As we move forward, it is important that we begin to understand the readings as they relate to our own individual projects. In this way we should use the readings to help us to develop our ideas. Use your comments for this week's blog entry to relate the reading directly to your project.
The reading identifies 4 principles; PATCHES, EDGES AND BOUNDARIES, CORRIDORS AND CONNECTIVITY, and MOSAICS.
1. Discuss how each of these 4 principles might relate to your project.
2. Describe how your project provides for human use by responding to a system already at work on the site.
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ReplyDeleteEdges, boundaries, and corridors exist as the main theme my system is addressing. This reading addresses more of the physical and ecological quality of these concepts, but there also exists the political, economic, and cultural boundaries that divide our landscape. Through a system of patches and reorganization the links between different spaces grow and harsh edge quality begins to fade. As an infrastructure grid, our roads become the corridors that serve as the base network connecting the landscape. How can this existing “web” be used to our advantage and incorporated in design? We must also begin to understand and identify the ecosystem services that exist, their function and their relationships. Only by first understanding the system can we then begin to design the landscape to work with, or provide new, functions. With this in mind we don’t have to worry about leaving the landscape untouched, since technically, we affect it one way or the other. Using the types of strategies discussed in the reading and implementing the use of other resources and knowledge we can provide functioning landscapes.
ReplyDeleteI found this reading to be pretty useful to me. When we began our semester looking at case studies of other urban parks, and my group focused on the Stan Allen Parc Downsview Park I remember reading about how they and several other groups thought of the human use as a sort of ecology. At the time I really wasn't sure what that meant- although it sounded cool. Now after reading the chapters from this book I understand ecology a lot better than I did before, and I also realised that a lot of what I'm proposing for Jamaica Bay relates back to that idea of human use as an ecology. I think this reading will help me to think about how to better connect things on the site, and how to establish a more healthy matrix of people, history and nature.
ReplyDeleteAs a bit of a side note- I liked that the author defined right in the beginning what they meant when they said "nature". I remeber back to a little over a year ago when one of the professors got pretty upset over the use of the word nature when the student didn't really know what they even meant by that. I think that as a class as we think about our site we should try to be more intentional about what we think nature is if we are leaning on that as our main concept.
Mosaics can be thought of as a system of patterns for differentiating between certain areas or activities. For example, my adaptive reuse proposal calls out different locations that are suitable for potential programs. Determining the most sensitive areas based on habitats and diversity, and then filtering the least sensitive areas, I am able to locate the best suitable areas for passive and active recreations.
ReplyDeleteCorridors are our connectivity to everything. Whether it is highway corridors or forested corridors, they all connect back to something. Corridors and connectivity can definitely relate to my proposal, and it should for everyone else too. To me, some connections are not as physical or visible to the eye as a road connection or a forest patch may be. I believe that sometimes connections to places are based on aesthetics, cultures, and activities, and not just solely on the physical road that got you there. Thinking about all of the places I have ever been, makes me think about the reason why I went there, besides the reason of being forced by my parents to go. Either it was going to the local park to play baseball, or taking the train to New York/Philly to go skateboarding, or going on a family adventure through Yellowstone to see Old Faithful in its glory. I went to all of those places for a reason other than just being able to physically drive on a road there. I went there because there was something for me to see, something to do, somewhere for me to relax. My proposal incorporates connections that will allow people to come to the site and be able to see things, do things, or just enjoy life.
Edges and boundaries are the outer linings of anything physical. Of course this principle is going to relate to Jamaica Bay. My project includes hot air balloons; it’s a must that I give consideration to the edges of my site and how they might be negative or positively impacted by something such as a hot air balloon. Some people out there despise wind turbines, so I’m sure there is a group of people who love to hate hot air balloons as well.
Patches described in the readings as being as “large as a national forest, or as small as a single tree. The location of patches may be beneficial or deleterious to the optimal functioning of the landscape.” This principle is also relevant to my project because of my proposal being programmatic. I cannot just start proposing patches of forest in random locations, or propose removing of any patches either. If anything existing patches should be encouraged to grow and become closer to other patches within its vicinity.
My project provides for human use by responding to and contributing to the already functional landscape. There is an existing infrastructure of buildings, roads, and programs that are in need of a bit of design and planning. All things considering, this place has the potential to be functionally built-out, aesthetically pleasing, and an oasis for permanent or visiting residents.
Looking at Jamaica bay in respect to this reading, it certainly contains patches and edges. The marsh and islands on the interior of the bay certainly seem to visually represent the "stepping stones" in the connectivity section of the reading. i think though, that at one scale they are their own mosaic separate from the outer boundary of the bay area entirely, having very little connection between the two. looking at it at a larger scale, however, if you relate the entire jamaica bay system to the first schematic application it is easy to make divisions within the region, the interior of the bay being the conservation area(1), the outer edge of the park area being the passive/active use buffer area(2,3) that separates the most ecologically viable from the urban area.
