| Adriane
Fowler • Mapping |
By layering historic features including dams, rivers, canals, and streets,
the mapping reveals the transformation of water and wet land into the modern
urban grid. What lies underneath the current streets is rendered visible.
In this model, the channeling and structuring of water emerges as a theme:
city streets and roads have become the new waterways, catching and moving
water that would formerly have run through the salt hay marshes and brooks.
The Fens have always functioned as stormwater management, but today this
connection is not apparent on the ground level. It also does not function
as well as it once did due in part to the sweeping changes in the topology
of the city, the reshaping of land and buildings, the creation of vast impermeable
surfaces, and the (sometimes not very thoughtful) addition of fill and resculpting
of the parkland itself. The Fens today can accommodate these contextual
changes more productively, while continuing to function as stormwater management
system and urban park. |
