travis k. bostTravis K. Bost is a designer and researcher of urbanism and urban environments. He holds Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees as well as a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University in New Orleans and in Spring 2012 will complete a post-professional Master of Design Studies degree focusing in ‘Urbanism, Landscape, and Ecology’ at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge where his work focuses on critical urban studies of urban-nature dualism.

750 mlGreen glass

merlot20 oz

Clear plastic #3

orange soda12 oz

Aluminum

dutch beer

Waste Bin Supermarket

SITUATING

Contrary to the process of manufacturing, distributing, purchasing, and consuming items in the upstream end of the waste cycle, in the bulk of the waste collection process there is very little knowledge or effort put forth toward the identification of brand, products, or packaging. Even in the labor-intensive process of multi- and single stream recycling this remains true—even still in Spain where there is such extensive infra-structure and labor dedicated to the process. Consequentially there is a lack of knowledge that affects all members of the recycling waste stream:

USERS don’t know how to sort things nor what they are worth

GOVERNMENT doesn’t know who is mak-ing these things

MANUFACTURERS don’t know who is consuming these things

WASTE COLLECTORS don’t know the bulk value of their collections

BULK RECYCLED WASTE PURCHASERS don’t know the quality of sorting of things

RE-MANUFACTURERS don’t know where to find things

GOALS AND MEANS

This project then aims to carry the same at-tention to products throughout the stream and help to generate a more complete waste cycle, specifically from the perspective and scale of the individual consumer and their local interfacing with the cycle, namely their neighborhood recycling points. By using the same International Article Number (EAN) barcodes that are used at point of sale, data can be read and collected at the recycling point to aid the sorting process and con-

tribute to overall understanding of the items flow in the cycle.

PARTICIPANTS

While intervening at only the very small scale of individual recycling bins, their dif-fusion throughout the city and the waste cycle aims to engage all the current partici-pants in the waste generation, disposal, and re-use phases. In addition to the individual consumers who will be able to collect recycle deposits from identified items, the waste collector and subsidiary of urban service conglomerate Ferrovial, Cespa along with the companies to which it sells its sorted rey-clables, Ecoembes and Ecovidrio, will take advantage of the generated data and sorting improvements. Additionally, the proposed device and system allow the formalized in-troduction of another end-of-stream part-ner, up-cyclers of specialty waste. Numerous examples of such organizations already exist in Spain and elsewhere with varying degrees of formal organization but none of which are currently integrated into the municipal cycle. Examples include Basurama, a small network of artists that make public works out of waste items, and Terracycle a slightly more formalized network of re-users the partner with pre-and post-consumer waste producers to create unique products for sale. These organizations benefit from the on-site identification of disposed items for their projects while expanding the means of waste reuse. Finally, the Communidad de Madrid and other levels of government will benefit by increased knowledge of the items pro-cessed, and most significantly they will be able to identify the manufacturers of items disposed enabling a new quantitative mode of checking their actions.

HOW IT WORKS

In order to allow for minimal fixed capital costs, the initial design is an ‘expansion pack’ for the common neighborhood recycling con-tainers located commonly at the end of one’s street. The expansion pack is easily bolted onto the existing container needing no special skills, attachments, or external power (it is so-lar powered); once the system has developed further new ‘augmented’ recycling bins with similar but enhanced components of the ex-pansion pack built into the bin will begin re-placing the old ones on the street. When the user arrives at the recycling point, they first tap their unique member card (ideally the lo-cal public transport card will interface) to the

device’s RFID reader in order to identify their account. Bottles, cans, and other recyclable containers are then scanned as they would be at a supermarket, and once item is identified the appropriate bin for the item’s material is signaled by sound and flashing light. Once deposited, the designated deposit value of the item is then credited to the user’s account which is displayed to the user on the device’s LCD screen. Additionally the screen adver-tises the current special items being sought through the upcycling partner that will yield higher deposit returns as well as a leader board of the top users and their cumulative deposit amounts for the given period to en-courage the user to compete.

The EAN and UPC bar codes already printed on most supermarket items can be used to

track them through the waste chain.

IMPACTS

The ultimate results of the system are both local and global to the waste stream. Individual us-ers gain deposit credit for their recycled items which also encentivises improved recycling overall, while locally their ability to sort those items is improved. The benefit of that sorting is then passed on to Cespa then receive fewer penalties from its clients, Ecoembes and Eco-vidrio who receive more useable and profit-able waste material, and ultimately the Com-munidad who are penalized less by the bulk recyclers. The up-cycling groups are able to tap into a large and diverse network of items while eliminating some of the waste stream that goes elsewhere less productively. And finally the data generated is an entirely new source of value for the major parties, each of

$01001110011000101 1 10 10000011110010101010100110100010011001100

manufacturerFactory

point of saleVendor

consumerResidence

collectionCommunidad

transferContractor

destinationRecycler

$0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 10 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 10 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 00 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 10 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 10 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0

The data accumulated on each device will be collected along with the items deposited by Cespa’s collection truck thereby eliminating any requirements for data or telecommunica-tions connection. The data is then synced with a central database that aggregates data from all the bins distributed around the city. With ev-ery deposit information is gathered about the type of item, its material, its brand manufactur-er, the anonymized ID of the user who depos-ited it, the date and time of disposal, and finally its disposal point via the bin’s given numeric ID. A full system map is then possible of the different variables, enabling Cespa to monitor previously unknown or unseen aspects of the collection operation. This information Cespa can then share with its partners, including bulk recycled waste purchasers and re-users, and its client the Communidad de Madrid.

whom derive their own specific benefits from it but in general the collected data improves clarity and accountability within the system. Joining the collection companies and their government clients, the data allows govern-ments to enter back into the beginning of the waste stream by pursuing manufacturers to make changes based on the data. Access to the data for manufacturers and suppliers can be traded for extended producer responsibility, or conclusions found in the data, concerning for example an excess of packaging material in cer-tain products or the popularity of certain more difficultly recycled materials, can be leveraged to work with companies to harmonize materi-als for packaging with end-of-stream recyclers.

All participants of the waste cycle plug into the reciprocating secondary cycle of value and information for mutual benefit and to move closer to a close waste cycle.

