Networked Urbanism

GSD Harvard – Fall 2014

Muharraq, the old capital city of Bahrain, used to be famous for its regional attraction that was defined by the charm of an old-world Arabic city and by its significance as the major pearling center, is now facing with emerging problems. Narrow streets, tiny alleyways and the fine historical buildings were places for various urban activities to occur, but now the situation has changed: those signature places are losing their capacity to hold social communications. Meanwhile, the increasing population of immigrant workers, the disorganization of an integrated community, as wells as the extreme climatic condition, are all parts of the factors that may decrease the vitality of the city.

The project is based on researches of the social reality that is waiting to be improved and technologies that are able to launch this improvement. We look into the structure and distribution of current Muharraq population, which leads to the conclusion of an unresolved tension between local people and migrant workers, in both terms of the form of place-occupation and the pattern of program-needs. The site experience then draws our attention to the residue spaces in the city. Taking advantage of fine conditions of ventilation and shading, existing as penetrable spots that are able to grasp flows, those spaces are the key to transform Muharraq into a better place for communication and interaction. The research on a new technology is equally essential. The development of a new inexpensive treatment for cotton fabric could help boost efforts to collect water from humid air. This new treated fabric is effective without the need for wind, and can also be used to collect and release water. The treated fabric is much more hydrophilic than the fabric by itself, and yet when the temperature gets warmer, the fabric becomes hydrophobic and releases all of the absorbed water without any other further action. This “sponge fabric” makes the structure alive. It also offers the opportunity to the appearance of greenness.

M+ is a network of urban oasis infilling the residue spaces, which have been underused in the old city fabric Muharraq. It is responding to several local issues: the extreme climatic conditions; the increasing number of migrants and decreasing existence of locals; as well as the lack of urban vitality. In this project, we incorporate water, solar and sponge fabric to build a low-cost, self-sustained system that generates electricity, coolness and hanging garden for the public audiences. Each of the structures is composed with standard sized unites, adjustable in height and concentration. The fabric surface can be used as spatial partitions as wells as the plane for image projection. And all the interventions of M+ are tailored to fit in a specific urban neighborhood. Each year, 12 tops rated programs voted by all residents will be distributed and shuffled for every month around the city. The construction of the M+ network will finally increase social interaction from the dimension of a single spot to the scale of an integrated community and then make the city of Muharraq a better place.

The project aims to enliven multiple elevational voids of the city of Muharraq, engaging various users who bring an array of programs over a continuously evolving spectrum of time.
As the city of Muharraq contains urban voids, the voids in plan also create elevational voids that expose blank wall facades. These blank facades, composed of brick or concrete walls, reflect sunlight to heat the city, especially with the current programmatic function as parking lots.

The project works with the juxtaposition of a light new scaffold structure against heavy existing solids. The public realm becomes an ongoing project that gets built up or down according to the user’s own needs. A set of users, all with different occupations, age group, and gender, can easily building up their own stall according to an ikea-like set of procedures. The accumulation of these stall-scaffolds can create an elevational market space, theater, or educational facility according to the user’s needs in different times of the year. Addressing the locale, the construction and deconstruction is part of the process of making the public space, the time and effort both an architectural construct. The narrowness of the scaffolds and the delicate textile skin are reminiscent of the old Meshirabyas, a balcony-type of finely detailed artifice. As its Arabic root of the word Meshirabya suggests “the place of drinking,” the project acts as a shade or screen with allows breeze to enter and create a cooled area for filtration and concoction of water as well as traditional beverages like Limonana, or Mint Lemonade.

These scaffolds bring life to the adjacent rooftops, creating a network of new public arena that continues the Arabic tradition of living in verticality. A newly established visual network will not only infill the elevational voids to reduce heating, but also activate the locale to create proximate destinations for people to sell, buy, or socialize. Each of these sites will respond with different programmatic functions over courses of years. Depending on their traditional character of the neighborhood, programs could range from a market in the Suq neighborhood to a space of worship and prayer near the Mosque. The multiplicity of program as a respondent to the locale of the place situates program on an underlying level of necessity. Program emerges from the needs of the users.

Final Present by Yoonjee Koh

We were in Bahrain last week and the king was watching us.

http://kingiswatchingyou.tumblr.com/

self presentation_twei

This is part of a two video series that should be watched simultaneously side by side. They talk about the long standing pearl diving tradition in the Arabian Gulf and the consumerist society that quickly transformed the Gulf after oil discovery from once sleepy humble towns to bustling metropolises.

This is part of a two video series that should be watched simultaneously side by side. They talk about the long standing pearl diving tradition in the Arabian Gulf and the consumerist society that quickly transformed the Gulf after oil discovery from once sleepy humble towns to bustling metropolises.

Hello all,

Here’s a short video to bring you a little into my life. Hope you enjoy!…

This short animation looks at Bahrain’s current reliance on food imports to sustain its growing population. A food empire archipelago is formed through the acquisition of foreign arable lands. Yet, can Bahrain attain future food security by continuing its current practices? What are the possible opportunities for intervention on the island itself?

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