Dive into the archives.
- Inverted Infrastructural Monuments, pt.2
[Lake Berryessa, the Monticello Dam, and the largest drain, or spillway, in the world.]
Prompted by an excellent text entitled "Three Doors to Other Worlds" by Andrew Crompton in the JAE from last November, we are following him down the rabbit hole. (Get the complete PDF here.) Crompton positions architecture within the cognitive sciences with a [...]
- Student Works: Ecotone Hydro Park
[Hydro park adds a public park, animal habitats and water treatment to an existing dam ]
A recent thesis project at McGill University by Tania Delage takes Lebbeus Woods’ idea of the borderline and the ecological phenomena of the ecotone as an opportunity to cross-breed infrastructure, ecology and public amenities.
The borderline is the site where various [...]
- Dam Politics in the 'Stans
[The Nurek Dam in Tajikistan forms this massive 10.5 km³ reservoir. Photo by Carolyn Drake for The New York Times.]
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many freshly independent Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan, were dealt either a strong or poor hand with regard to land resources. Reading in the NYTimes on Sunday, Tajikistan [...]
- SuperCorridors
[Network of North American SuperCorridors. (Map by Infranet Lab.)]
Canada, the US and Mexico have signed NAFTA agreements for a series of infrastructural or multi-modal Super-Corridors as part of the slightly ominous-sounding "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP). Supported by a coalition of political and corporate leaders, the intention of the network is to develop, over-time, a [...]
- Breaking Waves
[Boscombe Surf Reef in Bournemouth, UK]
A new project in Boscombe (near Bournemouth, UK) proposes an artificial wave-breaking ridge located about 210 meters from shore. Not exactly a surfer's paradise yet, Boscombe hopes to raise its profile with the new £2.7million surf reef. Sculpting the seabed, the ridge will be made of two layers of geotextile [...]
- Elevated Landscapes, or Railbanking
New images and a video of the High Line in New York has prompted a ricochet of references of examples of biologically domesticated infrastructures.
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There is the promenade plantée. Designed by Jacques Vergely (landscape architect) and Philippe Mathieux (architect), the promenade is a 2.8 mile elevated park in Paris’ 12th arrondissement that extends from Opera Bastille [...]
- Bowling for Shade
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The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) dropped 400,000 HDPE recyclable black plastic balls into Ivanhoe Reservoir. The DWP drop was designed to stop sunlight from mixing with the bromide and chlorine in the 10-acre, 58-million-gallon Ivanhoe Reservoir. The 102-year-old facility serves about 600,000 customers downtown and in South Los Angeles.
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- From Sea to Salted Land
[The Aral Sea, a large saltwater lake, is losing more than half of its surface area in 40 years.]
Uzbekistan, a land-locked country that was once part of the Soviet Union, is home to one of the biggest man-made disasters in history. For decades its rivers were diverted to grow cotton on arid land, causing the [...]
