Ecodesign

Metropolitan Green

The final project for my Permaculture Design Course, Metropolitan Green was a plan for adaptive reuse of a small triangular block in my neighborhood. The design called for converting North 3rd from a street into a Woonerf and building a terraced garden above an existing parking lot. The design process included studying pedestrian patterns and incorporating the inputs and outputs of adjacent stores into the site’s material flows. Read about an early version of this design here.

My Garden

My first ecodesign project to actually get built, this design for a 100 square foot garden in my backyard made extensive use of the permaculture concept of “guilds” – groups of plants that mutually enhance each other’s growth. The border and paths were constructed from salvaged materials, and a 5-inch layer of leaf-litter compost was obtained for free from NYC’s compost give-back program.

The Living Domino

The result of my ambitious attempt to counter hideous overdevelopment plans for the Domino Sugar Factory, down the street from my Williamsburg apartment. My site plan called for a museum, mixed-income housing, an amphitheatre and a vertical farm, which would collectively cycle water and organic matter continuously through the site. Read the original post here.

Mountain Oak Master Plan

The collaborative final project for my semester at the Ecosa Institute was a sustainably-focused site plan for a local Waldorf School. After extensive community input, we developed a phased design that enhanced students’ learning environment while celebrating natural flows and materials.

Gutierrez Residence