Studies on Owego village represent a microcosm of small-scale cities across the U.S. where the natural hazard becomes a new norm. Instead of a town with a forest, this project orients toward a forest with a town in it.
Within the floodplain on the north of the Susquehanna River, the Village of Owego suffered long-term confinement and economic stagnation from the deteriorating flood situation. This project proposes a Cohabitation & Adaptation model that actively invites wildness into the urban space via a linear forested connection between FEMA buyouts. Considering forest as a part of urban infrastructure, its performances involve three key aspects: 1) Carbon sequestration, 2) Runoff mitigation, and 3) Habitat. This iteration of “urban succession” involves four stages - Stand initiation, Stem exclusion, Understory reinitiation, and the Dynamic-steady state – which reinforces the resiliency of outdoor living in the cycle of emergency and normalcy in a tree’s time.
Chen Chen, MLA ’22
Course:
LA 6020 Integrating Theory and Practice II
Jamie Vanucchi, Faculty Advisor
Semester:
Spring 2021
