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final project site plan: versions 1 & 2

final project abstract :: 2.0002

6 days and counting until our final review.  Here’s the concept of what I’m attempting to do:

The redesign of the Visitor’s Center and Desoto Park I propose is an interpretation of the Louisiana landscape with a highly engineered wetland cleaning system.   I’ve defined productive landscapes as landscapes that enhance natural systems in ways that have social, ecological, or economic value.  They produce goods or services that benefit people and the environment.  This particular design treats water on site, within urban and disturbed natural system contexts.  An elevated, constructed wetland addresses the problem of the Mississippi’s pollution, providing an area protected from flooding for the water cleaning system to function.  The treated water is directed to crawfish and fish ponds.  Annual crawfish boils and fish frys take place at the Visitor’s Center to celebrate Louisiana’s culinary heritage.

The design speaks to interstitial connections of human settlements with ecological areas.  Rarely do we see binary relationships in human settlement patterns and ecological typologies; rather patterns of branching and networks emerge with edge conditions that lack clear boundaries.  Human consciousness is evolving to deconstruct the barriers we’ve erected in perceiving reality in binary relationships and in doing so, we meet the interstices and hybrid expressions of that which is in between.  The overall design seeks to express this phenomenon.

site observation .0006

For this site observation, I found an open space and measured 5 different sized areas that will assist me in visualizing the amount of space needed for the design of productive landscapes.  I choose to create spaces with varying radii of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 feet.  I marked the measurements with orange flags and photographed them.  In the studio I put together the photos with a satellite aerial photo from google earth (measurements of the existing borrow ponds taken from here), diagramming on top of them to draw out useful information.  This process allowed me to visualize what different amounts of space look like and feel like in our site.  Having measurements of smaller areas as well as the large borrow ponds provides a spectrum of sizes that I can work with as I design.  Whether these measurements will be used in subtracting or adding land, they serve the purpose of visualizing space in site.  I also measured two existing pathways (the only accessible ones as the other portions are now underwater).  These measurements give me an idea of lengths for walkways which are a part of my design.

reinforcement

 

With an increasing river stage, extra material is brought in to reinforce the structural integrity of the levee.  Heavy machinery brings in loads of large granite rocks, and piles of something that looks like ground up granite mixed with sand (or maybe it’s just sand?).  The levee system has been designed to be protected from the yearly floods.  The flood level in Baton Rouge is 35ft, and the levees are at a height of about 48ft.  Last May, as the river rose to a record height, sandbags were placed along top of the levee to keep the water from spilling over into the city.

site visit 3.31.12

Today was a beautiful day for a site visit.  The vegetation is leafing out nicely and the water has risen quite a bit.  The ponds are now connected to the river.  Blackberries are growing and I saw a bunny and a couple of turtles.  Didn’t see the gator.  A few folks were fishing.  It was a lovely day.  Below are some images that capture the changes in vegetation and water level that I observed today.

For site observation .0006, I measured select lengths of the ponds, and I measured out potential sizes of new ponds to be created in my design.  I chose to measure ponds with a diameter of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 feet.  I took photos of the prototypes and will be creating deliverables with those photos.

site observation .006

For project 2.002,  I am designing a productive landscape.  My initial thoughts are to create a productive landscape linked to a farmer’s market program at the visitor’s center.  The soil and waters of the site are polluted from many factors, possibly including the following: agricultural runoff flowing through the Mississippi, contamination from the nearby oil refinery, detritus washed up on the bank, and stormwater runoff from the city.  The first phase of the design will be phytoremediation- cleaning the soil and water with plants.  While my ideas will surely change, my thoughts are to create a model system of water cleaning ponds to show how plants can be used to remove toxins from soil and water.  Amazingly, plants are capable of removing even heavy metals from our environment.  There might be a nursery too, to grow useful phytoremediators for sale.  The idea is that the system will be interesting to look at, visitors can observe and learn how it works, and it can serve as a model for future designs to clean contaminated toxic waste sites in Louisiana.

For my design process, It will be useful for me to measure the existing borrow ponds and to create prototypes of various sizes of new ponds in order to visualize them spatially.  Using flags, I will lay out the dimensions of various sizes of new ponds to show spatial requirements for water cleaning system.  I will document the mock-ups with photographs.

Deliverables:

2 11×17 boards- using photographs, analog and digital drawing methods, illustrate perspectives of the prototypes

*note: it seems a bit early in the design process to be doing this sort of thing, but i think it will be helpful in gaining an initial understanding of the spatial qualities of different sized ponds.