third iteration

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portfolio

Braxton Tanner

Landscape ArchitectureGraphics

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table of contents

The Mother Culture

Residential/Commerical

Urban Ecologies

mla thesis

automax three creeks

west end food networkurban armature worrkshop

d.c. wolfe elementaryauburn city park

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graphics

pools

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the

motherculture

mla design research thesis

The seedy, dingy, back-alley spaces of Auburn, Alabama’s downtown were always an inspiration for me. Stained by the passage of time and the sharing of ideas, the grunge of the businesses and night-life speaks in these areas of marginalized urban space. Exploring these conditions developed into a 9 month study of a landscape architecure that reveals the assets of this urban typology and questions the ethics of pristine urban space. Eventually published in the form of a magazine entitled “The Mother Culture: Exploring the Urban Margin”, this study was developed in three main phases: exploring the urban margin, dirty creativity, and designing the motherculture.

Exploring the urban margin began with a photographic inventory of these landscapes within the downtown. Clips and sections of these were formed into collages that focused on documenting information about the nature and character of these spaces. They ended up revealing the life of particulate matter and other layers that collect and settle over these landscapes. I then categorized them into collisions, residue, territories, and media.

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RESIDUECOLLISION

TERRITORY MEDIA

After spending some time formulating a vocabulary and discourse surrounding the urban margin, the life of this landscape began to speak in physical and spacial specificities. The landscape revealed a process of waste streams, the less enjoyed and unboasted aspects of the urban landscape. But the conversation went much farther than just trash and scaps from downtown businesses; it spoke to an entire ecology of particulate matter, a dynamic life in the ground, the underground life of the city, the art of the renegade. Through having an interest in the traditions of shamanism around the globe, I formed a design ethic that focused on revealing the resourceful and character rich aspects of a particular site in the heart of Auburn’s downtown core. Through this iterative design research process, I: explored the value of open soil in urban space and a new method for in situ soil making for margninalized space, the potential for connecting wastestreams from the downtown and incorporating them into productive endeavours for individuals, and formulated the concept for a new type of urban social space: the motherculture.

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soil rememdiation and place making

ashpalt removalsubgrade exposureashpalt reuse

partial gravel removalstacked for acificationparent compostparent mineral clayparent myselia

acidification

connect to parent materialcreate clay and topsoilconnect to waste streams

waste streams creates new economysoil remediation creates new space

mushroom garden

asphalt reuse

mycorestoration

decomposition: fungi, algae, and bacteria are responsible for most of organic decomposition

reduction: mycelia also have the ability to break down large, inorganic and organic compounds that might be toxic to other or-ganisms

concentration: for other ele-ments (such as heavy metals) that cannot be broken down further, mushrooms concentrate them in their fruiting bodies

compost

How Do You Make Soil?




acidification



mushroom garden

asphalt reuse

mycorestoration




compost




acidification



mushroom garden

asphalt reuse

mycorestoration




compost

The MotherOn site there will need to be a mother culture of soil. This soil agglomeration will house all of the bacteria and fungal cultures necessary for the soil remediation and creation process. Similar to fermentation cultures, every time a new pile is started, soil from the mother is taken to strat the new pile.

planN1:10

The design process for the final presentation of this investigation began with a model. The key to designing within this dynamic space was framing different niches without loosing the open-ended, democratic voice of the landscape. I decided to accomplish this with stretched wires that serve as spacial armatures and infrastructure for the collection space of compost and other reused materials which this new landscape seeks to celebrate.

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Cheeburger CheeburgerHalf-Time Bar and GrillBig Dog Running Co.ArigatoStarz and Auburn SpaTacoRitaBizilia’s CafeGigi’s CupcakesFlowersmith’s FloralMellow MushroomJimmy John’s SandwichesThe Pink Room (shoes)Big Blue BagelEllie’s BoutiqueWrapsodyAvondale’s BarAuburn Barber ShopLuxury SpaAuburn ArtToomer’s Drug StoreCell Phone RepairAuburn HardwareMoe’s BBQThe Locker Room (clothes)Little Italy PizzeriaOfficesSouthern Trails (outdoor)Hudson BuildingAuburn City HallCOA Human Resources508 ArchitectsThe Coffee CatCOA Health and WellnessThe Hound (restaurant/bar)

80 lbs/day

4/wk

150 lbs/day

65 lbs/day

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wastestreams

Magnolia Street

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tree

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Gay Street

Tichenor Avenue

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site

As this project lives on, new sketches begin to form this space into an organized digestive system. One could call this a reverse digestion though. The periphery of our urban lives falls away and begins to build a garden, a motherculture for our community. However this garden is not focused as much on plants, but on the reclaimation of the particles and casts of the dynamic urban landscape.

