| Popis: |
Youngstown, Ohio reveals a paradox common among other postindustrial cities: for decades its population, economy, and industries have been in a state of perpetual motion, yet the city itself appears to have come to a halt, lingering in a state of uncertainty. The precarious status of the city has been induced by the departure of its once-powerful steel industry, resulting in the exodus of over half of its peak population. Given its lack of density, the city is now overwhelmed by its accumulated matter, leaving its landscape fragmented and perforated with vacancy and residual space. Youngstown joins other Rust Belt cities in the discussion of "shrinking cities," a term adopted to describe cities that have been impacted by a significant population loss in a relatively short period of time. The condition of uncertainty will be the core theme for exploration in the thesis, used as both a description and a provocation. The apparent formless and temporal qualities of Youngstown's residual spaces solicit an urbanism which accommodates process over fixed form and indeterminate futures. The focus must shift beyond the architectural object to its ability to adapt and absorb, its ability to perform and produce, and its ability to be edited and modified. In the now diffuse, low-density urban fabric, landscape urbanism also holds a newfound relevance, able to take on the role of a framework that catalyzes urban renewal from a large-scale perspective. The thesis also explores the possibilities of achieving urban intensity without density. To this end, the measure of intensity must shift from the quantitative to the qualitative. Intensity is measured not from the mere juxtaposition and accumulation of urban form, but from the overlaps and tensions between dissimilar programs in the process of flux. The project will speculate on a phased transition of Youngstown's residual spaces that involves staging intensification of moments within the landscape through architecture and landscape using a test site. First, a broader vision for the city is devised, in which points with high social and economic potential are determined as starting off points for growth. For each phase, architecture and landscape are asked to take on the role of infrastructure, setting up a framework for uncertainty yet retaining a degree of formal specificity. Temporal architecture is also explored in order to accommodate modification. The result is an urbanism that performs in time and space, able to accommodate an indeterminate set of programs and formal arrangements, yet the outcome remains uncertain. |
