooftops

ROOFTOPS VOICE

artist live/work space

BEAT

REST

artist live/work space artist live/work space

fig. 51: Existing rooftop conditions and interior function

CHORD

artist live/work space

future community center

outdoor stage outdoor stage

recording studios

BASS future community center recording studios

PART THREE: DESIGN THIRD MOVEMENT: PERFORMANCE this is what i offer to you, my thoughts, feelings, ideas, vision out on a limb. are you able to reach? press play.

fig. 52: Play

CONCEPT: SCORE

fig. 53: Hand of the artist

SCORE revisited What does the score of these rooftops look like? How does this concept translate into design? What does this look like in the landscape, as part of the landscape, as the landscape? How does it feel to incorporate urban ecology, art, culture, and performance as a component of whole system dsign? This performance/design is a score for your on-site experience of this rooftop landscape. It is the foundation for your experience. The five rooftops I am proposing designs for VOICE BEAT REST CHORD BASS Each has their own unique character, vibe, essence which encompasses the spirit of the roof. Each rooftop is an key piece of the performance, the whole system.

fig. 54: Score revisited

GOALS for rooftop network design: Integrate complex systems. -energy, water, waste, food, social, art, culture- through whole systems design Celebrate interior and exterior relationship. -dance, performance, art, music- practice space, performance space, flexible space Cultivate food and culture. - growing food, gathering space Create functional, flexible, fluid outdoor nooks, rooms and performance spaces. - highlight or buffer sound, diversity of space (large, small, public, private, hidden, on view) Encourage inspiration through creation of a fantastical, fun environment. - unique solutions, mystery, risk, surprise

CHARACTERS: ROOFTOPS

fig. 55: Physical layers, layered with layers of information

SITE PLAN: FIVE ROOFTOPS

fig. 56: Five Rooftops

BEAT

REST

VOICE

BASS

CHORD

SURROUNDING ROOFS HEIGHT AND DIRECTIONAL RELATIONSHIP

fig. 57: Five rooftops and their vertical relationships

BEAT

REST

VOICE

BASS

CHORD vertical wall to the sky rooftop level vertical wall to the ground

“voice (vois) n. expiration of air through vibrating vocal cords.“42

fig. 58: Voice

80 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOmm.. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

z..........................zzzzzzzz......................zzzzzzzz..........................z...............vvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooommmmm........vr

........................................................................................................................................................................................... sSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH............................ssssssssssshhhhhhhhshhhhhhhhhhh.............................ssssssssssssssss

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOmm.. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOMz..........................zz

vvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooommmmm........vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooom...............vrrrrrrrrr....vrrrrrrrrrrrrroooo ...........................................................................................................................................................................................

sSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH............................ssssssssssshhhhhhhhshhhhhhhhhhh.............................ssssssssssssssss

...........................beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep............................................................................................................................. .........vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveerrrrrooooom........vvv......rrrrrrrrrr...................vvvvrrrrrrrrrrooo....vvvvvvvrrrrrrooooo zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOmm.. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOM z..........................zzzzzzzz......................zzzzzzzz..........................z............... vvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooommmmm........vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooom...............vrrrrrrrrr....vrrrrrrrrrrrrroooo sSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH............................ssssssssssshhhhhhhhshhhhhhhhhhh.............................ssssssssssssssss ...........................beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep............................................................................................................................. .........vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveerrrrrooooom........vvv......rrrrrrrrrr...................vvvvrrrrrrrrrrooo....vvvvvvvrrrrrrooooo zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOmm.. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOM z..........................zz vvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooommmmm........vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooom...............vrrrrrrrrr....vrrrrrrrrrrrrroooo ........................................................................................................................................................................................... sSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH............................ssssssssssshhhhhhhhshhhhhhhhhhh.............................ssssssssssssssss ...........................beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep............................................................................................................................. .........vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveerrrrrooooom........vvv......rrrrrrrrrr...................vvvvrrrrrrrrrrooo....vvvvvvvrrrrrrooooo zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOmm.. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOMz..........................zz vvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooommmmm........vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooom...............vrrrrrrrrr....vrrrrrrrrrrrrroooo ...........................................................................................................................................................................................sSSSS beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep........................................................................................................................................ .........vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveerrrrrooooom........vvv......rrrrrrrrrr...................vvvvrrrrrrrrrrooo....vvvvvvvrrrrrrooooo

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooom...............vrrrrrrrrr....vrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooomm.

