Out of Bounds by Travis Tabak

OUT OF BOUNDS

OUT OF BOUNDS is a body of work created by Travis Tabak that seeks to push the boundaries of what architecture can achieve as a discipline and creative pursuit. Most projects were created while gaining his Master of Architecture degree from Columbia Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation but also while working professionally for XTR, the GSAPP Fabrication Laboratory, and Corgan Architects.

CONTENTS 4

Attis 00

Geoje Greenline

Mothershed

Alternative Methodologies

Urban Homestead

New Grounds: The Symbiotic City

Domesticity in Santorini

Beyond the Domestic

Never Built New York

The Lyceum - Burning Man 2017

100

Delta Sky Club

106

Urban Affinity

ATTIS 00

Named for the Greek deity of rejuvenation, Attis 00 is a prototypical system that uses the parts from decommissioned oil platforms as a means to create sustainable forms of energy and sustenance while removing pollutants from water and air. The lifeblood of this system comes from algae, a microbe that has the potential to positively reshape our way of life and revitalize our environment. Algae can effectively remove contaminants from water and in the process consumes carbondioxide and produces oxygen. Oil harvested from algae can be refined

Algae Growth Module

into biofuel while the leftover dehydrated algae bodies can be used in foodstuffs as they contain high concentrations of both protein and carbohydrates. Attis contains systems for growing and processing algae, but must form partnerships with other industries to refine the raw products into biofuel and food. Situated at the mouth of Newtown Creek - Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most polluted waterway - Attis potentially could make partnerships with existing local food and fuel industries to maximize its production while also providing social infrastructure for the local poulaiton. Attis houses a research center where new strains of algae can be created and studied, a visitorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s center where locals can learn of the applications of algae, an algae park for recreation, an algae restaurant, and a bioluminescent algae dance floor. Standing at over a thousand feet tall, Attis seeks to take the image of the oil rig - which has long served as a typological monument to the oil and gas industries - and transform it to become a symbol of hope for a more sustainable future.

Studio Critic: Tei Carpenter

Concept Collage

Attis 00

Algae Processing Plant

Alg

Bi Alg o-lum ae i Da nesc nc en e fl t oo r

rk Pa

Studio Critic: Tei Carpenter

Section

Attis 00

Study model constructed with found objects, lasercut acrylic, and 3D printed elements

Studio Critic: Tei Carpenter

Isometric

Attis 00

Newtown Creek Industry Transformations

Attis 00

United Metro Energy

Amoco Energy

Frito Lay

National Grid

B&K Food Vasinee Food Corp

Studio Critic: Tei Carpenter

Attis 00

GEOJE GREENLINE The island of Geoje, located introduce a new form of agricultural off the southern coast of South production. A public tramway Korea, is home to a myriad of that follows existing roadways will small communities, separated by provide a means of transportation geography. Historically the way of life to the many locals who do not own there was dominated by agriculture, cars and will be covered by a canopy but when the government introduced of rotating planters that can grow two massive shipyards to the island, a variety of crops, thus replacing rice patties and persimmon groves some of the agricultural production were soon replaced by apartment that has disappeared from the island buildings and highways. Now while also creating a unique place only a small fraction of the local that can serve as a promenade and population continues to grow food public gathering space. The separate and this amount is shrinking rapidly. industries associated with agriculture This condition reflects the state (such as food processing, storage, and of agriculture in South Korea as a distribution) will be compressed and whole, where more and more people housed under the tramway to reduce are selling their farms and seeking costs, energy input, and carbon alternative means of employment. emissions. Additionally, the tramway As a result, the country now only will host programs such as markets, produces enough food to feed 23% of theaters, restaurants, and recycling its own population and relies heavily centers. These systems combined form the structure that will be known on foreign imports. The Geoje Greenline simultaneously as the Geoje Greenline - the future offers a means to better link the of Korean public transit and food production. communities on the island as Urbanism well as Principle: Micro Diversity / Density

Multiple programs and infrastructures come together to create one wholistic system

