FOUND WALKINGAN IMMANENT APPROACH TO A DERELICT POST INDUSTRIAL SITE

m i c h a e l a l l e n l e w i s SS

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At once repulsive, and yet surprisingly alluring, derelict post-industrial sites are common

entities on the edge of urban cities. They are an in-between, characterized by overlap and

flux, where life and entropy challenge the assumptions of progress and time. What began

by entering an apparently vacant site became a dialog with place through the embodied

approach of walking. Walking was explored as an immersed investigation of a site and a

physical meandering through the philosophies of place, experience, and immanence. Relying

on movement and observation, this research is an account of the continual unfolding of the

mutual resonance of both self and site, which are bound through the concept of place.

The observations and findings are described as they applied to the process and approach of

design. By walking a site as an extended series of visits, it is perceived as an encountered

relationship of mutual becoming. Based on the series of visits, the design process is equally

immersive and open-ended. The resulting proposal embraces the transitional relationship

through a process of long-term iterative design.

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FOUND WALKING:

An Immanent Approach to a Derelict Post Industrial Site

Michael Allen Lewis

A thesis

submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

University of Washington

2010

Program authorized to Offer Degree:

Landscape Architecture

University of Washington

Graduate School

This is to certify that I have examined this copy of a master’s thesis by

Michael Allen Lewis

and have found that it is complete and satisfactory in all respects,

and that any and all revisions required by the final

examining committee have been made.

Committee Members:

_____________________________________________________

Thaisa Way

_____________________________________________________

Lynne Manzo

Date:__________________________________

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at the University of Washington, I agree that the Library shall make its copies freely available for inspection. I further agree that extensive copying of this thesis is allowable only for scholarly purposes, consistent with “fair use” as prescribed in the U.S. Copyright Law. Any other reproduction for any purposes or by any means shall not be allowed without my written permission.

Signature ________________________

Date ____________________________

University of Washington

Abstract

FOUND WALKING:

An Immanent Approach to a Derelict Post Industrial Site

Michael Allen Lewis

Chair of the Supervisory Committee:

Assistant Professor Thaisa Way

Department of Landscape Architecture

At once repulsive, and yet surprisingly alluring, derelict post-industrial sites are common entities on the edge of urban cities. They are an in-between, characterized by overlap and flux, where life and entropy challenge the assumptions of progress and time. What began by entering an apparently vacant site became a dialog with place through the embodied approach of walking. Walking was explored as an immersed investigation of a site and a physical meandering through the philosophies of place, experience, and immanence. Relying on movement and observation, this research is an account of the continual unfolding of the mutual resonance of both self and site, which are bound through the concept of place. The observations and findings are described as they applied to the process and approach of design. By walking a site as an extended series of visits, it is perceived as an encountered relationship of mutual becoming. Based on the series of visits, the design process is equally immersive and open-ended. The resulting proposal embraces the transitional relationship through a process of long-term iterative design.

i

Chapter 4: Experience ....................................37 [a] Generic .................................................38 [b] Figure/Ground ......................................41 Separate ................................................41 Gradient .................................................42 [c] Becoming .............................................45 [d] Emergence ...........................................48

Chapter 5: Methods .......................................51 Wandering .................................................51 Open Inventory ..........................................53 Photography...............................................53 Sketchbook.................................................55 Spectrum Coding........................................59

Chapter 6: Design ...........................................63 Emergent Design ........................................63 Sedges ...................................................64 Edges .....................................................67 Glass Walls .......................................67 Silo Gateway .....................................68 Wedges .................................................68 Narrative ...............................................69 Design Reflection ..................................70

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ............................................ ii

Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................1

Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................7 Attention to the Derelict ..............................9 Defining Place ............................................11 Experience of Place .....................................14 Dialectic Place and Body .............................15 Immanence and Unfolding Experience ......16 Challenging the View ..................................18 Walking in Place ..........................................19

Chapter 3: Precedent Studies .........................25 Gas Works Park ..........................................26 Duisburg-Nord ...........................................27 Herring’s House .........................................29 Robert Smithson ........................................30 Spiral Jetty .............................................30 Rundown ...............................................33

Chapter 7: Narrative .......................................73 She .............................................................75 He ...............................................................79 We ..............................................................83 Narrative Reflection ...................................85

Chapter 8: Reflection ......................................87 Questions ...................................................87 Deeper Understanding ...............................88 Design Process ...........................................89 Challenge Assumptions ..............................91 Self Reflection ............................................92

Bibliography ....................................................93

ii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Images cited in text are referenced in the Bibliography. All others were created by the author, Michael A. Lewis

Figure 1: River .................................................. 1Figure 2: Overlap. ............................................ 3Figure 3: Flux ................................................... 5Figure 4: Potential. .......................................... 7Figure 5: Uncertainty. ...................................... 9Figure 6: Explore. ........................................... 11Figure 7: Inhabit. ........................................... 13Figure 8: Relationship. ................................... 15Figure 9: Desire.............................................. 17Figure 10: Touch. ........................................... 19Figure 11: Beckon .......................................... 21Figure 12: Habitat. ......................................... 23Figure 13: Precedents. ................................... 25Figure 14: Gas Works View. ........................... 26Figure 15: Gas Works Kite. ............................. 27Figure 16: Duisburg-Nord View...................... 28Figure 17: Duisburg-Nord Form. .................... 28Figure 18: DuisburgNord-Space. .................... 28Figure 19: Herring’s House Park. ................... 29Figure 20: Herring’s House Park Marsh. ........ 29Figure 21: Spiral Jetty Form. .......................... 30Figure 22: Spiral Jetty. ................................... 31Figure 23: Great Salt Lake. ............................. 32Figure 24: Entropy. ........................................ 32Figure 25: Stills from Spiral Jetty film. ........... 33Figure 26: Asphalt Rundown. ........................ 34Figure 27: Patially Buried Woodshed. ........... 35Figure 28: Partially Buried Woodshed fall. .... 35Figure 29: Clarity. ........................................... 37Figure 30: Harbor Island to West. .................. 38Figure 31: Harbor Island to Northeast. .......... 38Figure 32: Harbor Island to Southeast. .......... 38Figure 33: Harbor Isaland. ............................. 39Figure 34: Generic Site. ................................. 39

