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Teammate: Justine Huang
.Taylor Yard at LA river is a highly contaminated post-industrial site and former railway station. The portion of the river next to the site has a soil lined bottom due to the high water table and includes a sand bar and vegetation that is supported by year-round flows. When we visited the site we saw that it still had its remnants of native vegetation such as buckwheat, native birds, herons, and remnants of industrial structures that had taken on a new life with graffiti sprayed over it.
In considering the studio theme of fake nature” we were interested in how “fakeness” or artificiality of nature relates to the idea that it is a displacement of land, animals, and structures that was once there. For our project, we studied these existing conditions and proposed new ways to use the structures to serve the community of LA, and the native plant and animal species there.
Our proposal seeks to reform the “leftovers” of postindustrial sites and radically energize these social habitats. Lush flora, swarms of butterflies and birds, and water features characterize our imagination of future sakariba. We model these after ideas of the “playscape”- by breaking away from specific, identifiable structures and prescribed areas of activity. Much like real nature, we break down the hierarchy of spaces andencourage activities of pleasure, entertainment, and interaction between people and animals to emerge organically. Abstract forms and alternating densities of grain produce this architecture which stage both sanctity and sinfulness.