reclaimedSKY: a CONSTRUCTION FENCE CANOPY
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 2008
Treehouse Books is a registered non-profit that provides educational programs to disadvantaged youth in North Philadelphia. The interest generated by Treehouse’s many programs has taxed their modest facilities, forcing this group to seek other spaces to serve an ever-growing body of students and programs.
In response, the IDC worked with a team of Temple students to design and construct a radical restructuring of the land behind this community group – a small parcel of real estate that contained too much trash, sun, and razor wire to be conducive to effective learning programs. To address these concerns, our design team proposed crafting two vertical filters using free or reclaimed material. The first filter would be applied to the earth, providing a revised groundscape that spoke clearly to the spaces and facilities required by Treehouse’s programs. Inspired in part by the unexpected demolition of a building neighboring the site three weeks before the end of the semester, this horizontal restructuring relied upon a single, undulating ribbon of reclaimed brick, stone and dirt to create a play landscape for our client.
The second filter would be applied to the sky, providing enough shade to dramatically reduce the heat of the sun, but not enough to kill the sun loving plants grown within the gardens of the space underneath. To create this second filter, our designers experimented with many undervalued materials common to Philadelphia’s urban landscape. Eventually, the team landed upon a tectonic approach that utilized origami to strengthen and unite scraps of construction fencing. The resulting canopy not only provided the requisite amount of shade, but also helped to create a playful, durable, and child-scaled garden oasis within the tough urban environment of North Philadelphia.
Just as important, the tectonic approach unearthed through this project has proved to be quite elastic, potentially allowing this tectonic language to extend to other sites, programs and clients. Therefore, the IDC is currently working with other non-profits to design versions of this approach that could provide additional shade or even allow for rain-collection.
FUNDING SUPPORT:
International Design Clinic
PARTNERS:
International Design Clinic
Temple University
North Philadelphia Community
Treehouse Books of North Philadelphia