Figure 35: Early Sketches ............................... 40Figure 36: Separate Figure/Ground Site. ....... 41Figure 37: Figure/Ground. ............................. 41Figure 38: Separate........................................ 41Figure 39: Opportunists. ................................ 42Figure 40: Moss. ............................................ 42Figure 41: Derelict. ........................................ 42Figure 42: Graffiti. .......................................... 42Figure 43: Searching. ..................................... 42Figure 44: Figure Interacting with Ground. ... 43Figure 45: Gradient Egde. .............................. 43Figure 46: Gradient Figure/Ground Site. ....... 43Figure 47: Steps. ............................................ 44Figure 48: Graffiti above Toy Bin. ................... 44Figure 49: Moss and Mushrooms on Concrete. ................................. 44Figure 50: Deconstruction. ............................ 45Figure 51: Becoming-Site. .............................. 46Figure 52: Tracks. ........................................... 47Figure 53: Train and Fence............................. 47Figure 54: River View. .................................... 47Figure 55: Danger. ......................................... 48Figure 56: Coin Washer. ................................. 48Figure 57: Perched. ........................................ 48Figure 58: Emerging Design ......................... 49Figure 59: Walking. ........................................ 51Figure 60: Some Mapped Wandering. ........... 52Figure 61: Inventory Samples. ...................... 53Figure 62: Between-Places. ........................... 55Figure 63: Between-Moments. ...................... 56Figure 64: Traces and Marks. ......................... 57Figure 65: Coding Spectrum. ......................... 58Figure 66: Observation Sample. .................... 59Figure 67: Difference Spectrum ..................... 61

Figure 68: Silos. ............................................. 63Figure 69: Emergence. ................................... 64Figure 70: Novel Path. ................................... 64Figure 71: Concrete. ...................................... 65Figure 72: Concrete. ...................................... 65Figure 73: Sedges. ......................................... 65Figure 74: Fence and Shrubs. ........................ 66Figure 75: Armored Shore. ............................ 66Figure 76: Warehouse Wall Alternative. ........ 67Figure 77: Glass Wall early Iteration. ............. 67Figure 78: Glass Walls, Silos, and Warehouse ............................ 67Figure 79: Wedge Section. ............................. 68Figure 80: Wedge Plan. .................................. 68Figure 81: Desire Line. ................................... 69Figure 82: Desire Line. ................................... 69Figure 83: Wedge. ......................................... 69Figure 84: Wedge Section .............................. 71Figure 85: Sedge Section. .............................. 71Figure 86: Found View Section. ..................... 71Figure 87: Gradient Site Plan. ........................ 71Figure 88: Becoming. ..................................... 73Figure 89: Emergent Path. ............................. 75Figure 90: Found View. .................................. 77Figure 91: Night Edges. .................................. 79Figure 92: Center of the Edge. ....................... 79Figure 93: Becoming-Shore. .......................... 81Figure 94: Immanence. .................................. 83Figure 95: Becoming-Place. ........................... 85Figure 96: Reflection. ..................................... 87

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge and extend my heartfelt gratitude to the following persons who have made the completion of this thesis possible:

Foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my committee chair, Dr. Thaisa Way, for her vital encouragement and support throughout these past three years, and especially for her guidance during the thesis process. I would like to thank Dr. Lynne Manzo, also on my committee, for her guiding interest and motivation on the subject. Thank you to my classmates; particularly those willing to spend hours walking and talking. In addition, I would like to thank my friends and family, and especially my wife, Mandie; I couldn’t have done this without you.

iv

Lewis, Michael

1Figure 1: River

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

It is a great art to saunter. –Henry

David Thoreau1

I travel not to go anywhere, but to

go. I travel for travel’s sake. The

great affair is to move. –Robert L.

Stevenson2

It is easy to get carried away with the

novelty of technologies, but this is often done

at the expense of experiential approaches

to design in the landscape. As new tools

of technology are adapted to site analysis

and design, new horizons for landscape

1 (Thoreau, Rogers & Pforzheimer Bruce Rogers 1906, p. 253).2 (Stevenson 1909, p. 63).

2

architecture have arisen. It has been argued

that technological implements are extensions

of ourselves and have fueled new expressions

and outlets for design (Merleau-Ponty 1962,

p. 261). However, it can be argued that these

same tools risk isolating the designer from the

fundamental intimate experiences of place

that are so critical to the creative process,

and to the field of landscape architecture as

a whole. To abandon the richness found in

direct physical engagement of a site is a loss

of vital significance in the design process. As

Rebecca Solnit writes in Wanderlust, “When

you give yourself to places, they give you

yourself back; the more one comes to know

them, the more one seeds them with the

invisible crop of memories and associations

that will be waiting for you when you come

back…” (Solnit 2000, p. 13). It is my intent in

this thesis to explore an intimate experiential

approach to understanding a site and design

to underscore the importance and intensity

of personal encounter for effective landscape

design. This will be done by physical and

theoretical exploration of both my analysis and

design process for a derelict post-industrial

site.

I became interested in embodied

experience because it is a primary way of

knowing the world (Casey 1997, p. 224), and

how I best relate to the experiences I invite

through design. No matter how reliant on

tools I have become, both traditional and the

new more technological, direct experience

of a place remains central to my research

and understanding of a landscape. As a

designer interested in having others share in

my appreciation for the outdoors, I found it

fitting to practice as I preach, so to say, and get

outside and walk. This thesis is an exploration

of the power of walking as an approach to

site analysis and as a method for design. It

is necessarily transitional, spontaneous, and

creative.

Some of the greatest American

environmental literature, including Silent

Spring by Rachel Carson and Sand County

Almanac by Aldo Leopold, embrace the power

of experience, and rely on the simple act of

walking to know the world. It is ordinary,

slow, and common, and therein lies its power.

Walking is intimate, and immersive; it can

also be spontaneous. Taking inspiration

initially from authors such as Henry David

Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel

Carson for their reliance on walking, and

their understanding of the deep connection

to place that it provides, I present, in this

thesis, a personal account of a series of

walks. However, my interest is not limited

to wilderness or of loss of habitat, like these

authors, but in the richness of places that

may otherwise be considered consumed

and worthless. I write of the splendor of life

3Figure 2: Overlap.

Lewis, Michael

found within a derelict industrial site along the

lower Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington.

