BRAIDING THE BUCKEYE BANDS The City and the Desert
Design Concept Poised to surpass the Phoenix area in population, Buckeye presents a unique opportunity for development in Arizona as a majority of the land is still wild Sonoran Desert but most has already been entitled to developers. Rather than creating an overall master plan for the area that would be nearly impossible to implement the studio chose to create instead a vision of a future Buckeye through new evolutions of existing urban design typologies that braid the urban fabric with the existing natural systems in a way that would spark real change. The design focused on a case study area that included a wildlife corridor that connected the White Tank Mountains on the east and the Vulture Mountains to the west and incorporated the existing Sun Valley Parkway.
o u nta i n s M k n a T e t i To W h
• Approximately 120,000 square miles in area • The most biodiverse desert on Earth • Native plant species appeared 4,500 years ago • The largest set of urban protected lands in the United States
Existing Conditions A high tension power line creates a utility corridor east of Sun valley parkway which runs north and south Sun Valley Parkway
Hydrology This design begins by starting with the hydrology of the existing landscape through locating flood zones and prioritizing major washes. Flood plain identified by Maricopa County
Wildlife Corridor • Approximately 9,000 square miles in area • Less than 150 years old • More than 16 million visitors each year • One of the fastest growing metro areas in the country Option 01- proposed by Game and Fish, corridor width- 5248 ft
This area has been identified as the best fit for a wildlife corridor and it is where we find great potential for development that weaves together the natural and the built environment
Corridor Pinch-
Minimum Corridor width required- 3280 ft Crossing 01, over the Sun Valley parkway- 150ft wide Crossing 02- Parkway is embedded into Natural Topography
The Buckeye Braids will guide animals to a crossing where the natural environment and the built environment are integrated to become a system which facilitates the safe movement of wildlife between the mountains Density Warp Our built topography creates a valley around the wildlife corridor which we call the density warp
Growth of the City
Incorporate Important Washes Prioritizing these as natural amenities to be woven into the urban landscape reveals developable land
1912 - Population 56,000 Time from center of the city to the edge of the desert 5 min
Laying the Roads Braiding urban circulation in response to natural amenities creates conditions for development to capitalize on land that connects more people to the urban and desert systems 2013 - Population 4,329,000 Time from center of the city to the edge of the desert 63 min
Proposed Zoning By braiding together washes with roads we can identify new land uses which allow for increased density and equal access to amenities
The Density Warp was designed to mimic the benefits of the form of mountain 2040 - Population 7,110,000 Time from center of the city to the edge of the desert 95 min
Evolution of Single Family Lot For our focus area in buckeye, we wanted to redefine the convention in order to accommodate the coexistence of nature and urban. The redesigned house gets rid of the front yards and back yards found in a typical single family house and transforms itself into a house with a long side yard. This strategy of making the plot porous ensures visual connectivity from the urban to the natural
Conventional Single Family housing from Phoenix Plot size- 9785 sq.ft House size- 4577 sq.ft
Breaking down the components allows us to identify opportunities for new design.
Circulation Increasing the height of development as it moves away from the corridor mimics and integrates with the ventilation system of the White Tanks. Air currents become breezes as they funnel down washes and through canyons of condos. Cooling temperatures as it flows.
Light Intensity is directly proportional to Urban Density Light intensity is directly proportional to urban density. Allowing the corridor to experience a more natural day and night cycle Land value Land value increases as height increases because homes and amenities are stacked
The side yard setbacks and underutilized front yard present opportunities to maximize space
If we remove the side yards and combine the backyard and driveway we create a more usable domestic landscape
Optimized sizes Plot size- 7280 sq.ft House size- 4152 sq.ft
LDE/MUD 590: Spring 2016 Advanced Landscape Architecture Studio III
View Sheds The density warp provides unobstructed views across green roofs and of the desert landscape. Creating a healthy visual connection to nature
Students: Jinesh Jain, Sampada Lele, Mitchell Miller, James Roche, Aviral Sharma, Yanan Tang, Paula Wheeler Instructor: Coseo, Petrucci