THE
HIGHER
NINTH WARD
THEORY FOR A RESILIENT URBAN DESIGN STRATEGY IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
Alexander Griffin Master of Architecture Thesis: 2014 - 2015 Wentworth Institute of Technology Advisor: Rob Trumbour
The Higher Ninth Ward Theory for a resilient Urban Design Strategy in the Age of Global Climate Change Alexander Griffin Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Architecture Wentworth Institute of Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture April 2015 Approved by the Committee: Primary Advisor:
________________________________________ Robert Trumbour
Interim Director, Graduate Studies: ________________________________________ Elizabeth Ghiseline
The raw and vibrantly multi-colored city of New Orleans is like no other. I have been here for two weeks and already have a sense of the power the forces of nature have on a culture. Ten years since the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, communities continue to rebuild in this city surrounded and threatened by water. Urban gardens have taken on a language of their own, and the French Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods vibrate with outlook and confidence among the scattered remains of decay. It is an extremely exciting time here, especially with the recent celebration of Mardi Gras, a festival with no beginning or end. The locals here know their neighbors, and make it a conscious effort to know who they live by. Just like they made a conscious decision that New Orleans is a place they want to live even after catastrophe. This city has that conscious feeling in the air. It is a place that radiates with a vibrant, flashy culture and the passion for an authentic human spirit. “Rusted Rainbow� Bywater, New Orleans, 2014.
Thank You/ Rob Trumbour Ingrid Strong Mark Pasnik Francesco Stumpo Matt Carlson Ben Bruce Diane Lim Olivia Hegner Collette Creppel David Young Volunteers of Capstone Community Garden Dani Letitia John Lester Erykah Dawn Tyler Goss Alice Shockey Lucas Zwink Ariety Matt and Karen in Marigny Donna and Maryanne My Parents, Irene and Phil
The people of the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans, Louisiana. This would not exist without you.
CONTENTS ABSTRACT
8
engage /
9
statement /
10
claim /
11
PLACE
15
changing landscape /
16
narrative /
22
ANALYSIS
29
changing landscape /
30
vacancy /
32
food desert /
34
mesh network /
38
grid morphology /
42
green corridors /
44
INCREMENTAL
47
elevation /
50
make it right /
52
vernacular /
54
public realm /
56
method /
58
RESILIENT
61
the honey bee /
62
?/
64
infrastructures /
66
phase /
72
grow /
76
connect /
78
emerge /
82
CONCLUSION
85
this is a book, sure. it is also a manifesto, a non-linear process. a visual inventory, abstract a proposal of sorts. a testement. It is documentation, of an idea. a lot of ideas. But before it is all of that, it is a story.
ABSTRACT
Engage/ “From my understanding and what I have experienced in this city – there is a uniquely rich culture. Shannon says “its something in the dirt” that makes people move the way they do here, it must be something in the water that makes jazz that much funkier than anywhere else in the world. After all, native americans that performed ceremony and ritual on the same soil, drank the same water.” - day 4.
8
9
ABSTRACT
Statement/ With the reality of our changing climate, and the catastrophic damages inflicted upon our communities as a result, I propose a resilient design solution to reconnect the displaced and isolated neighborhood that exists as the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Through the insertion of corridors, nodes, and program within the existing grid - taking on the form of soft and hard infrastructure - this proposal will stitch together a community in tension - allowing it to grow, connect and emerge resiliently.
10
Claim/ In 2005, hurricane Katrina stripped The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans of its identity and displaced thousands, rendering the conditions in its environment unsafe, unstable, and its identity - indefinable. With the imminent threat of future catastrophic events, development must be addressed with a critical design strategy of resilience, accompanied by the cultivation of the idea _
_ we can live with nature, not against it.
Architecture needs to play a strategic role today in defining The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana as a resilient community – adapting with the realities of climate change; displacement and reverse colonization. This thesis explores the possibility of redefining a place in the Lower Ninth Ward, and simultaneously, displacing associations of catastrophe - by way of a resilient design strategy. Circumstance and societal perception is the driver of this thesis, examining the conflicting global, cultural, memorial and environmental forces that shape the place that exists today as the Lower Ninth Ward. Linking these forces through visual narrative - the place of the nostalgic, the place of the resistant and the place of the resilient – illustrating the present conditions from these three distinct viewpoints.
Drawing connections and conclusions on the role and response of the architect in this unstable landscape this thesis questions culture’s perception of ‘disaster relief’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘resiliency’ in this post-disaster community, offering a strategy of redefinition. It questions the conventional perception and approach taken by cities regarding catastrophe – to ignore, retreat, defend and to resist the inevitable forces of nature. A resilient design strategy can engage this displaced community to respond while respecting the rhythm of nature’s cycle.
