ABSTRACT
A thesis with overlapping aspects of urban and architectural design should concentrate on conceptual approaches to the city. Manhattan is a classical example of a conceptual city, a schismatic conglomerate of elements ordered by the grid. Urban prototypical ideas such as Broadway and Central Park contribute to the clarity and richness of the city.
The urban area of Hunter's Point, part of the Borough of Queens, was selected because of its potential for future development, its aptitude to demonstrate careful conceptual operation and its relation to Manhattan.
Hunter's Point is characterized by its diverse urban structure with a mixture of industrial and residential uses and an underutilized waterfront. The problem to be addressed is the careful revitalization of the area, the proposal of appropriate uses for the empty plots using a concept which takes the area as a whole into consideration.
The strategy for the design approach is developed during the analysis and design phase, it is rejected to approach the design problem with a preconceived notion. For this reason the author renounces the literal use and repetition of historic or contemporary examples.
Instead the author endeavours to discover existing traces and recognize the genius loci with a consciousness of history as a continuum.
As a result this specific proposal attempts to show that an individual approach using selected architectural pieces as urban catalysts is more successful than an urban design strategy addressing the overall gestalt.
In order to solve the problems of Hunter's Point, which is characterized by its diverse and fragmented urban structure as well as its underutilized waterfront, it seems logical to insert urban architecture of continuity in a field of discontinuity. The introduction of architectural catalysts, innovative on urban and functional level, will result in an uplift of the whole area.
The task is to discover the latent qualities and potentials of the area and reinforce them at key points in order to achieve a maximum effect with a minimum intervention.