Walking here is like finding life in what Carson

might call a ‘silent spring’, but even in silence

there is much to be heard.

This thesis is about process and

flux in a general sense. More specifically,

this exploration is about the process of an

experience of place within the framework

of what Deleuze and Guittari have called

“becoming-other” (Deleuze & Guattari

1987, p. 161). This framework of becoming-

other is a dynamic state of “between-times,

between-moments” (Deleuze & Boyman

2001, p. 29) that I embraced for its emphasis

on the importance of movement, flow,

and relationships. It is an experiential

phenomenon of transitions, opportunities

and potentialities that inspired me to frame

experience as an unfolding continuum of

exploration. Place, which I understand as an

overlapping of self, community, culture, site,

and process, is held back when categorized too

rigidly. Rather than stifle that complexity of

overlap and interaction, I acknowledge through

this framework that the chosen site is in a state

of flux. Therefore the notion of becoming-

other is especially suitable for my approach

to site analysis and design in this particular

context.

Using the experience of walking, I will

describe a series of experiences to explore the

power of a physical open-ended engagement

in a site as a part of the design process of

landscape architecture. In accordance with

James Corner’s statement that “landscape

is understood as an ongoing project, an

enterprising venture that enriches the cultural

world through creative effort and imagination”

(Corner 1999, p. 1), I strive to embrace and

nourish this ongoing transitional nature of the

landscape addressed in this thesis. I embrace

process at multiple scales and situations.

Accordingly, both the concepts of place and

experience are equally transitory and dynamic.

Transition is important in my personal

explorations. Walking is a way to amplify the

unfolding experience of mutual becoming, for

as noted above, to do so means to physically

engage the dynamic overlap of place and

experience. In this way my understanding of

place continually emerged through multiple

encounters and responses to novelty and

difference.

As a place to explore, I was drawn

to the challenge of walking what some

might consider the antithesis of nature. I

wandered by foot along an industrialized

river with the intent to discover what might

be found through the same methods that

have inspired such spirited reverence for

the natural walking experience. I knew this

would not be equivalent to Muir’s first walk

4

into the woods, but I had a hunch that there

was something to discover. I was lured by the

landscape’s relative invisibility. Rather than

brush it off as an archetype of industrial waste

and degradation, I wanted to suspend my own

prejudice and explore.

Holding the belief that we are not so

removed from the world that we can design

without experience of a place, I explore the

questions:

1) How might an embodied experience of

walking, as an engaged mode of site inventory

and analysis, convey a deeper understanding

of the complexities inherent in a post-industrial

site?

2) How can this embodied knowledge enrich

the design process in landscape architecture?

3) How might such an embodied knowledge

challenge or compliment conventional

assumptions about post-industrial sites?

James Corner’s theories of landscape

as an ongoing process support my perspective

of place that I embraced through my own

embodiment of place and exploration of the

sensual experience of first-hand unfolding

encounter. Revealed through walking, and

supported by the writing of the environmental

authors already mentioned, direct engagement

with site and process creates a deeper means

of place connection and understanding

(Blakemore 2000). Walking as a process

of analysis is, for my purposes, a means to

resonate with the dynamic character of place

directly.

Walking serves as an embodied

example of emergence, in which movement is

a creative force (Careri 2002; Colebrook 2002;

Wunderlich 2008). Walking is not just a mode

of transportation. It is an endeavor in itself,

not merely an endured movement between

points of significance. While conducting a

series of walks for this thesis, I embraced the

landscape and initiated a dialog of design

explorations, in which my proposals were

never deterministic, but rather intended

as gestures of potential and multiplicity.

Ultimately, the proposal (see Chapter 6) is

equally dynamic, and instead of refining a final

plan, I clarified a dialog between potential

users, the site, and me. Based on questions

from my experience, the first phase of design

is a minimalist mark that encourages the

emergence of a site response. My intent then

is to hear the site’s voice in my dialog with

place.

The following chapters describe

my thesis process of discovery and design

in greater detail. Together, Chapters 2

and 3 will address specific literature and

precedents pertinent to the study of the

5Figure 3: Flux

Lewis, Michael

engaged experience of movement through

a post-industrial site. Chapter 2 reviews

literature on post-industrial ruins, place, and

walking. Chapter 3 includes precedent studies

pertinent to a design approach to design

both physically and conceptually. Chapter

4 describes my experience and transitional

understanding of place that emerged from an

extended series of site visits. These findings

are based on excerpts and reflections from

the notes kept in my sketchbook during my

walks. Chapter 5 describes my methods of

exploration, inventory, interpretation, and

design that percolated from my desire to

wander an industrial region and apply the

lessons gained from place. Based on my

experience and methods, the proposed design

strategies emerge in Chapter 6. The strategies,

influenced by the observation of graffiti, desire

lines, and theory surrounding walking, are my

intentional mark to mediate a response from

the site in the form of traced movement. The

traces that emerge will in turn inspire novel

reactions for future design insertions. Chapter

7 is a narrative presentation, through a variety

of perspectives, of the site to explore the

potential of walking following installation.

The thesis is concludes, in Chapter 8, with a

reflection on the process and application I

investigated through this thesis.

The final product of the thesis is an

exploration of walking and its relationship to

my understanding of a derelict industrial site,

and an argument for an embodied approach

to site and design. The specific design is

an application of becoming and emergence

found through site visits and is inspired by

a combination of a deeper sense of place

nourished by walking, writing and reading

related to time and ruin, and the notion

that creativity is an unfolding result of novel

encounter. Rather than create a design that

objectively resists or endures use, this site

will actively participate in a dialog of the

emergence of place.

6

Lewis, Michael

7Figure 4: Potential.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The world is made of the very stuff of

the body. –Maurice Merleau-Ponty1

Through a review of literature, this

chapter frames walking as a powerful approach

to site design in general and to my method

for a site within the industrial region of the

lower Duwamish River in particular. I explored

the state of knowledge and scholarship in the

area of walking as it applies to the experience

and perceptions of process and place. Some

designers, as will be shown, are unsatisfied

with pure reclamation and call for a deeper

understanding of sites to embrace a greater

1 (Merleau-Ponty 1964, p. 163).

8

potential of design opportunities. Walking is

a means to develop a deeper knowledge and

challenge the preconceived perceptions of a

“derelict” post-industrial site. Ideas of process,

movement, and understanding of place are

important to the subject of walking and they

have framed the explorations and conclusions I

have drawn in this thesis.