In the architectural practice today, there is an anxiety that exists surrounding the fact that climate change is real and imminent. As designers we are born optimists but are currently living in a world of pessimisms in the field of architectural practice. The rational, intuitive and realistic architect today is an individual faced with a paradox of emotions involving the future of the practice and the body of work it depends upon – the need and want to dwell as a civilization.
Approaching a decade from catastrophic destruction, the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans is now a microcosm of society tested with adapting to our changing climate. Occupying the outlying eastern territory on the edge of the city – it is an anomaly, estranged and contradictive. A place of the nostalgic, of the resistant, and of the resilient; it’s now incoherently mixed landscape is scattered with pockets of community enclaves, dwelling in an uncertain period of optimism.
The years that followed in the shadow of hurricane Katrina were a new kind of struggle for not only New Orleans, but for the world – watching, helping and learning from a community tested with unprecedented levels of disaster relief and redevelopment contained within a fragmented and disorienting environment.
11
ABSTRACT
Catastrophic [Forces of Nature] and the [Role of Architecture] Adapting in an Evolution of Cultural Perception
“Time”
“Dwelling”
“Place”
“Identity”
“Sustainability”
“Perception” Ingold: Perception of the Environment
Global Climate Change
“Environmental Prophets”
Impact
Need/want
Collective/Individual
Heidegger
Critical Regionalism
Frampton
Place Attachment
Koolhaus: The Generic City
Manzo
Wang
Narrative Adapt
- The Hysteric - The Assauger - The Disclaimer - The Fatalist
Nostalia
Surrender
Memory Protection Containment (From Forces)
Passive
“Levee” “Bathtubber”
Calvino: Invisible Cities
12
Lacks Boundary Permeable Porous (Forces)
Make It Right
:
Resiliance Grounding Support Innovation (With Forces)
Active
Dominate/Integrate
“Cultural Footprint”
Wang: Sustainability is a Cultural Problem
13
PLACE : a particular position or point in space : the role played by or importance attached to someone or something in a particular context : the social, economical, political, cultural aspects that define a physical boundary in time
15
PLACE
Changing Landscape/ To understand and critique the displacement of this community since the event of hurricane Katrina, it is helpful to visualize these changes over time. The following is a visual timeline, illustrating the changing patterns of development, growth, decay, stagnation, and rebirth in the Lower Ninth Ward after hurricane Katrina. The changing patterns along Forstall Street expose the contrasting development, growth, decay, stagnation, and rebirth over the 9 years post-Katrina. Partially a video produced by the New York Times in 2010, and partially matched with images from a uniform location in 2014, this timeline uncovers ‘place’ narratives of the nostalgic, the resistant, and the resilient, calling out elements that appear, reappear, and disappear through time.
2006
2007
2009
2010
2014
Diagram of footage documented along Forstall Street
16
17
18
19
2006
2007
2009
2010
2014
20
As a result of displacement, three fundamental notions of place have emerged from alternating conditions in the Lower Ninth Ward as it exists today – The place of nostalgia, the place of resistance, and the place of resilience. These distinct notions of place provide three perspectives from three arguments on the past and future course of the Lower Ninth Ward. They are separate arguments on the place that exists, contrasting one another, but do not exist in isolation.
21
PLACE
Nostalgia/
The place of nostalgia is a reaction to the aspirations, the hopes, and the dreams that the community (and outside individuals involved in redevelopment) have in regards to the place that they remember, or believe they remember existing before hurricane Katrina. The place of the nostalgic is subjective, it does not always give up, but it returns to the source of its desires and repeats. Its physical form exists in the front porch, and the stories from inside the levee walls where it lives. It remembers, forgives, forgets and memorizes.
The day came when my travels took me to New Orleans. As soon as I sat foot there, everything I had imagined was forgotten.
Before the neighborhood became what it is, the sea was known to be invisible from the city hiding behind the great wall, shelter from the tide. the shallow marsh, unseen. the porch, shelter from the rain.
There is reassurance of protection from the outer world the street wall and the marsh fixed for generations repeat
22
23
PLACE
Resistance/ The place of resistance is a reaction to the neglect, the powerless, the forgotten, and the passive; the forces of nature imposing themselves upon the community. It is found in the overgrowth, the resurgence of animal species, and the adaptation of nature reclaiming the land that it once possessed entirely. It is a place of awareness, overt action and continual challenge – of assertion and question of the will and power of the people.
