Alyona Nagornaia B.Arch Thesis

00_INTRODUCTION ABSTRACT 4

Abstract: Today our cities lack softness. As we keep on controlling everything around us, buildings become a mere commodity to serve the functions of the society. Therefore, we should shift our relationship to the natural resources and look at the design of “living machines” that would contribute to the intrinsic value of nature in a city. The site for the project is located on the Duwamish River in Seattle. Before becoming the industrial and commercial center of the city, once green and winding river was largely impacted by straightening. As it turned into a superfund site sacrificing for the economy of the rest of the city, communities of color were pushed to live among these unsafe and unhealthy conditions. My thesis project focuses on revitalization of a part of the Duwamish River providing a new frame to its once disrupted nature. Working with different mediums of softness, the project touches on a new appreciation of such lost ecosystems as wetlands using them as active filtering systems. By mitigating the risks that surface water runoff imposes from the surrounding industries, wetlands create clean water swimming pools that can activate new senses about the river. Located between Georgetown and South Park, the project connects those communities and creates a place that would change the perception of the river from a rigid resource for the economy to an active community center with recreational, educational, and cultural programs. 5

CONTENTS

PART I 04 14 00_INTRODUCTION 40 ABSTRACT 48 GENERATOR - Preface 64 01_RESEARCH 99 100 DATA MAPPING - Background - Problem PRECEDENT STUDY - Humane examples of the Humankind SITE MAPPING - History of the Seattle land-water connection - Duwamish River Communities DATA MAPPING - Local Blue Space - Lost Balance 02_METHOD SILICONE CASTING - Soft Modeling - On Materials PART II 03_SPECULATIVE EXPLORATION AT TEN TION - Simulation for Attention CONTEXT RESPONSE - Bridging the Duwamish MULTI-STORY STRUCTURE - Soft Response CONCEPT SECTION PART III 04_DESIGN OUTPUT STORIES IN PLAN - Community Outreach EXPERIENCE SYSTEM - Filling the Gaps 05_ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 06_READING REFLECTION 7

ROADMAP

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HOW DO WE AS CREATURES THAT ARE BEST AT ADAPTING TO NEW ENVIRONMENTS CREATE SUCH A FIXED WORLD AROUND US?

PART I 00_INTRODUCTION 01_RESEARCH 02_METHOD 11

00_INTRODUCTION GENERATOR Figure 1 Soft transformations of the interior space 12

Preface: Initial explorations allowed to identify the areas of interest for the thesis. Starting from small wood-bending models that are controled by such simple movements as pulling, pushing and folding, I became interested in learning more about kinetic opportunities of manipulating the space. Specifically, the interest was in the modification of the curvature of a straight line (Fig. 2). By eliminating the border between the envelope and the interior, I am trying to see how the blended exposure to the outside can transform together with the environment and affect the interior qualities of the space (Fig. 1). Further experiments unfold more of this interest using a silicon material. Figure 2 Collage with the initial wood- bending models 13

01_RESEARCH DATA MAPPING Diagram 1: Use of inflatable structures among different architectural typologies 14

Background: Unsurprisingly, the middle of 20th century was the period when not only engineers, The history of inflatable structures but architects and designers established dates to the 1670s when the first their interest in air-filled structures. One of prototype of a hot air balloon was the first innovators, Frei Otto, is known for invented by Francesco Lana di Terzi. experimenting with tensile structures and However, the first modern version publishing the studies of material properties was only designed in the 1950s by in his “Air Hall Handbook”. In his model “City in Ed Yost (Gómez-González et al. 126). the Arctic” accomplished in collaboration with This corresponded to the increased Kenzo Tange and Ove Arup&Partners in 1971, interest in pneumatic low-mass Otto was arguing for such benefits of tensile structures mostly for aeronautic or structures as portability and translucency. space exploration purposes. Some An inflatable dome-cover would be easily of the NASA experiments with transported to the polar regions and its membrane technology created new translucent material would be used for solar purposes for expandable material irradiation (Meissner and Möller, 99). A similar by accident. For instance, the first idea of a dome structure was developed by inflatable structure was created Frank Lloyd Wright and U.S. Rubber Company in 1959 by NASA engineer John for the Fiberthin Village Project (Sisson, Scurlock who noticed an amusing Curbed). Similar to Otto’s portable feature, bouncing effect of the cover while Wright envisioned the homes to be stored experimenting with tennis mats. in a backpack and inflated in any location. However, another reason for the However, the key concept of Fiberthin Village increased interest in pneumatic was not only extreme mobility but also unseen skins outside of engineering might affordability (Sisson, Curbed). Despite neither be related to the general instability Otto’s “City in the Arctic” nor Wright’s “Fiberthin in society. According to Mary E. Hale Village” have come to mass production, many and Katarzyna Balug, the co-curator more designers continued to experiment with of “The New Inflatable Moment” air-filled pneumatics promoting the temporal exhibition, such destabilizing events and flexible characteristics of emerging types of the postwar period as awareness of rubber and plastic. Unfortunately, these of inequality, pollution, and climate might have been those limitations of flexibility change, impacts of economic that prevented inflatable architecture from fluctuations, etc. might have sparked being used in a different way than temporary the need among society for a more event spaces and pop-up emergency housing. flexible and softer environment (Budds, Fast Company). 15