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PERSONAL INTERACTION

Interacting with the Waste Bin Supermarket differs little from the already existing recycling process for people in their neighborhoods as the same receptacles are used. The user first taps their recycling account card to ‘log-in’ to the system; this account is ideally merged with their existing public transportation card in their given city. Then, one at a time, the user scans their containers and other recyclables with EAN or UPC bar codes with the omni-directional scanner, just as one does when checking out at a supermarket. When the item

is recognized by the system, an audible chime and a visual cue (a flashing light) signal the cor-rect recycling bin for the given item. While this certainly simplifies the existing sorting process between the 3-4 bins usually available at most recycling points, it will enable in the future a far more advanced sorting process for various ma-terial and color variations of the usual recycling suspects: glass, metal, and plastic. Finally, as the item is deposited into the correct container an approving audible signal is heard (and a negative one if incorrect) and the amount of the deposit value for the given item is then au-tomatically credited to the account of the user.

Diagram showing the three key steps for drop-off of recyclable items: tap recycling ac-count card, scan items to deposit, and deposit them in the correctly signaled bin.

TECHNOLOGY

It is important for the feasibility of any such project as this to be implemented in strategic and incremental ways so as to target capital investments in very specifically effective ways. To this end, The Waste Bin Supermar-ket is designed to be deployed in a highly dispersed, yet not ubiquitous, way in two phases. In the initial phase, it is important to make use of the great many of existing recycling bins scattered widely throughout the city so as to maximize the investment al-

UPC ReaderCard Tap

LCD Screen

LED Signal

SpeakerData Collectionfrom Truck

OptionalSolar Panel

the expansion pak

ready expended as well as to avoid disturbing familiarity with the current system. Thus the technology of the first phase is to be a small portable device that can be easily mounted onto the existing bins around the city. And in order to ensure a simple addition the de-vice must be entirely independent in terms of both electrical and telecommunications connections. The device is small and made up entirely of several existing technolo-gies all included in one device. An RFID reader senses account information from cards tapped to it as in public transportation

systems throughout the world and an omni-directional bar code scanner reads EAN and UPC labels on items from the bottom. Simi-larly a simple low-power LCD display as in a clock is used with simple buzzer and LEDs for signalling. Inside the bin, attached to its door, is a simple infrared sensor to verify the deposit of each scanned item. To further limit issues of multiple scanning of the same item, a restriction is set for the number of items of the same type that can be scanned in a given time period. Finally a solar panel integrated into the device is recommended

for all power needs of the device, and all col-lection of the data sourced from users shall be collected by the same trucks that regu-larly pick up the contents of the bins, which are already amply equipped with many such technologies.

Diagram of the first phase Waste Bin Supermarket device to be easily attached to

existing recycling bins throughout the city.

LCD Display(advertisements/upcycling)

Deposit Tube

OptionalSolar Panel

Solar Panel (rear)

RFID Card Reader

Audio/Visual Signal

Infrared Opening Sensor

Deposited Bottle

Release Opening

Rotating Deposit Cylinder

Drain for Liquids

EAN Bar Code Reader

the all-in-one

The second phase device calls for most of the same technologies but mobilized in a far more integrated, intuitive, and expand-ed way. All of the functionality of the first phase, along with other new features, are incorporated into a complete bin to progres-sively replace the existing bins that will have been adapted with the Expansion Pak as they are in need of repair. There are two major innovations with this next phase. The first is that all items are scanned, not physically by the user, but automatically by the machine itself as they are deposited one-by-one into

the deposit tube of the machine where an in-terior line of bar code scanners is located. In this way the process is made less laborious and difficult for the user and issues of multi-ple scans of the same item impossible. Once scanned by the machine, it is deposited into the bottom of the bin by the rotating of the interior cylinder. Second, there are two LCD screens of much high resolution. The first, located on the top of the machine, is used as the primary user interface to display relevant information about the products scanned and account information. The second screen on

the side of the bin is used to advertise the various sponsors, specific items collected, or the latest information regarding deposits or depositors to passersby, further encouraging prospective users to participate.

Diagram describing the second phase device that integrates expanded functionality into a far more integrative and user-friendly form.

In addition to the standard regular three separation containers at recycling points and their anticipated more specific versions enabled by the scanning technologies, an additional type of bin will be provided to collect a yet greater range of items for re/up-cycling. Upcycling is a process where items - normally post-consumer or pre-consumer packaging - are reused for other purposes that actually increase their post-consumer value. It is made possible by a variety of schemes and partners including the original manufacturers (both voluntarily and via Ex-

tended Producer Responsibility programs), makers of products of these materials, or organizations creating specific projects from specific items such as art organizations. By partnering with these organizations, the waste collector and those organizations ben-efit from the increasing efficiency brought to each other’s business through their own services. In order to do this, a specific bin is allotted at each recycling site that could, regularly or on a rotating basis, be sponsored by one of the above organizations. Material is collected here in the same way it is at the

other bins, but the details of the items to be collected here are set by the individual aims of the sponsoring organization This mate-rial is then collected by the same waste col-lector as the other bins, reducing their total amount to be landfilled and collecting new values from those reusers.

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the upcycle containerDiagram showing the various bin types

at each given recycling point but with an additional upcycling bin that is variously

sponsored by one of three (or more) possible sources for upcycling.