Industrial sites no longer characterized

by their intended or past use have been

referred to in a variety of ways, but typically

having a negative connotation of a problem in

need of repair: drosscape, brownfield, derelict

site, toxic site, manufactured landscape,

terrain vague, loose space, abandoned site,

disturbed site, and a host of other labels. In

this thesis exploration, the site is an overlap of

an “abandoned” cement distribution facility,

a “vague” gravel expanse under a bridge, and

a small “brownfield” park, all in proximity

to active shipping and industry along the

Duwamish River. Development of such a

site has become a major focus of landscape

architecture design practices, and one I was

drawn to investigate. This literature review

begins to unravel the importance of walking

in the practice of site design in this context

by first discussing the state of knowledge

about post-industrial site design and then

considering how walking as an approach to site

analysis develops a particular framework of

understanding place through movement.

I will review pertinent philosophical

considerations of experience and place

that inspired me to consider walking a

“derelict” site as a key means of site analysis.

Concepts of place situate the method and

analysis of walking within a lived experience

perspective, and highlight the importance of

walking as a principal means. This requires

an overview of how self and environment

interact. In addition, contemporary concepts

of place establish, for my exploration, that

the perspective of process and flux are an

opportunity for alternative interpretations of

experience. The main concept for this thesis

focuses on walking as a transitional experience

that embraces the various perspectives of

place and understanding described below. It

has been my intent to grasp inspiration as it

unfolds, embrace transition, and follow the

emergent experience.

Walking may seem like a straight

forward activity, but there is a distinctly

profound and complex relationship between

self and site that can be realized through

the act of walking. Walking is a physical

and metaphorical means to travel through

space, literature, ontology, perception, and

communication. I focus on the walking

experience specifically, but am ultimately

meandering through this larger milieu of

walking as a metaphor to think and describe

my understanding of processes. This

9Figure 5: Uncertainty.

chapter reviews key concepts relevant for

an experience within a post-industrial site

that is intended to be spontaneous, loose,

and multifaceted. Together the literature

presented in this chapter forms a foundation

that helped me to understand how the

everyday act of walking is a unique and

informative approach to site and design.

ATTENTION TO THE DERELICT

Uncertainty is a primary attribute of

“derelict” post-industrial sites. The concept

of post-industrial refers to the absence of

production and manufacturing. This absence

of clear and defined understanding is easily

answered by assumptions and generalizations,

including my own generalization of

abandonment and dereliction. The

circumstances of each site are unique,

but there is a general air of failure and

abandonment associated with “disturbed

sites”. Depending on the sites previous use,

there may be structural hazards, or residual

toxicity, along with an entropic patina of

wear. These present a wide array of both real

and perceived obstacles to overcome. No

longer considered suitable for their previous

exploit, the sites seem abandoned, or perhaps

lay in wait to be revitalized, reclaimed, or

redeveloped. This state of elusiveness of

“derelict” post-industrial sites has detracted

many designers from even approaching them,

but the challenge has brought some pragmatic

individuals to try to reestablish order in the

name of progress. The disorder is seen as a

problem to be fixed, but there is an alternative

perspective; one that recognizes the value and

inevitability of uncertainty. Generally assumed

wasted, and in need of drastic changes, these

industrial sites may rest vacant for some time,

which contributes further to the hurdles

of redevelopment (Edensor 2005). These

sites then, are a difficult reality of urban and

industrial places.

Reclamation is the attempt to alter

a site in order to make it inhabitable. A

variety of post-industrial site proposals have

argued for extensive reclamation to eliminate

potential exposure to toxins and provide a

clean slate for redevelopment (Kirkwood

2001). This is often done by knocking down

old structures and shipping out any hazardous

material, or burying the whole problem under

a fresh surface of soil (Hardy 2005). Driven

by fears of public perception, fears of safety

and accountability, and potential profit,

reclamation of post-industrial sites tends to be

a drastic approach to site and design.

There is prospect, however, to be

found in the complexities of industrial sites.

Architect and Landscape Architect Richard

Cass, in Creating Multi-functional Landscapes:

A More Enlightened Approach to Land

ATTENTION TO THE DERELICTLewis, Michael

10

Reclamation, calls for a creative approach to

maximize the public and client satisfaction

of the radical changes characteristic of many

reclamation projects (Cass 2003). Landscape

Architect Elizabeth Meyer, also finds that

“disturbed sites” provide opportunity for

design innovation (Meyer 2007). Not satisfied

with merely making a place acceptable,

Meyer writes that these sites, if designed

effectively, can engage users, influence current

perceptions, communicate potential hazards,

and develop a greater connection to the

urban fabric. For Meyer, “disturbed sites”

have a character of place already instilled in

the site that has a potential to influence a

greater community awareness. The presence

of disturbance, if incorporated into design,

can be associated with larger issues of

consumption and production that is part of our

collective culture. As Meyer writes, “disturbed

sites are risk materialized, spatialized, and

temporalized” (Meyer 2007, p. 67). This is

an entirely different approach that brings the

public face to face with otherwise abstract

and distanced risks of consumer culture.

Reclamation, as she writes, is important, but

that it misses the potential depth available in

alternative methods of design (Meyer 2007).

Meyer argues that there is a greater web of

social and cultural significance to these sites,

and we can embrace disturbance as a key

component for creative opportunity. These

are places with stories and pasts from which to

learn.

Others similarly find opportunity in

“disturbed sites”. Geographer Tim Edensor,

author of Industrial Ruins: Spaces, Aesthetics,

and Materiality, describes industrial “ruins”

as valuable. Edensor, however, goes even

further and counters the premise that

these places are even wasted. Instead, their

character of disarray is an asset as found.

Edensor adventures into a variety of “derelict”

locations to discover what lies within them.

Edensor argues that sites of industrial ruin are

places already embedded with spontaneity,

creativity, novelty, and the freedom to indulge

a variety of transgressions (Edensor 2005).

This almost sounds fun. Edensor’s exploration

of post-industrial sites complements Meyer’s

stance on the value of the “disturbed.” Each

of these three perspectives, though distinct,

offers a way to explore alternative and stirring

strategies to address industrial ruins, and see

dereliction, decay, and entropy as positive

opportunities for new understandings through

design.

