Alex Spautz

The Generic Grid and the Predicament

Mission Creek is resurfacing in the basement of the Armory, revealing the waters resilience beyond the capacity of our urban planning influence and control. The Armorys history as military fortress also reflects a framework of authority. The resurfacing suggests that the wild cannot be entirely dominated and that Mission Creek is irrepressible. By expanding upon its implications and affects, I hypothesize that this predicament will provide a means for restructuring conventions and reframing the future of architecture. the framework

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Ecological Bipyramid Topography

Future Ecologies

Present Day Environmental, Social and Mental Ecologies

Historical Ecologies

Interstices

Ecological Landscape and its Framework of Interstices

The built environment is a product of its past and sits within a framework of multiple ecologies. As Felix Guattari posits that cities are an interconnected system of environmental, social and mental ecologies, this research identifies infrastructure as the veins of a city through which these ecologies are connected and structured. I propose that history acts as a kind of the DNA for all ecologies. The thickest and deepest veins are some of the most extreme interstitial zones in a city: they are hyper-functional and composed of many overlapping socioeconmic and environmental boundaries. With higher intensities of ecological functions, urban interstices create divisions and simultaneous connections between neighborhoods while also serving as framework for urban design. Hence I have described a future landscape of ecologies based on a diagrammatic unit: the ecological bipyramid where the present day triangle is a landscape formed by its historical underpinnings and then in turn forms of its future.

Planning Neighborhoods

Industrial Zoning Districts

Present Day Drainage Basin and Historic Coastline

I began my research studying San Franciscos historic waterways, which have determined physical characteristics in the present day urban infrastructure as well as other social and governmental boundaries. Resisting historic ecology, the government chose to pave over creeks and level out topographies, especially along the eastern coast. These fill zones have nevertheless remained industrial zoning areas and certain streets reflect the original geometry of the creeks and bays. Furthermore, neighborhood boundaries are determined by topography which in the case of Mission Creek, describe a historic river basin. I have chosen to focus on the Mission Creek River basin, although it no longer exists, as it is an extreme interstice in the urban fabric.

the city

Mission creek, which now flows beneath the surface of our pavement and landfill, has created interruptions in the highly controlled grid which is a repetition of a unit, in this case a block. Mission Creek, as an extreme interstice and marks the point of overlap between many borders of neighborhoods, communities and their governing systems. In present day infrastructure, Division Street reflects the original geometry and infrastructural functions of the waterway, and the surrounding fabric is also affected. The peripheral nature of the area sets up a problematic zone for the local neighborhood and effective flow of and experience for multimodal transit. The landfill zone lowers the land value and increases the risk of liquefaction for all buildings on top of the historical path that was once Mission Creek. Mission Creek Watershed Infrastructure: Bike Routes, Streets, Highways and Historic Waterways Mission Creek Zoom

cartographic experiments

the creek

2011

1899 (Sanborn Map)

1700 (ESRI / SFPUC Historic Bay Maps)

1700, 1899, 2011: Extreme Interstice zones highlighted

archeological experiments

The maps (above) describe the exact same frame centered on where Mission Creek once met Mission Bay, illustrates different points in history. All three are then overlayed to reveal what I have defined as an extreme interstice. To the right is an experiment on revealing the creek through a series of sections in a 3D Model. In this case I have taken multiple sections through the model revealing what are like sedimentary layers where the historic infrastructure and landscape have changed over time. Below is the DNA or sectional code for the various types of infrastructure, architecture and landscape in all three histories in an attempt to compare the infrastructural pattern in another diagrammatic fashion in hope to reveal further relationships.

Site Model - Present Day Fabric

Site Model - Historic DNA Sections and Creek Overlay

genetic experiments
DNA of the City Swatch from 1700 - 2011

the proposal

Mission creek is resurfacing in the basement of the Armory, and reveals its resilience beyond the capacity of our urban planning influence and control. The Armorys history as military fortress also reflects a framework of authority. This moment of resurfacing proves that the wild cannot be entirely dominated and that Mission Creek is resilient. I propose to use this predicament as a starting point for my thesis project. By expanding upon its implications and affects, I hypothesize that the predicament will provide a means for restructuring conventions and reframing the future of architecture.

The Armory: 14th and Mission Streets

Sits atop a historic tributary of Mission Creek: Arroyo Dolores

the predicament

Proposed Site of Intervention

Nataly Gattegno - Resilience: Extreme Environments