Tarjetadel

Reciclaje

Tarjetadel

Reciclaje

VITAMIN WATER 0.05

YOUR TOTAL DEPOSITS 32.12

today's top depositors

BASURAMA MAMA 8.06

ENVASADORA 6.83

BANDITO DE RECICLAJE 6.43

EL JEFE DE BOTELLAS 4.86

VIDRILENO 4.72

TODAY'S SPECIAL ITEMS LIST

CAPRI SUN 200ML 0.08

CORONA GLASS 355ML 0.12

TIDE DETERGENT 1.5L 0.18

FOUR LOKO 710 ml 0.07

orangina 200ml 0.10

Tarjetadel

Reciclaje

Tarjetadel

Reciclaje

VITAMIN WATER 0.05

YOUR TOTAL DEPOSITS 32.12

today's top depositors

BASURAMA MAMA 8.06

ENVASADORA 6.83

BANDITO DE RECICLAJE 6.43

EL JEFE DE BOTELLAS 4.86

VIDRILENO 4.72

TODAY'S SPECIAL ITEMS LIST

CAPRI SUN 200ML 0.08

CORONA GLASS 355ML 0.12

TIDE DETERGENT 1.5L 0.18

FOUR LOKO 710 ml 0.07

orangina 200ml 0.10

Tarjetadel

Reciclaje

Tarjetadel

Reciclaje

VITAMIN WATER 0.05

YOUR TOTAL DEPOSITS 32.12

today's top depositors

BASURAMA MAMA 8.06

ENVASADORA 6.83

BANDITO DE RECICLAJE 6.43

EL JEFE DE BOTELLAS 4.86

VIDRILENO 4.72

TODAY'S SPECIAL ITEMS LIST

CAPRI SUN 200ML 0.08

CORONA GLASS 355ML 0.12

TIDE DETERGENT 1.5L 0.18

FOUR LOKO 710 ml 0.07

orangina 200ml 0.10

The LCD screens of the Waste Bin Super-market devices in both the first and second phases display various bits of information to the user. This information can also be ac-cessed via the Waste Bin Supermarket web-site and online account system via a user’s laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Most simply and importantly, the screen is used to com-municate the value of the deposit amount of each item as it is being deposited as well as the current accumulated balance of deposit value collected on the user’s account. Also a current ranking of other users during a given

period (for example that day or month, or that particular bin or neighborhood). This helps to foster a sense of community and competition around the project that also increases usership and excitement. By part-nering with upcycling organizations, the col-lection point is able to receive a greater range of items on a continuously evolving basis. For many of these items, higher value de-posits will be available as they are sponsored by the given organizations behind them, whether art groups needing particular items, post-consumer raw material industries, or

upstream manufacturers through Extended Producer Responsibility programs. Finally the collected deposits can be managed and used in one of three ways via the Waste Bin Supermarket website: the amount can be col-lected at a reduced percentage via check, it can be directly donated to specific charities targeted by the website, or special products from the sponsoring manufacturers can be purchased as part of a hybrid marketing and extended producer responsibility scheme.

Diagram of the various interfaces and types of information to be displayed on the screens of the recycling bins and the Waste Bin Supermarket website.

MADRID

sorting info

fewer penalties

fewer penalties

better sorting

manufacturer id

deposit?

info

products

material requests

manufacturer

Tarjetadel

Reciclaje5¢

plastico #3user #643-265

12-04-2012bin #3321

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5

On the other side of the very personal inter-action of the user interface and the collection of deposit values, a great quantity of data is being generated to be of use for numerous organizations involved in the waste stream. The scanning of the bar code generates infor-mation including the brand manufacturer, specific material type, the anonymized user ID, date and time of deposit, and the number identifying the bin in which it was deposited. Much of this information is either already available in existing databases or easily gen-erated in the device itself, while a minimal amount such as specific material type would need to be generated specifically for this project for the most popular items, though this collection would grow with the use of the system. This information is collected by the same waste collection organizations the furnishes and/or collects the deposited waste and would give a great depth of information about the daily flows and operations of the overall system as well as very localized mo-ments and individuals.

The information can be aggregated to tell completely new, and highly specific, stories around the waste stream, temporally and geographically. Most important, however, is that a completely new parallel economy of data is produced on top of the waste econo-my that offsets much of the costs associated with implementing the Waste Bin Supermar-ket system. The data collected, depending on the ownership scheme worked out, can be sold between others or used to leverage change in manufacturing (via publicly legis-lated or privately initiated Extended Produc-er Responsibility schemes), consumer, dis-posal, or collection patterns via either public or private organizations. Additionally this data may be offered via API to public users, to greater or lesser degrees of specificity, to develop their own visualizations or to push for their own improvements of the consumer process or policy changes. Diagram representing the flow of the new

data economy generated via the Waste Bin Supermarket to leverage new value, policy, and manufacturing processes.

Diagram showing the products of the bar code scan, monetary and informational, including brand manufacturer, detailed mate-rial type, anonymized user ID, date and time of deposit, and geo-locatable bin number.

DALLAS POWER ART

This entry for the Dallas Power Art competi-tion worked to engender a new found rela-tionship between the public and their energy infrastructure and footprint. As part of a large scale development strategy for the Dal-las area on the west side of the Trinity River that is home to a number of extant service utilities included a large electrical substation, the project was addressed in two phases to coincide with the large development process.

The major aim of the project was to open up to the public the operations of vital in-frastructure that support the city, not only in a visual manner but to actively enage citizens in that process. The project then would not only create a valued, more visu-ally attractive urban amenity but also foster a sense of ownership and identity with the means of producing one’s own living space, the city. These concerns are bound up in the rather unique conditions of changing power delivery systems nation-wide and the radical operations of power generation and distribu-tion politics in Texas. The project therefore attempts to recognize, represent, and engage in those specificities of place while creating a unique public space for recreation and civic engagment.

WESTERNINTERCONNECT

EASTERNINTERCONNECT

TEXAS INTERCONNECT

NORTH AMERICAN ELECTRIC COUNCIL GRIDS

ERCOT NETWORK MODEL

PRESENTDISTRICT-BASED

FUTUREDISTRIBUTED-NODAL

DALLAS METROPLEX DISTRIBUTION GRID

SUBSTATION ELECTRICITY FLOW

Historical Progression Of Electricity Distribution and Urban Integration

Past

Present

FutureOPENOPENDISTRIBUTED

CLOSEDDIRECTCENTRALIZED

LIMITEDDECENTRALIZED LIMITED

SITE PLAN - TRANSMISSION LINES

Power: 77KWhE�ciency

UNIT: Phase One UNIT: Phase Two

Diagrams showing the transition of the struc-ture from phase one, a canopy, to phase two, a micro-financed solar array.

Perspective from the street showing the canopy variously lighted according to energy consumption data for the given month

PHASE ONE: CANOPY AND BIKE PATH

The first phase of the construction would be to install the tubular steel interweaving framework structure for both phases of the project. During the early phases while credit and capital are being raised for the commu-nity solar garden, canvas fabric panels will create shade in the structure over a new bi-cycle and jogging path while also acting as insulation from the heavy traffic of the ad-jacent street.

