ARCH-4980.3 | Carla Leitao, Adjunct Professor

OXYGENATION OF THE UNINHABITABLE SPACE

KYLEE BESECKER

The city of Shanghai has reached the point in which its air pollution can no longer be ignored. In the year of 2038, the Puxi district, which is the most densely populated and is a cultural, residential and commercial center, as well as the main area of industry and power plants, has become hazardous to health. The air is so thickly polluted that it is difficult for occupants to breathe. The proposal will restructure aspects of protocol for inhabitation, as well as deploy new structures in public space which program is to supplement that protocol’s goal of engaging shifting and increasing pollution in the area.

A network of inhabitable spaces is developed in a densely populated and polluted urban fabric with layered programming. These spaces are temporary regions where purified oxygen can be delivered to the occupants. The programming of the spaces is done, so that they become moments of delay in the urban fabric for cross-cultural and cross-class encounters to happen.

The oxygenation of organisms like the jellyfish and coral is done through an exchange of gases through the skin. The potential for biomimetic architecture is to explore ways in which, similarly, skin tectonics for building envelope could create similar spaces for inhabitation in areas of high pollution where it is nearly impossible to receive clean oxygen without hazards. A system, through the use of an envelope, allows for the purification of air in order to prevent contamination of the polluted air. This envelope enables the people of Shanghai to inhabit the district of Puxi without being put at risk in the environment.

The spaces act as places for the communication between classes by being a programmatic place of interest (i.e. art, fashion, sports, and business). Programmatic shifts occur through the day to respond to the spatial and programmatic needs. The network of the spaces responds to distribution and accumulation of polluted air along with existing cultural programmatic pressures.