Typical Agriculture System

Geoje Greenline System Consumers

Production

Processing

Storage

Distribution

Consumers

Waste

Biochar Fertilizer

Studio Critic: Jinhee Park

Biofuel Plant

Waste

Geoje Greenline

Geoje Greenline Mapping

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Studio Critic: Jinhee Park

Exploded Isometric

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Geoje Greenline

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Studio Critic: Jinhee Park

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Geoje Greenline

As the Greenline extends itself around the island, it’s form will vary as it encounters different conditions. In urban centers, the Greenline’s canopy with shrink so as to not cast a large shadow on its surrounding context, but sometimes will reach out and grab onto existing buildings to become a second skin. In more rural conditions, the canopy will not be present and only the tramway will exist, but often will be paired with an elevated running and bike path, even without the canopy. The Greenline will also house different programs such as, cafés, restaurants, food processing centers, theaters, recycling centers, and markets where food grown on the Greenline can be distributed to the local population.

18 Geoje Greenline Cross Section 02

Geoje Greenline Cross Section 05

Studio Critic: Jinhee Park 50

Geoje Greenline Cross Section 01

19 Geoje Greenline Cross Section 03

Geoje Greenline Cross Section 06

Geoje Greenline Cross Section 04

Geoje Greenline

MOTHERSHED

Situated on the bank of the East River Promenade of New York City, Mothershed utilizes the byproducts of surrounding industries to shield the city from rising waters while simultaneously making it a more amiable place to live. The underbelly of the Mothershed houses a device known as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bottom Feederâ&#x20AC;? that sweeps the bottom of the East River, eating up the gratuitous amount of waste that has settled there while also identifying entities that can be recycled and pieced together to form bio-mass modules. These modules will be stitched together using a biodegradable carbon composite available in mass quantities in any city - soot. The soot will be harvested from the surface of the Mothershed itself - a porous rock-like structure built at a massive

scale. The rock will be organically grown through a series of chemical reactions and will serve as the primary membrane for the systems of the Mothershed to be built upon. In order for the soot to adhere to the rock, water will be piped from a water treatment facility located at the base of the Mothershed to a series of public saunas where the water will be converted to steam and then exhausted to the surface of the rock. From there the Mothershed will rely on wind to bring soot from the city (and the rest of the world) to it. The Mothershed is an imagined system, designed to demonstrate the dire need of our global society to design and create new possibilities that will make our existence in the Anthropocene possible. It is not the means to an end, but to a great beginning.

Studio Critic: Christoph Kumpusch

VISIONS FROM THE ANTHROPOCENE

Mothershed

CROSS SECTION

Studio Critic: Christoph Kumpusch

LONGITUDINAL SECTION

Mothershed

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

Studio Critic: Christoph Kumpusch

TAXONOMY OF PARTS

9 6

1. Steel Truss 2. Steel Truss Assembled 3. Super Truss

4. Crane 5. Piping (Distribution) 6. Conveyor Belt

7. Stairs 8. Steam Vent 9. Waste Compactor

Mothershed

10. Soot/Refuse Storage 11.Water Treatment 12. Sauna/Wading Pool

13. Environmental Module Actuator

Model Photography Collage

Studio Critic: Christoph Kumpusch

Studies

Mothershed

ALTERNATIVE METHODOLOGIES

While undergoing preliminary research it was discovered that the proposed location for a library in Brooklyn was a brownfield site which would mean that for new construction to happen much of the ground would need to remediated for construction to be possible. Most remediation systems are costly and invasive, however the process known as Phytoremediation uses plants to treat soil contamination and has been found to be practical and less invasive than most systems. Hemp has been found to be a very practical phytoremediator due to its rapid growth rate and deep root system, but even after absorbing harmful chemicals the plant can still be used to create substances such as hempcrete. Currently hempcrete does not match the structural properties of concrete, but with further research and development hempcrete could become the sustainable replacement of environmentally unfriendly. Looking toward the future of construction practices, this project

proposes to uses hemp both as a site remediator and a building material. Initially the entire site will be covered in hemp in order to begin soil remediation, and as this is happening, glulam frames will begin to be constructed to form the base for the first spires. After a portion of the site has been remediated and enough hemp has been collected, hempcrete shells will start to be formed to make inhabitable spaces. If these spaces need to be expanded, the hempcrete shell can easily be recycled and reused. The tops of some of the largest spires will be left uncovered and the gulam frame will be used to facilitate vertical gardens that can grow even more hemp than the site could initially grow due to the increase in surface area exposed to the sun. This means that as the building grows, the amount of available building material will increase, and even after the site has been fully developed the system can be further utilized to â&#x20AC;&#x153;growâ&#x20AC;? more hempcrete structures.

