Thesis | portfolio

HIGH BRDIGE MARKET: A LANDSCAPE OF JAPANESE PRINCIPLES

Highbridge, NY

Fall 2017-Spring 2018

Undergraduate Thesis

Japanese Garden	Time Diagram	Japanese Garden
Shrine Layout	Japanese Garden	Temple Layout
Japanese Garden	Temple Layout	Japanese Garden
Geomancy	Japanese Principles	Personal Expression
Japanese Garden

The above images are sourced material. I did not produce them.

“I can understand the creation of an artificial nature…The Japanese are able to do this by living in an almost entirely symbolic environment, in which each element of nature and culture, when carefully reshaped, stands for something else much grander: an emotion, a thought, a whole philosophy. This symbolism is at its most extreme in the Zen gardens. Where an object is placed, its exact color, its texture, everything is significant...Almost everything around the Japanese is highly artificial, crafted, yet the final effect is to make it seem natural and unforced. Thus in contrast with many societies, the Japanese have bridged the perceived gap between nature and culture and nullified it. Everything is both natural and cultural. The moon, the falling water, the rocks and sand, are fully natural. Yet they are framed into a composition which is highly manufactured. It is artificial nature. Likewise, the buildings, the tea houses and temples and many ordinary houses are cultural artifacts. Yet their roughness, unevenness and shadows, make them simultaneously natural objects.” -Allan MacFarlane

The first phase of this thesis involved a compilation of in-depth research of Japanese garden design, stemming from all aspects of Japanese culture and society. Research was completed on the methods in which the Japanese treat nature and architecture, the history of the Japanese garden, the underlying philosophies that shape their creation, and the driving force of these principles in other areas of their society. Once a thorough, expert understanding of Japanese culture through garden design had been established, three to five philosophies were investigated as the foundation of a new solution in the second phase of the project to serve a specific urban or suburban condition somewhere in the United States.

The crucial ideas of layering, revealing, framing, and symbolism within the Japanese Garden proved that the design of the details is much more important than the design of the master plan. Compared to plan-based gardens of France, or the picturesque gardens of England, Japanese gardens are designed as they are being built. Master plans are not drawn up before they are built; an ink sketch may be used to get an overall sense of scale, but the gardener has the complete ability to change and alter the design as it is being built. This fact reinforces the idea of time in Japanese society, and how decisions regarding where things are placed must be made to extreme detail and accuracy with all of the elements around it. This keeps the overall balance of the design, allowing the gardener to place each object one by one accordingly and make changes when necessary. Decisions are made slowly and thoughtfully, rather than in the beginning up front, which is why garden master plans are not an essential tool. The idea of "up from the details" rather than "down from the master plan" became the ultimate driving principle for this project.

Artificial Nature Collage	Artificial Nature Model	Layering Model
Framing Model	Detail vs Master Plan Model	Natural vs. Artificial Model
Abandoned Spaces Map	Layering Collage	Framing Collage
	Detail vs. Master Plan Collage	Nature vs. Artificial Collage
	Design Artifact

Compared to the first phase of this thesis which covered many different topics related to Japanese gardens and philosophy, the second phase identifies a few critical concepts in the context of the real world. Problems that are very evident in today’s society. It is firmly set in reality, not the idealized vision of the world. All sources studied identified the key events which led suburban areas on the border of large cities to fall into their current state. Specific events in history, along with specific factors in their society led to the condition of extreme urban decay. Not one single event caused it, but rather a series of chain events that led to other events.

After reading multiple articles and books on suburbanization, it can be said that one of the societal root causes, if not the biggest societal root cause that led to urban decay in cities is racism and racial segregation. For example, one of the primary historical events to spark Newark’s decay was the Newark Riots of 1967, which arose out of brutality of the white police force and African Americans. "White flight” and the mass exodus of white Americans leaving cities was met with African Americans moving into cities in large numbers, causing black assimilation. They suffered from residential segregation from the hands of the Federal Housing Administration with redlining and having their neighborhoods colored red as undesirable neighborhoods, which caused the value of their property to deteriorate. This racial conflict set the stage for crime and poverty to step in if proper leadership was absent, all the while property values plummeting and tax rates skyrocketing.

Suburbia then became a representation of “happiness and the American dream." During this period, federal policy neglected urban cities, and instead focused on highways, home ownership, and education for white men. Improved transportation caused manufacturing to leave the city for cheaper land and cheaper labor by outsourcing work to foreign countries like China, which took a severe toll on employment. The working class were now mass exiling urban centers in overwhelming numbers to work outside the city, leaving the poor and underprivileged to remain. Minorities were put at a disadvantage through spatial isolation, segregation and the Federal Housing Administration, who red-lined their populations. While federal policy enabled suburbanization, those remaining in once industrial centers coped with the effects of white flight and urban decay.

High Bridge	High Bridge	High Bridge
500px-High_Bridge_and_high_service_works

The above images are sourced material. I did not produce them.

