This comparative study of two urban areas—Kolda, Senegal and the Historic Anacostia Neighborhood in Washington, D.C.—explores how landscape infrastructure can decrease the scalar disconnect between the global water crisis and local water use practices. By looking at one city in the Global North and one in the Global South with similar risk of water stress, I am able to compare cultural aesthetics and engage two different levels of infrastructural build out (World Resources Institute, Water Risk Atlas). The design approach draws inspiration from Lawrence Halprin's notion of "experiential equivalents," and proposes a suite of site scale water sources and seeps (Halprin, Ghirardelli Plaza). Unlike Halprin, whose designs primarily use, interpret, and express natural elements, cultural interactions with water as well as natural systems drive the designs in Kolda and Anacostia.
Thus, the speculative designs I am presenting weave the experiences of sourcing water, filtering water, and water seeps into the existing urban and cultural fabric. By taking a systemic and episodic approach to public landscape development, not only will these infrastructural landscapes serve the community but the aesthetic experience of the designs also becomes part of daily life. Perhaps as Elizabeth Meyer theorizes in "Beyond 'Sustaining Beauty'", these designed landscapes "can contribute to…]a new ethos of a sustainable perception and living." Furthermore, this project presents a kit of parts for community-based development, suggesting the ability to extend the landscape infrastructure systems in Kolda and Anacostia and providing the tools for other communities. / Master of Landscape Architecture / In certain places the water supply is threatened by the build out of hard infrastructure designed to separate municipal water flows from the local water system. As globalization and urbanization increase these engineered solutions to water access are spreading to different cultures and climates. This study of two urban areas—Kolda, Senegal and the Historic Anacostia Neighborhood in Washington, D.C.—compares the application of landscape infrastructure in a city in a city in sub-Saharan Africa with one in the Eastern United States. Although Anacostia has abundant water resources and Senegal is in a semi-arid region, the World Resources Institute has determined that they have a similar risk of water stress.
The goal of this research is to design culturally appropriate means of integrating landscape-based water infrastructure within the existing urban fabric in order to give residents and visitors a better understanding of the local water cycle. The application of such practices in cities across the world could improve the public understanding of global water issues. The result of this study is a set of tools that cities can use to increase the presence of water in their cities, supporting cultural activities and the local ecosystem, and examples of how to use that kit of parts in Kolda, Senegal and the Historic Anacostia Neighborhood.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/78321 |
| Date | 07 July 2017 |
| Creators | Cadwallender, Mary Virginia |
| Contributors | Architecture, Heavers, Nathan, Ezban, Michael T., Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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