Studio Critic: Gordon Kipping

Concept Collage

Alternative Methodologies

Studio Critic: Gordon Kipping

Alternative Methodologies

Plan - Ground Level N

Studio Critic: Gordon Kipping

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Plan - Second Level 0 ft

Alternative Methodologies

Studio Critic: Gordon Kipping

Alternative Methodologies

Phase I Brownfield Remediation Begins

Phase II Remediation Continues, Glulam Frame Construction Begins

Phase V Hempcrete Shell Construction Continues

Phase VI Remediation Ends, Larger Framing Construction Begins

Water Collection System

Daylighting

Studio Critic: Gordon Kipping

Phase III Hempcrete Shell Construction Begins

Phase IV Smaller Structures are Removed, Growing Spires Take Form

Phase VII Final Glulam Frame Construction Begins, Hempcrete Shell Construction Continues

Phase VIII Final Form Takes Shape

Increased Surface Area, Increased Growing Space

Future Development, Continuous Construction

Alternative Methodologies

URBAN HOMESTEAD

During the first visit to the site in the Bronx, I had a chance encounter with one of the local residents who invited me into her home for tea. She told me the story of her daughter, who first bought the apartment when she married over a decade ago, and had since had two children who the grandmother babysat while the couple was away at work. Although there were five residents in the apartment, there were only two bedrooms . Instead of looking for a new place to live when the family expanded they had instead expanded their indoor territory to the balcony, constructing an improvised structure to create a new bedroom. The grandmother told me that it was possible for them to move to a larger space, but doing so would have displaced them from the local community they had grown to love and cherish, so they used what was available to them to improve their current domicile. Unlike suburban homes which can be easily be expanded upon, dense

urban housing rarely offers the user a chance to add onto their living spaces, forcing them to find alternative means of housing when their living situation changes. The Urban Homestead offers a solution to this issue with the creation of framework for living in which the users are invited to purchases â&#x20AC;&#x153;plotsâ&#x20AC;? of land and build the kind of domicile they prefer using prefabricated parts. This system allows for incremental design, so that inhabitants can start off small and built outward and even upward at their own will. The homestead has been lifted off of the ground on pilotis, creating a large public open space on the ground level . The void space above is occupied by two longspan steel trusses that house public programs for the local community and provide the primary means of circulation between floor levels. The top level serves as an urban farm, and provides a means for the community to grow their own food.

Studio Critic: Daisy Ames

Concept Collage

Urban Homestead

The rendered structure model highlights the two truss bridges which are supported by a combination of steel frame members and concrete elevator cores. These bridges house public programs for the Urban Homestead inhabitants such as community center, gym, media center, classrooms and more. Additionally, they serve as circulation between floors making them social conjestors.

Studio Critic: Daisy Ames

Urban Homestead

Studio Critic: Daisy Ames

Urban Homestead

The ground level of the Urban Homestead has been left open which allows for the creation of a large, open green space that can host multiple kinds of programs that vary season to season. Featured above are a summer soccer field, a winter ice skating rink, and a spring farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market.

Studio Critic: Daisy Ames

Urban Homestead

Plan - Third Level N

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Studio Critic: Daisy Ames

Expandable Units

01 Efficiency (320 sq ft.)

02 Studio (640 sq ft.)

03 Two Bedroom (960 sq ft.)

04 Three Bedroom (1280 sq ft.)

03A Two Bedroom - Double Volume (960 sq ft.)

04A Three Bedroom - Double Volume (1280 sq ft.)

