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This project was done for our “Terminal +” studio at U of T. The studio was based on an actual site in San Francisco, which currently is a large parking lot in piers 30/32 of San Francisco’s main port. The idea behind the studio was to design a terminal that would not only serve as a terminal but also address another aspect (hence the “+”) of the area’s coastal condition. The addressing of this aspect should speak to the potential of the bay to act as a network of linkage that would tie together all coastal points into a new, common, and unique condition.
I focused my project on the idea of healthcare. Basic research revealed that having points of healthcare along the bay would provide much faster service in the event of an on-water emergency. On the more severe end of the scale, San Francisco’s disaster contingency plans are not terribly developed and would benefit greatly from a site dedicated to disaster relief.
Thus, the project took form as a site that was programmatically designed to “degrade” from a typical terminal to accommodate any scale of emergency. Smaller emergencies could be handled with minimal disruption to regular terminal services, while a large emergency would result in a more complete switchover of programmatic elements to emergency “mode”.
The site’s purpose is reflected in the formfinding that led to its final design. The site design is based around dual-layered element, and when this element is repeated in a network, it creates a richly connected fabric with that achieves the weaving and ramping necessary to accommodate the complex programming. With the network established, is is simply a matter of carving program into the site through the strategic excavation of elements.
Furthermore, the design of the network provides natural “lanes” that address the flow that would occur on a terminal site. These lanes would be used as commuter paths during everyday use, but in the event of an emergency, some could be dedicated to the moving of supplies, others could be dedicated to the evacuation of survivors, others could be shut down to provide space for storage, and so on.
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