Sidewalks emerge like scabs out of the soil, spread over them with the passing time. Here, boundaries are not limited, but break from the containment of the low-lying, permeable terrain. An unsympathetic draft cuts through the gap-toothed landscape, patches of overgrowth and accumulation of discarded objects. In this exposed landscape, the penetration of hundreds of lost concrete forms emerge from the earth; scattered remains of abandoned assembly appear. The air settles in the ruins of a deteriorating framework embedded within the tall grass. A path leads to a threshold. Sign reads “no trespassing” Markings on the exterior wall reads “1/8 NE 9/13”. A door is ajar; its porous barrier struggles to disconnect the interior from the exterior, inviting humidity and moisture to settle inside the space. Mold and rust drip down the crumbling remains of a lath skeleton.
24
25
PLACE
Resilience/ The place of resilience is a then response to the place of nostalgia and the place of resistance. It is the place of action and active effort towards stability and progressive identity. This place joins, communicates, and shapes with and within its environment. It is a place of strength, rigidity, and grounding; bold action, foundation, determination and most importantly – consistency.
Pockets of gardens appear along a fragmented grid. New life is cultivated within the remnants of decay. Seeds spread themselves across the landscape, germinate under the surface; roots bury themselves deep in the earth below, binding themselves to shards of glass and stone for support.
Above, bees are summoned in all directions to retrieve pollen where they stock in reformed hives. In the distance, a car passes in the direction of the Claiborne Bridge. Clouds above break apart they move westward in its direction, towards the French Quarter.
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27
ANALYSIS : detailed examination of the elements or structure of something : this process as a method of studying the nature of something or of determining its essential features : research, observe, build, record, express.
29
ANALYSIS
Changing Landscape/
2004
Google Earth
2005
2005
2006
2008
Google Earth
2009 30
2010
2012
2013
2014
Google Earth
2004
2005
2005
2006
2008
Google Earth
2009
2010
2012
2013
2014 31
ANALYSIS
Vacancy/ “Rather than seeking answers from outside the community, answers and architectural solutions must be found from within.� - day 3.
32
Combining information of topography, impact location, existing development, and lot vacancy in the Lower Ninth Ward, a gradient is revealed that illustrates the largest issue this community has been facing since hurricane Katrina, density and vacancy. - wk 3
Exerpt from sketchbook
National Geographic
Vacancy map, 2011. WhoData.org
Lower Ninth Ward, 2014.
33
ANALYSIS
Food Desert/ The most basic and necessary element that binds any community together food - is the biggest issue present in the Lower Ninth Ward today. With no grocery stores present, it is very difficult for community members to buy good quality and fresh food. Extended travel up to two miles outside the neighborhood is required to buy groceries. BD-1
“A larger idea begins with the simplest reasoning and can be found in the most overlooked of places. In an effort to create something enormous, it must begin with something small. A seed the grain of rice can become the most beautiful flower.� - day 3.
RM-2
BD-1
BD-
1
34
N. Claiborne Bridge, 2015.
The nearest grocery store - 2 miles away walk: 45 - 50 minutes bus: 25 - 45 minutes St. Claude Bridge, 2015.
35
ANALYSIS
Mesh Network/ “It is not enough to simply redevelop the neighborhood. Wether the house floats, shifts, tilts, or sinks in the event of another Katrina. Something must give reason for development behind these levee walls. Something to give these residents hope that they can grow together.� - day 3.
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39
Analysis of visual interaction in the existing
neighborhood
reveals
an
interesting pattern when viewed as a network of connected nodes. Density and variation is revealed giving clue to where and how intervention should take place to reconnect and strengthen the gapped system. - wk 4
40
ANALYSIS
Grid Morphology/ The expansion of the grid moving north in the 20th century changes the variation of lot orentation moving from Holy Cross [along the south edge along the Mississippi River], north into the Lower Ninth Ward. With this situation of vacancy in these middle-zone lots, there lies the opportunity to anchor the community from within the block. - wk 8
20t
hC
19
th
42
Ce
ntu
ent
ry
ury
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ANALYSIS
Green Corridors/ After closer analysis of existing and potential “green corridors� that do or could exist in the fabric, a pattern, and thus, an opportunity arises to incorporate an infrastructure (as apposed to only a structure) of connection. By definition, infrastructure is a fundamental system of transportation, communication, and other aspects of its physical capabilities. This is my understanding of what this community is lacking on an urban scale - to reconnect it back to its larger context, and on a local scale - to join neighbors in moments of interaction, meeting, and reflection. Research and observation of these vacant linear green spaces reveals the opportunity to introduce this new approach to program, transport, and placement of density in this community, from not only within the physical boundary of the Lower Ninth, but within the block itself. A series of green corridors emerge from vacancy. - wk 10.