At night these canvas panels become the site of a light installation piece taking advantage of currently available real-time data offerd publicly by ERCOT and local energy pro-viders. The length of the installation will become a history of energy use in the Dal-las metropolitan region with the intensity of each element indicating the relative in-crease or decrease in power usage from the previous day. Thus the installation will be an ever-evolving public discussion concern-ing our collective energy footprint as well as foreshadowing the following phase of the project that emphasizes green energy and distributed independent generation.

Perspective of phase one from inside the canopy showing bike path

Perspective of public recreation trail under the solar panel canopy

PHASE TWO:COMMUNITY SOLAR GARDEN

The second phase, a ‘community solar garden’, involves the replacing of the can-vas panels with solar panels and climbing gardens. Much the same as a typical com-munity garden where people rent growing plots, here they lease solar panels in order to generate solar energy back to the grid that can then be used in the form of either cash payouts or carbon credits that can be sold on the market to corporations; this productivity can be monitored by phone or internet. The panels themselves will be financed by local energy providers, corporations, individuals, and they are aided by extensive federal cred-its for 30%.

Number of PV Panels: 77 panels

Total PV Area: 9,660 sf

Total Wattage: 96,606 watts

Annual Generation: 115,927 KWh

Initial Cost: 473,369 dollars

Federal Tax Credits: 142,011 dollars

Perspective showing the canopy structure after being refitted with individually-sponsored solar panels

Sport, the most universal eventspace and source of endless statistics, has developed numerous methods of data communica-tion: scoreboards, announcers, Sportscenter. While television offered a secondary level of remote involvement—featuring com-mentary and instant replay, ubiquitous mass data generation have driven a tertiary level of involvement with the original event where spectators engage, with equal attention, to the auxiliary mapping of sport-related data as the game play itself.

This project recognizes the value of this ter-tiary level of activity and proposes a decen-tralized stadium of towers dispersed around the original Superdome, featuring this activ-ity with interactive data visualization.

SUPER[DUPER]DOME

Plan of downtown New Orleans showing the Superdome at center connected with the various surrounding open spaces, including

parking lots, public parks, and street medians

Conceptual diagram of data flow concerning the various team-based network geographies

Exterior perspective of the expansion pavilion showing the façade from tailgate area

Section through the first tower showing multiple audi-ence seating levels toward the visualization screens and the media-driven façade behind

Plan of the media expansion tower with terraced public tailgating area above with tailgate parking also terraced

to form a raked outdoor theatre for the media façade

TOWER ONE: Tailgate Theater

In order to highlight the peripheral activity of sporting events, primarily of digital communication, the designed pavilions seek to make visual the communication and other activities of sports fans as well as other related local, regional, and national sources. The activity and data are both a visual display as well as experiential within the architecture’s performance.

Envisioning the development of micro stadia in the immediate proximity and further afield - primarily by private corporate entities, this is one of two detailed explorations of possible tower forms and programs. The tower is sited within a currently vacant city block used only as surface parking and the tailgating for up to four days around the date of home games in the Superdome. The tower thus seeks to capture the game’s atmosphere, bringing it to the non-ticketed fans, while capitalizing on the already present activity of tailgating fans.

Activity related to the local game play, other games around the country, and online fan activity (local and countrywide) is displayed within the tower on theatre-like screens as well as the primary focus on the interactive facade panels, transforming the lot to a theater as well.

Interior perspective of expansion pavilion showing the new media

spectator seating

Section through the first tower showing multiple audience seating levels toward the visualization screens and the media-driven façade behind

Section through second media expansion tower connecting parking areas to mezzanine

level outdoor tailgating area with new inte-rior space for media and then to the stadium

space, while acting as information pylon itself

TOWER TWO: AUXILIARY STADIUM

The second tower explored is seen as a physical extension or annex to the existing Superdome. Like the previous tower, it works to expand the game excitement and activity to the exterior while connecting a number of users and activities. The tower rises from the lower parking decks, allowing

a continuous connection into the stadium’s concourse with data displayed throughout the tower’s interior. The top of the parking deck is presently used as a tailgating area before and during the game, thus the tower works as a display marquee for the game’s activity as well a display of data related to activity within the stadium, amongst the fans, and from the wider national media.

Exterior perspective of another new media expansion tower connecting directly to the Superdome

A sectional model that mixes chipboard, aluminum, cardstock, and a 3-D printed model of the tubular steel spaceframe. A clear view can be seen of the inside-outside operation of the interactive façade structure.

The interior finds its form from the unorganized form of digital data that is then collected and continuously categorized and reorganized to reflect the user’s preferences. Thus both the data displayed and the structure itself move from a disorganized loose pattern to a central gridded pattern of coherent order.

The displays could be both coordinated as well as activate to a particular nearby fan’s preferences via digital interaction. It is essential to view the activity of the game’s play and the stadium’s energy as continuous with that of the existing tailgate and the introduced data visualization connecting both interior and exterior spaces of the stadium as well as ticketed and unticketed patrons.

RUINING RUIN PORN

The phenomena of ruin photography or ‘ruin porn’ has be come a contentious topic of debate: at times a symbol of disinvestment or a medium of aestheticized commentary on people and places that are forgotten. This project recognizes the effect the propagation of these images has had on de-industrializ-ing cities and their residents often without their input or concerns. By directing an ex-hibit wherein actual photos proliferated on Flickr.com are collected and analyzed with Flickr and GoogleMaps APIs, local residents can re-appropriate those images and their collective image as a city.

Philadelphia Cleveland Detroit St. Louis

Exhibition Experience

Map of geo-located Flickr images collected online that variously portray ‘ruin porn’ as

defined by their image tags across the city of New Orleans

As part of the exhibit, participants pose in ex-isting Flickr images of ruin porn, giving new life to the desolate images. These images are then automatically uploaded to the Ruining Ruin Porn Flickr photostream.

