Water Over a Bridge
Painting, Abstract geometrical, Oil, 91.5x91.5cm
Water Over A Bridge
With the rapid increase in world population and migration from rural areas to ever growing cities, the lack of available space has forced the upward extension of building structure in most metropolitan areas. Although this trend has been forecast to continue, available public space to support and nurture this manner of tiered social group life has been either generally lacking or mostly kept close to the ground and street level. Even when such recreational areas have been mandated by city and state authorities, they have been mostly inaccessible to the lower income classes. These classes have, therefore, been forced to creatively adapt existing and mostly abandoned areas for use as public spaces. However, the only available areas for such adaptation are too decrepit and dangerous, especially for the younger and more vulnerable members of these classes, which happen to be those that will benefit most from parks and play grounds.
Inspired by the water tanks of New York City which provide all socioeconomic classes with their water supply (and which are both low tech and low cost), the idea for this project is to move such public space above the current city density and feed it using sustainable methods. Various city structures have been used as templates, including those where most of the lower classes tend to commingle (around bridges, apartment projects, abandoned factories and shipping docks) to allow for a generally abstracted investigation of such upward mobility (both symbolic and literal). Although the ideas are mostly abstracted for this presentation, thought has been given to certain logistical issues for such high rise parks, or “high parks”, and gathering spaces. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of water pumping mechanisms channeling water from the lakes and rivers to feed the plant life above (with submerged treatment facilities), use of existing structures as pedestals for support which have been reinforced with both traditional (steel and concrete additions) and non-traditional (balloon and fabric sail systems) devices, and mechanisms for transport of pedestrian traffic from the street level to this so called “sky level”. Furthermore, use of sustainable energy capturing devices such as wind/ water turbines and solar panels has also been incorporated. The goal is to start a dialogue with planners, designers and engineers regarding the future feasibility of such high rise public spaces. The use of existing building and transport structures and their inherent structural redundancies, especially older designs for existing bridges and buildings, allows for low cost and generally low tech additions for such future sky parks. These gathering places will be interwoven within various invisible socioeconomic separations inherent in most cities, while providing for building maintenance and supervision.
The original inspiration for this project comes from the center panel (in the group of 9), which was a whimsical representation of some of the ideas described above. Since the main ideas for this project stem from abstracted exercises, oil painting, along with graphite and pen additions, has been used as a medium to allow for a more fluid and less constrained investigation.
With the rapid increase in world population and migration from rural areas to ever growing cities, the lack of available space has forced the upward extension of building structure in most metropolitan areas. Although this trend has been forecast to continue, available public space to support and nurture this manner of tiered social group life has been either generally lacking or mostly kept close to the ground and street level. Even when such recreational areas have been mandated by city and state authorities, they have been mostly inaccessible to the lower income classes. These classes have, therefore, been forced to creatively adapt existing and mostly abandoned areas for use as public spaces. However, the only available areas for such adaptation are too decrepit and dangerous, especially for the younger and more vulnerable members of these classes, which happen to be those that will benefit most from parks and play grounds.
Inspired by the water tanks of New York City which provide all socioeconomic classes with their water supply (and which are both low tech and low cost), the idea for this project is to move such public space above the current city density and feed it using sustainable methods. Various city structures have been used as templates, including those where most of the lower classes tend to commingle (around bridges, apartment projects, abandoned factories and shipping docks) to allow for a generally abstracted investigation of such upward mobility (both symbolic and literal). Although the ideas are mostly abstracted for this presentation, thought has been given to certain logistical issues for such high rise parks, or “high parks”, and gathering spaces. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of water pumping mechanisms channeling water from the lakes and rivers to feed the plant life above (with submerged treatment facilities), use of existing structures as pedestals for support which have been reinforced with both traditional (steel and concrete additions) and non-traditional (balloon and fabric sail systems) devices, and mechanisms for transport of pedestrian traffic from the street level to this so called “sky level”. Furthermore, use of sustainable energy capturing devices such as wind/ water turbines and solar panels has also been incorporated. The goal is to start a dialogue with planners, designers and engineers regarding the future feasibility of such high rise public spaces. The use of existing building and transport structures and their inherent structural redundancies, especially older designs for existing bridges and buildings, allows for low cost and generally low tech additions for such future sky parks. These gathering places will be interwoven within various invisible socioeconomic separations inherent in most cities, while providing for building maintenance and supervision.
The original inspiration for this project comes from the center panel (in the group of 9), which was a whimsical representation of some of the ideas described above. Since the main ideas for this project stem from abstracted exercises, oil painting, along with graphite and pen additions, has been used as a medium to allow for a more fluid and less constrained investigation.
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