Urban Homestead

Studio Critic: Daisy Ames

Urban Homestead

New Grounds: The Symbiotic City 50

A vision for future cities that seeks to establish harmonious relationships between humanity and nature

Seminar Instructor: David Moon

New Grounds: The Symbiotic City

Introduction In the past half-century, our global population has more than doubled from 3 billion to over 7 billion people, and in the next 25 years, we will gain another billion inhabitants. New cities will emerge, existing cities will transform, and by 2035 sixty to seventy percent of the world’s population will live in cities. These cities will face severe shock and stresses generated by climate change, population growth and climate-induced migrations which will spur incredible challenges for the world’s planners, architects, engineers, urban ecologists and other city leaders as they plan for the future. To address the serious challenges our urban centers will face, we must create an end-goal for all cities – a goal that will require economic, political, technological and cultural behaviors of the city to engage in the creation and maintenance of a regenerative, symbiotic relationship with the natural environment. Definition This new typology of urban development, known as the Symbiotic City, seeks to create a more harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural environment, enhancing quality of life while making sustainable economic activity possible. The Symbiotic City produces ecological systems that are equal to or greater than the net use of its total services and provides the basic needs of human habitation - shelter, food, energy, access to resources, mobility, and ecosystems services - while at the same time positively contributing to the health and regeneration of local and regional ecosystems. In order to understand why this new form of city is necessary, we must first examine the problems that cities and their inhabitants face that have been shaped by our rapid and unprecedented population growth. 52

Humanity’s Ecological Footprint

Ever since humanity rose to the top of the food chain, we as a species have viewed the planet as ours – from the smallest homestead to the provinces of empires the question of the ownership of land and other natural resources has always been between people; what territory is owed to the flora and fauna of the world has never been a question. As such, we have continued to fell forests, dry out wetlands, dig mines and indulged in other destructive practices with little regard as to what effect they have on other forms of life. Due to the fact that it is relatively easy for us to expand across the landscape, we have done so continuously - building farms, highways, houses, malls, offices, factories, etc. with no end in sight. However, our continued expansion has come at the cost of increased demand for natural resources of all

Seminar Instructor: David Moon

kinds. This demand is defined as the Human Ecological Footprint - the measure of humanity’s impact on the Earth’s ecosystems – which reveals the dependence of human economic activity on natural capital. This footprint can be calculated from the individual to the global scale and changes every year along with population growth, consumption rates, efficiency of production, and the productivity of ecosystems. The primary goal of taking such measurements is to compare humanity’s demand for natural resources is to what our planet can provide. Every year since 2003 the independent think tank known as the Global Footprint Network (created in conjunction with the United Nations) has taken such measurements. This organization has discovered that as of 2014, our global civilization has been using natural capital 1.7 times faster than the Earth can renew it – an incredibly high rate that is not sustainable by any means. Global Climate Change In addition to consuming increasingly higher amounts of natural capital, the many industries of humanity have also made effects on our atmosphere and oceans. For the past century, the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal has drastically increased the concentration of carbon dioxide and other gasses in our atmosphere. To a lesser extent, the clearing of land for agricultural use, industry, housing, and other human activities has increased concentrations of gasses that affect Earth’s atmosphere. These gasses reflect heat radiating from our planet’s surface and keep it from dissipating into space, creating a phenomenon known as the “greenhouse effect”.

Despite ups and downs from year to year, our planet’s average surface temperature is rising. By the beginning of the 21st century, Earth’s temperature was roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius above the long-term (1951–1980) average. (NASA figure adapted from Goddard Institute for Space Studies Surface Temperature Analysis.)

As the concertation of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere increases, so does the temperature of our planet. The consequences of changing the natural atmospheric composition are difficult to predict, even for agencies such as NASA, but certain effects seem likely. On average, Earth will become warmer. Warmer temperatures will lead to increased evaporation of surface water as well as an increase in precipitation, but the effect will vary from region to region. Some species of flora and fauna will thrive with the increase of temperature while many more will be wiped out, either directly or indirectly due to this temperature change. Not only will our atmosphere become warmer, but our oceans will as well. This will lead to the partial or complete melting of glaciers and other ice formations, increasing sea level. Ocean water will also expand if it becomes warmer, further contributing to sea level rise. This will have a direct effect on our coastal cities, which account for about 40% of our global population. As waters rise entire regional populations will be displaced as their communities become flooded. New Grounds: The Symbiotic City