DesCours FESTIVAL

The flooding along the Mississippi River in 2011 was the worst seen since the cata-strophic 1927 event. Though wide-spread destruction was common upstream of New Orleans, the event passed largely unnoticed in the city. Presented as part of the 2011 DesCours Art and Architecture Festival in New Orleans, this installation is an effort to make visual and comment on the inter-connected field of hydrology and humanity that is the Mississippi Valley. It presents this otherwise hidden dynamic system through publicly published US Army Corps of Engi-neers’ hydrological data, collected in the field over the entirety of 2011. The otherwise dry, opaque data is translated into a field of ris-ing and falling electronically-controlled bal-loons speeding a year’s fluctuation in flood gauges to a fifteen minute cycle. An altered visual, temporal and spatial condition (from the relatively inscrutable charts of numeric readings or the isolated perspective and imperceptibly slow river as view from the banks) makes palpable the movement of wa-ter and the intertwined ecosystems between the Lower Mississippi cities of New Madrid, Memphis, Helena, Arkansas City, Vicksburg, Natchez, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans.

All data was collected directly from the United State Army Corps of Engineers live data feed for the entire 2011 season.

The piece was constructed of 16 custom-milled foam base pieces, hundreds of feet of

multi-thread wire and 64 mylar balloons.

Beyond a simple color-scale indicator of flood severity, the color created an entire ambient condition of intensity with the action.

A panoramic view of the entire installation piece at its climax in river rise

Living with Water: Lake District

New Orleans is not only a city surrounded en-tirely by water but also one that is inundated, saturated, and partially submerged by it. But nevertheless, it is also a city that rarely ever sees it, having expelled it from the urban landscape. This project proposed a design vision at scales from the metropolitan region to the sidewalk to reintegrate water into the daily urban fabric of the city in order to not only safeguard it from flash-flooding and subsidence but also from modernist urban-nature isolationism that cre-ates a sense of fear and antagonism between urban residents and their environment.

A key area of the project was to open the many currently enclosed subterranean canals beneath the major boulevards of the city. The resulting open canals reveal a condition of the city that was previous unknown to the average citizen and more practically they serve to maintain a more natural and stable water table, curb-ing subsidence. Additionally, the canals were envisioned not only as techno-environmental infrastructures but as reclamations of new public spaces that would allow for new uses of the streetscape and a new relationship with the constructed wetland environment. The park spaces also facilitate wetland filtration of runoff saturated with PCBs and other hydrocarbons from parking lots before entering the main ca-nal system. On a large scale, the system’s most important feature is its ‘slow-storage’ design that contains the heavy downpour rains, slows them on their path toward the main city pumps, and saturates the earth below all toward the greater goal of reducing demand on the large pumps that cannot cope with the regular heavy flash flooding of the subtropical climate.

Note: This project was a joint work between Tra-vis Bost and Kristian Mizes.

The overall scheme recalls the history and present reality of the site as a low-level marsh in order to better accommodate water storage for the entire city.

Map of New Orleans, 1891 Map of New Orleans, 1878 Map of New Orleans, 1841

Abandoned lots are to be bought by the state to be excavated and then developed following a new pier-based building system continuing even into the retention pool.

Existing, Occupied Units (Black)vs.

Unoccupied/Demolished Units (Red)

Initial Proposal Future Proposal

The present grade of the terrain is taken advantage of by excavating shallows into each city block, holding more water and slowing its flow to the central pumping station.

Site plan for Hoffman Triangle redevelop-ment near completion with a neighborhood built around Pumping Station #1 at its rear.

A neighborhood plan in mid-phasing, several houses will have been built on piers above the excavated area, blending with the previously

existing neighborhood.

Proposed corridor of new water-friendly prototype development

Pre-existing housing to be maintained with terrain undisturbed

Excavated catchment area lower then block to the south to catch water on its way to pump

Eventual urban residential infill of now aban-doned lots to be rebuilt over catchments

Below, the marina re-introduces urban dwell-ing types that deal with marsh conditions once common in New Orleans’ past, redefin-ing the image of urban water.

Excavated areas are only intermitently used for water storage, other time allowing the neighborhood open green space.

A catalogue of possible design methods for introducing, conveying, storing, utilizing, and releasing run-off water on building sites charts the variety of development possibilities for future growth with a range of programs and site conditions.

In addition to the large scale designs for the metropolitan area and the public streetscape, it was crucial to also create a range of pos-sible designs for private development that made use of new strategies for living with water. As part of a larger catalogue of design tools, program pairings, and prototypes, this proposal was for a prototypical speculative apartment building to be developed in the private market. The building, like the larger scale designs, is oriented around a general strategy for the capture, storage, and slow transmission of water across the site to fur-ther contribute to the relief of pressure on the main city pumps from storm events.

To key elements of the design contribute to this strategy, the first is found on the roof of the circulation and public spaces of the building that captures rainfall for use in roof-top rain gardens, slowly allowing it filter to the ground below. Second, the ground plane below is a constructed ‘wetland’ of concrete baffles and plant elements that receive water directly from the city storm drains that then filters through the wetland before releasing to a large storage area behind the building. These elements, like those of the street, are meant to habitualize the condition of living with water for the residence as part of the larger goal of complete re-orientation to-wards the urban landscape of the city.

Living with Water: Prototypes

Building from the catalgoue the apartment building matches the program pieces with water maangement strategies to arrive at a composite form that addresses both.

Viewed from Claiborne Avenue, the apart-ment building is broken into housing units in the rightmost portion, public lounge space above left, and the water storage park space open below.

Viewed toward the south inside the open gallery space of the apartments, the rooftop gardens that double as rain catchements can be seen cascading one into the next, slowing water flow to the ground.

The tri-part strategy for water management can be seen in this section as the ground-level marsh garden draws water from the under-street canal and the rooftop garden weaves with public space of the apartments, together draining to a rear retention pond which doubles as parking space.

The ground-level marsh park offers the opportunity for residents to build a closer interaction with the new urban water ecology.

A lateral section cutting through the entwined living, lounge, and water programs.

Another prototype involved a co-generation power station that combined excess water storage with the necessary cooling load of the power station.

Vegetation is located in response to the large quantity of surface lots to receive and filter the run-off before entering the canal.