This top roof is Amazing. I feel literally on top of the freeway. The 360 degree view is astounding! From shh ............ the hummss, zzooommz, cliiankks and huuushhhhhssses of ooooooooommm.......... the freeway to the completely still, majestic olympic zzzzzzz...................... zzzzzzzz..........................z............... mountain range and puget sound to the west, as well as ooooooooooooomm. the large, linear, greenbelt to the east and the skyline of downtown Seattle up north, the view is out of this shh world. ............ ooooooooommm.................vvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm.....m.............m

ooooooooooooomm................................................................................................................................................................................. shh ............ ooooooooommm..............................zzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........................... zzzzzzz......................zzzzzzzz..........................z............... ooooooooooooomm.oooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMmmm....

shh ............ ooooooooommm.......... zzzzzzz......................zzzzzzzz..........................z............... ooooooooooooomm. SSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH............................ssssssssssshhhhhhhhshhhhhhhhhhh.............................ssssssssssssssssh............

ooooooooommm.......... fig. 59: Freeway music

82 surface. on stage. engaged. trapped on a perch. observe the world below. possibility, opportunity, flexibility, permeability. breath.

flow. perform or go home. silent or spoken. vibrant LoUD stillness. in your face. distant. tone. hmmmuuummmmmmm. mmm. mmm. m. enchanting chant, a vibration of a solid tone. floating. the space between. the rough edge, cliff, dizzying, dramatic, elevated, elated, highhhhhhhh.... deathdifying, capitivating, enticing, entrancing, enthralling, a perch in the sky. traffic zips by... below. rush. above it all. dynamic views. powerful views. on top. day and night a constant husssssssssssssh. exposed. vulnerable. light. fig. 60: Voice Rooftop poem

fig. 61: Night concert

fig. 62: Screens blend in with ‘the Jungle’ in the background

fig. 63: Sliding platforms and sound screens

PLAN

100

150feet

N fig. 64: Voice site plan

fig. 65: Systems from an axonometric view

“beat (bēat)v. the basic unit of music, the pulse.“43

fig. 66: Beat

From the back parking lot you take the elevator. opening the door from the stair well/elevator area you are in art studio land. To the right is the spine to this floor, a hallway lined with doors on both sides. To the left light pours in through glass garage doors, big windows and a glass wall that is shared with the rooftop greenhouse. inside-outside-outside-inside switch.

fig. 67: Rhythm of Rooftop

a seed is nutured. an idea is born.

rhythmic cycles cycle and cycle. recycle and cycle.

fig. 68: Beat Rooftop poem

fig. 69: Greenhouse and garden beds

Up and down, garden beds change with the season. Life begins with a seed. Growth. Decompostion. Compost feeds the seed. Cycle.

fig. 70: Cycle of garden beds

Human circultation through the rooftop, greenhouse, and building interior. Red, life blood, feeding the body nutrients, pumping continuously. Water, life blood flowing from rooftop to greenhouse, combining with greywater from residential units to feed the seeds.

fig. 71: Human and water circulation

PLAN

100

150 feet

N fig. 72: Beat site plan

fig. 73: Systems from an axonometric view

“rest(rĕst) n. relief or freedom, especially from anything that wearies, troubles, or disturbs.“ “an interval of silence between tones.“44

fig. 74: Rest

100

Inside my home is my workspace. Pieces of wood, glass, paints, threads, fabric scattered amongst the concrete floors. Tables, chairs, a couch that has been well loved rest in a room lined with plasterboard walls. I leave my messy abode and enter the cold, harsh, stairwell eerily lit by a dull orange light. Taking the stairs down several flights I open another door this time into a backyard paradise. Fruit and nut trees surround the edge of the space. Hops creates a green tapestry creeping up the building. My neighbors are relaxing on the gently sloped mounds of lush green groundcover. Several people are strolling along the path while sipping on beverages as they wait for the barbeque to finish. Just beyond the mounds is a spectacular view of the industrial area, downtown Seattle, west Seattle and the Olympic mountain range.