In terms of agriculture, certain crops such as wheat will respond favorably to increased temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, growing more vigorously and using water more efficiently. However, many crops like corn and soy may become impossible to grow, at least in the regions where they are commonly grown now. Even if the crop itself is not affected by the temperature increase, farming will become increasingly difficult as surface water sources begin to dry up, making climate change a direct threat to our food supply. Symbiotic City Strategies In order to address these problems, almost all of the activities of humanity must be assessed in terms of their detrimental impact on our planet and then reimagined, but the body of this work focuses on strategies that our future cities might employ to ensure the continued prosperity of our global society. In the collage shown, a series of strategies have been implemented at the conceptual level to simultaneously assess how they could be carried out while also studying the visions of our future from other architects and designers. Additionally, the size and scope of the collage emphasize how these strategies might have draâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;stic effects on our way of life, questioning notions of consumerism, property, and space. Density The greatest irony of the Symbiotic City is the fact that humanity cannot exist in absolute harmony with nature â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we will always be competing with other species for the limited natural resources available. The one greatest means we have of reducing the amount of harm done to the environment is limiting our physical footprint. By constructing in greater densities, we can reduce sprawl and create greater modes of living while also reducing resource usage which in turn reduces regional ecosystem degradation caused by low-density development. 54

Dense modes of living do not need to limit access to light and air - porosity will be key in the Symbiotic City to support high density living and will allow for better ventialtion and the greater growth of plant life.

Seminar Instructor: David Moon

In the book Scale – The Universal Laws of Growth, theoretical physicist Geoffrey West demonstrates that as cities grow in density and size their overall per capita metabolic rate – the rate at which a city consumes all resources such as water, materials, and energy – decreases exponentially. This means that not only are larger cities more cost-effective, they are also more sustainable. In order to facilitate the greatest possible density of cities, we must question the current structure of our urban environments. Currently, almost all forms of development, urban or otherwise, are dictated by our notions of property. Every single development, whether it be a sprawling public park or a single-family residence, has a property boundary that marks the furthest extent of how far (horizontally and sometimes even vertically) that development can go. However the particular boundaries of cities are not always so clear, and as the demand for more land increases for the sake of urban development, the outer boundaries of cities tend to grow – thus creating the phenomenon known as urban sprawl. If we flipped these notions of property and boundary, hard-lining the extent of cities and obfuscating the boundaries of individual developments, we could implement a system of regenerative, vertical urban growth that could achieve the maximum potential of built space while drastically minimizing our destruction of the environment. 100% Recycling (Infinitecycling) Not only will the Symbiotic City require new modes of planning, but the industries it contains will also need new methods of designing and material use to enable true recycling. Currently, our global society for the most part views waste not as a commodity but as something to be disposed of – to be buried in the ground or burned away. However, by doing so we remove the opportunity to recycle and turn waste into usable materials and substances, which in turn increases our dependence on the consumption of raw materials.

All forms of physical waste in the Symbiotic City will sent to the Universal Recycling Plant, which will sort materials and send them to automated factories to create new products for consumption.

New Grounds: The Symbiotic City

Currently, many governments, from the local to national level, have made significant gains in reducing the amount of waste that is sent to landfills and incinerators. However, much of what gets called recycling is actually ‘downcycling’ – a process in which highly refined pure materials are slowly mixed with lower grade materials as they move through the production process and become less valuable, secondary use materials. True recycling will require products which are designed to be easily broken down into their fundamental components and re-used as raw materials once again. The Symbiotic City cannot produce garbage, outputs must become the inputs for another process like what occurs in nature. This form of recycling mostly refers to the reprocessing of materials that we associate with current recycling practices – paper, plastics, metals, glass, textiles, etc. However, to achieve full 100% recycling levels we must recycle all forms of waste. This includes material waste, wastewater, chemical waste, and even our own excrement. Combined with new modes of production and waste management, true recycling can significantly reduce our reliance on the extraction of raw materials from our global ecosystems, helping to preserve our environment and significantly reduce our ecological footprint. Zero Carbon Energy Production