Living with Water: Canal Streetscape

As the third scale of intervention related to living with water, a proposed re-working of the streetscape and canal system is studied. The existing Felicity Street canal is one of the half dozen subterranean canals running below the large boulevard streets of Uptown perpendicular to the river’s curve. It is pro-posed that the the existing concrete box ca-nal be unearthed and made into a wet, soft-bottomed canal for its entire length from river’s edge to Pump Station #1 in Mid-City.

Like the previous two scales, the general the-sis is the integrate ecological infrastructure with public amenity and re-appropriated, re-conceptualized public space. Most im-portant to this strategy is the re-orienting of the popular understanding of the city street,

as a traffic conduit, to a hybrid space of park, infrastructure, and conduit for many other forms of travel and function.

In addition to receiving and storing storm event run-off, the canal is designed strategi-cally around the numerous open lots abutting the street right-of-way so as to receive and filter that run-off before it enters into the ca-nal proper. To this end and a public amenity one, each block has its own custom program to blend each of these concerns together as per the conditions of the given block. All in-volve holding water in a flexible way with a correlate active use program, complimenting flash flood events. The end result is a physi-cal reconstruction of a public relationship with the street and the environment.

Each block is highlighted by its own water feature that serves both a public function but also an ecological water-based sotrage or filtration purpose.

The proposed canal right of way is largely bordered by anbandoned lot and parking which generate a large amount of run-off that is often highly polluted and therefore prolematic for urban wet canals.

This section of street takes advantage of the extra-wide right-of-way to create two kinds of canals for separate activities.

A wide stretch of leftover right-of-way allows a canal spillover area that doubles as a skate park when the water is low.

Perspective showing the water feature of the downstream-most block of the proposal where

the enlarged triangular block allows for a large bowl storage area for run-off that is also

a skate park in dry periods

The pixel crossing is a bridge of concrete blocks with varying heights that become an opportunity for interaction with the water as well as a home for micro-organism and plant life.

The run-off filtration zones use the same reef-like forms to create filtrating plant environ-ments to receive the water shed from streets and parking lots.

The large pixel field takes advantage of a pre-viously unusable triangle piece of public space as well as a portion of an existing street to create a public park that exposes its ecological advantages to its users

As a long established brand for leather luxury goods and luggage, Longchamp was seeking to expand more fully into the luxury prêt-à-porter, accessories, purse, and other clothing markets. The brand was looking to open three new high profile boutiques in New York, Düsseldorf, and Paris. Each of these boutiques was to showcase the new, younger, and more fashionable face of Long-champ. The design borrows from the classic branding and patterns of Longchamp while creating a youthful and coherent face for the new boutiques exhibiting their new product lines.

However, the boutiques seek also to be indi-vidual unto themselves and their respective urban locations. They are each distinguished also by the fact that they are all fitted into a pre-existing space and structure, in some cases hundreds of years old. Thus the façade and display units are the primary focus of the new brand identity which is based on their more popular product, the Pliage (folding) bag. In general the strategy was to unite the brand, its products, and its architecture across all scales of the boutiques from the folding glass façade at the scale of the entire storefront to the folding interior wall display units, to small scale features such as the cus-tom-cut glass and small branding elements such as the entryway.

The façade of two of the boutiques literal fold to form the entrance while also making space for major display areas and individual

piece display while creating differentiation across the folds with a gradation of transparency.

Several varying display units were developed for a range of small items and accessories. The displays integrate the warm iconic

aniegré wood of the brand with the pliage motif.

BOUTIQUES LONGCHAMPCarbondale Architects

Patterned glass was specif-ically designed and further developed with fabricators to be used as the main facade feature deriving from Longchamp’s iconic motif.

The boutique’s plan sought to draw visitors back into the long depth of the space. The folding or ‘pliage’ wall pattern also derives from the brand’s line of bags of the same name. The folds become display units, storage, and fitting rooms.

USACE Commodity Flow

An interactive map mash-up, this visualization shows commodity flow between the major port areas of the United States and their significant trade partners. By toggling between the commodity options and imports/exports, the major trade flows can be seen within local systems such as the Mississippi River Basin circuit, the Gulf Coast-Caribbean trade, and the international petrochemical refining industry. The data was sourced and compiled from the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ large public annual data sets.

20th Century Oil and Gas Development in Louisiana

Using freely available data from the Loui-siana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources Office of Conversation and coordinated and compiled by the Louisiana State University Center for GeoInformatics, this animation shows the development of oil and gas ex-traction wells both onshore and offshore in Louisiana beginning in 1900 to 2006. The political economic geography of the industry and the state can be traced in the spatial and

temporal variations of well development. The ubiquity of petrochemical industrial development is often overlooked in the state, either as out of sight or as permanently pre-existing, this map aims at dispelling such a myth by showing the radical history and on-going development of the industry in the state, especially as new technologies en-able new explorations in yet further depths or revisiting century-old sites of previous-thought exhausted reservoirs.

Fiber Optic Networks + Urbanization: A Los Angeles Case Study

Often thought of as invisible and omnipres-ent yet placeless, the internet in fact has a highly developed and influential infrastruc-ture spread throughout cities and the world. This network is unique from other infra-structure systems in that it is made up almost entirely of redundant, proprietary networks that both compete and interact by necessity. The fragmentary nature of the total system makes it both highly resilient and difficult to map. Thus the invisibility of the system is due most to its privately-controlled nature without an overall managing agency.

However, the physical infrastructures and in particular their effects on urbanization are very evident. First by understanding the genericized path of information flow, the necessary structures and economies be-come evident. International, national, and regional data flow result in the development of relatively few information exchange high-ways and capitols that carry and connect large portions of the world. Los Angeles in particular is one of the most important ex-change points between Asia and the Ameri-

cas and then still to Europe. Data exchange commerce has become an incredibly lucra-tive industry creating uniquely important income streams for cities and commercial districts.

The private nature of these systems has lead to extensive burgeoning in new real estate markets, becoming the exclusive focus of new specialty real estate investment trusts. Given Los Angeles’ position as a worldwide node of exchange, telecommunications property in the city - particularly in proxim-ity of major business in central business dis-tricts - has skyrocketed in value and deeply affected the make-up of the district.

