Artful Hort Infra cont.

The inspiration behind the MOMA exhibit I viewed a couple a weeks ago,Rising Currents lies in the work of Catherine Seavitt (my junior independent work at Princeton University professor,in the "Mound Builders" studio),Guy Nordenson, and Adam Yarinksy: the book "On the Water: Palisade Bay". The collaborative work of engineers, architects, landscape architects, planners, and students, the book addresses "soft infrastructure" for the New York/New Jersey Upper Bay area. By developing a series of "interconnected infrastructures and landscapes that rethink the thresholds of water, land, and city," the work utilizes climate change and sea level rise as catalysts for reshaping and enriching the bay. Needless to say, it's a very fascinating work that includes horticultural infrastructure.

In updated news, I found out that material from "On the Water: Palisade Bay" will be displayed in The Venice Biennale, a major contemporary art exhibition that occurs every two years in Venice, Italy. It will be a component of the U.S. Pavilion. Quite an honor!




Visit http://www.workshopping.us/?p=74 for more information.

Peace out.

Artful Hort Infra

Enjoying the sites of NYC this weekend, I ventured to the Museum of Modern Art for the very first time on Saturday. Even there, hort infra couldn’t escape me! Here, I stumbled across Rising Currents, which opened this spring.

MoMa and P.S.1 Comtemporary Art Center teamed up to address one of the most urgent issues facing New York City: sea-level rise resulting from global climate change. Looking at a variety of research, practices, and infrastructural systems the exhibition brought together five interdisciplinary teams to reconstruct the NYC, NJ, and NY Harbor coastlines. A major design component of each team was the consideration of “soft-infrastructure” (education, health, tourism systems, etc…) as opposed to “hard-infrastructure” (roads, bridges, ports, airlines, etc). In this, communities can be changed generationally through the means of social engagement. Horticutural infrastructure (!!) was also mentioned among the means of addressing rising water levels. In the exhibition the installation presented the teams’ proposals and includes a wide array of models, drawings, and analytical materials. Combining engineering, ecology, landscape architecture, and structural architecture, programs were developed to solve a unique and inevitable problem. For more information please visit http://tiny.cc/ubuk4.

Notably, my very own studio professor Catherine Seavitt at Princeton University co-authored the book that launched the Rising Currents MoMa workshop and exhibition, On the Water: Palisade Bay (http://www.palisadebay.org/). On yet another note…many of the lead architects and collaborators on the project are graduates of the Princeton School of Architecture, both graduate and undergraduate. Shout out to my home department Princeton SOA! (http://www.princeton.edu/soa/).

Nice Subway Distraction

I snagged this pic on my way to the Bronx this morning, on a 6 train headed to Hunts Point. ConEdison, one of the largest energy companies in the United States (specializing in electric, gas and steam services in NYC) has embarked on its own campaign of greenness with eye-catching images and fun surveys made for the purpose of educating the average subway rider on energy conservation in the home.

cool.

Farming on American Roofs

One of many projects going on at the Majora Carter Group this summer, American City Farms is one of the heart healthiest. A project developed as a component of the urban farming movement, American City Farms will, hopefully, be one of the most influential projects developed; directly helping urban communities across the United States become hubs of fresh produce.

Hat tip to fellow intern Jason Segal for the following: American City Farms is a Local Foods project that will provide fresh produce to inner cities. Produce will be sourced from farms within a 100 mile radius of the destination city, from Urban Greenhouses developed by MCG, and from local community gardens. MCG will be opening projects in Detroit, MI ; Flint, MI; and Jackson, MS. The Greenhouses will use Aquaponics, a system that symbiotically cultivates plants & fish in a recirculating aquatic environment. Produce will be sold to local grocery stores, corner stores, and restaurants. The goal is to provide fresh and healthy produce to neighborhoods that sell mostly processed unhealthy food.

More to come on this, but in the meantime keep checking out the Brooklyn Grange Farm.

Hort. Infra in action.

for more info, there's a nice little mention about American City Farms in http://tiny.cc/q9xrf. and for MCG see http://www.majoracartergroup.com/