As we started working on the design for the Lawndale neighborhood in Chicago, while formulating the program we started looking at the existing resources that the city offers. The existing bold green expression in the form of the historic boulevard is an essential existing resource that we came across at first. This took us to study the entire network of boulevards and parks in Chicago. Historically, when the boulevards were proposed in the 1800’s by John S. Wright, their main intention was to create active, healthy and culturally rich places. This in turn would enhance the infrastructure development in the city and support real estate in the outskirts of the city.
It was essential to incorporate the boulevard and focus on development along the boulevard, for my partner for this studio project (Alexus Davis) and I considered it to be the starting point for our project’s conceptual development. We aim to reset the value of open space (and underutilized spaces) to create and ecologically rich network of urban spaces where biological and human living systems are integrated to create active, healthy and culturally rich places. Additionally, resetting the existing network as new diverse systems that revalue the ingredients of open space from the pleasure garden and boulevard to a sustainable productive and livable future. We also compared the program that Mt.Sinai Healthcare Systems offers to serve the community and we categorized it in terms of three networks - Biological, Economical and Ecological Network.
The spaces along the boulevard network will be assigned new functions that have economical social and environmental benefits.
the streets will become mobility corridors between the proposed and the existing site of the hospitals
Inactive urban spaces along the boulevard can be used for urban farming
Inaccessible spaces can become rich hubs of community activity.
As the title suggests, the reset network of the hospital without walls will support self-sufficient communities, where you can get most of what you need, access to most effective public transport, walk-able neighborhoods, productive landscapes and decentralized access to energy.
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