01_RESEARCH level of Boston Arts Brass Rail Refreshment DATA MAPPING softness Center Theatre Pavilion by Carl Koch by Victor Lundy 1960 - 1963 start of life biological cells (as defined by Frei Otto) 1954 - 1960 1950 - 1954 Modern Hot Air Balloon by Ed Yost start of life - 1670 Fiberthin Airhouses 1670 - 1950 by Frank Lloyd Wright interest in economic First Hot Air Balloon City in instability by Francesco Lana by Frei O Tange, O Level of di Terzi Inflation 1975 16

1963 - 2006 Diagram 2: paraSITE Interdependence between the level by Michael of softness and instability of the Rakowitz pneumatic architectural form and the instability in society, economics Inflatable Installations by Alexis Rochas 1971 1988 Serpentine Gallery interest in inflatable Pavilion architecture 2008 by Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond 2006 - 2019 Allianz Arena Stadium Herzog & De Meuron 2019-to be continued the Arctic Water Cube the Shed Otto, Kenzo by PTW by DS+R Ove Arup & 2004 time 17 1980

01_RESEARCH HOW ARE WE ABSTRACTING AND SEPARATING OURSELVES DATA MAPPING FROM NATURE AND OUR ANCESTORS? Problem: Because of the vision of pneumatic structures as an uncertain and impermanent typology, their value was both increased as something one could only see for a limited time and diminished because of their instability and facetiousness in a capital-oriented medium. This can be compared with the excitement village communities once would get from a travelling circus partly because it was bringing the city life in but at the same time did not stay too long so that the villagers would have to get rid of it (Herring, Places Journal). Nevertheless, likewise to the life of pop-up circuses that in part lost their purpose because of the increased mobility of an individual, inflatable architecture became more rigid with the emergence of new technologies. According to the research of Gómez-González et al. the invention of ETFE panels reduced all the playfulness that air-filled structures can offer to the glass replacement function. By trapping the expanding potential of the material, the focus narrowed down to thermal and optical characteristics instead of embracing formal responsiveness. The ETFE membrane framed structure also allowed for the increase of the building size that neglects the human scale if we look at the massive Allianz Arena or Water Cube by Arup. 18

With this the role of air-filled dynamic ideas never came to fruition was structures as portable instances that they were “indicated by the nature of the moved further away from the sponsor – often those who only make or sell the biological connection Frei Otto took usual, the typical, or the conventional product” inspiration from, claiming that “life (Kronenburg, 40). This resulted in a belief that on Earth probably first started within rigidity always seemed to be the less work- such a hydraulically tensioned intensive and more cost-effective way to build membrane” (Meissner and Möller, larger corporate buildings. 97). Therefore, the poetics of inherently Now, the latter has had its own meaning for the adaptable “living systems”, or urban realm as historically in various cultures “biotechniques” as referenced the more monumental the building was the in Braham’s “Biotechniques: the more power it implied. For instance, palaces intensities of air-conditioning” with their scale, grandeur, and ornamentation were replaced by capital-driven were proving the supremacy of the royal family monumentalism. For example, even on peasants, or enormous gothic cathedrals in a highly kinetic performance venue, used to show the importance of religion. the Shed, by Diller Scofidio+Renfro, However, according to Manuel Castells, it flexibility is achieved through the is not only the meaning of power that the sliding mechanism of a part of the massiveness of the buildings addresses, “yet building, where the inflated ETFE they (skyscrapers) also perform a number of pillows merely assist the motion crucial managerial functions and are still major with their lightweight design. real estate investments in a space that has Therefore, experimental inflatable become a commodity in itself” (Castells, 24). architecture that once appeared Thus, with the great impact that static buildings parallel and perhaps receptive to comprise in the urban environment, should the disturbances in society turned they translate a strict message of a monetary into a soullessly encaged product of developer-driven investment opportunity. This transformation of the value of air-filled membranes is explained by Robert Kronenburg in his work “Flexible: Architecture that responds to change” where he states that the reason the first provocative and 19

