Building materials, energy and water-supply infrastructure, vegetable garden, 2010.
"Between the Waters: The Emscher Community Garden" is a water-supply infrastructure line between the Emscher River and the Rhine-Herne Canal. The project is a complete and sustainable water-supply system. It uses only water from the immediate area: the Emscher River, the Rhine-Herne Canal, rainwater and waste water. By putting the treatment process on display, it shows it is possible to reclaim and restore the natural habitat by using low-tech processes to construct a high-tech system. The main elements of the water supply and treatment installation are two toilets located above the Emscher River (the most polluted river in Germany), a pump that draws water from the river into a septic tank, a constructed wetland, a rainwater-harvesting roof, water storage bags, and a fountain located above the Rhine-Herne Canal that offers visitors water of drinkable quality. In addition, the system provides water for irrigating the Community Garden.
2005
2005
Building materials, energy infrastructure, vegetable garden, 2009.
The project is a community garden and community kitchen in the Nieuw West district of Amsterdam. A previously unused site at Lodewijk van Deysselstraat 61 becomes a community kitchen. The vegetable garden is located behind the kitchen in a former fenced-off 'look-only garden' (kijkgroen). The garden and the kitchen create bonds within the neighborhood and become a catalyst for transforming not only the public space but also the community itself. The project is an example of 're-directive practice', with people from various disciplines and backgrounds working together to find new ways to build a shared community. The project is a case study for redesigning the modernist neighborhood from below and redefining rural and urban coexistence.
2006
Building materials, energy and communication infrastructure, 2003 - 2004.
Hybrid House juxtaposes structures from the temporary architecture of Caracas, the West Bank, and West Palm Beach, Florida, and shows how they negotiate space among themselves. Each of the community-based structures formulates its own language, which, in all three cases, has much in common with archetypal (and not modernist) architecture. Emphasis is placed on private space, security, and energy and communication infrastructures.
Building materials and sanitation infrastructure, 2003.
The dry toilet project was the result of a six-month stay in Caracas, during which time Liyat Esakov and I researched the informal city under the auspices of the Caracas Case Project.
A dry, ecologically safe toilet was built on the upper part of La Vega barrio, a district in the city without access to the municipal water grid.
The project attempts to rethink the relationship between infrastructure and architecture in real-life urban practice in a city where about half the population receives water from municipal authorities no more than two days a week.