ReplyDeleteMy devices allow for increased human use, with a greater area and variety for recreation and increased connectivity through the park and to the urban area. the idea is that with the devices installed, the park will be able to do all of this as well as improve the environmental quality of the area. not necessarily by increasing habitat area directly, but by improving the quality and effectiveness of the existing habitats.
As Steve had mentioned above mosaics can be thought of as a system of patterns for differentiating between certain areas or activities. The primary functions of my park are creating productions on many different levels solar, wind, produce and social. The spatial differentiation of each form of production is what defines the spaces within the site. By looking at both topography and habitat I was able to determine which areas would be most suitable for each form of production thus linking them together through a series of visible and non-visible paths. These productions are what make this site more then a park, but more of a “landshaft” that is producing for the better of society and surrounding communities. But as important as the function of the park may be it is vitally important to connect the site with it’s surrounding. Jamaica Bay is a unique site in which it is a bunch of parks with in a park, which as of now has no spatial connection with each other. By simply linking these spaces together can we only see the diversity it has to offer? Through a series of corridors that are both visible ( a path that connect each site around its edge) and no visible ( the connection of energy production that links back to the city grid) the park itself become more accessible. The existing infrastructure also plays a critical role in shaping the park. With the implementation of Community supported agriculture, there needs to be a way to get the food produced out to the public. With out this network that is looked at as dividing the landscape. So maybe it is not a question of how does this infrastructure divide the landscape but instead how do these infrastructures help us shape a more productive and working landscape?
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ReplyDeleteI can easily see how each of these four principles relates to my project. I am proposing a device that creates island habitats closely offshore to other island habitats. Through this device I am creating patches and corridors. The device follows existing edges and creates new ones in hopes of extending what already exists. If this cannot occur these island patches will be documenting the change in the bays appearance as sea level rises. With this device I have also changed the mosaic of the bay. No longer is the bay a coarsely fragmented habitat, it now has finely-grained corridors that will eventually become much coarser.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to creating habitat this device will also provide a system of trails over the water through bird habitats and islands. The trails are to be connected into the existing trails within the park.
I found the diagrams of stream and river corridors interesting because I spent some time today learning about the dead end streams of Jamaica bay and how they are negatively affecting the water quality and sediment flow of the bay.
This reading, even though it was really long, I found very interesting and useful. Throughout the reading my mind was wondering and thinking of my design. I see how all 4 principles apply to my design. I see the patches as the separate disturbed sites and in addition to the small islands in the center of Jamaica bay. The disturbed sites are small patches distributed around Jamaica bay and need to be connected to allow the largest habitat for humans, and the center islands can provide the largest habitat for wildlife.
ReplyDeleteI found the section on corridors, particularly the “Edge as a filter”, very useful because the majority of my device is corridors and connections. Where the connections are placed effects the surrounding patches. The closer the connections are to the edge the better, so not to create more patches. Removing the Cross Bay Blvd. will be removing the edge right in the middle of the wildlife habitat. I see the edge and the connections as the same thing in my design, because the connections cause the edge
The mosaic is the systems of the corridors and nodes. For my design my mosaic would be connecting the disturbed lands together to create a network. Each alone is a fragment but taking the patches and using the edges and connections the network is created. Taking into account the context the most suitable network is created.
My project provides for human use by taking the most used and most accessible existing subway stops and providing clean biogas fuel to run public trains to and from the sites. These allow access to the less wealthy that do not have cars. Having the train run on biogas, provided by the landfill methane, gives the people an inexpensive and efficient way to get to these sites. So by using these already highly populated subway stops, access will be easy and will provide people with the means necessary to make the trip to the parks.
When first reading this article I do not automatically think about my project but when going back I can create correlations between the two. For each of the principles of ecology: Edges - for me when I read this description I thought of the saltwater marshes which make up my design. They are the edge or transition zone. Connectivity - this is the pathways that connect the marshes to the people. Also the activites that are done on the "boardwalks" are meant to create networks. The design emphasizes the size and importance of the marshes.