[ n a t u r a l e n v i r o n m e n t ]

[ master in landscape architecture | auburn university ]felipe palacios | mi yan | braxton tanner

[ delineation of eco-regions ]The city of Auburn is in the middle of the piedmont and the coastal plain between the South-ern Outer Piedmont and the Fall Line Hills

[ existing tree canopy ]

[ geology | development over time ]

[ Southern Outer Piedmont configuration ]

[ topography | hydrology | watersheds | urban deveploment ]Auburn is located on the ridge between 2 major watersheds

1960’s 2000’s1980’s

3 principal geological stripes

fault

fault

[ existing open land and agricultural fields ]

urban

ecologies

introduction

One of the specific interests that I gained from my time in the MLA program at Auburn was the intricate way that the collective of all life, culture, and environment interact in cities. This encouraged me to find a voice where the binary of human vs non-human or politics vs nature could be further broken down. The following graphics are from a studio investigation of the City of Auburn and its interaction with aspects of its immediate and surrounding landscape.

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fruitful forces filling the fractures

west end food network! !

! !

During my time in the MLA program at Auburn, I was heaviliy encouraged to take on design with fresh and progressive ideas. This is best revealed in the design of projects oriented towards social outreach. These two pages show my design work for the West End neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama.This design creates an educational outpost and public orchard for members within the food desert of the west side in attempt to help fill nutritional and cultural food gaps. This type of urban ecology challenges the relationship between the living collective and the city.

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! !

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Cypress Tracks: team u/patch 3 Braxton tanner + grace lee urban ARMATURE workshop/march 2015

urban armature workshop

The urban ARMATURE project was a week long design blitz with landscape architect Julie Bargmann of DIRT Studios. This project perfectly reveals the sensitivity and brute strength that is required in a more holistic and honest method of urban design. The goal of this design was to tackle sections of a 1 mile stretch between Cypress Creek Nature Preserve and the Alabama River in the post-idustrial/active-industrial fringes of Montgomery, Alabama’s downtown. The entire studio was divided into different sections of the 1 mile transect. The design challenge tested the ability to respond contextually and appropriately in this tough urban landsacpe.

EXISTING CONDITIONS

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Cypress Tracks: team u/patch 3 braxton tanner + grace lee urban ARMATURE workshop/march 2015

The stream corridor that runs from Cypress Nature Park to the Ala-bama River is rich with the history of Montgomery Alabama. The tangles of rail lines, coursing of the former bend in the Alabama River, and the in-dustrial history of Alabama dance across the landscape, creating a series of unique and distinct moments. One of these special moments is here in patch 3 of the corridor. This spot has three special characteristics: the intersection of Cypress Creek and the rail, the highest number of rails within the corridor, and the intriguing juxtaposition of active industry and a long standing urban wild. The design intent for this site was very sim-ple, since the dense forest and industrial activity already speak enough for themselves. Therefore, primary goals were to increase access to the site, frame the fingering of rails across the site, and leverage the beautiful ex-isting conditions of thick canopy, stream, and industry. The first move in this design was to open up all of the rail for pedestrian and bike access. The rails then became public space, which provided a vantage point for all of the site’s sweet moments. The second objective began to connect the downtown grid into the site and explore options for further development.

Team u / Patch 3

Cypress TracksBraxton Tanner + Grace Lee

civic infrastructure

trail/ greenway to town creek park

trails with rails

civic buildingschurchesuniversity

historic district

mapping

braxtontanner

felton little park |

town creek drainage basin

pArKiNg lOtS

sTrEeTshYdRoGrApHy

cOnToUrS

renew opelika rd

The Skate Shop

Downtown

ideas for design address the following:

need for improved stormwater infrastructure

new residential around downtown

lack of recreational space for skaters and bmx

no close dog park

proximity and access to downtown

proximity to civic infrastructure

rails to trails

renew opelika rd

auburn city park

braxton tanner

conceptual plan

bioretention redevelopment:

dredgingculvert enlargement

correct weir sizenew plant palette

1:30

dog park

soundstage/amphitheatre

pavilions

bmx/skatepark

recreational streambed

new trail

section

braxton tanner1:16

recreational

streambed

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Running/Biking Trail

auburn city parkAuburn City Park has been a presence for Auburn since the 1950’s. However, the park

has fallen out of context for the demographic of Auburn’s residents. The park is also a crucial stormwater retention basin for the city. This procides a perfect opportunity for the city to impliment a thriving urban ecology for the new park. New plans for the park show the past and history of the park while creating a new program and aesthetic for the future.

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d.c. wolfe elementary

During the studio process of exploring the potential of economically tough, rural Alabama school yards, I was able to focus on a greater understanding of detail and space through modeling and more detailed construction sections.

Residential and

commercial

design

automax

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three creeks

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prequinox414 S. Gay St.august 22 8-10pm

breanna barbarabreanna barbara

britt cherrybritt cherry

captain kudzucaptain kudzu

8 bit bob8 bit bob

musical talents

artist vendors

mama mocha’s presents

graphics

sketch sketch

acrylic

digital painted poster

third iteration

Documents