Urban Systems: Ecology: Part Three

This week we concluded our analysis on ecology. The system, I felt, was a little rushed but turned out to be a success. Our process, as outlined below, looked at the vacant areas in the Doan Brook Watershed. We proposed a solution to the ecological problems in the area by looking at a variety of scales. We grouped the vacant areas based on density and location. 

Our group proposed a series of stages for the evolution of a vacant site into an urban ecological solution. As noted above, there are different "types" of vacancy based on the ecology and land use / land type. The first process which I looked into was Deconstruction. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFxSAUtiwFs


After deconstruction, we looked into an eco land base and the succession of a forest. The stages of succession evolve from initial land cover: grass and shrubs, to a young woods, a moderate woods, a maure woods, and finally, a climax point. 

Our design interrupts this process at the young woods stage. We are trying to control the waste and the improper use of the land by taking care of it. Our solution was to turn the land into a tree nursery. To do this, some initial planting and maintenance is required. We looked at the different vacancy types and how we could possibly apply different layouts and designs based on the ecological system. Maintenance will be required, and at this point we recommended community involvement. The difference between our definition of market ecology and traditional ecology is the community involvement initiative. 

I spent time looking at tree nursery layouts. I noticed different elements such as shading devices, storage sheds, and placement of plants that I didn't have time to get to. It should be noted however, that these elements were investigated. 

Our model attempted to make relationships between the three strategies for vacant land in terms of ecology. I believe it was successful but could have ben further developed. Time again was an issue on this project, but for the time we had, I believe we proposed a rational and strong solution.

References:

images_of_an_ideal_landscape.pdf
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ecology_of_the_urban_aesthetic.pdf
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