A City Full of Holes: Exploration and Experimentation in the Terrain Vague

Abstract

A City Full of Holes explores the design potential of the unintentional spaces within the urban landscape left over by city planning, architecture and civil engineering. Through a tactical engagement with the built environment aimed at leveraging the unique spatial and social characteristics of these spaces instead of traditional strategies of reincorporation by erasure this thesis advocates an opportunistic approach to the creation and design of diverse public spaces. To investigate this position, the thesis project applies strategies aimed at environment-crafting to amplify the unique characteristics of these spaces through the development of dynamic and ephemeral forms of design intervention within the 420,000+ sf I-5 Colonnade located between the Seattle neighborhoods of Eastlake and Capitol Hill.