If these proposals for the site of Pruitt-Igoe are any indication, the Pruitt-Igoe of tomorrow is not architectural – it is agricultural, a nod to the verdant land available on site, and to the dearth of fresh market groceries to serve the northside neighbourhoods. Twenty of the 31 selected finalists proposed phyto-remediation – agriculture or recreational gardening to remove toxins, the by-product of construction and other interventions, from the land, and programs that enable the site to be a catalyst for growth in local infrastructure or entertainment—the brick factory, the construction of an artificial moon ( figures 2,3 ). In a majority of proposals, architecture is negated in favour of utopian systems of agriculture, food production, and distribution—utopias closer to Thomas More’s vision (social, organised, productive), than the formal modern utopian proposals from which Pruitt-Igoe descended. In Recipe Landscape , Gabrielian and Hirsch recreate the site on domestic and ritualistic lines—animal husbandry and apiculture are the primary systems in the ‘31 flavors of Pruitt-Igoe’ , which reuses the Pruitt School as a dairy and a creamery which distribute to stores city wide. ( figure 4 ) Similarly, Dunbar and Wang imagine St. Louis Ecological Assembly Line: Pruitt-Igoe as Productive Landscape , in which the site, the epicentre of an ‘ecological assembly line’, is full of tree and plant nurseries that capitalise on the growing conditions of St. Louis and provide plants to over 13,000 acres of St. Louis parks. ( figure 5 , opposite page) The Fantastic Pruitt-Igoe! by Social Agency Lab proposes a world in which St. Louis schoolchildren would invent programmatic and physical features for the site, working collaboratively with an advisory board of adults to envision the structures, programming and activities that would comprise this new and decidedly un-bureaucratic life for the site. right, from the top: figure 2. Sina Zekavat, Carr Square Brick Yard: an intervention in the cycle of brick theft from vulnerable northside buildings. A brickyard accommodates both storage for salvaged bricks and facilities for the production of new brick. figure 3. Clouds Architecture Office, Double Moon: an illuminated, artificial moon that hovers over the site, beckoning St. Louisans who might otherwise ignore the site.
figure 4. Aroussiak Gabrielian and Alison Hirsch of Foreground Design Agency, Recipe Landscape: the architecture of the site is re-used in the production of ‘the 31 flavors of Pruitt-Igoe’, growing ingredients for ice cream on the site, and creating a city-wide distribution network for the unique product.
Sina Zekavat
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Clouds Architecture Office
Foreground Design Agency
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