FLASH FLOODS AND DESERT CLAIMS

Abstract

The landscape design studio of Professor Christophe Girot at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland investigated new settlement typologies within the extreme environmental condition of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona: wet and dry, hot and cold, permanent and ephemeral. From early sketches in sand models to computer simulations, CNC models and water dynamics, the studio took a hands-on approach in understanding the natural processes of flash floods and erosion on the site. The integration of infrastructure, architecture and ecology into a single design solution challenged the students to structure the settlements with respect to both natural processes and the Jeffersonian grid. For the students, both the formal and the performative settlement solutions arose from this superimposition where the sublime nature of the site, being exempt of almost any human artifact, proved to be the perfect testing ground. During the course of the studio, it became clear that the only way to solve a settlement principle in this flood prone area was to develop design solutions on the large scale of the valley and at the scale of a single step simultaneously. The final projects showed a clear understanding of the tectonic and topological expression for a new type of occupation in the desert.

Keywords

Landscape Architecture / Infrastructure / Desert / Settlement / Typology

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2016 Higher Education Press