Preconceived assumptions about

a site can hamper imaginative design and

encourage premature “solutions” before any

real understanding of the site can be obtained.

Old industrial facilities, due to their unique

physical and cultural complexity, are at risk

11

of oversimplification, and the overwhelming

trend in a consumer culture would be to erase

the mistake and move on. It is not enough,

according to Meyer and Edensor, to merely

restore each of these sites to some arbitrary

state of historical or functional convention. It

is futile to “keep it like it was” (Abbey 1976).

Meyer warns that industrial ruins should not

be “heroicised” for their past grandeur, but

that a balance to reflect who we are is instead

necessary.

Historical preservation would be

an equally limited solution in that it only

represents the history of production without

revealing the results of consumption. It is

important to recognize the risks of the extreme

dichotomous actions of preservation and

reclamation (Meyer 2007). Alternatively, the

path that led to the present is significant and

should be continued as a process.

There is, accordingly, a need to

embrace the scars as a means to heal

holistically. The apparent blemishes challenge

perceptions of beauty, progress, and society by

admitting the past in the process to move into

the future as lessons are learned. The mix of

attractions and repulsion that Meyer identifies

has the potential to better communicate the

“cultural agency” of landscape, and collectively

influence behaviors of individuals –that is, the

social, historical, and cultural significance of

place (Meyer 2007).

DEFINING PLACE

It is important for this thesis to

address the concept of place, which I have

understood as dynamic and changing, for the

consideration of walking as a design approach.

Place is not a simple concept to define and

can be experienced and understood in endless

ways. I have therefore included a summary of

philosophical explorations of place that have

informed my understanding. My interpretation

is constructivist and admittedly changes in

response to my experience and reading of

this literature. There are subtle distinctions

between authors on the subject, occasionally

contradictory. I am not concerned with

arguing their validity and am instead interested

in how the concepts support walking, and

challenge me to explore new lines of thought

as I encounter them. My use of the term

‘place’ can best be understood as a region

inhabited. Whether my stance on inhabitation

is ultimately physical, virtual, or spiritual is not

essential, but still interesting to consider and

so I point it out.

The interpretation of place, although

apparently simple, has continually evolved

as a rather complex concept. Edward Casey,

in The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History,

Figure 6: Explore.

DEFINING PLACELewis, Michael

12

summarizes the various perspectives of place

as defined by various philosophers. This thesis

relies on his discussions of the philosophical

frameworks for understanding of place. Casey

established the significance of meaning and

perception in an intimate understanding

of place. That is, he demonstrates how

consistently across writings about place it is

the human experience of place that emerges

as critically important to a full understanding.

This literature, which I will describe in more

detail below, reinforces the significance

of experience for understanding place,

and inspired multiple ways to engage and

understand experience.

In exploring place in particular, Casey

reveals the importance of experience. Founder

of the field of phenomenology, Edmond

Husserl, argued that experience is the source

of knowledge. Doing is therefore essential in

understanding.

Building on this, philosopher Martin

Heidegger describes the significance and

intimacy of face-to-face encounter. It is

in nearness, according to Heidegger, that

dwelling occurs (Casey 1997, p. 238). In both

cases, the contact of the body with the world

is of primary significance for knowing. Direct

contact with objects and places in the world

inform consciousness and the process of

understanding. Notably, Husserl identifies the,

“altogether mundane experience: walking,” as

a means to link the lived body and the lived

place (Casey 1997, p. 224). Walking, according

to Husserl, provides space with the dynamism

necessary to become place. The body finds as

well as founds place. It is therefore the action

of a lived body that acts as the central agent in

seeking and creating the concept of place. The

body and place are distinct in this matter, but

are ultimately tied together in the everyday

experience.

By blurring the distinctions of the

body and environment, French philosopher

Maurice Merleau-Ponty redefined place as

potential. According to Casey, Merleau-

Ponty describes “place as an ambiguous

scene of things-to-be-done rather than of

items-already-established” (Casey 1997, p.

232). For Merleau-Ponty the potential and

the actualized are distinct in occurrence, but

both are ultimately real. In this context, a

place is not only felt physically, it is also known

and understood in a virtual field of potential.

Place, therefore, has a way of influencing an

event without our mind dictating the entire

scenario, but there is still the insistence on the

body entering and acting. Inhabiting a site

through action, in this case, makes a place a

lived place. It is therefore important in this

regard to act in a space to fulfill its being a

place. Both of these approaches rely on the

idea of a being that acts in relation to the

13

environment.

Two other philosophers – Bachelard

and Deleuze – according to Casey, do not

rely on Being, but instead focus on transition

(Casey 1997). Philosopher Gaston Bachelard,

for example, introduced the notion of

“intelligible place,” which is a place that is

not sensed entirely, but rather projected and

fleeting. Casey writes, “The sense of place

that counts here is not that of place as it

contains and perdures but as it lights up with

the sudden spark of a single striking image,

like a shooting star in the dark abysm of night”

(Casey 1997, p. 288). For Bachelard, place can

be a flicker that is beyond the range of the

previous concepts of place as concrete and

lasting. Accordingly, place can be immaterial

and imagined. It is in this interpretation

of space as a transitional projection that is

especially relevant to my thesis.

For Bachelard the accumulation of

place encounters is how intimate encounters

develop, and I would argue this happens

best through repeated encounters of a site

by walking and allowing for the emergence

of place experience to unfold. The needed

process, much like a developing relationship,

is gradual and progressively more intimate.

One result of this intimacy, according to

Bachelard, is that place materializes more

fully in the virtual realm of the mind and frees

one to daydream and expand beyond physical

confines and perceptions. It is through

intimacy and continued interaction that

Bachelard describes the emergence of place as

an understanding. This is not an impersonal

habitation of dwelling or acting, but rather

a sensual process of new connections that

can inspire creative explorations. Familiarity,

not necessarily of repetition, is therefore

conducive to a deeper understanding of place

that is open to creative exploration.

The concept of place put forward

by philosopher Gilles Deleuze has also

influenced my thinking for this thesis. His

concept of “smooth space”, for example,

has been especially influential. For Deleuze,

smooth space is something which is

transitional and nomadic. Smooth space

is immersive, subjective, transitional, and

“can only be explored by legwork”(Casey

1997, p. 304; Deleuze & Guattari 1987, p.

