POST CARBON CITY-STATE

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Terreform ONE Micro-Exhibition for BASF's 150th Anniversity.

CREDITS:
Pi, Mitchell Joachim

TEAM:
Melanie Fessel, Christian Hubert, Maria Aiolova,

Vivian Kuan, Amanda O’Keefe

RESEARCH FELLOWS:
Bahar Avanoglu, Ipek Avanoglu, Pedro Galindo-Landeira,

Yinan Li, Brent Solomon, Jiachen Xu

Royal Aaron, Kiril Bejoulev, Lafayette Compton,

Emmanuelle Emmel, Lila Faria,

Daniella Garcia, Dan Gehr, Nick Gervasi,

Marcos Gonzalez-Bode, Jesslyn Guntur,

Hugo Husnu, Michelle Lavin, Jorge Lopez,

Estefania Maldonado, Anna Murnane,

Dilan Ozka, Michelle Qu, Matt Solomon,

Allie Sutherland, Eda Yetim, Peter Zhang,

Jennifer Zhao, Rayne Holm, Kristopher Menos,

Ivy Feibig, Swati Mamgain

CONSULTANT:

Pablo Berger

PHOTOS:

Micaela Rossato

REZONED CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Carbon output from cities is embedded in everyday life, directly affecting climate change and rising sea levels everywhere in the world. New York City’s sea level rise is projected to reach a high estimate of 11 inches by the 2020s and 31 inches by the 2050s. Instead of only investing in mitigation efforts and building for resiliency, what if we let the East and Hudson River submerge parts of Manhattan and rebuild the new city in its surrounding rivers?

We accept the inevitable and prepare for the aftermath by imagining the Post Carbon City-State, a future Manhattan cleansed through the physical and spatial inversion of the East and Hudson River. New bulk/use zoning envelopes maximize solar exposure, regulate population size, and optimize resources. Zoning occupies more area that extends into both the Hudson River and East River. It is a bold combination of plans for the East River redirection and drainage by T. Kennard Thomson (Really Greater New York) and the Hudson River infill strategy by William Zeckendorf (New York City’s Dream Airport). Grafting Manhattan to physically join with New Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens and Governors Island is the definitive advancement structure for the whole city. This is not a unique idea, Battery Park City, for example, increased a massive portion of the city about .2 miles out into the River—using earth that was excavated from the construction of the World Trade Center’s foundation. Upcycled car tire patterns represent the embedded post carbon materials that are the building blocks of the new city. We imagine the void that was once Manhattan as an algae production plant for sequestering carbon and supplying amino acids for food production and biomass for energy generation capable of reformative growth.

New York has, over the last few centuries, become one of the world’s most densely packed cities. But what if you could redraw the city’s map – and build it from scratch? If we were designing New York today, how different would it look? The new New York City would balance the relationship between the information networks that the metropolis depends on and Earth’s finite resources. All vital components of life would be monitored and attuned to the needs of every organism, not just humans. Supplies of food and water, our energy and waste and even our air would be sensibly scrutinised. Thanks to masses of miniaturised low-cost electronic components deployed across the city, communication becomes far easier. New York will grow and adapt to millions of new minds entering it everyday. The city would make sure every need is provided for within its borders. How we provide nutrients, transports, and shelter would be updated. Dilapidated buildings would be replaced with vertical agriculture and new kinds of housing would join cleaner, greener ways to get around the city. What were once streets become snaking arteries of livable spaces, embedded with renewable energy sources, low-tech, green vehicles for mobility and productive nutrient zones. The former street grid could provide the foundation for new flexible networks. By reengineering the obsolete streets, we can create robust and ecologically active pathways.

more info at Terreform ONE