1 + Architecture's sensibility toward contextual programmatic responsiveness gives way to an opportunity to redefine the indifferent, out-dated construction of the American highway infrastructure.
3 + Vehicle travelers are desensitized to the subtleties of the American landscape due not only to a brutal nature of highway construction but also to a societal development which encourages speed and efficiency. In responding to an extreme case where speed severely outweighs attentiveness, a new typology of Architecture may be necessary. It would serve as a catalyst for future development which could potentially rethink the way we mobilize through space from the scale of the local to the global.
9 = The case study for this catalyst will be the Pennsylvania Turnpike which, when built over 60 years ago, carried design standards that exceeded other interstate systems and loosely resembled the American version of the Autobahn. Certain design standards remain relevant but the turnpike is no longer treated as a luxury. The turnpike failed to become the American Autobahn so the luxury of speed is obsolete, especially when one can travel to from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in 1/5 the time, and often cheaper, by plane. The mood of the average driver now is best defined by impatience. In an attempt to preserve the will to travel by land, the new luxury of interstate travel must be geared towards experience. An experience which runs many of the original design approaches of interstate construction through and architectural filter in order to create a mode of travel defined more specifically by space, time and context. The research will include a thorough analysis of interstate design but an even more thorough analysis of the landscape to which the architecture must respond, which is predominantly rural Pennsylvania. In order to narrow the scope of the project, the entire road will be personally documented from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and several locations will be realized as case studies and eventually developed into the final product(s). The case studies will be samples of unique conditions that occur on the turnpike and in the landscape and will define the overall conceptual approach to a strategy that can be adapted on a national scale.
In terms of the urban landscape, I think the segregation of space made by interstates running into larger cities is unfortunate. The highway has been the dividing line between races, income levels, and part of the deterioration of once healthy communities. Maybe this is also happening behind the trees in rural areas? In high school,friends' parents were selling their land to the city to create room for continuing I-183, cutting off adjacencies to their neighbors.
ReplyDeleteI'm always struck by the different experiences of space that are found by traveling in a car somewhere versus walking there on foot. I think an important part of experiencing space, and especially landscape, is the way our senses are engaged. When riding in the car on the highway, the separation from the landscape is tangible, you can't smell the air (windows up, ac blastin), you can't feel the ground (foot on the pedal), and you can't hear any sound (the music bumpin). I think the interesting challenge with your project would be to find a way to use the automobile as an asset in the experience of the landscape, and finding out what you can get from being in the car, that you wouldn't otherwise get on foot.
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