101

fig. 75: A green tapestry blankets the rooftop

102

once upon a time,

{ intermission }

three creatures went on a walk in the deep dark woods. Up ahead a was a shimmering, bright light. As they approached the light three rolling hills appeared in the clearing. This clearing was a secret garden. The rest of the world could be viewed from the top of the mounds. one was able to silently observe in a safe, solitude, state. pensive.. This secret garden was a place to relax, view the choas but, be removed. A passive place. An urban beach getaway.

removed.

fig. 76: Rest Rooftop poem

quiet.

island.

103

fig. 77: Rest Rooftop mounds, looking west

104

breathe in...

...

breathe out...

105

fig. 78: Rest Rooftop, looking north

106

PLAN

0 fig. 79: Rest site plan

100

150feet

107

fig. 80: Systems from an axonometric view

108

109

“chord (kôrd) n. a group of notes, normally two or more, played simultaneously.“45

fig. 81: Chord

110

fig. 82: Sounds like water

111

Climbing up a rusty wire mesh staircase fire escape I enter on to a roof that looks like a landscape straight out of a Dr. Suess book. Tubes transport water from the upper rooftops streaming overhead heading towards the wetland silos just south of this roof. Tree-like tubes echo the background landscape of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the Jungleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; their branches reach towards the sky holding up the water tubes and their trunk offers seating. The additional sculptural tubes transport light to the interior space beneath the chord rooftop. Spots of daylight vary in size and create a dreamscape for the community center housed in this facility.

112

push and pull. give and take. mutual exchange. tension, connection, many hands strengthen the hold. hands like roots. ropes, cords like muscles. harmonious chords. tube of light. tube of sound, drip. drip. drip. take flight. loosely knit, tightly bound.

fig. 83: Chord Rooftop poem

113

fig. 84: Water, light, sound sculptural tubes

114

fig. 85: Pulling the chord

115

116

PLAN

100

150 feet

N fig. 86: Chord site plan

117

fig. 87: Systems from an axonometric view

118

119

“bass (bās) adj. the lower end of the musical scale.“46

fig. 88: Bass

120

From the west side of the Arts Brewery complex, just north of the silos are several large loading docks. Behind these docks is a well hidden, dark, narrow staircase. Up, up, up you reach the recording studios and just a couple steps beyond you pop out onto a rooftop that is completely surrounded by 15 foot walls brightly painted with graffiti. Murals of wildly expressive, seemingly an abstract language well disguised in its overlapping highly stylized flowing marks.

fig. 89: Magic carpet

121

122 Protected. in another world. separate from the city. comfortable space. be in the moment. wild, colorful, energy. artistic mindset. inspiration.. an underground above ground. notice the sky.. .. breath in .... breath out.... ssssssssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiigghhhhhhhhh... the light, the night... holding ground, holding sound.. what does sound, sound like in this space? in between space.. floating.. not highest high or lowest low.. middle ground.. balancing act. magic carpet.

fig. 90: Holding sound

123

124

fig. 91: Bass experience

125

126

PLAN

100

150 feet

N fig. 92: Bass site plan

127

fig. 93: Systems from an axonometric view

128

129

OVER TIME impacts of design... transformation. progression

fig. 94: Over time

130

OVER TIME: impacts of design.. transformation THEMES SYSTEMS INTEGRATION : URBAN ECOLOGY : ARTS AND CULTURE Over time these three themes will become so well-integrated within the building complex and surrounding landscape that it will be difficult to distinguish one from another. Urban ecology and arts and culture will be fused with the synthesis of systems and their functions. I offer headings to the following paragraphs that refer to the main system involved recognizing each of these “headings“ actually incorporates multiple complex systems and relationships.

VARIATION

fig. 95: ‘the Jungle’ hops over the freeway

VEGETATION The rooftops containing the majority of vegetation are at higher elevations with the idea that seeds and accumulation organic matter will follow gravity and be carried by wind to eventually settle on the lower rooftops, groundplane, and surrounding neighborhood. Over the years the vegetation will blanket vertical walls, the wastewater treatment wetland silos will need maintance in terms of plant thinnning, and other roofs will contain greenhouses. Enough food will be produced for all of the building residents. This patch-work of green will begin the integration of habitat and greenspace into the large concrete industrial landscape. It is as if “the Jungle“ has hopped across the freeway and is slowly making steps towards the Puget Sound.