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INCREMENTAL : something added or gained : amount or degree by which something changes : a process
47
INCREMENTAL
Elevation/ The location and reality of the rising sea level, threat of flood waters and storm surges in catastrophic events, and changes in the elevation of built structures give ‘rise’ to a new datum and mode of operation in the Lower Ninth. This heightened elevation offers a new way of not only building, but interacting in the community. For this flood zone (A), FEMA advises for a BFE (Base Flood Elevation) of a minumum of three feet from reletive ground level. With a category five event like hurricane Katrina, storm surges of up to fifteen feet are possible. Three feet elevated is hardly enough to protect from flooding, let alone a powerful storm surge.
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INCREMENTAL
Make It Right/ Taking the knowledge that with an event like hurricane Katrina, it is possible for over eight feet of water (not including the initial storm surge) to introduce itself into this neighborhood, designers working with the Make It Right Foundation were asked to be inventive with mediating this reality, while simultaneously addressing a porch community in the design of their thirteen variations. The Make It Right Foundation requires a minimum of five feet elevation to protect against flood waters. A finished floor elevation of eight feet one inch is desired to offer better protection above, while occupying the ground level.
The design of interstitial space within the block will need to operate in conjunction with the language of this development that has boldly taken shape in the community - taking into account the three foot BFE and the eight foot one inch finished floor elevation, while operating at ground level simultaneously.
52
Float House/
SC 02
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SC 01
SECTION SCALE: 1/8”=1’-0”
ELEVATION SCALE: 1/8”=1’-0”
ELEVATION SCALE: 1/8”=1’-0”
SECTION SCALE: 1/8”=1’-0”
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INCREMENTAL
Vernacular/ Observation of previous and existing street-to-porch organization (of typical shotgun and cottage style homes) reveals a pattern that both defines and blurs the interaction between public and private space. The recent introduction of setbacks and elevation changes as part of this equation (due to flood threat) further defines these boundaries, creating a disconnect between public and private space at the street level.
PUBLIC
INTERMEDIATE
PRIVATE
Can protective measures (due to changes in elevation) become the driver that blurs the distinction between public and private?
Steps
Enclosure Porch
Property Line Sidewalk Street 54
“Here, you have become part of the spectacle.� - day 2.
55
INCREMENTAL
Public Realm/ An architecture can introduce itself into the neighborhood, allowing the community to become more connected, resourceful, courageous, compassionate, while offering passage and harbor wether it be going to the grocery store, or evacuating a hurricane. The structure offers a new perspective and creates new possibilities of interaction between neighbors, visitors, the city, and the environment. - wk 11.
56
Intuition about influence is good Scale shift is good and intensional the interruption is not rigid let the form generate from existing and possible conditions think fluidly by thursday: develop scale/general massing develop 3 solid conditions along path FOLD PAPER
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INCREMENTAL
Method/ Transitioning from a two-dimensional sectional analysis into three dimensions (in combination with earlier study of social networks), a method of paper cutting and folding emerged to understand limitations and possibilities of this inerstitial space. - wk 10
“Its form transforms as often as its function does; responding to its user and location specifically and only. It moves through space and is familiar. It is disorganized, but its organization is linear and organized. When it reaches a barrier, it moves either through, over, under, or around. It does not have a scale – specifically, but as a whole. Its goal is to connect; social interaction, ideas, spaces, structures. Connect users to their environment, connect and transform a perception.” - day 4.
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RESILIENT : to recoil or spring back into shape after being bent, stretched, or compressed : the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficulty : the capacity of individuals and systems in a community to adapt, survive and thrive when faced with stress and shock
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RESILIENT
The Honeybee/ The honeybee, now an endangered species, has proven itself resilient for 40 million years. [21] In recent times, as a result of our increasing use of pollutants, pesticides, and commercial beekeeping methods, honeybee colonies [22] are dying in large numbers. Fortunately, nature has the capacity to overcome civilization. Simon Fraser University conducted a study on farms that produce canola oil, illustrating the profound value of wild bees. In this study, they discovered that uncultivated and “wild” unpolluted crops yield a quantity and quality in honeybee cycle and production. When you remove the control bubble and micromanagement from the situation_ _this species thrives and survives. Lower Ninth Ward, 2014.
