04_21_24 Background UPDATE

 

Question as is: 

What successful strategies of hybridized hard infrastructures exist that can be applied to speculative or incomplete hybridized hard infrastructures to make them viable?

Residual Spaces

 

The built environment is riddled with various planning issues. One happens to be the creation of residual spaces left over from modern and contemporary city planning practices. Erick Villagomez, educator and researcher at the University of British Columbia, defines residual spaces as "A natural result of modern urbanization and the complex interaction of social, technological, and economic processes that drive contemporary urban growth." These spaces often appear near, within, or between automobile infrastructure, deindustrialized sites, and buildings.

 

These residual spaces yield nothing to communities afflicted by them. They're unused spaces waiting for some niche development to come along or not at all. Historically, residual space hasn't been much of an issue. In medieval times, land was used intensively for people to put their money, goods, or services to work, as land value was exorbitantly high. Like contemporary issues, America historically has been plagued by excess space, making land generally inexpensive to develop. 

 

Now, that begs the question of how is it possible that we could leave this residual space to not be used? If land is more expensive in America now than ever, how could we use residual space to benefit ourselves and our money? These are some questions guiding this capstone and have led to the study of the hybridization of space. 

 

Hybridization

 

Hybridizing space intensifies land usage, and it becomes increasingly necessary to consider how to hybridize architecture and space when designing due to population growth. In an ever-sprawling built environment, intensifying space utilization leads to the densification of people, businesses, and amenities necessary for a thriving city or town to emerge. Hybridization of space isn't restricted by scale. It can be done in formal and informal processes and can occur between different kinds of typologies of buildings and more significant functions of civilization, like infrastructure. For example, Landing Studio, based in Boston, MA, creatively solved a seasonal problem. 

 

Boston's weather and climate patterns demand the usage of salt to make automobile infrastructures safe and usable during winter snowstorms and events. This salt needs to go somewhere, but salt isn't needed all year round. Consequently, Landing Studio designed the PORT project. Acronym for Publicly Organized Recreation Territory, PORT seeks to utilize and counter the creation of residual space in the form of reimagining a 13-million-gallon oil tank farm into a season park in warmer months when salt is not needed for roads. 

 

In effect, an improved relationship between citizens and the waterfront is emphasized through shared resources of salt and space. Citizens feel connected to the city through appreciating the presence of necessary material to keep the city moving. Access once denied through privatized space is now open for the public to enjoy. 

 

However, what is most compelling about this project is that it starts to consider not only the architectural realm but also the infrastructural realm's connection to the public sphere. Generally, an untapped resource for residual space creation, infrastructure provides definite space to capitalize upon that can be open to the public anyway in some form or fashion through the provision of funds through taxes to create a product for all to use. 

Evident of this are some speculative projects devised in the modern era. Paul Rudolph was commissioned by the Ford Foundation in 1967 to explore mixed-use developments above Mid-Manhattan expressways proposed to connect a greater share of Manhattan to its metro area. While most likely privately funded in collaboration with the public sector, the uses and heights of these developments varied depending on the local context within the city. The project consisted of articulating triangle concrete frames to carry the structure load above the expressway. 

Similarly, Robert Moses, an infamous New York City planner, proposed Mid-Manhattan expressways. One was initially in Midtown, and the other was later proposed for lower Manhattan. These expressways would allow developments like the ones Rudolph conceptualized for the Ford Foundation.

 

Exploring ideas of hybridized infrastructures at a smaller scale, Agrivoltaics is evidence of the benefits of hybridizing typical farming practices with photovoltaics. Farms across America participate in Agrivoltaics. Farms collaborate with energy producers to install photovoltaic systems on their land. Agrivoltaics creates the benefit of hybridizing land use for maximum gain by not limiting usage to one use. By installing PV systems, crops can be adequately shielded from the sun at the hottest hours of the day, creating microclimates beneficial for watering crops used for human or livestock consumption and producing necessary green energy from solar panels. 

 

Infrastructure

 

While it's clear hybridizing space provides benefits regardless of execution, what to hybridize in the 21st century is also essential to consider. Hard infrastructure makes America go round. Our 25 trillion-dollar economy depends on roads, rail lines, electrical grids, and internet infrastructures to keep us moving.* However, US infrastructure frequently lags other nations as nearly 1 in 3 bridges must be repaired, electrical outages are becoming increasingly common, and rural America lacks fast and maintained connection to wireless services. That's not to mention that the United States has received a higher infrastructure rating than ever but going from a D+ to a C- isn't significant enough to compete with other developed countries. Additionally, there are economic benefits when encouraging updating and maintaining infrastructural projects seen after the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was signed as capital investment at the state and local level have increased since Joe Biden signed the bill into law. 

Not only are infrastructural changes needed at the objective federal and state level, but they are also needed at a more subjective community-oriented level. Social infrastructures like transportation, health centers, parks, and community spaces are necessary for citizens' survival in urban and rural areas.** Could hybridizing ever-present hard infrastructures for a public benefit in some form or fashion create an environment to maintain existing and future infrastructures and provide social services to surrounding communities? This is where ideas like Agrivoltaics and Rudolph and Moses' ideas to integrate city life in a different way than usual to make use of spaces left over from larger infrastructures to increase benefit to the economy and communities in one way or another.

Hou, Jeffrey. Insurgent Public Space: Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities. Routledge, 2010.

“The P.O.R.T & Rock Chapel Marine.” LANDING STUDIO, www.landing-studio.com/the-port. Accessed 21 Apr. 2024.

10, Robert Bruegmann        January. “Paul Rudolph’s Strange Vision of a Cross-Manhattan Expressway (and Other Unfinished Projects).” Literary Hub, 5 Jan. 2020, lithub.com/paul-rudolphs-strange-vision-of-a-cross-manhattan-expressway-and-other-unfinished-projects/.

Sagalyn, Lynne B., et al. “The Cross Manhattan Expressway.” Museum of the City of New York, 7 Nov. 2016, www.mcny.org/story/cross-manhattan-expressway.

“Agrivoltaics: Solar and Agriculture Co-Location.” Energy.Gov, www.energy.gov/eere/solar/agrivoltaics-solar-and-agriculture-co-location#:~:text=Co%2Dlocation%2C%20also%20known%20as,or%20adjacent%20to%20solar%20panels. Accessed 21 Apr. 2024.

* “The State of U.S. Infrastructure.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure#chapter-title-0-7. Accessed 21 Apr. 2024.

** Klinenberg, Eric. Palaces for the People: How to Build a More Equal and United Society. Vintage Books, 2020.