Perceiving Urban Water

UDM HOME RE:SEARCH HOME KNOWLEDGE HOME TITAN CONNECT

DSpace Home
→
University of Detroit Mercy Dissertation, Thesis, and Student Project Collections
→
Architecture Thesis Collection
→
View Item

Perceiving Urban Water

Nurnberger, Casey

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10429/2306

Date: 2022-05-05

Abstract:

Shifting the perceptions of inaccessible, misused or abandoned urbanized water to bring the inherent beauty and opportunities presented in these landscapes. The guiding principles behind any landscape project in an urbanized area has to deal with site systems, the character of the place, the opportunity to frame views and humans inherent need to interact with nature. Incorporating these elements into a specific riverfront site will allow for a comprehensive intervention along the waterfront. The main aims for this investigation are how a designed intervention is able to change the perspective of a body of water that has a tumultuous relationship with people from the past to the present. Centering this case study around a specific body of water was necessary to act out the process so the Rouge River was chosen for the current opportunities and conditions. In order to accomplish these goals, there was a need to understand the context of the river through interviews, videos, mapping, drawing and transactional/seasonal studies. Through this contextual framework, an ultimate design implementation was created that addressed the different issues and opportunities based on this methodology. Application of this methodology resulted in two common characteristics, that the current context is inherently beautiful and there is a desire to connect with the river in the surrounding communities. Ultimately, the addition of a comprehensive design intervention along an urban body of water has the ability to develop a mutual relationship between the water and the humans of the urban area that benefits both.

Description:

Water is a natural resource necessary for a thriving society to function and is interconnected with that society and its landscape. Rivers in an urban context are integral to the well-being of the city and to the quality of life of the individual in the urban setting. Waterfronts provide a unique opening in the built environment and a natural experience for people that live in an urban setting that they otherwise would not be able to have. The aspects of nature provided by an urban river is an amenity that has the promise of a fulfilled life. Understanding how to design with the element of water is imperative for urban planning in the modern-day. Research and designs that incorporate the context of the river address the topics of flooding and recreation. Pollution is addressed in that there is a need to reduce interaction between the polluted water and humans. Many urban design precedents that accentuate the experiential qualities of water tend to focus on water in more rural and cleaner, less natural conditions. Current interventions will address the site-specific issues of the Rouge River and the relationship with the environment to solve present problems with future solutions based on past narratives. The following main research questions asked are; what are the important aspects that need to be addressed when designing a structure for intervention along the waterfront? How do these factors change with the specific context that the waterfront is in? Does the intervention along the riverfront change the perception among humans? How does this happen and how can the design enhance this specific aspect? Incorporating the fields of research of river design, experiential design, urban planning, and environmental design into full-fledged design implementation will not only encourage people to come to these previously uninhabited spaces but should be able to promote a perspective shift that will enhance the space of the waterfront. This will allow existing communities, groups, and individuals to experience the beauty of nature and provide a future that includes a connection with the natural world. This is a valuable approach to design in a specific landscape since there are forces that can hinder and influence the purpose of the design. Integrating context, site systems, perspectives, and nature to create a space that includes quality experiential aspects for the human users. Studying the inherent qualities of design through interviews, sketches, videos, and photographs gives a sense of the perception and condition currently along the river. Transect, perspective, temporal and sectional studies incorporate the sensorial context of the space while providing the ability to map focal points in the area surrounding the river and the river itself. Through this process, opportunities are brought forward that you can utilize for designed interventions. The Moses Bridge is a preliminary design precedent that integrates the use of water as a design aspect and the qualities of water in a perceived dirty water source. Using the different facets of design strategies that incorporate the nature of rivers to flood and become polluted with the experiential qualities that are inherent to water in an urban context. Purposing interventions of differing attributes along a substantial portion of an urban area creates the challenge of connections between the diverse human-centric communities, ecological varieties in the landscape, and the built environment along the river, but with these processes of studies, communal connections become apparent. These interventions are purposed to prioritize critical aspects of the design such as ecological, economic, and socio-political approaches.Other societal relationships are in play for the context of the river presently, such as climate change and social equality. There is an inherent bias of the designer that these spaces are inherently beautiful space currently that may not be shared with most of the public. The main limitation of the study is the actualized implementation of the interventions along the river. There will be no hard proof that these interventions will be able to encourage people to get involved. The research will only be able to hypothesize that these designs will encourage users to come to the sites. The contextual nature of the project also inhibits the possibilities to be implemented easily into other contexts around the world, however, the same or similar process will be able to be applied to other locations nationally. This is a valuable venture since there are current opportunities for implementation in major urban areas and all major cities have waterfronts that can utilize these tactics. There is a necessity for humans of these urban areas to have access to these waterfronts to not only experience these integral spaces but the opportunity to connect to others in a public space through the lenses of the communal experience of water. Lastly, there is necessary to integrate these designs currently since if there is no change, there is a possibility that they will not be able to be implemented in the future due to privatization and climate change.

Show full item record