WATER If the rainfall increases during the fall, winter and spring, additional silos will need to be opened to accommodate the overflow and to maximize water storage for the drier seasons. The network of rooftops will adapt to this increase in water and manage flood conditions by allowing the rooftops to fill with water like swimming pools. Once water reaches a certain level drainage will occur

131 through a series of overflow options; storage and filtration containers on several rooftops, and pipes directing excess water to treatment silos. This reclaimed water is used for toliet flushing and irrigation. In the future this water could be integrated into a radiant heating system for interior spaces and if solar radiation is integrated as a component of water treatment, this water could eventually be suitable for drinking. A more seamless connection could be made between the steep slope that houses â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Jungle,â&#x20AC;&#x153; the enormous impervious freeway including the space beneath it, and the minimal, but still useful ground space on the Arts Brewery parcel. In the future, filtration and reuse of freeway runoff will become a component of the transition of the freeway into an elevated alternative transportation green corridor.

ENERGY The solar access on this site is intense. The greenhouse is taking advantage of the sun for plant growth. The proposed design takes advantage of this solar access by allowing humans to increase their access to the sun. Most of the rooftops are staggered in a terrace format, creating sun pockets that trap and store heat. This solar energy could be captured and utilized for heating the interior spaces and for electricity.

soil As the surrounding neighborhood becomes increasingly residential, the number of green roofs and accessible rooftops in the industrial area will increase and the rooftop network will expand. These green rooftops will have a stronger connnection to the groundplane and my hope is the relationship to soil that has been completely lost, contaminated and buried will resurface. This valuable, highly beneficial resource needs to be restored and linked into the whole system. This network will be more likely to function as an ecosystem if the soil is alive; allowing decompostion to occur, organic matter to fertilize, insects to thrive, nutrient cycles to perform, and therefore function as a habitat corridor for birds making their way to the Puget Sound.

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MOVEMENT The different rooftops offer a variety of spaces to perform, interact, create art, and cultivate food and culture. Over time developing different pathways and mechanisms for access between rooftops such as; swings, elevated pathways, climbing structures, and trampoline sculptures. Future design additions warrant exploration of dreamscapes and scenes from our imagination to actualize unique, unexpected relationships between rooftops.

SOUND Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to see the sounds of the freeway incorporated into performances with the shifting of sound buffer screens used as instruments. As the function of the freeway transitions into a space inhabited by vegetation, humans, animals, and water, this will dramatically affect the experience of sound, interaction, community and possibilities for cultural and food exchange on the Arts Brewery site as well as the site of the old freeway.

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REFLECTION: CODA rewind. fastforward.

fig. 96: Reflection

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REFLECTION: CODA DESIGN QUESTIONS These questions were answered with a gradient of designs responses in terms of how strongly the individual roof suceeded in a design solution. I did not seek to have each rooftop equally address these questions, but rather for the network as a whole to provide a complete landscape that touched on each question. My design proposal supports the idea of the Site as a Score, each rooftop is an instrument, or an essential piece of the score. The score can be deciphered in multiple ways, to each individual’s own or group’s opinion but, it is a foundation in which each roof contributes to the performance and function of the whole. The end product relates all of the pieces and their connections of varying strengths to each other and the larger context. How do I create a well integrated whole systems designed rooftop network? I attempted to design a well integrated whole systems designed rooftop network, but I am not sure I succeeded. How does one determine if a design is successful or if it is well integrated? I “stacked functions“ and made use of “multiple stories,“ two methods steeped in permaculture, for approaching whole system design. In the Rest rooftop there are multiple stories of vegetation, which function in a variety of ways. These physical levels of vegetation also stack functions by acting as a wind buffer, creating microclimates which encourage diversity of organisms, providing useful materials for craft, medicine, and food and utilizing gravity for water filtration and irrigation throughout the rooftop network. To fully integrate these systems to the capacity they are capable of being integrated would take more knowledge and would best be acheived by working as a part of an interdisciplinary team. I feel this interdisciplinary team and their shared knowledge could push a whole systems designed landscape even further in creating a more resilient landscape which supports the complex systems relationships. This combined knowledge would address connections at a multitude of scales and incorporate more resilient feedback loops that flex and bend as they respond to futures shifts in resources.

