Graduation Year

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.Arch.

Degree Granting Department

Architecture and Community Design

Major Professor

Shannon Bassett, M. Arch.

Keywords

Phytoremediation, Phytostabilization, Aeroponic farming, Experiential landscape, Biotope

Abstract

In an era when cities and towns are changing rapidly, public spaces are the key to reviving civic engagement. By re-introducing these public realms as ecological environments, we can re-structure the organic growth of civic tissue, re-define the city street into a park environment, and reveal the ecological landmarks that once beautified the landscape. These ecological landmarks will be used as corridors, nodes of circulation and storm water management to not only creates a regenerative landscape but to create a connection between ecology, suburbia and the city. The public realm in America has two roles: it is the dwelling place of our civilization and our city life, and our physical manifestation of the common good. When we degrade the public realm, we will automatically degrade the quality of our city and our city life, plus the character of all the enactments of our public life and communal life that takes place there.

The public realm has to inform us not only where we are geographically, but has to inform us where we are in our culture, where we've come from, what kind of people we are, and it needs to afford us a glimpse as to where we are going. The past sixty years has engendered a decentralization of the city and a loss of our public realm. Suburbia was created and the absence of community development within cities increased. The lack of social economic interaction now challenges each city today. The inabilities to obtain a socially sustainable closed-loop system lifestyle are some of the challenges families continually battle. Transformation, succession and operation will help to emphasize and revitalize the downtown riverfront district in Nashville, Tennessee and create a living, dynamic entity that connects you to suburbia and an ecological dwelling environment.

A naturalized mouth and iconic identity to the river will create a comprehensive plan for addressing urban design and the connection between the two sides of the river. Transportation, naturalization, sustainability and other ecological issues will be addressed in the development of a sustainable "green city," a new destination where city, river and suburbia interact in a dynamic and balanced relationship creating an urban estuary.

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