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.