Scientists across the globe have come to the consensus that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human industry – particularly from carbon dioxide. One of the best strategies we can implement in order to stop emitting harmful gasses into our atmosphere is by ending our reliance on fossil fuel burning energy sources and begin to solely use zero carbon-emitting energy production methods. We already have at our disposal a myriad of these methods, including but not limited to: Solar Wind Hydroelectric Geothermal Hydrogen Fuel Biofuel Biochar Biochar in particular is an interesting new form of energy production because in the process of creating energy it also locks up carbon in solid form, keeping it from being emitted into the atmosphere and allowing it to be used as a form of fertilizer. Biochar reactors function using a process known as pyrolysis, which involves placing biomass (which can be almost anything from grass clippings to our own excrement) into a vacuum sealed oven where little to no oxygen is present and heating it at extreme temperatures. The result is a solid material rich in carbon content that can be directly added to soil to help sustain plant life while the byproduct, heat, can be harvested to create energy. Biochar fertilizer is an excellent means of improving soil quality for a number of reasons; it enhances soil structure, increases water retention, reduces nitrous oxide emissions, decreases acidity, improves porosity and enhances quality of life from microbes. Used in conjunction with urban farming, ecosystem services, and waste management systems, Biochar has the potential to become a renewable energy source that can also contribute to the regeneration of our global ecosystems while reducing our emission of greenhouse gasses.

Seminar Instructor: David Moon

Solid, organic forms of waste that cannot be utilized for recycling purposes are sent to the Biochar Plant to be used for energy production and the creation of Biochar fertilizer.

Urban Food Production Currently, our global society uses an area equivalent to the size of South America (4.4 billion acres) for the purposes of agricultural production. With current population growth trends, we will need further arable land the size of Brazil (2 billion acres) to feed our total population in 2050. Reclaiming such an amount of land would be devastating to regional ecosystems, and would accelerate our already unsustainable global ecological footprint. Not only do we not have enough land to sustain our worldwide diet, but we are also reaching the limits of our global fresh water supply. Agriculture is currently responsible for over 70% of the world’s total water consumption, which puts tremendous stress on surface water supplies and aquifers around the world. Much of the water used to grow crops to feed ourselves as well as livestock is wasted due to poor irrigation methods that lead to oversaturation of soil, water pollution, and evaporation. In order to create a sustainable and ecologically regenerative food system, cities will need to develop the means to provide an increasingly greater percentage of their own food supply from local sources, while at the same time eliminating the negative impacts of agriculture on local and regional ecosystems. Food production will therefore need to transition to high-intensity, high-productivity systems that happen within our urban centers. The intensification of agriculture in cities will require the radical transformation of current practices in order to facilitate the re-localization of food production. Furthermore, not only will we need to intensify the production of food within our cities, but we must end of the practice of viewing food as a commodity and instead treat its production as an infrastructure – same as how we view our energy, transportation, waste management, and water supply systems. We already have at our disposal multiple means of growing food in urban centers – systems such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics can be implemented, both indoors and outdoors, to grow all kinds of crops. These systems can drastically reduce the amount of water and soil necessary for farming, and can be constructed in high densities thus raising the possible yields per acre (or even per square foot) by incredible amounts compared to traditional field growing methods. In the Symbiotic City, large scale vertical farms in warehouses can grow prodigious amounts of food in great densities using artificial light and systems that can easily retain all water used – leading to zero

New Grounds: The Symbiotic City

Integrating agricultural systems into the fabric of the Symbiotic City can be accomplished in multiple ways - pictured above are housing units with vertical farm courtyards where agricultural production can happen in conjunction with social programs, whereas a vertical farming dome grows crops in high densities, using natural light when possible and utilizing artificial light when necessary. Seen below next to an office tower, livestock pens in the height of the city provide access to light and air to cows ensuring our food sources stay happy and healthy.

