The edge of the bridge : redesign the space adjacent to urban infrastructure

Abstract

In large urban community, infrastructures play a vital role in the daily life of the city. The contemporary development of these systems can be seen as an overlay of several networks which form the infrastructure of the city. Such developments often enhance the discontinuity and fragmentation of the urban fabric, and create isolated areas between themselves. This thesis explores a design process that integrates the linear configuration of infrastructure as it manifests itself in a single-purposed function into a series of architectural events. An Art and Media Technology Center for Boston University will be designed at an intersection of a highway, a railroad and a bridge. The project will provide an opportunity to re-exam the nature and limits of the site, first, as an integrated part of the city and second, as a setting for human activities. Therefore, the center is not understood as an isolated building but as an architectural expression that would reinforce the notion of movement and necessity as the highway, the railroad and the bridge that form the place itself.