Map of the global data flow through undersea fiber optic cables

A simplified diagram of the dozens of steps along the way of international internet connections

Infographic showing the landing points of all undersea fiber optic cables on the West Coast of the United States and their relative lengths,

capacities, and their connections

Map of the known national internet service provider networks that connect not only the US but act as a conduit between Europe and Asia with the key colocation city hubs

Diagram showing the relative number of clients and connection nodes among the major American internet service providers

The prediction made by R. Buckminster Fuller, in his Operating Manual for Space-ship Earth (1968), that entire commercial towers and districts will soon be replaced by warehoused computers seems eerily ac-curate. One Wilshire stands as the quintes-sential example of newly adapted commer-cial structures to house data storage and exchange units. The building first began housing communication systems due to its proximity to the PacBell switching building and later grew to displace nearly all office space with servers. Surrounding real estate values have skyrocketed as every minutia of proximity and connectivity to One Wilshire is worth an enormous fortune. Understand-

ing the very real effects of seemingly invis-ible telecommunication is vital not only on global social and economic interaction but also on the physical development and opera-tion of modern cities.

Axonometric diagram of space programming of Downtown LA’s One Wilshire ISP colocation facility

Infographic showing the landing points of all undersea fiber optic cables on the West Coast of the United States and their relative lengths, capacities, and their connections

Land value in Downtown Los Angeles

Improvement Value in DowntownLos Angeles

Improvement + Land Value in Downtown Los Angeles

Comparative Area of Office Real Estate Leased for Fifty Cents per Month (real dimensions)

Fiber Optic Cable Network and Connected Real Estate in Downtown Los Angeles

Urban Patterns of the Mississippi River Drainage Basin

Draining almost half of the continental United States land mass, the river is also exploited to its maximum extent for trade and resource extraction. While in the 19th and early 20th century, the great challenge was ‘taming’ the river despite its enormous size and power; since, the challenge has become dealing with the consequences of this ‘taming’ including the dangerous effects of canalization, damming, wetland destruction, dredging, and petrochemical extraction. The dredging, deepening of

navigable channels, and levee building has produced a situation where the river is no longer able to meander. This creates greater pressures on the, now man-made, levees and prevents the replenishment of the delta’s extensive wetlands which serve as major storm prevention for the Gulf Coast. The river instead deposits the reduced quantity of silt farther off the continental shelf, deep into the Gulf of Mexico. This silt deposition not only maintained now disappearing wetlands (disappearing at the rate of 25 square miles

a year) but also gave rise to the large oil and gas deposits now exploited offshore. The gravity of the 1927 flood disaster was the first major glimpse of the coming danger of these man-made obstruction to the river’s course and led to the creation of many inland and coastal diversion projects to relieve the river in times of high capacity by flooding pre-determined areas. Most importantly this event created the Old River Control Structure that now artificially controls the course of the river in its current channel

through Baton Rouge and New Orleans instead of its natural course which would have switched to the Atchafalaya Basin, flooding many communities and leaving the two largest ports of the Mississippi River unproductive.

In an attempt to understand the drainage basin of the Mississippi River as an interconnected region, the study examines the ecological relationships inherent in the system as well as the interrelated systems of urbanization which benefit, exploit, and disrupt the function of the basin. The overlaying of physical infrastructures, historical events, development extents, and

Pumping Station Draining Suburban Neighborhood - Kenner, Louisiana

Arpent Development - Between Baton Rouge & New Orleans, Louisiana Oxbow Lake - False River, Louisiana

the impact of human and natural processes on each other suggests the redrawing of oft-arbitrary political boundaries to reflect ecological functioning, in order to produce a more responsive urbanism. Smaller scale investigation of human development reveal the intensity of environmental manipulation and dependency on mechanical systems to expel the shifting effects of ecology.

Spillway Urbanism: Bonnet Carré Spillway

The dozens of overlapping systems of infrastructures, economies, and ecologies work simul-taneously with the primary function of the spillway to prevent river flooding on the lower Mississippi River. Thus the originally singular flood protection engineering develops to ac-commodate a plethora of concurrent and hybrid uses.

The various systems of the spillway are linked locally and regionally to the city of New Orleans and the surrounding urbanized area. Exchanges of material, currency, de-tritus, effluent, energy and the like characterize the engagement of the Bonnet Carré Spillway as engineering, parkland, and natural habitat.

Re-Producing Landscape: A ThesisThe changing urban political ecology of the Bonnet Carré Spillway

Using a lens of urban political ecology based in critical urban theory and geography, this thesis explores the historical development of constructed relationships of urban-nature in the urbanization of the Mississippi Val-ley and in the particular case of the Bonnet Carré Spillway.

These constructions, manifested as collective human conceptualizations and as material evidences of the built environment, are ana-lyzed through a methodology of historical explication and, most importantly, through careful criticism of formal and visual repre-sentations of urban-nature throughout the modernization period. Not only useful as a site to clearly trace socio-material construc-tions in the soft, fluid landscape, the valley and the spillway case are useful cases for un-derstanding new urban-natures that openly declare and imbricate the synthetic processes and forms of their [re]production. In this way, the spillway may lend itself as an ideal case study for a re-oriented urban landscape and space that acknowledges human-nature hybridity, emergent overlapping and inter-dependency of urban-natural ecologies and economies, ubiquitous artificiality of nature, and fluid socio-natural relationships. Such a space must have significant ramifications form models of sustainability of form and process in future urban-natural develop-ment.

As a part of the Mississippi River Commis-sion-United States Army Corps of Engi-neers jointly managed Mississippi River and Tributaries project for flood management, the Bonnet Carré Spillway - located 15 miles above New Orleans - is a key piece of infra-structure for drawing excess flood waters off the river on average of every ten years. The structure and floodlands have been operated

Diagram of the USACE Project Flood that set the operating attitude towards development in the watershed region for the remainder of the 20th century

Images portraying the historical fetishizing of technology in its supposed conquering of nature

only ten times in its 80 year history, first in 1937 and most recently in 2011. Addition-ally its extensive publicly administered lands have evolved to function as an emergent public landscape facilitating and facilitated by the unique and dynamic swamp land-scape created by periodic openings.

