We seek to develop design prototypes for parcel 4 which can be projected into a larger vision for re-modeling energy and water infrastructures at neighborhood and city scales. We seek to design an infrastructure that expands the term “land value” away from limiting monetary references and towards natural resource, environmental quality, social sustainability, livability and aesthetic concerns as well.
In North St. Louis, the urban geography is described by logics reliant on segregated, centralized energy production and distribution. This creates a fragmented landscape of charged and unequal zones dependent on a polluting and limited resource. Yet solar, wind and cellulosic energy are three types of renewable sources inherent to the Midwest and St. Louis region. Not only can these sources be harnessed for energy, but they can be used to remediate, bring community safety and public delight. Our project seeks to activate and build capacities on the site: Energy capacities, land and landscape system capacities, and community capacities.
Solar power (unlike conventional coal-fueled power) is capable of being stored and shared laterally. We ask, how can the development of sites and cities grow from a new, open-sourced (but ecologically complete) configuration of exchange and distribution?