78). It is both, “body based and landscape

oriented” (Casey 1997, p. 306). Nomadism,

as Deleuze characterizes smooth space , is

not concerned specifically with measure, but

rather in the process of encounter with the

vast opportunity of immersion (Casey 1997,

p. 306). Relationships, as opposed to the

experience of definite form, are important. It

is an intermediary realm between distinct and

ordered “striated spaces” (Casey 1997, p. 301).

Striated space for example can be an urban

Figure 7: Inhabit.

Lewis, Michael

14

core in which the built form defines spaces,

location, and activity. In comparison, smooth

space can be found in the outskirts where this

order begins to break down.

Deleuze writes that without the

restrictions of form, forces dominate smooth

space. Forces, in this case, are processes of

change and movement as relative trajectories

through space among landmarks. Movement

is therefore understood to be transitions

through space in a general relationship

rather than a measured course demarcated

by increments of progress between specific

points. Place, or at least smooth space, is

not so much comprised of the individual’s

experience of structure, form, and order,

but by movement and interaction. It is this

approach that I adopted to explore the post-

industrial site I selected for my thesis for such a

site lends itself well to Deleuze’s interpretation

of smooth space.

These descriptions of place emphasize

the complexity of place as a concept and a

lived phenomenon. The primary reliance

on Casey for this description has been his

study of place through history in the minds

of philosophers. Place has been argued to be

bound, open, physical, virtual, and transitional

as well as a host of other descriptions.

Common among the descriptions is the

importance, either central or peripheral, of

experience. Experience is a means to engage

a site through first-hand physical encounter.

Walking is one specific mode of experience

that is everyday, familiar, and transitional.

Therefore, walking is a means to embody the

concepts of place presented above. Walking

is an everyday means to continually and

repeatedly encounter a site. It is an excellent

way to encounter smooth space. It has the

potential to create a lived place, provide for

dwelling, inhabitation, increase familiarity, and

emphasize transition.

EXPERIENCE OF PLACE

While Casey provides a useful

framework, work by other scholars provides a

more specific description of the significance of

intimate experience of place. Reflecting on the

importance of place and meaning, Geographer

Edward Relph in Place and Placelessness ,

describes a wholeness of experience in a

relationship to the built environment. He

writes that, “to be human is to have and

know your place” (Relph 1976, p. 1), and

that an erosion of the self has resulted from

a tendency toward placelessness. He further

argues that the experience of modern society

in this case is a negative experience of bland

empty meaning that has only worsened in

the context of globalization. It is therefore

important to understand the significance and

uniqueness of local places as an important

EXPEREINCE OF PLACE

15

asset. An implication of Relph’s argument

is that design of the landscape should take

careful account of the particulars of place.

Care should therefore be taken to investigate

what is unique for a given place. I would argue

that this essential understanding of place is

best understood through repeated encounters

with site to allow aspects of site to unfold.

Not just something in itself to

witness or encounter, place is something

more. Geographer Donald W. Meinig, In The

Beholding Eye: Ten versions of the Same Scene,

Meinig writes, “Thus we confront the central

problem: any landscape is composed not

only what lies before our eyes but what lies

within our heads”(Meinig 1979, p. 34). The

experience of place is not merely an external

construct to see; it is embedded with meaning

that is also felt and understood. Meinig

implies that the landscape bears weight on

our understanding and concept of place. He

further argues that the understanding of

place, though in part a communal construct, is

riddled with the particulars of the individual.

It is therefore important for my thesis to

challenge my presupposed assumptions of

a site and pursue my desire for a gradual

courtship of deeper understanding. In other

words, an extended series of site visits is

intended to better understand the dynamic

between the landscape and myself.

Place is a unifying concept that binds

people and the environment. Philosopher

E.J. Malpas identifies place as a necessity of

experience in which people and place inform

each other. In citing ideas of Martin Heidegger,

he states that the concept of “being-in-the-

world” has become an important concept

bridging the self and the other (Malpas 1999).

As the divisions of self and other dissipate it

becomes clear that place, body, and mind are

threaded together. They become, from this

perspective, essentially dependant. Being

is not just thinking and place is not merely

a location. An active experience is a means

to highlight the unified character of mind,

body, and environment. The implications of

experience and place are that care should

be taken to embrace place as found and to

make conscious efforts to understand the

environment one intends to design or alter.

This strategy of understanding characterizes

my intent to build my connection to place by

actively engaging it before I make proposals to

alter it.

DIALECTIC PLACE AND BODY

Although it is easy to misinterpret the

body’s seamless ability to function without

constant attention as grounds to ignore it, the

descriptions of place above reveal that the

body is an integral link between the mind,

place, and environment. The body is apt at

DIALECTIC PLACE AND BODYLewis, Michael

Figure 8: Relationship.

16

disguising itself. Imagine, for instance, how

easy it is to drift into thought whilst walking.

That our body can function so efficiently

without much thought is a reflection of its

power to maneuver and engage with a world

regardless of our conscious intent (Johnson

2007). Movement, according to philosopher

Mark Johnson, is of “monumental” importance

when considering experience. It is a

continuous part of being (Johnson 2007).

My intent to partake in a series of walks is

therefore not intended to be repetitive, but

meant as an approach to embody the site

through the act of movement.

Johnson argues that the study of

aesthetics is essential in the exploration of

the experience of meaning and thought.

Meaning is more than thought; it is a lived

experience (Johnson 2007). Often ignored,

or left only to the arts, Johnson relies on the

study of aesthetics for an understanding of

meaning that is applicable to other fields.

With the distinction between body and mind

is removed, meaning, as implied by Johnson,

is bound through experience. Inspired by

Johnson’s descriptions of aesthetic experience,

in this thesis, the experience of place is a

lived aesthetic encounter of meaning through

movement. Johnson focuses on the deeper

emotive forces that precede cognition. In

other words, understanding is not entirely

cognitive and I therefore value instinctual

feelings that underlie much of my intentional

interpretation. Johnson looks to thresholds,

not as boundaries, but as areas of overlap

(Johnson 2007). This perspective of thresholds

as overlapping is particularly important for

this thesis, especially when combined with his

emphasis on movement and transition.

