Greece | A Third World Country?

Today, I ran into an interesting article on the economy of Greece and that it is slipping into becoming a third world country. This was a strong statement as it links in nicely with the research I have been finding on third world countries and how they deal with garbage.

Could this further my narrative as most existing garbage cities are in third world economies. Just want to make it clear that this is much more beautiful than a city of garbage, its more ephemeral than that. 

The article can be read here: "We Are Moving from Being a Western Country to a Third World Country"

E-Waste City - Guiyu, China

While doing research this week I ran into an interesting article about an E-Waste City in China. I knew already that many third world countries were the source of our large-scale rubbish collection, but I did not know that cities like this existed. The entire city is similar to that of Cairo, Egypt with skilled laborers taking apart computers by the handful and recycling every bit that they can. See article below for more info:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1870162,00.html

Upcycling | The Life Cycle of Materials

It was also this week that a new idea came into my mind: the notion of upcycling. Rather than simply creating a recycling city, could I create one that is so careful about what it throws out and keeps that it can actually create an economy around the recycling culture. The idea is that workshops will exist in which recycled products are re-used and made into art, homes, furniture, and other objects that can then be sold off within Athens.

Along with the notion of upcycling, I created a short book similar to that of the rooftop culture from earlier in the year. The booklet shows examples of how different materials have been used in art upcycling.

The question now is to consider how can this be more than just an art form? Could I redefine the meaning of upcycling for architecture?

Waste Catalogue

Having taken a step back from the design process, I spent this week delving back in. I wanted to start to think about the zoning of garbage and decided to create a catalogue of waste types. Research was focused on the European Union garbage "categories" as well as those that I felt would be necessary. Along with each category, I decided in the section of the city where each would be collected, processed, and recycled.  (Garbage Catalogue to be attached soon..) 

Garbage Movies | A Context for Gerani Recycling City?

Taking the movies I had seen amongst the last two weeks, and extensive articles I had found on e-waste and garbage cities worldwide, I decided to compile a short video as an introduction to my project. The movie would introduce the narrative of my project and place it in context on the larger scheme. The clip can be seen below: 

Movies referenced include:

1. Garbage Dreams by Mai Iskander, 2009

2. Garbage Warrior by Mike Reynolds, 2007

3. Waste Land by Lucy Walker and Vik Muniz, 2010

4. Garbage Island by Meredith Danluck, 2008

The Road Ahead

With a concrete narrative in place, and generally positive reviews, I felt rejuvenated and ready to dive full into my project. I began by looking back at the rooftop culture book I had made, and deciding what I really needed to grasp the scope of my project was to do some extensive research on garbage. What are the types of garbage? How is it collected, categorized, recycled? What exemplary cities exist in the world that either struggle or deal with garbage? What films tell the story of garbage?

Alongside my research, I continued my design proposal by working in Rhino and trying to render views of what the garbage city may look like formally.  

Detailing the Scheme | Moving Towards a Section

Finally clear on my ideas, I jumped in scale to try to tackle the garbage city in detail. I worked on detailing the scheme by trying to capture what the atmosphere of this space might be. My idea is that certain areas of the street will be blockaded off for different types of trash (ie. plastics, glass, etc). These areas will be marked by a structural wall made of the recycled material. Furthermore, there will be some sort of transport system that allow the trash to travel across the streets of Gerani to their respective locations. In the timeline, the trash on the streets will pile up allowing a constantly changing street landscape that bleeds out into the surroundings and allows access onto the rooftops. Also, biodegradable materials will be used to create rooftop gardens and a roofscape, but details of this have not yet been worked out.

Research on Athens Landfills + Economy

Continuing with the path of the garbage city, I wanted to better understand the existing garbage condition within Athens. Research showed that there are future plans for three new landfills around Athens, but these are constantly being put to a halt. With this in mind, I wanted to think about what if the garbage condition was directly dealt with within the city rather than far away from it. Could the immigrants in Gerani become educators to the Athenians? Would this help bridge the current gap that exists so strongly between the two? 

In December 2005, the landfill at Ana Liosia reached capacity but the Greek government, rather than adapt their recycling and garbage ways, just decided to implement more landfill plans across the region. The landfills at Grammatiko and Keratea were planned in early 2006 but have yet to come to fruition due to constant opposition from local residents. The protests have reached unimaginable heights with people being killed, put to trial and forced to leave the country, and garbage trucks being set aflame almost daily. 

Paths in the Sky

Having established a sense of a narrative, I moved to a model form. I built a model at 1:200 scale in which I wanted to show how the pedestrian network would work. More than anything, I felt myself struggling at the diagrammatic scale and wanted to jump into a 3-dimensional form so that I could start to see how my design would take form. This week I also became interested in looking at the work of SuperStudio in NYC as a strong precedent. 

Introducing an Element of Time

Looking further into building a narrative, I started to consider applying an element of time to my project. Was it futuristic? Utopic? Current? Working in the diagrammatic mode I began to establish a set of rules for the city as ruin (present), the city as a garbage city (future) and how it eventually reforms into a city in the sky with pedestrian networks above ground.

