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Posts written in October, 2007
This is not a complete project, but the beginings of what I would like to work on for my final project.
My previous post was about the West Nile problem in the Southwest in relation to the housing bust. Forclosed houses with pools are left empty and the pools unmanaged, thus a mosquito problem. Initially, local municipalities were dumping pesticides into the swimming pools, but a more recent approach has been to put fish in the pools. The fish require no maintenance and eat the mosquito larvae.
As Amanda mentioned during my presentation, it seems odd that there is a problem of too much water in a region where water is a scarcity. So, I would like to find a way to use these pools as existing infrastructure for a new system of water management. This project has potential to go in a few directions, and honestly I am not quite sure where to take it yet........here are my thoughts so far.
I started by looking at suburban development and it's history. What was fascinating was the idea of the sub-urbs as a means of civil defense. Many leading scientist (such as Norbert Wiener - the founder of cybernetics) and planners believed that the only way to ensure survival of atomic weapons threats was to disperse the American public. There is a bit more info. in the slides below.
For a quick analysis, I focused on the city of Hemet, California. Hemet was the first city I heard about with a Mosquito infestation caused by abonded pools (newshour). Hemet, it seems (after looking with google earth), is full of new housing subdivisions. I picked one in order to better understand the parameters of this project. I did some very ...
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I am interested in left-over infrastructure and its use/effects. With all the concern over water harvesting, it is interesting that the suburban landscape is retaining too much water by way of the private swimming pool. The housing bust has left thousands of foreclosed homes and abandoned pools for the mosquitoes.
There have been two responses so far.
1) just dump pesticides into the pools
2) stock the pools with fish
I imagine the second approach has the potential to re-imagine more left-over infrastructures as new balanced habitats.
newyork times
foreclosures turn pools green
usa today
national geographic
department of public health
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This is an ongoing project from my last architecture studio....but its origins are in de-technologizing suicide prevention at the Golden Gate Bridge. Whether it is still applicable is up for debate.
The project started by taking a close look at the debate surrounding suicide prevention on the Golden Gate Bridge. Many solutions have been proposed (cameras at every light post, lasers along the periphery, and just a fence) but none seem to meet the public approval. This project proposed reprogramming part of the bridge as a means of appeasing public concerns and stopping the suicides.
golden-gate-remains-1.pdf
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I am interested in left-over infrastructure and its use/effects. With all the concern over water harvesting, it is interesting that the suburban landscape is retaining too much water by way of the private swimming pool. The housing bust has left thousands of foreclosed homes and abandoned pools for the mosquitoes.
There have been two responses so far.
1) just dump pesticides into the pools
2) stock the pools with fish
I imagine the second approach has the potential to re-imagine more left-over infrastructures as new balanced habitats.
newyork times
foreclosures turn pools green
usa today
national geographic
department of public health
Tagged as Uncategorized | No Comments » | Continue 