“This insight goes beyond mere agricultural economics. There is a lesson in the decline of bees about how to respond to the most fundamental challenges facing contemporary human societies. We can best meet our own needs if we maintain balance with nature – a balance that is as important to our health and prosperity as it is to the bees.” [23]
21. Winston, Mark. “Our Bees, Ourselves” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/ opinion/bees-and-colony-collapse.html?_ r=0 New York Times. 2014. 22. Stumpo, Francesco. Nov. 28, 2014. Conversation. 23. Winston, Mark.
62
Capstone Bee Hive. New Orleans, 2014.
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RESILIENT
?/ Building resilience in the community is about making people better prepared to withstand catastrophic events, able to bouce back more quickly, and emerge stronger from shocks and stresses. This begins with a stronger community network. Thinking about the social density in the community as a network of interactions and collisions, the goal is to further densify and vary that network through redundancies. i.e. The possibility of multiple and varied interactions will help create a stronger, more resilient community. - wk 12.
Can the design of public interstitial spaces help this community be more resourceful, courageous, compassionate?
64
density
redundancy
65
RESILIENT
Infrastructures/ The combination of soft and hard infrastructures, the reimagination and strategic intervention of program placement within the infrastricture can help activate and densify social interaction, bridge stronger connection in the community and inner city on a day-to-day basis, and transform as a means of refuge and evacuation in time of emergency. - wk 13.
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RESILIENT
Infrastructure/ “Responding to an earlier idea of interacting with the levee wall vs. from soley within, I know of the possibility for an architectural solution that can tackle both. It begins and grows from within the blocks of the community at the most local level. Its language spreads and weaves throughout the gapped landscape and travels up and through/over/within the levee wall – directly out and projected into the canal landscape; connecting residents with their surrounding environment from a local to a global scale.” - day 4.
In time of emergency, the infrastructure will serve as refuge and connection to safety. It is harboring, reflective, and defensive toward its environmental context. It respects the land where it rests, while making a stance that suggests it is here to stay. - wk 12.
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0’ BELOW SEA LEVEL ON AVERAGE
3’ FEMA BASE FLOOD ELEVATION
8’ FEMA 100-YEAR FLOOD ZONE
15’ CATAGORY 5 STORM SURGE
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RESILIENT
Phase/
PHASE 2015
2025
2015
2020
There is a larger idea of resilience, bringing this community in dialogue with the city physically, and a closer and more sensitive idea of resilience, bringing community members in closer dialogue with one another through the same system of connections.
COMMUNITY GARDEN
PROPOSE CORRIDOR
PROPOSE PLAYGROUND
BIKE PATH
OCCUPY GREEN SPACE
TRANSIT HUB
MLK SCHOOL
SHARED GARDENS
OCCUPY PLAYGROUND
BIKE LANE
OCCUPY CORRIDOR
BIKE REPAIR INCORPORATE SYSTEMS
72
025
2025
2030
PROPOSE CORRIDOR
ACTIVATE GREEN “BARRIERS”
BIKE PATH
ALTERNATE EVACUATION
TRANSIT HUB
SURGE PROTECTION
SHARED GARDENS
SHELTER
BIKE LANE
BIOSWALE
BIKE REPAIR
FRENCH MARKET
INCORPORATE SYSTEMS
MEMORIAL
RISK
RISK
73
RESILIENT
Phase/ GROW
74
CONNECT
EMERGE
75
RESILIENT
Grow/
76
“A larger idea begins with the simplest reasoning and can be found in the most overlooked places. In an effort to create something enormous, it must begin with something small. A seed the grain of rice can become the most beautiful flower..� - day 3.
77
RESILIENT
Connect/
78
79
RESILIENT
Connect/
80
81
RESILIENT
Emerge/ “The levee wall controls and defends, but can it connect, reflect, respond to the community? What if it were possible to actually interact with the levee wall, rather than hiding behind? Could residents use this existing structure to walk, fish, transport themselves? Could the wall be more than a wall?� - day 2.
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CONCLUSION
85
Conclusion/
The reality of climate change, resulting in increasing levels and repeated patterns of disaster, plays manifold effects of scale on our society – it is a global issue that reaches every individual. Additionally, there is no one solution to every problem - especially those that cannot be predicted. A successfully holistic, and resilient urban design strategy can be realized in this community by taking part and learning directly from the needs of those in the community, taking in the present conditions, predictable emergency, and organic growth that occurs with time.
“There needs to be something present that gives importance and safety to help drive sustainability and resiliency. Something that interacts, responds, transforms with changes in the community and the climate. Something created by the people, for the people. Something that offers a newly defined place, a place that transforms in the event of future catastrophe. It is grounded, monolithic and solid, but its footprint is light. It adapts effortlessly with change, remembers the past and respects the present. Transform, adapt, define, remember, respect, grow.� - wk 2.
87