137 How can I integrate the interior function of the building with the exterior space? I thought a lot about how someone experiencing these rooftops would feel viewing the various spaces from the interior to the exterior and vice versa. I wanted experiences to inform each other and give hints of what to expect on the other side. The changes I proposed for the Chord rooftop were the most dramatic and instrumental in accomplishing this goal. The sculptural tubes reflect the artistic interior function as well as interact with other systems in a functional sense (carrying water, filling interior spaces with light, seating, as a sound sculpture). How do I design a multifunctional, fluid, flexible space? In some cases I realized leaving a space open or virtually â&#x20AC;&#x153;un-designedâ&#x20AC;&#x153; can create a successful multifunctional, fluid, flexible space. In the case of the Bass rooftop, the scale of the space as well as the comfortable surrounding wall height makes the space feel safe, warm, protected, and encourages play. The colorful murals emphasize this feeling and even though the space is wide open and offers minimal seating options, aside from the ground, stage, and a couple steps, the space is incredibly inviting and enaging. If chairs and other objects are needed for performances, as props or other activities, they can be brought out from the surrounding facilities (community center, recording studio/band practice space). How do I design rooftop landscape, which encourages discovery, mystery and imagination? Minimal interventions can encourage discovery, mystery and imagination. Interactive and tactile components as well as elements that heighten a single sense lead to curiosity and discovery about how things function. In providing hints to the inner workings and connections of systems and rooftops, one can imagine how pieces fit together. On the Chord rooftop during certain seasons at certain times of day, you can hear sounds in some of the tubes, but you cannot see what is making the sound or where the sound is coming from. You are able to see the tube that transports the sound and partially where is it coming from and going, but you cannot view the entire tube from the Chord rooftop. From most of the other rooftops, you can see other parts of the sculptural tubes, but you cannot hear the sounds or experience the tubes as the forest-like environment they create on the Chord rooftop.

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VISUAL COMMUNICATION In creating an experiential book, the visual format allowed me to explore diverse types of graphics, text, drawings, and how these components can be arranged to tell a story. By using different opacity levels, line weights, sizes and placements of photographs and incorporating hand-drawing, I created narratives nested in narratives and established connections throughout the book as a whole that aimed to facilitate a complete experience which encourages the viewer to imagine, dream and discover patterns in a similar fashion to the experience one might have on the Arts Brewery site. “Drawing by hand as well as model-making put the designer into a haptic contact with the object or space. In our imagination, the object is simultaneously held in the hand and inside the head, and the imagined and projected physical image is modeled by our bodies. We are inside and outside of the object at the same time.“47 - Juhani Pallasmaa

LIMITATIONS “The complexity of the many linkages and feedbacks that make up a social-ecological system is that we can never predict with certainty what the exact response will be to any intervention in the system.“48

- Brian Walker and David Salt

We don’t know everything. We are only human, one piece of this complex network of systems. It is worth stepping back and realizing we are merely a piece of the whole. We only have so much knowledge. Every design and attempt to link, highlight and create systems with feedback loops is an experiement. Systems will shift, and we can never be certain of how, when, and to what capacity these shifts will occur. Likewise how these changes will evolve and develop over time-- daily, seasonally-- with climate change, extreme temperatures, natural disasters, surrounding development, turnover in building inhabitants, and the unpredictable nature of change. We can only plan for changes that exist to the extent of our imagination but, in all likelihood, we are not able to imagine all of the possible system impacts that will happen in the future and that are occuring at this moment. At the same time, we are a part of the system, therefore, we need to make an effort to honor and respect the nature of each system rather than allow them to collapse completely, and us to collapse. Our hope for continued existence is in recognizing, and utilizing the unique, complex qualities of systems to support each other and to design resilient, adaptive, diverse networks.

