design proposal

TOPOGRAPHIC INTERVENTIONS WITHIN THE DYNAMIC EDGE CONDITION

Along the shoreline of Prudence Island, on the site of a former United States Naval Base, a series of abandoned bunkers form a cultural infrastructure within a larger ecological network of coastal wetlands. In order to physically frame the dynamic edge condition of the coast, the edge must simultaneously become spatial while continuing to fluctuate as an active condition. In this final design proposal, landscape becomes an active field addressing both transitory and bound conditions. Within this natural coastal process two distinct edge conditions are at work, each with a particular scale of time and space: the tidal edge and the fresh/saltwater edge. A series of specific topographic interventions within the larger context of the park will frame these dual components of the coast while facilitating recreation along a path network and enriching ecological habitats. In order to defend these cultural and ecological habitats, three sites (as denoted on the site plan to the right) are locations for the development of specific interventions on multiple scales which will reinterpret the traces of the Naval Base as a cultural structure within the dynamic edge of the coast.

 

I. THE FLUID ZERO CONTOUR a tidal intervention

Just to the east of the T-Wharf, a stretch of the shoreline holds

remnants of previous points of entry to the island in the form of
water-worn concrete slabs and granite blocks. The first site frames

that area and the density of tides within it. The focus of this

intervention is on the relationship between constructed topography,

the dynamic edge, and the mean-tide as understood through the
lens of daily tidal flow.

To begin to articulate the relationships of the site in three-dimensional form, a plaster terrain model was generated. The model is a composite of existing and proposed site conditions:

The upper topography is a designed surface based on a study of the density of accumulating tides; the zero contour is modeled as a thin water line at the center of the model; the lower topography represents the existing depth to the water table; and the highlighted portion of the model shows the location of the proposed intervention as determined by the extrusion created by density.

Along the tidal edge a boat ramp will be embedded with recordings of tidal conditions from a particular time, illuminating the fluctuations of the water’s edge as a way to frame the tide. This intervention is based off of the extrusion of the site model at mean tide, so that its placement articulates the location where the water’s edge is most often present. As a construction of the fluid zero contour, the dynamic edge is understood on the scale of an installation through a mapping in which the tide itself is used as a mark-making device. This mapping will act as a register to chart rising tides against a single year’s tidal marks as captured in concrete formed by the tide. The functioning boat ramp will reconnect access to the water’s edge and over the years will become an underwater relic.

Everyone knows the sea’s normal activities, such as a breeder of almost all species of fish, as a navigable support for bathers, as grower of seaweed, as the ideal place for all kinds of dangerous nautical sports, as an immense reservoir for the planet’s water replenishment. Few know of its work as a craftsman producing objects of uncertain use, for chance enthusiasts, in a variety of materials, distributed without any prior warning over a vast range of beaches. But nobody, it seems to me, has discovered this strange production yet.

-Bruno Munari, Sea as Craftsman

II. EXTRUDED TERRAIN a wetland intervention

Continuing up the shoreline further east from the T-Wharf, the
second site is the location of the closest proximity between the
freshwater and coastal wetlands that exists along Southern
Prudence Island. Considering this proximity as a pressure point,
a topographic extrusion at this point is proposed as a protective
barrier in order to delineate the wetlands from one another.

As in the process of designing the first intervention, to begin to articulate the relationships of the site in three-dimensional form, a plaster terrain model was generated. The model is a composite of existing and proposed site conditions:

The upper topography is a designed surface based on a study of the proximity of the coastal wetland to the freshwater wetland, where pressure builds as the proximity narrows; the zero contour is modeled as a thin water line at the center of the model; the lower topography represents the existing depth to the water table; and the highlighted portion of the model shows the location of the proposed intervention as determined by the extrusion created by pressure.

 

As a mid-scale intervention at the verge of two competing wetlands, terrain is employed to frame the second typology of the dynamic edge condition. Along the boundary between the fresh and salt water wetlands, terrain will be extruded to facilitate preservation of the freshwater wetlands and recreational access to visitors and residents of the island alike. Reinforced berms (structural walls enclosed by soil) are to be constructed at multiple locations where the distance between the coastal and freshwater wetlands is shrinking. As these berms are connected, a recreational path across the park will emerge. The series of berms constructed between the coastal and freshwater wetlands act as an edge to protect the freshwater wetland from salt water intrusion, and as a visual reference to frame what can be an imperceptible edge to the general public between salt and freshwater wetland species.

III. IN DEFENSE OF THE DYNAMIC EDGE an infrastructure intervention

As a final site of intervention, the infrastructure of the military

bunkers are engaged as a defense mechanism and as a structural
chamber with a specific holding capacity. The topographic
extrusion in this instance aligns with the location of a bunker,
so that the placement of an intervention will utilize the existing
structure and extend as a continuation of it. The form of the model
also articulates a relationship between the bound condition of held
water (illustrated as density) and the transitory condition of a field
condition (illustrated as thinness).

 

Once again, to begin to articulate the relationships of the site in three-dimensional form, a plaster terrain model was generated. The model is a composite of existing and proposed site conditions:

The upper topography is a designed surface based on a study of the holding capacity of both soils and built structures; the zero contour is modeled as a thin water line at the center of the model; the lower topography represents the existing depth to the water table; and the highlighted portion of the model shows the location of the proposed intervention as determined by the extrusion created by holding capacity.

 

 

At the largest scale of site interventions, the extrusion of terrain rises up to meet and network the infrastructure of the military bunkers as a first line of defense against the encroaching coastal wetlands. In many ways this intervention functions like the reinforced berms, as it facilitate the preservation of the freshwater wetlands and provides recreational access, only it utilizes existing reinforcement and takes on a much more expansive scale. In addition to these functions the bunker interventions also will create a recharge area for the aquifer behind the wall of the infrastructure in a dry pocket of an otherwise wet site.

 

The following drawings articulate how the path over the bunker may be traversed and how the bunkers can be transformed in order to activate their structural cell as a storage capacity. By cutting an incision into the top of the bunker, either physical or visual access is gained into the spatial dimension of the bunker, making it inhabitable.

The storage capacity of the bunkers can provide a catalog of uses that fall into three categories: to hold water, to store resources, or to facilitate cultural activities. Within each of those categories, a variety of uses is possible. While storing water the bunkers can act as rainwater collection storage, as a pool, or as an aquarium; while used for a storage capacity the bunkers can act as a cellar to hold agricultural products; or while employed for cultural activities, the bunkers can facilitate artists in residence. Photographers could use the bunker as a darkroom as it currently exists, and other artists could activate bunkers with apertures cut in their roofs, which would allow pedestrians traversing the path across the top of the bunkers to see into the studio space. These interventions are illustrated in color, in addition to the extruded topographic fill and encroaching wetlands, while existing site conditions are shown in gray scale.

 

While traversing the path that connects the network of bunkers along the extruded terrain between them, residents and tourists alike can observe the different wetland systems as they look down to either side of the path. Rather than intensive way-finding and informational markers, learning is experiential. The nuances of the different wetland typologies will slowly reveal themselves to observant pedestrians. Through the act of experiencing the edge from above, the design has returned to the perceptual framing of the dynamic edge once again after having established the physical framing multiple coastal edge conditions.