upstate downstate waterworks
spring 2021, GSAPP ADV. Studio with Ziad Jamaleddine
projects
UPSTATE DOWNSTATE NEW YORK
The project investigates the relationship between New York City and upstate New York through the intertwined histories of migration, infrastructure, and resource extraction. It views building as a gradual process that involves a large network of land, material, labor, and community. Rather than treating the land as a resource to be extracted, it works with the environment, learning the patterns of nature first and responding to them.
NYC WATERSHED AREA
Historically, the relationship between New York City and upstate New York has been defined by resource extraction. The city's watershed area extends across the Catskills and Hudson Valley, where reservoirs collect water to be transported hundreds of miles through a vast aqueduct system to sustain the city. Land upstate is treated as a resource, producing an uneven relationship in which resources flow toward the city while the communities surrounding them bear many of the consequences.
THE SITE
The site is a small upstate community founded by Black Muslim families who left New York City during the 1970s and 1980s in search of a different life for themselves and their children. Their move upstate was an act of self-determination: a deliberate departure from the city at a time when racial tensions and police violence were at an all time high. The project proposes a different model of living and a different kind of relationship between upstate and downstate New York, led by the community that migrated upstate from the city decades ago.
WORKING WITH NATURE
As there are no paved roads in the town, the proposed structures are designed to be built by hand, without the use of heavy machinery. Stone gathered from the site is used to construct a series of permanent thermal platforms with radiant floor heating. Lightweight timber structures are placed above these platforms, creating a more temporary and adaptable layer for living