SP08US. PHILADELPHIA, PA
reclaimedSKY: A CONSTRUCTION FENCE CANOPY
Treehouse Books is a registered non-profit that provides educational programs to disadvantaged youth in North Philadelphia. The interest generated by Treehouse’s many programs has taxed their modest facilities, forcing this group to seek other spaces to serve an ever-growing body of students and programs.
In response, the IDC proposed a radical restructuring of the land behind this community group - a small parcel of land that contained too much trash, sun, and razor wire to be conducive to effective learning programs. To address these concerns, IDC students and volunteers proposed crafting two horizontal filters using free or reclaimed material. The first filter would be applied to the earth, providing a revised groundscape that spoke clearly to the spaces and facilities required by Treehouse’s programs. Inspired in part by the unexpected demolition of a building neighboring the site three weeks before the end of the semester, this horizontal restructuring relied upon a single, undulating ribbon of reclaimed brick, stone and dirt to create a play landscape for our client. The second filter would be applied to the sky, providing enough shade to dramatically reduce the heat of the sun, but not enough to kill the sun loving plants grown within the gardens of the space underneath.
To realize this ambition, the students experimented with many undervalued materials common to Philadelphia’s urban landscape. Eventually, they landed upon a tectonic approach that used origami to strengthen and unite scraps of construction fencing. The resulting canopy not only provided the requisite amount of shade, but also helped to create a playful and child-scaled garden oasis within the tough urban environment of North Philadelphia.
Just as important, the tectonic approach unearthed through this work is quite elastic, potentially allowing this work to empower other sites, programs and clients. Therefore, the IDC is currently working with other non-profits including the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, to design versions of this approach that could provide additional shade or even allow for rain-collection.
