GENEVA

GENEVA, 2010

Located at the junction of three distinct forms of development - agricultural, suburban and industrial - the challenge was to retaining the qualities of the existing, while creating something new. On site, there are already many existing beautiful elements - farm houses, green houses, and existing trees. Keeping these is the first step toward long term sustainability, while allowing for a longer memory and understanding of the site's history.

Rather than insert standard suburban development with manicured greenways slicing through; the design made the entire site feel natural and then provided links to the riverway via intense swaths of raw nature. This set the green framework for the site. This green grid forms a 'Mondrian meets Pollack' grid. Where the a more regular large scale street network runs through the industrial area and transitions to a more loose, finely-knit, informal, and small scale pedestrian and bike passages leading to the more pastoral riverfront residential.

This transition from industrial to pastoral is further embraced by choosing to not develop the site following the guidelines of standard zoning. Instead we propose a more integrated gradient of building types from southwestern big box industrial to northeastern small scale residential to promote a smooth transition of programs and building types. This simple gesture has several advantages: it provides a wide variation in housing and open spaces on the site, encourages ecological richness, and a more socially sustainable community.

Because of the desire for an active neighborhood core with lively frontages on both sides of Main Street, the proposal located the urban center within the district. This means a shifting of the main street from the southern, traffic-intensive border to the core of the site. The main street will host the highest density residential, mixed with shops and will extend further east toward the sports and leisure activities. It connects to the regional transport and landscape networks and therefore to downtown business links, cultural arenas, and the larger ecological systems.

Inspired by current uses on site - green houses - future development will incorporate living machine technology. This will capitalize on site's existing fertile soils. A few key living machines will serve as local icons and centers for green education, visitor information, local's centers, and centers for energy and ecology.

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