Project Proposal: Re-envisioning New York City, a pop-up book

For Designing Living Systems, I propose to compile my research on NYC’s natural ecology, current environmental data, and design and bioremediation solutions to produce a handmade pop-up book that offers visual renderings of the past (a la Mannahatta project), present, and, most importantly, the future for selected New York City sites. In this way, each page of the book gives the reader the gift of time travel, seeing where we’ve come from, where we are, and what is possible in the future.

The virtue of this information encapsulated in a pop-up book is that each page demands action and attention from the reader. One must engage with what’s on the page, pulling tabs, using one’s hands to reveal hidden layers of the 3-D renderings, ultimately beginning to take action in small steps. In a nutshell, this book will provide the context and the tools for NYC citizens to begin re-envisioning our urban center.

Proposed Sites & Interventions for renderings:

* Subway Station (Broadway Lafayette B/D/F/M):
– past: beaver dam
– present: subway station with terrible air quality (visible clouds of smog inside)
– future: indoor phytoremediation system on platform to improve air quality, rewarding commuters

* NY Stock Exchange
– past: estuary
– present: financial hub of global commodity market
– future: community-supported-agriculture (CSA) auction house & vertical farm model

Other concepts to be incorporated:

- EarthShips

- Native plants

- Composting & soil remediation

- Biofuels

- Wind farming along Manhattan avenues

- Hydroelectric waterfalls off skyscrapers

- Living roofs

Mock-ups coming soon…