Seminar Instructor: David Moon

water waste. Outside, vertical farms as a part of green facades and green roofs, can grow food using the energy of the sun and can turn outdoor unproductive spaces such as parks, lawns, and courtyards into highly productive cultivation zones. The growth of livestock must also be introduced to the Symbiotic City. Livestock production is an important contributor to many of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, water, and air pollution, and the destruction of entire ecosystems. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the raising of livestock accounts for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions, which is a greater share than that of transportation. Livestock also accounts for over 8% of all global human water usage and is one of the greatest sectoral sources of water pollutants, mainly from animal waste, antibiotics hormones, and pesticides used for feed crops. By raising livestock in contained environments, their impact on the ecosystems can be mitigated while the gasses and waste they emit can be gathered for the creation of biofuel and fertilizer for crops. Ecosystem Services Ecosystem services are the byproducts of natural ecological processes generated by healthy ecosystems which provide all of the necessary biological conditions for our existence on Earth. The Symbiotic City needs to be planned and designed to not only transform the industrial processes that harm ecosystems, but also to develop effective strategies to regenerate the ecosystems that we have already damaged or destroyed. These services include: Oxygen production Water filtration Flood protection Biodiversity preservation Pollination Reduction of water and airborne pollutants Production of aquaculture products, timber, and other food and raw materials If ecosystems are left alone and are not compromised, they will produce these goods and services almost infinitely. However, as our global development as society continues, we are destroying ecosystems, taking away natural resources at unstainable rates, and putting our own existence at risk. The services provided by ecosystems currently have no economic value - they are not included in economic decision making that affects most parts of our lives. Since they are not counted as having any value within our economy, the health and sustainability of ecosystems that produce these services are not accounted for, and the result is a significant and ecologically destructive misallocation of natural capital. However, the long-term health of natural capital and the generation of ecosystem services is absolutely essential to maintain both a healthy economy and livable communities, and must become a factor in the planning and designing of the Symbiotic City. If we treat these ecosystem services not at externalities that happen independently of human activity, but as ecological infrastructures that are intrinsic to the city, we can spur a whole new industry for our economic prosperity and general wellbeing. These ecological infrastructures can come in the form of artificial wetlands, green roofs, green facades, naturalized gardens, rain gardens, bioswales, and many others. One particular form of this mode of infrastructure that can have an incredibly large array of benefits is that of the Urban Forest. Trees are incredible ecosystem service powerhouses that play a crucial role in our global ecological systems. They remove pollutants from the air, provide oxygen, retain storm and flood waters, reduce the heat island effect, can provide food and raw materials, and add aesthetic value to almost any space they are located in. To put their value in perspective, one mature deciduous tree can produce enough oxygen to sustain an individual while removing as much as one ton of carbon dioxide from the air annually. In the Symbiotic City, Urban Forests will be implemented to provide all of these services but can also serve as spaces for relaxation and social engagement. The Urban Forest can be laced with hiking trails, running paths and bike paths, while meadows can house programs such as playgrounds, outdoor gyms, picnic grounds, and other functions. New Grounds: The Symbiotic City

Urban Forests such as this one can provide a wide array of ecological services while also allocating space fr social infrasturctures.

Seminar Instructor: David Moon

Zero Carbon Mobility With the introduction of the automobile, the twentieth century marked a dramatic shift in the way cities were planned. Instead of designing cities that prioritized the movement and safety of pedestrians, city leaders and planners began to design cities with the automobile in mind. However making cars our primary means of transportation came at the cost of traffic congestion, air pollution, soaring obesity rates, and the destruction of the natural environment with the creation of roads, highways, parking lots and parking garages. The Symbiotic City must be designed to prioritize the movement of the pedestrian while providing environmentally friendly means of public transit. Methods of transportation that use fossil fuels must be banned. In typical city planning, roads are often used as a means to create divisions between properties that also accommodate horizontal wayfinding methods. They accommodate for the rapid transit of individual users, large groups, as well as for materials and goods. Vertical modes of transit are primarily limited to the building scale and come mainly in the form of stairs and elevators. However, since the Symbiotic City will limit its own means of horizontal expansion while maximizing its verticality, these separate modes of transit may become obsolete. Instead, the distinction between horizontal and vertical transit may become blurred as our ability to defy gravity expands. Instead of creating roads in the typical sense, the transit infrastructure of the Symbiotic City may become something like a hybrid between a tunnel and an elevator shaft. Using pneumatic tubes, and/or electric rails, the same transit system will allow for movement in both vertical and horizontal directions. This new system will allow users to move to almost any far away destination in the Symbiotic City with ease, and without creating pollution. The necessity for independently owned modes of transit, such as automobiles, will diminish if not entirely parish as cities once again become walkable, allowing an inhabitant to reach most destinations on foot, or with other means such as by bicycle. This will make for healthier citizens and will decrease if not eliminate the need for structures such as parking lots and garages, which take up significant amounts of space which can be allocated for better, more useful programs. In general, shifting our mobility investments towards active and sustainable modes of transportation will increase travel efficiency, save money, and help repair environmental damage already caused by decades of building our cities around the automobile and will make our urban environments better places to live.

Transportation hubs such as this one allow for rapid transit in multiple directions using tube like highways that house gyroscopically stabilized pods.

