Urban Ecologies

Landscape-Based Urbanism

Flushing, NY

This studio focused on the development of urban form as driven by ecology and environmental dynamics; a landscape-based urbanism. The goal was to develop a fully rounded landscape urban strategy, conceived in relation to the broader ecological, environmental, infrastructural, and socio-cultural processes and systems that constitute them. While the final proposal had to be specific and concrete, it had to rely on flexible, dynamic, and adaptive principles; able to accommodate and respond to varying inputs over time. There was special interest in how landscapes, cities and building fabrics work: how they function urbanistically, socially, hydrologically, environmentally. My proposal focused on the ecological potential of the site; the confluence of fresh and saltwater systems which has been subsumed by development, industry and ongoing CSO effluent.

GSD Studio | Spring 2010 Studio Coordinator: Chris Reed Professor: Shauna Gillies-Smith Tools: Adobe CS, AutoCAD, GIS, SketchUp