01_RESEARCH PRECEDENT STUDY 20 HOW IS BUILDING MANIFESTING THE OPPOSITE OF ALL THE SENSES THAT ARCHITECTURE CAN FOCUS ON?

Models of Jan Kaplicky Humane experiments of the humankind Now, the ability to change as noted by Kronenburg is the driving force against the typical overlook on architecture as a commodity. As the economics itself is of a dynamic nature, architecture that is able to adapt to its flux might be of bigger interest for developers. More than that, according to Kolarevic, soft buildings, or so-called blobs, use the optimum shape based on the analysis of the performance by this becoming more sustainable than rigid buildings. Nevertheless, perhaps the biggest advantage of softness is that it simply seems the most humane. It sparks one’s imagination and activates the senses in contrast to framing them by simplifying rigid forms. For example, Diller Scofidio+Renfro, in their World’s Fair pavilion “The Blur” focused on feeling the site in literal sense. By creating a mist from the filtered water of Lake Neuchâtel using 35,000 high-pressure nozzles the architects wanted the visitors to “drink” and “touch” the site (Furuto, Archdaily). Having no program and an open plan achieved by lightweight structure, the architects created an experience from no “building” at all. The fog Diller Scofidio + Renfro, “Blur” was the space. 21

01_RESEARCH PRECEDENT STUDY Plastique Fantastique, “Whether weather?” 22

Marshall Blecher and Studio Fokstrot, While “The Blur” used softness for the sensual “Copenhagen Islands” and placemaking agenda in the natural environment, the architect of Future Forms, Jan Kaplicky, was inspired by organic shapes within the urban context. The National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague, although never built, was intended to become a radical urban reform, juxtaposing a soft shape to the historic baroque buildings. “Jan wanted the building to be lively and vibrant, and apart from the main library spaces and the public walkway running through the building, allowing easy access” (Margolius). With a “undulated skin” and windows of soft irregular shapes, Kaplicky wanted his buildings to be “the intelligent ‘eyes’, looking, observing, from inside to outside” (Margolius). Therefore, soft architecture can result in a changing effect of the urban environment. It can create an adaptable scale of buildings and promote more social engagement. Plastique Fantastique, a Berlin-based firm, is known for its work on inflatable plastic insertions within any context: from existing buildings to untouched landscapes. For instance, their project “Whether Weather” touches on the way a natural, urban, and interior environment can be blurred by a loop circulation within an inflated volume. By placing the object into a retrofit, it gives a new meaning to a space. Systematic softness, moreover, has a potential to change and adapt the spaces to multiple and shifting meanings that society creates. For instance, Copenhagen Islands by Marshall Blecher and Studio Fokstrot, explore how the uses of the waterway could be affected by different arrangement of the fragments. Plants and trees located on the islands, propose a forest condition if grouped together, whereas in a disbursed scheme, they imitate wetlands. 23

01_RESEARCH Duwamish River in mid-1800s Duwamish Waterway today SITE MAPPING Intersections of straightened 24 &natural conditions

Privatized Shoreline History of the Seattle land-water connection Provides access only to a small parcel of beach with the rest being Seattle’s long history as an industrial city made much of its coastline privatized. Apart from a privatized shoreline parks along the coast, many public shores have been occupied either with single-family Public Waterfront houses valuable for their private access to water, or with industrial dwellings. Compared Shoreline provides public to San Francisco waterfront that is accessible acces along the whole length to the public, private residencies lots in Seattle cross the land-water border up to the lower tideline. Due to this, public access is not allowed along much of the terrestrial part of the shore. Industrial zone in its turn was pushed to Downtown and South Seattle, locating the largest shipping terminal on Harbor Island, where the Duwamish River flows into the Elliot Bay. Before becoming the industrial and commercial center of Seattle, Duwamish River was largely impacted by dredging and straightening practices. Indigenous Duwamish people, for whom the river has historically been their home and fishing area, were displaced. Despite the prominent community involvement that helped to save Washington Lake and multiple creeks from pollution, Duwamish River has not been on the list up until 2001. During almost a century of heavy industry, the river turned into a superfund site with shipping container terminals, waste facilities, cement, and gypsum plants, and even a Boeing airfield spread out on both sides of and along the waterway. From a green and winding natural ecosystem that has been in balance with indigenous people for centuries, it turned into a brutally rigid commodity serving the rest of the city. Moreover, because of the 20th century segregating zoning policy, communities of color were pushed to live among these unsafe and unhealthy condittions. 25

