S T U D I O T

Fluid Diversion

Water is diverted through a series of linear concrete structures that demonstrate the constructed nature of the hydrological system. Within the structures a wide range of ecologies is initiated, using variable depth charters, longitudinal gradients, still ponds, channels, and cascades to encourage and regulate plant, animal and bird communities. Human visitors may navigate the field by walking along edge conditions, jumping from tank to tank and even negotiating the pools and rills, depending on current depth and flow.

Water Diversion from Roads into Trenches

Towards Ecological Laboratries

That Perform as Filtration Systems

Baden, St. Louis

Land use in the Baden neighborhood can be defined as mostly occupied single family dwellings. These homes sit on small residential lots mostly covered by impermeable asphalt or near impervious lawn. While the residential characteristic of the neighborhood seems to be thriving, the business district is fairly vacant and does not resemble the vibrant commercial district it once was. 

As this project continues, our studio will collaborate on a single open-ended design for the Baden neighborhood to establish an initial networked wetland system. We  propose a naturalistic system that incorporates constructed elements. Community and stakeholder input will activate divergent system pathways and provide instabilities that cause resilience to develop unpredictably. 

Contingent Futures

By presenting final images of what the project can be, we have already failed our profession. Ambiguity of changing systems is an essential characteristic of any space and the layering of various ecological and social systems. A design is not a finite intervention. It is a catalyst for possible and perhaps even unpredictable futures. While this approach proposes an initial construction of street rain gardens, and filtration laboratories, this is only an initial condition with various potentials. The images presented are a potential possibility, but neglects to project or consider other possible futures based on other existing and emergent systems and the feedback between one another. In response to my initial design proposal, I reconsidered the conflicting systems in the neighborhood of Baden, and have proposed an alternative catalyst to help mitigate combined sewer overflow, engage the existing residents in the fate of their surroundings, and a strategy to help reduce soil contamination in the area. This is merely a first step with a set of directives. As human and ecological systems engage with the strategy, possible outcomes can occur. Throughout time, a reevaluation of strategy and next catalytic moves will be necessary. This design makes no promises at total revitalization of the community. Instead, it promises continuous engagement in the community through observation, data collection, and in turn reaction. The result will be novel, and for that reason impossible to predict.

Aggregated Self-Organizing Woodland | A Sub-project of The Baden Project

As urbanization decreases in post-industrial cities such as St. Louis, their peripheries become  economically blighted.  They lack simple public amenities - street lined streets and recreation parklands. Let us imagine a future where the neighborhood of Baden is integrated within its natural setting and fosters a sense of community, identity and pride. 

Soaking the Field is a project that seeks to develop a networked water management system that integrates social and ecological strategies with the standard flood mitigation objectives of the Metropolitan Sewer District, to deliver a self-organizing social ecology to the people of Baden. Through the design of sites of exchange rather than proposals for specific designed solutions, we use devices that offer varying degrees of performance and interaction. Included in this proposition is the seeding of a Self-Organizing Woodland with Liriodendron tulipifera, a tree species that can absorb toxins from the soil and transfer them to the atmosphere. This simple strategy begins in primary school with every 5th grade student tasked to germinate a seedling, which is then planted to create a participatory self-organizing woodland. 

Citizen Implemented Urban Woodland

Participatory method of encouraging community members to actively contribute to The Baden Project by allocating every dwelling one tree to be planted in their location of choice according to some brief directives.  

Directives

Data Collection Zone

• Planted by Adjacent Streets on the first Planting Day
• All Liriodendron tulipifera, but some are genetically modified for improved ability to absorb heavy metals
• Not planted on privately owned property
• Must be planted in line north to south with 30' spacing

Calvary Cemetery

• A continuation of the Tree Rows for soil Data collection will continue into the Calvary Cemetery. 
• The species chosen should not be Liriodendron tulipifera due to its resistance to dry soils (characteristic of this sloped site)
• However species must have yellow fall color so that the lines of trees are legible during the autumn months. 
• A suggested species is Quarcus macrocarpa (Burr Oak)

Ongoing Woodland Generation

• Those not living on Partridge Ave, Oriole Ave, Gilmore Ave, or Robin Ave in the Baden Neighborhood can plant their tree wherever they would like such that their tree is no further than 20 steps from at least 2 other planted trees
• After yr 3 of the project, not all tree specimens need to be Liriodendron tulipifera

*Note no tree specimen must have yellow fall color unless it is a Liriodendron tulipifera, it already exists on site, or it is planted in Calvary Cemetery
*The above also applies to street tree planting - however the tree must be planted within 20 steps of property line

Our lady of the Holy Cross Master Plan

The work of the spring 2016 Baden studio was to project possible futures of water detention basins under the design of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) by creating a connective fabric of vegetated recreation space. Since the end of the studio,  involvement has continued to yield a community design charrette and master plan process. 

The schematic design of a small community garden and master plan for the Our Lady of the Holy Cross, an anchor institution in the community, continues to achieve these goals by working to define public and private partnerships and to strengthen the physical connective tissue of the overall neighborhood master plan. This initiative was conducted by a few students with the support of the CityStudioSTL grant. The principal partner for the project is Reverend Vincent Nyman of Our Lady of the Holy Cross Church in Baden. Other involved organization include the Revitalization of Baden (ROBA), Missouri Botanical Garden
(MOBOT), the Urban Vitality and Ecology Initiative (UVEI) of the Mayor’s Office of the City of St. Louis, and Brightside St. Louis.

Team: Margot Shafran, Alisa Blatter, Jason Wu, and Shelbey Sill