Life After Nature: Desert Drought and Glut

Life After Nature Desert Drought and Glut

“Above Horizon” SKYspace James Turrell Los Angeles, CA - 2004

A grim illustration of drought in a dystopian California is painted in Dry Futures going as far as to note that, “water may very well end up being the determining issue of the next century.” This issue is one that is sure to be felt in Coachella Valley today. The desert empire hosts a series of cities which will provide a point of focus for this studio. In particular, Palm Springs provides the vantage point of “luxury”.

Not only does the city host one of the largest displays in the nation of Mid-Century Modern architecture –the work of John Lautner, a renowned apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, is included in this mix.

All civilizations develop around water. The difference with Palm Springs, is the “excess” that defines the source and use of water. The hot springs of the area, discovered by Cabot Yerxa, are a consequence of the artesian aquifer and the Mission Creek fault. Later developed as the City of Desert Hot Springs, they have created a culture which celebrates visitation. However, this resource has been extremely contained to specific locales within the city. While partially responsible for the culture of “excess” the hot springs are largely hidden in most areas of the landscape. Today, their decayed remains can be found within sanatorium and lodging buildings

The remains of the City of Desert Hot Springs are relevant with Slavoj Zizek’s idea that nature has always been in a state of unpredictable chaos. In previous times, humans approached this chaos with an attitude of dominance, seeking to manipulate it for their usage. More recently, the attitude has shifted, and the two are so tied together, that it is believed that many of the disasters of “nature” today are truly man-made disasters. The logic of man has changed so that their dominant behavior is driven not so much by power but more so by the desire to “restore” nature. Zizek proposes to find a relationship based on this new interpretation that we call life after nature. The studio will amount to a process of exploration in which we will explore this new attitude and apply them to the site, elevating the hot springs to more than mere vestiges

Desert Hot Springs

Mission Lakes Blvd

Little Morongo Rd Pierson Blvd Miracle Hill Rd

Palm Dr

Desert View Ave

Hacienda Ave Mountain View Rd

Desert Hot Springs is a city in Riverside County, California, located within the Coachella Valley geographic region, sometimes referred to as the Desert Empire. The city’s amazing natural hot mineral water and cold water aquifers were first discovered in modern times by homesteader Cabot Yerxa, who called the site of the wells “Miracle Hill. Yerxa also discovered the Mission Creek Aquifer. For hundreds of years before his discovery, the aquifer had provided habitat to wildlife and sustained Native American peoples.

1 mile

Sub-Basins Little Morongo Creek-Morongo Wash

Headwaters Whitewater River Sub-Basin

r Layering at Faults

Bedrock

Miracle Hill

Hot Wa

ter Aqu

Perme

ifer

able So

Cold

Wate rA

quife

r

il Layer

The two separate aquifers are bisected by the Mission Creek Fault (a branch of the San Andreas Fault). One side has hot water; the other has cold.

One aquifer has several natural hot springs in the Desert Hot Springs Sub-Basin and they support the area’s spas and resorts. The natural hot mineral waters continue to be heated to temperatures as high as 180 degrees by ancient geothermal forces thousands of feet below the earth’s surface. The second, on the opposite side is a cold aquifer of the Mission Springs Sub-Basin. This aquifer provides fresh water to the city and has received awards for exceptional taste. Desert Hot Springs’ groundwater is ranked overall among the nation’s best. The City became a tourist destination in the 1950s because of its small spa hotels, and during the 1960s the town had over 80 spa hotels. The city has undergone rapid development and high population growth since the 1970s, when there were 2,700 residents. The population grew lately to 26,000 according to the 2010 census, becoming a health and wellness destination based upon its miracle waters, unique desert ecosystem, mountain views, and natural environment.

C R IME RATE

Y U C CA VA L L E Y

BA N N I NG

PA LM S PR I NG S

D ES ERT HOT S PR I NGS

CATHEDRAL CITY

PA L M D E S E RT

The Studio will explore the frontiers of the desert conditions and the identity that water takes on, when contained in new ways. It will address issues such as

drought, scarcity,

and

privation of the environment as well as the glut, abundant, and a culture that exhibits excessive notes to it. This notion will emerge through the works of John Lautner’s introduced to the area as a desire of retired moving producer and director Lucian Hubbard, and his luxuriant tectonics of overlapping landscapes and paradoxical fantasy.

We want to challenge the classical idea of a stable nature that gets disturbed by human intervention, and by withdrawing as much as possible from our activity, the romanticized “balance” and harmony of nature will be restored. Nature is already in itself disturbed,

made out of a series of catastrophes that cannot be prevented or reconfigured.

“The power of human culture is not only to build an autonomous universe beyond what we experience as nature, but to produce new “unnatural” natural objects which materialize human knowledge. We do not only “symbolize nature”, we—as it were—denaturalize it from within”, Slavoj Žižek explains.