ReplyDeleteIn the process of reading this book, i realized how much my design involves edges, corridors, patches and mosaics. The eco pod that i have designed incorporates these themes. In the context of edges, my design includes buffers that act as edges to the urban environment. These buffers are consisted of wetland species in order to help filtration of the pollutants in the bay. In terms of corridors, my design explores multiple pathway systems that connect the individual housing units to the larger unit. Corridors are important not only because they get you from point a to point b, but in the sense that the more corridors that are present the easier for circulation and habitat interaction to occurr. The corridors serve as the frame for the patches. Housing units are at the core in which people are protected but also surrounding the patch and bordering the corridors are more wetland species in order to assist with all of the filtration the bay is in need of. By connecting the numerous housing units as well as the corridors that serve as pathways and aquaponic farming, the diversity has increased ecologically as well as culturally and socially.
ReplyDeletePatches, edges and boundaries, corridors and connectivity, and mosaics are 4 major principles of landscape ecology, which is something all good designers should take into account when designing a site. In my design I see the marsh islands in the center of the bay that I left untouched as patches, and the runway strips on Floyd Bennett Field as my edges for my farmland that I will be creating. While these are manmade edges, they serve the purpose as to delineate “where the environment differs significantly from the interior of the patch.” As for connectivity, I am using preexisting corridors (bus and subway lines) as a means for letting visitors move smoothly through the park. However, my corridors are also acting as barriers to contain the species living in the patches surrounding it. Finally, mosaics, or networks, made up of node and corridors, are the 4th principle. By the public transportation system that I intend to use to bring more people to the site, each of these visitors is visiting a node of some sorts when considering that the public transit lines are like corridors. Therefore, Floyd Bennett Field is a node, and Fort Tilden and Jacob Riis Park is a node.
ReplyDeleteThere are many systems on the site that already work and my design provides for it in many ways. One of the systems they have in place is the natural system that was there before anyone decided to touch Jamaica Bay. By leaving these islands in the center of the bay intact and intending to go around them and educate the problem is one way of working with what is already there instead of trying to destroy it get what you “need” for your design.
IB says:
ReplyDeleteThis reading is loaded with information and ideas on how to perceive and efficiently approach our surrounding landscape. The terms defined in it can be used to define the components of every site I have encountered so far. The Jamaica bay site is immense. In order for us to successfully manage it we must look at it from a regional and national perspective while simultaneously zooming in and isolating the diverse layers it contains. Patches, edges, corridors and mosaics serve as overhead terms that have many underlying categories, depending on the nature of the site.
I perceive the different islands in the bay as patches; locations at which many species reside and where interactions between fauna and flora are somewhat limited to that immediate island. The same can be said from a human’s perspective. The different cultural and historical sites are also patches within the whole. Each location is an island of its own with limited connectivity to the other patches. For example interactions at the beach on the rockaway spit are not necessarily connected or related to anything that goes on at Floyd Benet Field. Jacob Riis Park which is centered between the beach and the airfield is another segregated island. There is a connection between all these sites, but each of them has different attractions, a different history, culture and feel. One can almost say that the people that once enjoyed watching the planes take off from Benet Field did not necessarily enjoy going sunbathing or walking around Riis Park.
There edges all throughout this site. The most prominent edge to me is the belt parkway which separates this National Park from the rest of the metropolitan area. Ironically however this dividing edge also serves as a major corridor for human traffic. One can also assume that the majority of park users use this highway to access the park (one can almost think of it as the river of human traffic that feeds all the areas it touches). The existing water bodies also serve as edges; they separate the different patches and islands from each other. On the other hand however this water body is itself a patch and a corridor, for not only that it serve as habitat for a myriad of aquatic species, it is also a major highway for humans and animal alike. Most living creatures probably access this site through the harbor. The importance of the built roads and water alike cannot be denied however. They are the infrastructure of this site; they serve as both a supporter and a divider of the local ecologies. The mosaics are created by their intersection.
In relation to my project design, patches, with an increased size often have a greater diversity, part of my design is to increase the size of the existing patches by puncturing the impervious areas. Thus altering the edges and boundaries in a way to influence movement of the species across it, getting rid of the strait edge and creating a more finger type edge such as what Tshumi did in his Parc Downsview design with his "digits". In part of my design I break up the parking lot at Jacob Ris and install corridors of connectivity to aid in the flow of pedestrians safely through the parking area, and also surround this walk with ten feet of habitat on both sides to help connect the larger areas, or patches that have also been proposed, along with athletic fields to promote human use as well as restoring some of the ecology that was once there. Here I tried to use mosaics in a way to break up the fragmentation and isolation of some of these patches of habitat. Most of this fragmentation was caused by humans as impervious surface was installed for our use. This design proposes to reverse this fragmentation pattern and return the site to what it was historically where possible, and when not to plant native species to promote natural recolinization, while taking into account the human use factor, this must be worked into the equation. I tried to save the historical and cultural value of the site as well as make it a productive recreational area where nature and the built environment mesh instead of collide.
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