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fig. 97: Storyboarding

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ENDNOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

Sony Music Entertainment, Essentials of Music glossary, 2001, http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/glossary/p.html Sony Music Entertainment, Essentials of Music glossary, 2001, http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/glossary/t.html Sony Music Entertainment, Essentials of Music glossary, 2001, http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/glossary/v.html Sony Music Entertainment, Essentials of Music glossary, 2001, http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/glossary/i.html Sony Music Entertainment, Essentials of Music glossary, 2001, http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/glossary/c.html Sony Music Entertainment, Essentials of Music glossary, 2001, http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/glossary/e.html Ntosake Shange, I Live in Music (New York: Welcome Books, 1994), 1-29. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_integration. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_ecology. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art. World English Dictionary, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture. Toby Hemenway, Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2000), 4. Brian Walker and David Salt. Resilience Thinking: sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world (Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2006),31. Hemenway, Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture, 4. ibid, 26. ibid, 26. Sim Van der Ryn, Ecological design (Washington D.C.: Island Press, 1995), 121. ibid, 121. ibid, 17. Brian Walker and David Salt, Resilience Thinking: sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world, 32. ibid, 32. Charles Waldheim (ed.), The Landscape Urbanism Reader (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006), 39. James Corner, “Terra Fluxus,“ in The Landscape Urbanism Reader, ed. Charles Waldheim, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006), 24. ibid, 29. ibid, 30. Waldheim, The Landscape Urbanism Reader, 43. James Corner, “Terra Fluxus,“ in The Landscape Urbanism Reader, ed. Charles Waldheim, 30. Zimbabwean proverb James and Sandra Crowley, Wabi-Sabi Style (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2001), 15. Leonard Koren, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1994), 26. Juhani Pallasmaa, “Eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses.“ Architecture 95.3 (March 2006): 29. James Corner, “Terra Fluxus,“ in The Landscape Urbanism Reader, ed. Charles Waldheim, 32. Elizabeth Meyer, “Uncertain Parks: Disturbed Sites, Citizens, and Risk Society,“ in Large Parks, 1st ed., (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), 82. Meyer, 82. James Corner, “Terra Fluxus,“ in The Landscape Urbanism Reader, ed. Charles Waldheim, 32. Farlex, The Free Dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/score. ibid ibid ibid

141 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48.

Lawrence Halprin, The RSVP Cycles : Creative Processes in the Human Environment. (New York: George Braziller, 1970), 19. ibid, 71. Farlex, The Free Dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/voice. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(music). Based on the Random House Dictionary 2010, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rest. Music Dictionary, last modified december 7, 2010, http://www.dolmetsch.com/defsc1a.htm. Music Dictionary, last modified december 7, 2010, http://www.dolmetsch.com/defsba.htm. Juhani Pallasmaa, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses.â&#x20AC;&#x153; Architecture 95.3 (March 2006): 29. Brian Walker and David Salt, Resilience Thinking: sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world, 35.

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fig. 98: Final say

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BIBLIOGRAPHY ENCORE Corner, James, “Terra Fluxus.“ In The Landscape Urbanism Reader, Waldheim, Charles (ed.), 21-34. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. Crowley, James and Sandra. Wabi-Sabi Style. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2001. Dictionary.com Unabridged. “Rest.“ Random House, Inc. Accessed December 08, 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rest. Dictionary.com. “Culture.“ Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Harper Collins Publishers. Accessed December 8, 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture. Dolmetsch Organisation. “Music Dictionary.“ Last modified December 7, 2010. http://www.dolmetsch.com/defsba.htm. Halprin, Lawrence. The RSVP Cycles : Creative Processes in the Human Environment. New York: George Braziller, 1970. Hemenway, Toby. Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2000. Koren, Leonard. Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1994. Meyer, Elizabeth, “Uncertain Parks: Disturbed Sites, Citizens, and Risk Society.“ In Large Parks, 1st ed., 59-83. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007. New, Jennifer. Drawing From Life: the journal as art. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005. Orr, David. Design on the edge: the making of a high-performance building. Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2006.

144 Pallasmaa, Juhani. “Eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses.“ Architecture 95.3 (March 2006): 28- 29. Shange, Ntosake. I Live in Music. New York: Welcome Books, 1994. Sony Music Entertainment. “Essentials of Music glossary.“ Last modified 2001. http://www. essentialsofmusic.com/glossary/html. Thefreedictionary.com. “Score.“ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Accessed December, 2010. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/score. Van der Ryn, Sim. Ecological design. Washington D.C.: Island Press, 1995. Waldheim, Charles (ed.). The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. Walker, Brian and David Salt. Resilience Thinking: sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world. Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2006. Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia. “Systems integration.“ Last modified November 26, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_integration. Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia. “Urban ecology.“ Last modified December 4, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_ecology. Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia. “Art.“ Last modified December 3, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art.