Project 2.002
The final phase is to develop a site proposal for a new open space in a given site within the Marigny-Bywater neighborhood. The space will function as an interstitial open space for the neighborhood’s recreation use.
SITE ANALYSIS
What we have is the site2 in the context map. The site locates just besides the levee wall close to the Mississipi River, with a long triangle shape. St Chartres Street goes along the other long edge of the site.
The thickness of the levee wall and the impenetrability of the city road have conceived two major boundaries to the site, which are challenges but also opportunities. The levee wall is impenetrate, but on the height of the levee wall, a stunning view towards the river and downtown of the city can be absorbed. Other featured existing condition of the site is that it has a dramatic level change, by which grading plan to form an interesting terrain of the park could be achieved.
Another bigger condition I kept in mind when I started the design is the climate of the City of New Orleans. In the city, it is miserable to be exploded in the sun in the summer. Green space and cool space is desired.
LAYERS
Refined from the site and context analysis, the issues are the climate, the disconnection and the terrain. A imagined image of the future park should be like a big green place that people can hide in shadow in summer, bath in sunshine in winter, a break that opens the world on the other side of the levee to the neighborhood, and a sweep experiece of level chage reflect to the existing topography.
As a general introduction, my proposal has several layers. There is a tree line along the front edge which is parallel to the city road. A main pedestrain under this tree line going all the way through the site. There are two deck bridges along the back edge of the site which is paralle to the levee wall. A sencondary pedestrain is mainly under the deck bridges. Therefore, people have enough options to choose where they want to walk. These combined routes could serve as threads to thring the programs together. The space of the programs become big to small, open to closed according to the shape of the site.
Excpet the recreation court and the small entrance plazas, the park would be covered by ground vegetation and soft material. Lush planting would be used on the back edge to soften the heavyness and roughness of the levee wall.
EFFECTS
There are two big significance of the deck bridges in the park. Because it provides a second floor to the park, the height allows people to view beyond the levee, and the half opend walkway become a shelter in the summers.
Therefore, in daytime, the space under the deck is where people could hide in the shadow; at night, the deck is a good spot to enjoy the stunning view of the city and the cool wind blowing from the rive. In chilly days, people can either pick the pedestrain by St Chartres Street or walk on the deck to enjoy the shunshine.
The deck bridge and its columns are informal separations betweent the open lawn or sports courts and the half closed gathering space near the levee.
SENSING
The proposed lighting system in the park is a responsive technology that is derived from project 2.001. Instead of detecting the movement of traffics, here it reflects to the movement of people or the events held by people within the park.
Still, the sensor will transfer the data which is collected from sound in this case, then the Arduino will process the information on the base of a program to controll the brightness and the lasting time of the lighting sticks.
The sensor will be set in the place where most human activities happen. The lighting will be set along and underneath the tree line to make a sensitive facade of the trees and the park for the neighborhood at night. Also, people outside the park could be aware of what is happening in the park by the means of this.