IMMANENCE AND UNFOLDING EXPERIENCE

An interest in movement again draws

me to Deleuze. Like Johnson, he obscures the

distinctions between mind/body/environment

by emphasizing process and relationships.

Three prominent concepts relevant to

experience and the built environment that

Deleuze, with various collaborators, addresses

are immanence, becoming, and emergence

(Deleuze & Boyman 2001; Deleuze &

Guattari 1987, pp. 149-66). Immanence is an

embedded state without distinction between

mind, body, and environment. It “dispenses

with an external or transcendent viewpoint”

(Due 2007). I was inspired by this concept

of “immanence” on my movement through

the ether of experience. The implications of

immanence have given me the inspiration to

interpret my understanding of place as the

compression of mind, body, environment onto

an equal plane of emergent experience.

Another philosopher, Alfred North

Whitehead, writes that immanence is “the

IMMANENCE AND UNFOLDING EXPERIENCE

17

doctrine of the unity of nature, and of the

unity of each human life” (Whitehead 1933,

p. 187). The individual then is not necessarily

separate and acting in response to the external

world, but is a part of a network of reactions

and connections. In this state of open-ended

process and evolution, I found an interest

in the site as a setting of becoming. This

state, as described in Deleuze’s text The Body

without Organs and Immanence: A Life, results

in experience that is necessarily immersed,

thought that is essentially biologic, and place

as a field of emergent occurrence. “Becoming”

in this sense reveals the evolving character

of site and experience. The notion of a “pure

immanence,” as an immersed, biologic and

emergent experience of the environment, has

inspired my exploration of place as a medium

of interaction on the same plane as flesh and

thought. One way to explore this plane, for

me, was to walk and explore my experience as

an immersed process of emergent experience.

This process perspective resonates with my

consideration of a site that is characterized

most appropriately by its transitional state of

becoming.

Process is a key factor in

understanding place and experience.

According to philosopher David

Woodruff Smith, in Mind World: Essays

in Phenomenology and Ontology, Alfred

Whitehead establishes a fundamental

ontology of process and flux which can be

seen as a state of “becoming” (Smith 2004,

p. 212). Smith refers to “becoming” as a

process of multiples becoming one. I find that

the implications of becoming are commonly

applicable to ideas of landscape. The current

focus on ecological function reinforces this

perspective of process. Martin Prominski

and Spyridon Koutroufinis, authors of Folded

Landscapes, also find that the connection

between a philosophy of process, and the

weight of ecological concern in landscape

architecture suggest important connections

and opportunity (Prominski & Koutroufinis

2009).

Deleuze is noted for his interest in

process. Philosopher Alain Badiou writes

that the main method of Deleuze was to

“take things by the middle,” not in the vein of

succession, but purely as a state of transition

(Badiou 2000). In an introduction to Pure

Immanence: Essays on A Life, John Rajchman

writes that Deleuze, “introduce[s] movement

into thought rather than trying to find

universals of information” (Deleuze & Boyman

2001). According to architectural theorist

Andrew Ballantyne, Deleuze understood living

as a process of becoming, rather than a static

concept of a complete Being (Ballantyne 2007).

The language and perception of process as

a central character of life can help to break

further from the confines of static design, and

Lewis, Michael

Figure 9: Desire.

18

how landscape designers approach place.

Important to my endeavors has been

the pursuit of a foundation that encourages

an imbedded perception of experience

that embraces the greatest potential for

spontaneous and novel encounters. One such

concept has been emergence. Ballantyne

writes that immanence and emergence

are different sides of the same process.

Accordingly, the two are addressed together.

Immanence is within things, as opposed to the

withdrawal of transcendence. Rather than an

outside force organizing the occurrence, the

event emerges from the situation (Ballantyne

2007, pp. 29-32). For example, in a process

such as the flocking of birds, a complex

swarming might emerge from a very simple set

of rules immanent to the event. An individual

bird’s desire to fly forward together without

crashing keeps the flock together. Add a third

player such as a hawk, and the pattern of

flight becomes rather magnificent. There is no

outside organizational process orchestrating

the event, merely the emergence of complex

patterns resulting from the immanence of life.

This does not disqualify the subjective nature

of experience, but rather for me, it inspires an

insight into the potential to understand place

as a space to embody emergence through

relationships. Place has the potential to be a

setting of rules. When left to run, the rules

serve as an immanent force for emergence.

To use the words of author James Williams,

the resulting event is an “experience of

variations, as opposed to an experience of

identity” (Williams 2000, p. 212). In my design

approach, place is not a thing, but recognized

as an experience of an emergent process of

becoming.

CHALLENGING THE VIEW

The visual and views have dominated

the field of landscape architecture in both

design and representation, but there is a

battery of other senses to embody in design

(Bann 2003; Howett 1985; Johnson 2007).

Architect and theorist Juhani Pallasmaa, in

The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the

Senses refers to this dependency on the

visual as “oculacentrism” (Pallasmaa 2005,

pp. 19-22). This has left other senses almost

entirely ignored. Modernity has compounded

the problem, serving to distance the body

from reality and encourage knowing through

universals of abstraction and mechanization

(Jacks 2004). There is a need, therefore,

to challenge “ocularcentism” and find

opportunity in the greater faculties of

embodied multisensory experience.

Even in current trends, and the

interest in ecology for example, a new

functionalism has been appropriated, often

at the expense of multisensory experiences.

CHALLENGING THE VIEW

19

The public concern for ecological health

has given the designer a sense of scientific

obligation directed to foster the social good,

but it has come at the cost of truly innovative

design (Meyer 2007). To say this has gone

unchallenged though would miss an entire field

of design that has embraced a richer sense of

experience and deeper understanding of place.

As a critique of the emphasis of the

visual, Pallasmaa writes, “Touch is the sensory

mode that integrates our experience of the

world with that of ourselves,” and that, “All

the senses, including vision, can be regarded

as extensions of the sense of touch – as

specializations of the skin” (Pallasmaa 2005,

pp. 11, 42). Enriching the senses is vital, but

while Pallasmaa sees the skin as a boundary,

I see it as a semi-permeable membrane,

or better yet a gradient medium between

flesh and place. Place is not necessarily

something outside the body embedded

with given meaning, but is intimately woven

into the physical interaction of experience

and knowing. The body is an intimate

means to experience and potentially reduce

the tendency of transcendent thought by

instilling an immersed connection to the

world of relationships. Movement is a way to

emphasize the sensual contact of experience,

and walking as a primary mode of experience is

one way to increase the awareness of contact.

