Materializing Access: Intersecting Walksheds, Viewsheds, and Supply Sheds

Abstract

Materializing Access is a thesis which investigates the opportunity for landscapes to provide an array of resources within the public realm. Situated in Pittsburgh, PA, the project navigates the varying topography and current park network to provide each citizen with a five-minute walk to an open space. Steep and unmaintained hillsides create barriers within the city, but this proposal explores utilitarian and fantastical landscapes for connecting amongst those barriers. The landscape interventions include the sculpted (a path embedded in the wooded hillside), the leveled (a cultural space along the public right of way), and the excavated (a sheltered cut through the earth). Through strategic use of materials available on site, the design extends and integrates existing parks with the rest of the urban fabric. It takes advantage of Pittsburgh’s material past, drawing on a historic sense of place and geology while providing future resources for further manipulation.