photographs by joaquin mosquera

Infrastructural Voidsin congested cities [New York]

Infrastructural Voidsin congested cities [New York]

joaquin mosqueraphotographs and text bywww.impresionesdearquitectura.com

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Exhibition dates

Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid COAMJanuary-February, 2011

Copyright

Photographs by Joaquin Mosquera

Cover Illustration

Red frame - Greenpoint Avenue, John Jay Byrne Bridge, Newtown Creek, between Brooklyn and Queens, November 2010

Contents

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8 Differentiation

20 Superposition

36 Contrast

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THE RESEARCH: ARCHITECTURE AND PHOTOGRAPHY

This publication is about some specific spaces. Architecture and photography work in paralell to give different visions of their possibilities and sometimes, they coincide. In the case of Infrastructural Voids, the goal has been working together, ar-chitecture and photography, to provide a better understanding of their reality, spatial and projectual, making a research about present and future, about complexities and possibilities.

This part of the research is the representational, using photo-graphy as a way to talk about a reality, being conciouss of its importance and wishing to cause a public discussion.

1. WHAT’S AN INFRASTRUCTURAL VOID?

Infrastructural voids are empty spaces inside city congestion that have the peculiarity of having enough scale and proximity with dense city to be extremely relevant and, at the same time, that are completely underused as places of chaos, disorder and general infrastructures. They are the symbols of present con-gestion, precisely because they are some of the only existing remaining free spaces in high-dense cities.

This paradox is used as the tool for working, and their most important characteristics are:

-their intermediate scale between architecture and urbanism.

-their position within a network that affects many fields outside architecture.

The representation of these elements is then fundamental for understanding their complexities and common characteristics.

This work, then, will become a study of the uncertainty of urban forms, being about looking inside cities, and unders-tanding that even the cities that seem congested are not completed.

It’s no more about architecture but about what architects or urban planners haven’t usually thought about.

Forewordjoaquin mosquera

“Where there is nothing, everything is possi-ble. Where there is architecture, nothing (else) is possible”

Rem Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL

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2 miles (3220 m)

2 miles (3220 m)

0.7 miles (1150 m)

1.3 miles (2,000 m)

0.5 miles (830 m)

1,5 miles (2,400 m)

NORTH DUMBOSURFACE - 132 ha

GOWANUSSURFACE - 190 ha

GREENPOINTSURFACE - 116 ha

QUEENSBORO AREASURFACE - 100 ha

HUDSON RAIL YARDSSURFACE - 72 ha

ATLANTIC RAILYARDSSURFACE - 6.75 ha

Map showing estimated surfaces of closest Infrastructural Voids to Manhattan

Almost twice the surface of Central Park is occupied in New York by Infrastructural Voids

TOTAL ESTIMATED: 617 ha

CENTRAL PARK: 341 ha

2. WHERE ARE THEY?

The two most relevant things about their situation is the proxi-mity or even their insertion in city centers and the surprising surface that they affect to the city.

This research is focused in the study of New York. Last big voids are placed in situations where infrastructures, mainly transpor-tation, plays a fundamental role.

Once the city is congested, and growth seems impossible, the market seeks new spaces for opportunity. These spaces will be-come, sooner or later, the object of development. These spaces are being right now the Infrastructural Voids.

1DIFFERENTIATION

10Borden Avenue, Queens. November 2010

11Thomson Avenue, Queens Plaza area, October 2009

12Greenpoint Avenue, John Jay Byrne Bridge, Newtown Creek, between Brooklyn and Queens, November 2010

13Honeywell Street, Queens Plaza area. November 2010

14Thomson Avenue, Queens Plaza area, October 2009

15Queens Boulevard and Northern Avenue, Queens Plaza area. November 2009

16Hunters Point Avenue and 30th Street, Greenpoint area. November 2010

17Provost Street and Green Street, Greenpoint area, Brooklyn. November 2010

18Thomson Avenue and 44th Dr, Queens Plaza area, October 2010

19Thomson Avenue and 44th Dr, Queens Plaza area, October 2010

2SUPERPOSITION

22Queens Boulevard, Queens Plaza area. October 2010

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24Pulaski Bridge, Queens. November 2010

25Greenpoint Avenue, John Jay Byrne Bridge, Newtown Creek, between Brooklyn and Queens, November 2010

2649th Avenue and Skillman Avenue, Queens Plaza area. October 2010

27Skillman Avenue and 47th Street, Queens Plaza area. October 2010

28Honeywell Street, Queens Plaza area. November 2009

29Down Queensboro bridge, Queens Plaza area. October 2009

30Pulaski Bridge, Newtown Creek, between Brooklyn and Queens. November 2010

31Honeywell Street, Queens Plaza area. November 2009

32Honeywell Street. Queens Plaza Area. November 2009

33Honeywell Street, Queens Plaza Area. November 2009

34Columbia Street, Gowanus Canal, October 2010

35Court Street, Gowanus Canal, October 2010

3CONTRAST

38Northern Boulevard, Queens Plaza area. November 2009

39Washington Bridge, Manhattan. September 2010

40Skillman Avenue and 34th Street, Queens Plaza Area. November 2009

41Skillman Avenue adn 34th Street, Queens Plaza Area. November 2009

42Davis Street, Queens Plaza area. October 2009

43Davis Street, Queens Plaza area. October 2009

44Riverside Park, Manhattan. October 2009

45Riverside Park, Manhattan. October 2009

Infrastructural Voidsin congested cities [New York]

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