WT SMARTCITY AWARD

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION OF URBAN PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE

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Project team:

1. Paolo Galantini

2. Riccardo Zurita

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Location: Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York

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The consequences of Superstorm Sandy have prompted us to recognize that it is no longer enough to design our cities with the aim of achieving SUSTAINABILITY but rather that we must go further to design cities that gain RESILIENCE to the effects of global climate change and rising sea level. Red Hook, Brooklyn in New York City was an area devastated by the storm's flooding. The RAPID RESPONSE ARCHITECTURE (RRA) project examines this waterfront neighborhood. Building on innovative initiatives in favor of the environment, emerging urban social habits and the urgent need to reuse the waste resulting from global trade, RRA proposes a project whereby these phenomena converge to create public interventions that address current global concerns. and compare them locally. Red Hook is poorly served by mass transit with no subway service. Recognizing the neighborhood's youth demographics and popular use of bicycles, the RRA proposes a planned network of dedicated and interconnected cycle paths. The neighborhood paths are identified with three distinct characters:

• Urban Core (red) - routes along central streets, in the heart of the neighborhood and in those streets that converge to other areas of Brooklyn.

• Green Belt (Green) - path that connects the neighborhood';s parks and green spaces.

• Waterfront Perimeter (Blue) - path that follows the perimeter of the neighborhood waterfront.

Each path is designed to have its own character that reflects its use, each being designed with a unique profile and its own architectural identity. The most visible architectural elements of the project will be the bicycle garages, used for temporary and long-term storage. Along the routes there will also be other services, including sales and repair shops, kiosks, bars, interpretation centers, newsstands, flower kiosks, etc., to encourage their use. The district is still an active shipping port with the presence of linked and overlapping containers. Due to the trade imbalance with Asia, we know that for every 100 containers that cross the Pacific Ocean from Asia to North America, 60 return empty. Consequently, we believe that the container is an appropriate element to reuse in this neighborhood and that it can be adapted as a bicycle garage or with other public functions. Powerful in its iconic simplicity, the container is therefore an ideal element, appropriate for its functional and poetic qualities.

Flooding in the neighborhood suggests, however, that in the event of a future storm surge these road additions could serve another important function: they could become blockages that prevent flood waters from penetrating deeply into the community and allow safe corridors should the need arise. evacuation. In this way, their reuse is a forward-looking strategy to adapt this iconic element of the neighborhood's maritime heritage and to help it survive into the future. The direct benefits are thus twofold: an improved street environment for the conduct of daily life in the neighborhood; and, during thunderstorms, the prevention of loss of life and the reduction of damage to infrastructure and property.