01_RESEARCH SITE MAPPING Georgetown South Park 26

% Poverty >26 <1 14 Zoning Legend: Industrial Zoning along the Duwamish Water- way Neighborhoods: Industrial+Residential Zoning Neighborhoods: Residential Zoning Duwamish River Communities: Today, Duwamish River communities still suffer from environmental injustice and health disparities. One of the most affected communities, South Park, is located right across the Boeing airfield and is surrounded by all-kind of warehouses. According to census data, more than twenty-six percent of residents of this neighborhood have been below the national poverty line in the past year. South park community is also ranking high in the environmental health disparity numbers as found in research published by Washington State Department of Health. The main cause of it has been prolonged water, air, and soil pollution. For instance, contaminated fish caught from the Duwamish River that has historically sustained poorer residents of South Park led to many health issues among them. Seattle, WA 27

01_RESEARCH industrial waste cement plant SITE MAPPING shipping cranes shipping containers 28

shipping cranes more industrial waste more cement Mapping of the Industries along the Riv2e9r

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Figure 3 Boeing 2-10 building facing one of the small beaches in South Park community 31

01_RESEARCH SITE VISIT Figures 4-7 Surroundings of the Industrial Zone of South Park 32

Figure 8 Industrial view from a water access point in Duwamish Waterway Park 33

01_RESEARCH Local Blue Space: DATA MAPPING The importance of the “urban blue space” was discussed in the work of Anne Taufen 34 Wessells at Urban Studies Program in the University of Washington. There, the author takes Seattle waterfront as a case study and claims it “a shared public and environmental good, with unique and demanding governance responsibilities for its conceptualization and sustainable development.” Urban Blue space is critical in making the city soft and livable. If designed successfully, it provides safe access to water ecosystems, cools down the area during the hot summer days, activates more senses because of the natural context. Yet, contrary to the development of the Central Waterfront, urban blue space should be accessible at a local level, promoting the enhancement of neighborhood-based water bodies. In case of Duwamish River, for instance, the two principles of “a shared public and environmental good” have been mistreated. For this reason, it is now time to rethink the meaning of the Duwamish River. Shifting its character from rigid and industrial commodity back to the soft and self-sustainable ecosystem will promote well- being of the residents. On a larger scale, the river can serve as a continuation of the Central Waterfront, only this time connecting people of the Duwamish - not just ships and industries - with the rest of the city.

Figures 9-10 Bridging Islands Reflective Exploration 35

01_RESEARCH DATA MAPPING Riparian Transitional Marsh Vegetation Healthy Duwamish River Vegetation Shoreline Inter-tidal Area Vegetation Flood Control Dissipates stream energy and releases slower water Support for local Bird Habitat communities Pacific Flyway Food supply Recreation Fishing Storage Stormwater Filtration Sediment Nutrients Releases clean Contaminants water to the CO2 waterway Groundwater Replenishment 36

Contaminated Duwamish Waterway Lost Balance: Heavy marine The industrialization of the transportation Duwamish River led to the loss of intertidal wetlands, responsible for many crucial estuarine ecosystem services. These functions kept a balanced river biosphere providing water filtration, flood control, carbon sequestering, and a habitat for birds and fish. The brackish water environment is an important breeding ground and nursery for many coastal species (Kleeman and Forrest 2000). It is also a unique transition zone for salmon to leave the saltwater environment before spawning in the freshwaters upstream. Now, because of the absence of wetlands and the industrially hardened edge of the river, industrial stormwater pollution decreases the chance of salmon survival before spawning (Khurana, 2021). Similarly, the disappearance of wetlands affected other species and caused a disbalance that finally impacted not just local communities but humanity at large as well. Hard Edge Releases contaminated water fast and with no control Industrial Contaminants PCBs, arsenic, cPAHs, dioxins, furans Dredged Bottom Contaminated sediment Lost habitat biodiversity Diagram 3: The consequences of lost ecosyste3m7

