Public space in suburbia : water infrastructure as a community catalyst

Abstract

The phenomenon of Los Angeles, an aggressive thriving metropolis sprawling across the Mojave Desert to the Pacific Coast, is inseparable from its complex history of purchasing, transporting and consuming what is arguably the city's most sensitive need: water. For almost a century, the physical artifacts that were invented as a means to secure, manage and protect this supply have successfully distributed water throughout Los Angeles. However, the increasingly pervasive presence of water infrastructure has also had negative impacts on the quality of public space in LA's suburbs. In scale, shape and tectonics, water infrastructure alienates the human experience of the public realm. The presence of water infrastructure in Los Angeles suburbs, which already carry the stigma of monotonous architecture and bland public space, only aggravates the problem of a landscape that is hostile to the pedestrian. Water infrastructure in suburbia must be recognized for what it is-a critical element for the growth and support of human settlements, but also a source of further estrangement of the very people meant to benefit from it. This thesis proposes a solution that mediates the spatial divide, infuses multi-use of the actual artifact and raises awareness of ecological and economic issues in an effort to reinvent water infrastructure as a catalyst for engagement, education and community.