The site I focused on for this thesis is the High Bridge in Bronx, NY. The High Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that connects the suburbs of Highbridge, Concourse and Mt. Eden over the Harlem river with Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill in Upper Manhattan. The oldest bridge in New York City, the Highbridge was built in the 1848 as part of the Croton Aqueduct. It was originally built as a stone arch bridge, but the portion that spans over the Harlem river was replaced with steel in 1927. It brought water from the Croton Aqueduct into the city, until that function ceased in the 1950’s and it became a purely pedestrian walkway. The Highbridge has been closed for over 40 years due to crime, neglect and fiscal contraction along the waterfront.

What must be done to take the first step in the road to recovery for this area, and all like it? What must that first move be, no matter how small, to begin a chain reaction of improvement? Implementing one grandiose, large-scale solution will not likely see success. Instead, a design system promoting individual ownership, initiative, and upkeep is proposed on this abandoned bridge. This system of design, based on the philosophies of the Japanese Garden, will result in the High Bridge Market, offering many shops providing service and care for the surrounding areas in need.

Example Modules	System	Collage
Principles	Conceptual Model	Conceptual Model
Conceptual Model	System Rules	Perspective Sketch
Perspective Sketch	Perspective Sketch	b4efcd70-5821-42fb-aa68-eb60fa2af481 cop

The role of the designer now becomes that of the gardener. And the aim of the gardener is to plant the seeds, the philosophical principles realized in small crafted moments, in order to develop and manifest into a beautifully functioning microcosm of the universe, while experiencing some of these phenomena as a result. Each seed planted in a unique location will bring about a unique outcome.

What is the system of design that plants these seeds and produces flexible, varied and diverse architecture based on the same foundation? A multicellular organism where each cell has its own “gardener” and works independently following predetermined conditions, yet results in unique outcomes. The program of the High Bridge consists of a series of markets, commercial spaces, and public spaces for the surrounding areas to use on a daily basis, especially during their commute. Many of the modules are commercial or food shops, such as bakeries, sandwich shops, cafes, markets, clothing stores, shoe stores, drugstores, jewelry/accessories stores, souvenir shops, electronics stores, or bike repair shops. In the spaces that are not occupied by a physical structure, open park/seating space allow for moments of pause and relaxation on the busy bridge. The goal for these shops is to provide a connection between the two separated neighborhoods, or in the larger sense the suburb and city, and to provide services that both populations are in need of.

Circulation Map	Elevation	Section
Japanese Principles	Axonometric	Detailed Axonometric
Section	Section	Section
The System	Structure	Structure
Bridge Perspective	Bridge Perspective	Shop Perspective
Bike Path Perspective	Bike Path Perspective	Cafe Perspective
Seating Area Perspective	Personal Expression Diagram

The first portion of this project focused on the abstraction of Japanese principles and their translation in the project. The principles chosen and developed for the design system were borrowed scenery, planes and volumes, personal expression in tradition, void and accent, and detail vs. master plan. The most important of these principles that dictated the execution of the project was detail vs. master plan, which in a Japanese garden is designing up from the details rather than down from a master plan. For this design, the existing bridge structure acted as the “master plan” that the system could then be implemented on to create the market. The second portion of the project focused on the design of the system that is used by each owner to create each shop. Conditions such as size, height, cantilever over the bridge, door type, panel type, degree of customer entrance, and schedule were given a number of options that each owner can choose from. Each shop is built within the framework structure dictated by the existing bridge. The system results in complexity, since each outcome is unique despite being created using the same system.

Since the goal of this project was to design “up from the details” and not using a master plan, a random output generator was utilized to create each shop using the conditions given through the system to simulate how the market might look like when created by multiple shop owners. Two bike paths on either side of the bridge would separate cycling traffic from pedestrian traffic to allow more space for people to navigate the shops and plenty of space for cyclists to ride. Tension cables extend down from the structure, anchoring the bike paths to the bridge.

In conclusion, a design system promoting individual ownership, initiative, and upkeep is proposed on the abandoned High Bridge in Bronx, NY. A coherent system of rules create unique outcomes according to multiple user’s needs. This system of design, based on the philosophies of the Japanese garden, can create a microcosm of personalized, independent spaces that grow and change overtime without the need of an overall master plan. All of these unique spaces together form a commercial concourse and linkage that serve the local communities that the bridge connects. Markets, bakeries, shops, cafes, convenience stores, clothing stores, all make up a part of this network, which constantly fluctuates according to each owner’s needs of their space and grows overtime. A new major commercial space will bring economic prosperity and opportunity in an area claimed by neglect and abandonment. The goal of this project is that it will gradually bring back the population that once fled from the deteriorated conditions sparked by urban flight. By first planting the seeds through the principles of the system, this living bridge eventually dissolves the existing structure and reveals a new, complex, transforming landscape.