Establishing a Narrative | Garbage in Athens

Looking at the news this week in Athens and trying to better understand why the economy is falling apart, I found a common theme in the garbage conditions in Athens and the consistent strikes that result in pile-ups of garbage throughout the city. What had been a consistent remark in my project scheme was that the idea of a new datum was great and the potential of the project could be seen, but it urgently needed a context through which to frame a narrative. With this in mind, I started to investigate further into garbage cities and the vicious cycle of garbage within Athens. In Athens, there is only one landfill and until recently there were no recycling schemes. The landfill at Ana Lioisia is well past its capacity and urgent calls for new landfills are in place, but are constantly placed on hold because of strikes by locals. Could I create a city within a city that solves the garbage epidemic? 

Depicting the Scene

Trying to move into more detail, I created a study model of what this "new layer" within the city would look like. I tried to capture how the existing ruins and street level in Athens would interact with my new intervention of an elevated walkway and new level in the sky.

Parti Diagram

Having re-established the direction I wanted my project to take, I started to re-assess the site of my project. Was it about Gerani or did it operate at a larger scale across the urban sprawl of the city?  I looked at two options - the first a section from Omonoia Square up to the Akropoli and the second a section from Lycabettus Hill up to the Akropoli. The section I settled on was the one from Omonoia Square up to the Akropoli as it included the historical core of the city of Athens, and had a large variety in the conditions of poverty and character of each neighborhood.

The parti diagram above shows where I took the section cut and how I started to diagram out how a new datum would start to create different "zones" within the city. 

Underground Cities | Returning to the "Ground Zero" Narrative

After receiving feedback from the crits, I found myself a bit confused on which path I really wanted my project to take. Was it really about these worlds in the sky or was it about more than just the rooftop level? I looked back at my work and re-assessed where my interests lie, finding myself drawn back to the notion of 'choosing a ground zero.' The notion of a ground zero meant there could be an underground, an aboveground, and a new datum within the project; each of which are unique but also linked together. Ground Zero also seemed like an appropriate phrase as it could symbolize the type of turmoil that Athens is currently experiencing as it slips into becoming a third-world country.

With this in mind, I started to look at cities that had created new datum lines and existed underground. The most prominent example I looked at was Seattle, Washington on the north-western coast of the United States. Seattle had a great fire in 1889 in which several blocks of the city were burnt down. Rather than try to rebuild what had already been damaged, Seattle decided to take a fresh start by creating a new datum at the second level. At first, street access required moving via ladders between the original street level and the new one; but eventually the entire street level had moved to the second level and today the original "underground city" remains as a hidden gem. If interested, you can also find more about underground cities by watching History Channel Cities of the Underworld.

Washington DC, Underground Tunnels

Proposed Tunnels Under Amsterdam Canals

Sumarria Lunn | Matthew Picton "Urban Narratives"

Last weekend I was browsing through a magazine when I found a notice about this exhibit called: Urban Narratives. The exhibit is quite small in a tucked away gallery off of Oxford Circus, but the work inside was quite inspirational. Matthew Picton is an artist who tries to take the urban plan of a city and deconstruct it to tell a narrative. For example, his London series shows a series of sections of London formed through burnt newspapers that represent the great fire of London. The methodology of map-making for each piece is a direct representation of some unique aspect in that particular cities history that grabs Picton's interest. 

Matthew Picton, "Urban Narratives"

Worlds in the Sky | Imagining the Scene

With the review just around the corner, I started to consider what the atmosphere of the "worlds in the sky" would start to feel like. Rooftops would be used for African fabric-makers to have workshops, people to live in new homes, and some type of new pedestrian network would exist to create connections.

Worlds in the Sky | Programmatic Layout

Creating the photo book helped me realize the abundance of possibilities for which I could program the rooftops. I began by first changing my project name to 'Worlds in the Sky.' This helped me in organizing a layout of certain programmatic areas along different rooftops. I began to ask myself questions such as for whom are the rooftops? how does one acquire the rooftop? how much green space, if any, is there on the rooftops? can the conditions of certain rooftops change seasonally? Considerations began into creating a "home base" from which the rooftops were rented out and a large mall that projected out from this home base and had smaller pedestrian paths across it to each world in the sky. 

Playful Model

Feeling stuck in the 2-dimensional sphere, I decided to build a model of Gerani in which I could play around with programmatic layouts of the rooftops. The model had two phases, the first being non-adjustable buildings which were those on which the rooftop condition was either unusable or was not going to be used; the second being removable rooftop pieces that had differing programs on them to show how layout may change over time. 

Rooftop Culture Around the World

Having considered formal conditions for my design, I realized that I was struggling with what type of program I wanted to consider for the rooftops. For some inspiration, I spent time researching different existing rooftop conditions in the world and created a small photo book called: "Rooftop Culture Around the World." Programs looked at include artistic use, recreational use, economical use, and unbuilt proposals.

Mapping Gerani | Site Analysis

Having chosen my site in Gerani, I started more specific site analysis of the neighborhood through several mappings. I looked at three separate conditions that I wanted to consider when looking at designing a city in the Sky. 

The first was the condition of the residential building type in Athens: the polykatoikia. Polykatoikia are the most extensively used building type within Athens and have several unique characteristics in its ownership structure, form, and historical importance. The structure itself gives a ziggurat-style form to the rooftop skyline in Athens.

The second condition is available versus unavailable roofs. This condition was considered as it would have an effect on the overall layout of the City in the Sky and the accesibility across and to different rooftops.

The final condition was short versus tall structures. This was important to me as I wanted to look at a City in the Sky that wasn't simply a new datum within the city but had variability in section.

With these conditions established, I began to create a Rhino Model of the area and consider how the form of a City in the Sky may come to fruition.