New Grounds: The Symbiotic City

Economic Transformations The crux of all of the Symbiotic City strategies is the revolutionary change of our global economy. Currently, our economic practices prioritize production and consumption over all else and view ecological services as externalized – completely separate from our economic activities and planning principals. In order for us to achieve any sense of symbiosis with the natural environment, our economy needs to become one that recognizes, measures, and assigns value to the natural capital and ecosystem services that are generated. Transforming our existing economic structure will obviously not be an easy task, but the abhorrent ecological, social and long-term economic costs of maintaining the status quo are urgent and compelling reasons for change. If at all else, the rapidly increasing destruction of ecosystems around the world, because their value is considered “external” to our economic calculations, clearly demonstrates how urgently change is required. Even if we choose not to care about the destruction of the habitats for other species and their possible, if not inevitable extinction, we must consider the grave effects our current economic principals will have on our own future and begin to rectify those principles. Conclusions

This body of work primarily assesses very real and current problems our global civilization is facing in the epoch of the Anthropocene, so it might seem strange that some of the proposed solutions in the text and collage seem futuristic or like something from science fiction. However, it is the view of this particular author/designer that discipline of architecture has become complacent to our global ecological destruction. While researching works of other designers that examined these issues and created frameworks for future cities, I seemed to find few contemporary projects that seriously pushed the boundaries of what architecture could accomplish in terms of countering the effects of global climate change and the creation of an unsustainable ecological footprint. However I did discover a range of works from past eras from visionary designers such as Archigram, Paolo Soleri and the Metabolists that examined these issues at the conceptual level, and seriously challenged our current notions of constructed environments, as well as social and economic systems. Somewhere down the line it appears that the discipline of architecture forgot of its own tremendous potential and sequestered itself to examining these problems only at the individual building scale – doing too little, too late to counter the enormous problems that my generation is now faced with. While projects from designers such as those of Design Earth do give me hope that new, conceptual visions for the contemporary age can come about that can give us the inspiration necessary to unfold the revolutions necessary to bring about a sustainable future for our dearest planet Earth.

Seminar Instructor: David Moon

Bibliography Websites https://climate.nasa.gov/ https://www.symbioticcities.net https://www.postcarbon.org/ https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/ https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecological-footprint/ https://www.eartheconomics.org/ https://regenerationinternational.org/ http://www.fao.org/ https://naturalcapitalproject.stanford.edu/ 63

Books and Publications Scale; The Universal Laws of Growth - Geoffrey West Upcycle - William McDonough and Michael Braungart Cradle to Cradle - William McDonough The Solar Economy; Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future - Herman Scheer Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change; A 21st Century Survival Guide - Sue Roaf, David

Crichton, and Fergus Nicol

The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster - Lawrence J. Vale and Thomas J.

Campanella

Triumph of the City - Edward Glaeser The Post Carbon Reader - Richard Heinberg The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Dickson Despommier

New Grounds: The Symbiotic City

DOMESTICITY IN SANTORINI

In the past decade, the Greek island of Santorini has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and now attracts thousands of visitors each year. The tourists are particularly drawn to the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique vernacular architecture, which has largely been shaped by volcanic activity. Over the course of thousands of years, the native Greeks constructed homes on the shear cliff sides of the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s volcanic crater, digging into the soft volcanic pumice and building out using the excavated stone. Wanting to build as high as possible to avoid raids from pirates and other sea born threats, the caldera was developed in great density, causing structures to often collide and be built over one another. This resulted in unique urban conditions where often the distinctions between public and private space are blurred, and access to light and air is limited.

In our investigation of a 40x40 meter section of the caldera, we became fascinated with the domestic spaces of the settlements, and using historical drawings, we made our own recreation of what the conditions in these excavated spaces might be like. In particular, we paid attention to the arrangement of spaces and the strategies implemented to bring light into the depths of the units, which we discovered were often dug quite deep into the ground. We also were interested in the spatial ambiguity present in the settlement, with its public communal corridors bleeding into what was perceived as semi-private spaces and then into the privacy of the units. This created a gradient of procedurally liminal spaces and an ambiguity between public and private, breaking down ideas of property and creating communal streets and blocks, which was the focus of our built model.