The Secret Ecology Between Walls

Reawakening Forgotten Spaces through Culture and Cultivation

This is my thesis project for my master's degree.

China is a big and beautiful country with a lot of twists and turns. The buildings here appear seemingly out of thin air. The food is delicious, the scenery is breathtaking, and everything is different from the United States, yet they do share some similarities. Although one difference is that the cities in China are laid out the way they are by urbanization. Why is there a small farm patch area right next to a bustling highway and city? Was it planned that way, or was the highway integrated with no regard for the planting? In New Jersey, when you go hurtling down the freeway or expressway, or any highway for that matter. All you see is either more roads and cities or empty plots of land with no use to them. The spaces are not used as efficiently as they could be. Where is the consideration of space and what use can space hold to make it more significant than a bare wall or a simple barrier? The way China has set up its infrastructure it provided the exact equilibrium of space with elevated highways in the sky with the city and agriculture spaces still being intact below. Even in spaces purely for highway roads there are still spaces in between and large vast spaces of either wetlands and agriculture spaces.

The city has slowly consumed villages in its attempt to grow and expand but even though they consumed the villages there was still a sense of community. The people from the villages had to adapt to their new city and community with a lot more people or some even moved away within the new high rises they were relocated to. The highways here have on the concrete barriers/flower planters lining all of the stretch of the barrier. The flower planters are full of beautiful flowers and add more greenery to the highway besides the plots of wetland and agriculture plots. This not only adds beauty but it also gives more people jobs to be able to better themselves and be able to afford their houses. I believe plots of land in the highway and roads can be more efficiently used.

Using Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China as a model for my thesis. Choosing 3 sites to work with.

Site 1

Site 1: In the morning

Site 1: In the afternoon

Site 1: At night

Site 2

Site 2: In the morning

Site 2: In the afternoon

Site 2: At night

Site 3

Site 3: In the morning

Site 3: In the afternoon

Site 3: At night

Collages of the three sites with a unique modular unit designed for each site at 3 different times of a day.

The three sites and three modular systems

Watercolor paintings of sites and inclusions of agriculture and culture

3 Sites constellation.

Set up + 3D printed model of modular system

I believe that the unused spaces should be reused for the communities and opened up so people can grow their own crops and have small pockets of space where they can gather.

To create a new method of distributing land in Wenzhou, China, to create a better agricultural space for farmers, especially those relocated. As well as create more urban farming to be able to produce more food for Wenzhou’s residents, as well as adding more openness in agriculture, so more people can take part in agriculture. This is coupled with being able to provide an extra educational space as well as a social space for people to reconvene and learn about agriculture. This new method of redistributing land is inspired by NYC air rights. Create new ways to use unused/ dead spaces within the community to reactivate them and revolutionize the way that architecture and the public view spaces as opportunities rather than waste.

Poem about my Thesis

One must slow down or else life will pass you by,

Agriculture is important to humans, from rice to rye.

Unused spaces are everywhere and rampant,

They tend to be in places no one knows like a talent.

These spaces need new purpose,

They should accomodate the residents beyond the surface.

The goal is to replicate this modular formula worldwide,

In the hopes people will incorporate this and it will be worthwhile.

人必须放慢脚步，否则生活就会与你擦肩而过。农业对人类至关重要，从水稻到黑麦。

Rén bìxū fàng màn jiǎobù, fǒuzé shēnghuó jiù huì yǔ nǐ cā jiān érguò.

Nóngyè duì rénlèi zhì guān zhòngyào, cóng shuǐdào dào hēi mài.