Site Analysis - Income Map

Next condition we mapped is the income map, shows the earning of families around the Gowanus areas.

Income Map

Brainstorm - Gowanus Canal

After all the mapping exercises, i have rough ideas of what to look into for my concept.  But I  still need to narrow it down further by defining the boundary, so that i can start focusing on fewer conditions will become my topic.

4 areas that i will be research into at the current stage are: Industrial, Community, Art and sustainability.  Just did a general brainstorming and explore ideas before i select the most suitable one for my project.

Reflection - Week 4 Tutorial Activities

Community Change, what is it?

Personally, I think it means how the value, lifestyle, or even physical things like building changed when you compare current to the past of the community.


Temporary and Impending

Things don't last forever, even architectures.  A building last maybe 10 years and people will find its function, aesthetic or material outdated and either renovate it or demolish it.  And also it made me think of a community, how it is always changing depends on the environments.


Adaptive and Transitory

To me, a community is a group of people adapting to the environment consistently and evolving, which result in its own characteristic, culture and unique lifestyle. 


Typology Exercise

We were ask to draw 2 pictures that when you first think of Gowanus, and we group them together by typology.  And this gives us a insight of other's perspective of what Gowanus is about, how they view Gowanus and what the area is known for.

Other things to think about

• Creative industry sites, workshops, art galleries, performance services
• Sport and active leisure
• Play
• Gardening and horticulture 

Site Analysis - Ethnic and Youth Population

We started too look into the demographic of the area, what kind of people lives around the Gowanus Canal.  And also youth population because one of our member is addressing the youth issues in Gowanus areas.

Communities of Colour

Youth Population

Research - Graffiti Keeps Me Clean - Brooklyn Graffiti and Street Art Tour

"Bushwick in a working class district on the north side of Brooklyn adjacent to Williamsburg has been attracting artists for some time now. The neighborhood has a fair collection of art studios and galleries, but it’s Bushwick’s industrial landscape that’s attracting the street artist. If you came looking for 1960’s Greenwich Village, you’ll find something brewing in Bushwick." - Tour by Foot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utYiIaCz1ys

'Graffiti Keeps Me Clean' is a motto of Bushwich graffiti and street art industry, the area is thrives with artist and a great potential awaits. 

Graffiti and street art can be translate as a voice of community that wanted to be heard.  I think this video and site I came across is really interesting, and it gives me a perspective of the Gowanus community that i have not seen yet.

Reference
http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/new-york-tours/walking-tours/new-york-graffiti-and-street-art-tours/
https://www.zerve.com/RaysTours/Bushwick/photo/53583

Site Analysis - Vacant Land

Vacant map simply shows what opportunity is available to the site, it shows the potential of the site.  For the project we have to look into the future of Gowanus and mapping this condition give us the development potential of this area.

Vacant Land Map

Site Analysis - Social Services

The next condition we look into is social services, especially art and education related institute.   Because from the research of stakeholders we found that some of them are planning and hosting art related events, and also open studio to encourage the artists to interact with the public.

Social Service Map

From the map we can see that heaps of educational facilities spread across the area, museum and art gallery concentrated on north and east side of the site.

Some of the events hosted by stakeholders are:

• Open gallery
• Artist meeting
• Classes
• House tour
• Other events and activities

It is a interesting piece of information we found out and in the future we might look more into this particular condition.  

Site Analysis - Coastline

A coastline map is made just to show the history and change of the canal, and give us an idea of how the canal has been modified to suit the user of that time.

Coastline Map

Reflection - Week 3 Lecture - Urban Informatics by Prof. Marcus Foth

Digital City and Physical City
The building itself is important, but the system inside the building is also important

Smart City

• Smart Building
• Smart Neighbourhood

Prof. Marcus Foth talked about the digital infrastructure of the city and how important it is.  I found his lecture really inspiring especially when he share the idea about "Smart Citizen"; take engagement to the citizen and let them participate with the city, have a say in the city they live in.  This was achieved by digital devices that allows citizen to comment, feedback and get them to involve in important events.

The idea of listening to the voice of communities and encourage then to participate with the developing of the city is quite fascinating, and how this idea can be used on our project.  The brief stated clearly that we have to take the stakeholders' needs and wants into consideration, and also help them develop in the future.  

I will put this idea aside for now and come back later down the project, I can feel that there is something interesting here and can be adapted into my design later on.

Reference
http://blog.getsatisfaction.com/2013/06/11/the-customer-company-revolution-started-a-long-time-ago/
Powerpoint side by Prof. Marcus Foth

Site Analysis - Transportation

The accessibility of the site is very critical; the project is to design a field station so we want it to be popular and easy to get to.  We choose to look into transportation so that we can locate our building in a easily accessible area.