01_RESEARCH DATA MAPPING Diagram 4: Process of filtration in a constructed wetland Red-osier Dogwood Coastal Strawberry Nootka Rose riparian vegetation (Cornus sericea) (Frageria Chiloesis) (Rosa nutkana) 38

90% Today, more than 90% of wetlands in the of wetlands are world are gone because of human activities. lost According to Postel, “between 1997 and 2011 the global area of floodplains and swamps declined by 63 percent”. Most of these lands have been taken up by the urban areas to concentrate industries and economies in one place. Rural areas, in their turn, were used to sustain the first ones — all at the cost of functioning ecosystems. As a result of removing one link from it, we get massive wildfires and floods. Federal funds are now required to deal with the consequences of the underestimated importance of ecological services provided by wetlands. Perhaps if the value that was oriented towards a hard economic essence of the past century would price the services ecosystems provided, it would have made the economy more sustainable as well. Diagram 5: Native plants of the Pacific Northwest coast and wetlands marsh vegetation Pacific Silverweed Baltic Rush (Argentina Pacifica) (Juncus balticus) 39

02_METHOD SILICONE CASTING Soft Modeling: robots for search and rescue, wearable systems, exoskeletons Experiments conducted in the and rehabilitation devices” (Laschi beginning phase of the research et al., introduction). Soft and test silicone for its flexible and sensor-embedded systems are pneumatic characteristics. As promising to be applied within the resources are depleting with architecture field as well, as the the progress of the humanity, interest in biomimicry imitating polymers and composites the living systems of organisms become of a greater use appears more often among the “because of their low density”, and scholars. Sustainability of the lightness that “becomes crucial built environment supports the to technological and economical shift towards soft and responsive development” (Beukers, 16). technologies in many ways, as current building practices Some of the new areas that prove involve a cycle of demolition and softness as a key applicable new construction producing an component are soft robotics that enormous carbon footprint. focus on research of soft systems for “industrial robotic arms, agriculture robots, surgical robots, 40

Figure 11 Air Movement Silicone Study Mod4e1l

02_METHOD SILICONE CASTING Diagram 6: Air vs. people circulation diagram 42

The following diagrams represent Diagram 7: how the air on a larger scale could create spaces for people and The inflatable interior perhaps lead the circulation (1) and how in a smaller scale the air could 43 transform a conventional space into more playful and adaptable environment (2).

02_METHOD SILICONE CASTING Yolk model This model analyzes the level of inflation on a ribbed vs. flat surface. The air starts to inflate the cells from the ribbed side first. Once the maximum expansion is achieved, the flat side begins to expand. The way silicone acts helps to predict the sequence for soft architectural systems. 44

On Materials: Fortunately, as studies with materials continued, more advanced “active materials” have been explored. Skylar Tibbits in his research with the MIT material lab “ focused on physical materials that can assemble themselves, transform autonomously, and sense, react, or compute based on internal and external information” (Tibbits et al., 11). By experimenting with swelling and geometry of soft shells, for instance, it was found that the shapes would behave according to a certain logic independently of the input (Tibbits et al., 158). This morphing process is continuing because of the swelling fluid embedded inside the material, and the authors compare it to the action of a bimetallic strip where the differing expanding characteristics of copper and zinc create a bending effect. Some of the other experiments of the researchers included active-textile transformations responsive to the temperature and moisture content. Although these studies have not yet been applied to the architecture industry, they offer immense possibilities of producing responsive soft structures. Apart from environmental characteristics, soft shapes can be modified depending on the use, amount of people, circulation, etc. Figures 12-14 Expanding atrium space within a building 45

02_METHOD SILICONE CASTING Pillow model Similar to the Yolk model, the Pillow tests a linear sequence and the gradual increase of the cells. This allows control over air distribution and spatial change. 46

Figure 15 Soft Building Attachment - a collage showcasing soft green pillow structures on a rigid panel building facade 47

HOW DOES THIS MONUMENTALITY INFLUENCE OUR MINDS AND TURNS US TOWARDS A MORE MATERIALISTIC SOCIETY?

PART II 03_SPECULATIVE EXPLORATION 49

03_SPECULATIVE EXPLORATION AT TEN TION 50