on site review 44 : play

3. The Living Meadow expands and tests the user’s senses. This area consists of an abundance of wildflowers, a raised walkway to make apparent the change in textures from earth to walkway to sidewalk, and hanging chairs to protect from noise or to invite kinder sounds.The largest area of the site, the meadow creates space for plants to grow and animals to roam, although future and planned construction will undoubtedly change the ways these animals can continue to safely roam. Simple tools such as posts and tethers can support the continuation of urban agriculture in this space. They can also double as play structures.

Vegetated channels slow stormwater runoff and treat dirty water with plants and soil. The raised walkway aims to make the interaction with the ground intentional.

4. The Upper Commons: much of Albania lies within an EU-designated High Seismic Hazard zone. The last significant earthquake was in 2019 with a magnitude of 6.4, thirty-four kilometres northwest of Tirana. Hundreds of buildings partially or completely collapsed, and thousands of people were living in temporary accommodations. Considering how emergency housing might exist on site, we propose temporary housing based on a modular kit of posts, poles quickly assembled. This is a scaled-up toolkit, conceptually similar to the open space toolkit elsewhere on the site. Iinstead of master plans in all their rigidity, the redevelopment of any city could be framed by zones and toolkits.

The conceptual house module kit includes materials for an 18 square metre shelter. The materials consist of poles acting as beams and posts, wall panels, a floor panel, a sheet of corrugated metal, and tires. Tires are used for stairs and the foundation as they can absorb seismic vibrations.

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on site review 44 : play ©

Alagic Dykstra Kurosky

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