The information is gathered by my team member, but i redid so that i can use it on my own purpose.


Transportation Map

Formatted





























By looking at the map, we found that almost the whole site has access to public transportation.  There are strong connection between public transportation and commercial streets, but few links between two sides of the canal.

Site Analysis - Land Use Map

The next condition we decided to map is land use, we want to see what kind of space is next to the canal.  We will be focusing on industrial areas, commercial areas, residential areas and also the layout of the land types.

The map is done by my group member but i took its information and redid it so that i can use it for my own purpose.

Land Use

From mapping this condition, we found that the canal is mostly surrounded by industrial areas, and also commercial streets going vertically.  However, there are weak to no connection between two side of the canal because most of the streets are cut off by the canal itself.  By comparing with land type data dated around 50 years ago, we can see a decline in industrial areas around the canal.

Reflection - Week 2 Lecture - Strategic New York by Dr. Phil Crowther

"Strategy is not a design project, but a system generating design projects" - LAE, 2009

Master Planning

• Holistic Plan
• Blueprint
• Zonging
• Controlling and Limiting

Strategic Planning

• Framework
• Infrastructure
• Planning of the parts
• enabling & Generating

Grid of New York

This part of was really interesting, the grid of New York is a bit smaller (80m x 60m) compare to Brisbane.  And it is a strategic to keep streets together by allowing pass through a building from street to another street, and also increase the public space of the city (privately owned).  The street grid heavily influenced the development of New York.

New York / Amsterdam 2040 Glimpses

Dr. Phil Crowther also showed us couple of examples of project relating to the exhibition.  The project and the idea behind it was very interesting and inspiring, and to me, quite bold,  I guess sometime i just have to step out of my comfort zone and see where it will take me.

One project really captured my eyes is the High Lane Competition, and the winning project is amazing:

• It not addressed the requirement of the competition, but also the city
• A good design can actually 'revive' the area; the cost of apartments around the project raised
• New ways to walk around the city, new circulation
• The agriculture approach was unique

Reference
http://marimarisu.tumblr.com/page/5
Powerpoint slide by Dr. Phil Crowther

Site Analysis - Historical Significance

Brooklyn is well known for its economic growth and massive industrialisation during the 19th century, and even referred as 'twin city of New York' inside a poem written in 1883.  However, this did not last too long, Brooklyn's growth period declined and left around 1950s, leaving the city with many deserted manufacturing plants.

Today, those abandoned industrial building are testimonies of Brooklyn's history.  Some are reused, renovated, protected, but more are abandoned and even demolished. 

Map of historical significance

Formatted

Site Analysis - Introduction to Geographic Information System (GIS)

Why mapping?

Mapping helps us to understand the context, problems, to see insights and things that ordinary picture just can't tell.  It also help us to make decisions, to give reasons and meaning of our design.

We are introduced to Geographic Information System (GIS), a way to select most suitable, desirable site by layering maps.  And by changing the ranking of maps, it will change the preferable destination of site.

For this project, we will be doing some intense mapping, and which will allow us to understand the context better and hopefully capture some insights that might give us a direction to tackle this project.

Pre-Design: Project I Brief - The Gowanus Atlas

Project Part I - The Gowns Atlas

The atlas is the collection of all the participant maps, in this project we were asked to select and map conditions provided by the brief.

For our tutorial group, we will be focusing on the topic of 'Community Change'.

The objective of this tutorial group is to synthesize the area’s underlying characteristics and visually explain through the Urban Field Station how complex sociological, ecological and commercial conditions can be assessed to define, characterise and nurture the evolution of this part of Brooklyn. In understanding the impact of technology and the role of our profession on communities, the theme of the group will be “Community Change”. 

Contemporary Planning

Contemporary planning includes three areas:

• Infrastructure
• Social
• Economy

During the tutorial we decided to rearrange the conditions into these three categories.  And in group of three, we are asked to map one condition per member every week.  

Reference
http://gowanusbydesign.org/axis-civitas

Pre-Design: How to start

In order to tackle this brief, a lot of information must be gathered and mapped so that I can select the most suitable site and also setup a design approach.

• GIS Mapping
• History of Gowanus and the canal
• Community Stakeholders
• What is their future planned for the canal?
• What do they want?
• How to improve their life?
• Possible Future
• Goals / Aims / Objectives
• Present
• In 5 yrs
• In 10 yrs
• In 100 yrs
• In 500 yrs
• Pollution Research
• Linkage between Gowanus and surrounding cities
• Information about
• Gowanus background
• Planning