Photos taken showing the fully ingrained modernist logics of an urban-natural divorce

in the spillway

Essays

Opportunist Adaptation Tooling the Natural

An essay, with Kees Lokman, studying the historical development and adaptation of the deltaic landscape in the Bonnet Carré Spillway in its adaptation to various concerns whether environmental, economic, cul-tural, or social. From its functionalist imposition as a single-use struc-ture to its emergent role as a landscape of socio-cultural and economic mediation, it serves as a model for adaptation and expansion in the role of designed landscape and infrastructure.

An analysis of the historical use of the architectural diagram in the twen-tieth century as a tool for abstraction of nature. Three phases are ex-amined from early century scientific approaches of D’arcy Thompson to mid-century experimental practices, the deconstructivists of the 1970s, and the techno-euphoria of the 1990s to present. The hypothesis is put forth that in each of these cases there is a fetishism of the diagram, the consequence of which is not only the simplification of the structure of worlds existing and potential, but also the abstract of space, structure, and organization from nature as found. Once abstracted the diagram is free to be applied in increasingly arbitrary forms. Throughout each of the cited examples this often leads to the breaking down of the original logics bound up in the subject of analysis and a consequential irrational-ity and irrelevance of the diagram’s role in producing space. However this claim is not to suppose that the diagram serves no practical applica-tion in understanding or project worlds, but that its use requires a cor-relate understanding of its origins, operations, relationships, and limita-tions even as these aspects may well be tested in application to design.

Urban-natures and Limiting Machines Abstraction and the Project Design Flood

While early Kantian Enlightenment conceptions justified a conquest of nature for industrialization and Modernist-era urban infrastructures embedded this dualist relationship in city form and process, these limi-tations have proven mere ideological constructions rather than veritable historical conditions. In response several authors have posited a more hybrid conceptualization of urban-nature to explain and advocate a more synthetic socio-natural production. The consequences of a hybrid nature thesis involve the dissolving of socially-produced urban-natural limits, as each omnipresently shapes the other. While there has been considerable theoretical and critical repositioning of infrastructure along this line of thought within design of urban landscapes and infra-structures—despite the ample enthusiasm to ‘bring nature into the city’, ‘heal post-industrial scars’, and ‘give back waterfronts’—the critical ques-tion remains: are we succeeding in revealing the social-production pro-cess of synthetic urban-natures, or are we in fact producing new urban-natural limitations and alienation with nature merely on display in the city? This paper therefore takes up these questions, making use of recent descriptive analyses, design polemics and aesthetics of urban interven-tions—each indicative of or claiming a re-orientation in perspective for producing urban-natures.

This essay was presented at the Writing Cities conference jointly held at Harvard University and MIT in Spring 2012.

This essay will explore the notion of abstraction and the graphic power of the diagram to mobilize social and physical implications throughout the urban landscape by examining one of the most powerful diagrams for a huge swath of the American landscape, the 41% of the continen-tal United States encompassed by the Mississippi drainage basin. As part of the Mississippi River and Tributaries project of 1928, the United States Weather Bureau and the Mississippi River Commission designed a mythical flood called the Project Design Flood against which all plan-ning and engineering were to combat. The associated diagram serves to summarize the pipe-and-drain rationalizing that abstracts an entire river system in cubic feet per second flood. Following is a critical chro-nology of the origins of this diagram, its forms of abstraction (encom-passing all of the above categories of form, space, surface, and process in nature), its extensive instantiation in the forms of urbanization follow-ing its adoption, as well as the reciprocal alienation and degradation for urban and natural environments.

Finally the question arises whether in fact all diagrams are a form of detrimental abstraction, or whether there they might serve a resistive function. The last section of the paper will explore the possibility of such a project for the diagram that is concretizing rather than abstract-ing, reconceptualizing of a built ‘second’ nature rather than an idealized first nature, synthesizing between such a nature and forms of urbaniza-tion rather than alienating, and restorative rather than deleterious and divisive.

This essay will be appear in a forthcoming issue of Urban Infill, published by the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative of Kent State University.

Visualizing the Lear Landscape CollectionCuratorial Innovation Program @ metaLAB

The Edward Lear Landscape Drawings Col-lection is a special collection held at the Printing and Graphic Arts Department of the Houghton Library at Harvard Univer-sity. The collection consists of over 3,500 sketches, watercolors, and other drawings made by Lear over the course of more than 50 years and multiple continents. Currently the 258 linear feet of drawings are in a closed collection and their perusal is possible only via the text-based finding aid. The finding aid is one of the most meticulously detailed ones at Harvard containing information related to the date, location, dimensions of each piece as well as any handwritten notes on the obverse - all collected and logged by hand over many years by a single archivist. While this is clearly a very valuable resource for research, its enormous size and detail make it also extremely cumbersome and dif-ficult to work with all but those researchers with an already highly developed knowledge of the collection.

This project therefore aimed to take advan-tage of data processing and visualization techniques to not only make use of the find-ing aid to help make the drawings more ac-cessible and exciting to laypersons but also - and more importantly - to capitalize on the extensive detail of the aid in order to bring unseen patterns in the data and new veins of scholarly research on the drawings. The enormous finding aid’s text was first consoli-dated, mined, and parsed as an XML feed. Then using multiple methods, four separate visualizations were created, each with a dif-ferent audience and research agenda. From a basic digital gallery of the images to a more intuitive visual structured catalogue to anal-yses of total proliferation of drawings over time and space to other analyses of Lear’s media, methods, and paper types the project

The above visualization represents all 3,500 drawings as square cells arranged chronologically from top-left to bottom-right. Toggling between analysis options, the cells are shaded depending on their date of drawing, location, size, paper type, drawing medium, or amount of field notes made on them by Lear.

shows the range of new research opportuni-ties available by applying design thinking and information technology methods to data that is otherwise easily forgotten.

The first and most simple visualization was a simple navigable digital flipbook of images ordered chronologically and displayed at their relative proportion and size.

Separating by location of production, this interactive graphic represents the total number and total area of drawings originating in each.

A subgraphic of the above visualization, it mixes the features of the two previous graphic but also displays information related to Lear’s and archival notations.

Using several features of the Google Maps API, this animated visualization plotted the course of Lear’s travels over time and geog-raphy. As the applet plays his path is traced from each location to the next with each point along the way expanding with each new drawing produced a that location.