Elrod House John Lautner Palm Springs, CA, 1968

Pueblo House Cabot Yerxa Desert Hot Springs, CA, 1940

Desert Hot Springs Motel John Lautner Desert Hot Springs, CA, 1947

Sheets-Goldstein House John Lautner Los Angeles, CA, 1963

Sheets-Goldstein House John Lautner Los Angeles, CA, 1963

Desert Hot Springs, CA

1/2 mile

Site Conditions

Site Conditions

San Jacinto Peak, 11,100ft

01_ Response to Slavoj Žižek: on Nature

02_Drawing on John Lautner: Tracing as Describing

The end of Nature http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/opinion/global/02iht-GA12zizek.html?_r=1

Drawing 1: Plan Scale the selected work to the appropriate scale. Precisely trace the selected work, as represented

by Lautner. Trace the complete plan by multiple continuous sequences (with start and end), which will function as an act of discovery and timely description, allowing you to reconstruct the process in which each of the lines have been progressively inserted and articulated into the drawing.

Ecology against Mother Nature http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2007-ecology-against-mother-nature-slavoj-zizek-onmolecular-red

Ecology without nature http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674034853&content=reviews http://ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com

Examined Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGCfiv1xtoU

Nature does not exist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGeDAZ6-q4

On Water https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Hb3ecVVgE

Drawing 2: Extents Filter out the geometry of the plan. Begin to develop your own extents of the drawing, focusing only on specific sections which may express your spatial narrative line. Break the plan up into aggregate partial narratives, focusing in on specific sections of the plan (involving simultaneously plan and section drawings) or taping additional sheets around the edges of Drawing 1, in order to incorporate the context into the boundaries of the work.

Drawing 3: Argument Express the plan as a series of attitudes that are closely related to the argument that was developed in Assignment 1. Layer more detail onto the extent determined in Drawing 2, using only the parts of the drawing that have been determined according to your topic narrative line. Explore your attitude in terms of a specific drawing sequence or arrangement of spaces, material qualities, maneuvered activities, sight lines, natural edges, etc. Do not use alternative

03_Site Mapping: on Desert Hot Springs

04_ Project on Architecture and Water

Starting with the basic documents provided in the Dropbox (DHS_Planning Documents) and expanding as far as possible from there, you will be studying and documenting the site we visited, located at the northwest corner of Miracle Hills Road and Desert View Avenue in Desert Hot Springs, Arizona.

30 Day Track – California Hydro-Therapy Physical Rehabilitation Center Total Area: 44,400 square feet; Location: Desert Hot Springs, California

The city of Desert Hot Springs is unique in many respects. It is a city that was founded by Cabot Yerxa, due to the miracle quality of the water- and later developed with luxuriant intentions. In the late 1900’s, many celebrities looked to it as an escape.

Each group will be responsible for accurately identifying, studying and mapping (as you previously did with the sequence drawings) one of the following components (layers, systems) of the city’s overall complexity, revealing its particular relationship to this site: Water (rivers, aquifers, washes, canals, tanks, etc.)

Infrastructure (public roads, highways, bridges, transportation, sidewalks, squares, open spaces, etc.)

Buildings/Land Use (public hospitals, schools, hotels, sports facilities, residential, commercial, etc.)

Topography and Geology

As a result, it currently hosts a large variety of hot springs and hospitality facilities. However, today, it is in a state that is approaching decay. Its waters are still well-known for its therapeutic qualities but no longer rated the best in the world, with the aquifers being necessarily recharged.

Individuals who are released at the nearby Ironwood State Prison make up a large number of the inhabitants in the city, due to the underground trade in place.

The 30-Day Track Hydro-Therapy Physical Rehabilitation Center addresses the need for improved health, serving the needs of these contrasting groups. The rehabilitation center is intended to address athletic-sports rehabilitation, daily life, and drug rehabilitation on a state-wide level.

While physical facilities are the main focus, psychiatric facilities supplement the services, in order to provide patients with an intensive water-based treatment plan.

the Physical, Natural, 30 Day Track – California Hydro-Therapy Physical Rehabilitation CenterCultural, Total Area: 44,400 square feet; Location: Desert Hot Springs, California center Historical and Spiritual

for the community and visitors.

Building Areas Staff & Public Facilities, Education & Research Center 3,350 sf In-Patient Living Facility 9,700 sf General Treatment Facilities, to encompass both adults & children

2,050 sf

Adult Treatment Facilities (16+ YO)

7,300 sf

Pediatric-Neonatology Treatment Facilities (0-15 YO)

5,100 sf

General Service Area 2,100 sf

Total Net Area (Net Square Feet – NSF) 29,600 sf Circulation Multiplier (CM) 1.5 Total Usable Area (USF) 44,400 sf Parking and Outdoor Areas

Master Plan