wet land, neutral ground New Orleans after Katrina
infrastructure | flood plains by nichole weidmann and jason sowell
levees ponds transportation plant life culture gulf climate
New Orleans is inextricably linked to place; strategically positioned near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a center for economic and material exchange. The cityís urban form de- veloped as an accretion of infrastructural sys- tems and fluvial processes. The engineered re- sponses to this dynamic environment inscribed a hydrologic network composed of walls (le- vees), conduits (canals), basins (wetlands), and controls (gates/pumps) onto a shifting terrain. The settlement practices initiated by the French adopt landscape measures as a means of trans- forming wet land into productive ground. In 2005 there were 26 named storms, includ- ing 14 hurricanes and 7 major hurricanes. On August 29th, Hurricane Katrina came to shore with winds of 230 km/h and a storm surge of over 10 meters, impacting more than 260 000 km 2 . As a response, the work examines the po- tential of infrastructure as a medium — if not method — for (re)building New Orleans. By ex- amining the natural and cultural systems at the regional and city scale, the city’s flood control measures are transformed from singular-func- tion elements to layered systems that serve as social spaces and cultural threads within a re- silient, hydrologic network. Building on hydrologic typologies, the result- ing scenario augments existing infrastructure through sectional change. The implementation of a sectional strategy as opposed to a tradition- al plan based approach sets up opportunities to increase the city’s water storage capacity, re- claim river access and elevate level of inhabita- tion. These strategies revamp typically banal in- frastructure into layered systems that organize water events, social programs and increased density. In this manner, the city does not have to retreat to the highest topography; instead, the rethinking of infrastructure creates land- scape hybrids that stitch the city, both culturally and naturally, into a unified urban matrix.
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