How people move through space

has been an important subject of landscape

architecture. Narratives and allegories have

served as organizing frameworks for site

design and the experience of landscape for

many years. Often for entertainment, leisure,

and status, these stories are relayed through

walking as scenes experienced in a sequence

(Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History

of Landscape, Conan & Dumbarton 2003).

Other less explicit subjects could be found in

strolls and rambles, reflected, for example, in

the work of landscape architect Frederick Law

Olmsted. Strolls in Olmsted’s work thread a

relatively continuous experience of walking,

but the picturesque, which dominated his

work, is epitomized by the dominance of

view. His body of work reflects an early

influence from his walks through England

(Olmsted 1852). To reestablish the importance

of experience of movement in its entirety, I

plan to delve deeper into the space between

apparent points, which I find to be the walk.

WALKING IN PLACE

By “walking in place”, I am alluding to

a mode of walking to inhabit a space without

the desire to reach a destination. As noted

in this chapter, walking is an essential way

of learning a landscape. In addition to the

physical qualities of connecting to a site, it

is a critical means to experience a site and

WALKING IN PLACE

Lewis, Michael

Figure 10: Touch.

20

understand the intricacies of place, but more

significantly for this thesis it is a way to explore

the embedded experience of immanence. A

“derelict” and potentially hazardous site may

not seem a likely environment to walk and

explore, but it is my intention to challenge

this assumption and to discover what might

otherwise be missed in this particular type of

site that typifies much of the industrialized

world. Reason would tell me to stay out,

but curiosity draws me forward. “Derelict”

sites, no matter how distant they seem,

connect directly to my life through material

and ecological means. I intend to confront

this reality directly. Walking is a first-hand

experience to observe and relate to a site,

develop my knowledge of place, and explore

the implications of immanence. A landscape

is changing, and as a becoming it suggests

an equally transitional approach to best

understand it. By walking, I intend to resonate

with a site already in transition, and build a

relationship through movement and a shared

experience.

To pursue the meaning of walking is

a pursuit of what it is to be human. According

to cultural historian Rebecca Solnit, walking

permeates the various facets of the human

experience and that “on foot everything

stays connected” (Solnit 2000, p. 9). She

recognizes, through a study of philosophers

and poets, a layering of mind, body, and

environment through walking that was

particularly inspirational to my exploration.

Quick to notice the general tendency of

individuals to underestimate this power of

walking, Solnit describes examples in which

walking was poised as an essential aspect of

exploration, discovery, and understanding

(Solnit 2000). These characters of walking, so

ubiquitous to human experience and capable

of unifying apparently disparate entities, drew

my attention as an approach to site and design

in this thesis.

Architect Ben Jacks, in Reimagining

Walking: Four Practices, asserts that walking

has become obsolete and therefore subversive

and rebellious (Jacks 2004, p. 5). It is a

rebellion against technology, efficiency, and

hierarchy. Walking, this everyday mode of

experience, has been all but eradicated.

Luckily, though, there is a stronghold of

leisure and function that has preserved the

walking experience. Walking is therefore not

necessarily an everyday experience and can

be quite exceptional when emphasized. As

for design, walking can be a method to create,

inspire, and explore.

Author Francesco Careri, in

Walkscape: Walking as an Aesthetic Practice,

looks at walking as a specific art embedded

in history and fundamental to the human

experience. Careri traces pivotal transitions

21

in art history in which walking emerged as

part of a paradigm shift in perception. In this

case walking is no longer restricted to the

everyday and is identified as an exceptional

experience with intention and meaning.

Two significant shifts cited by Careri include

the transition from Dada to Surrealism, and

Minimalism to Land Art. These shifts, Careri

points out, reveal a shift in the way the city is

used and interpreted. It can be seen in land

art and contemporary artists, such as Robert

Irwin, that this progression has continued

to evolve. Careri refers to Richard Long and

his contemporaries as examples of walking

as an aesthetic practice. These artists began

to highlight walking as a method to explore

“the archaic origins of landscape and the

relationship between art and architecture”

(Careri 2002, p. 22). Realizing that the

everyday has meaning, artists at that time

began to explore through walking what the

path meant in a real scale of experiential

dimensions. These artist make an important

connection described earlier that philosopher

Mark Johnson claimed between experience

and meaning and reinforces my understanding

of walking as creative.

Referring to the encounter of the edges

of a city, Careri says, “In this space of encounter

walking is useful for architecture as a cognitive

and design tool, as a means of recognizing a

geography in the chaos of peripheries, and

a means through which to invent new ways

to intervene in public metropolitan spaces,

to investigate them, and make them visible”

(Careri 2002, p. 26). This is a crucial argument

for this thesis. Walking is at once experience

and creation. It not only allows one to read a

site, but simultaneously write upon it (Careri

2002).

Walking is also an experiment of

marking. While walking the observer becomes

an actor, or rather an artist with the same

ephemeral qualities of nature itself. Being

in a place makes an individual a part of its

story. This is an intimate relation between

the observer and the observed in which both

are experiencing and acting simultaneously;

a reference to immanence. Spatially as well,

walking in the industrial region along the edge

of Seattle is a valuable tool that, in the words of

Careri, helped me to recognize the geography of

the periphery.

Careri highlights that walking is a

particularly valuable human experience. It has

both function and meaning. It is a crossroad

where the interdisciplinary realm of architecture

and experience collide. The path, as he calls it,

is both an object and a process. It is process

in which one experiences life and can find

meaning. It is a line left by movement traced

on the ground during the walk. A walk builds

understanding that is particular to a place.

Lewis, Michael

Figure 11: Beckon

22

Filipa Matos Wunderlich, in Walking

and Rhythmicity: Sensing Urban Space,

focuses her attention on walking as a rhythmic

experience. According to her, walking is a

performance to unify with the city. Similar

to Careri, Wunderlich recognizes the creative

force of walking as rooted in direct experience.

It is a mode to experience a sense of place

and it is “…through walking that we immerse

ourselves and dwell in the representational

and lived world” (Wunderlich 2008, p. 127).

Walking threads “being” into the world. I

share Wunderlich’s and others’ interest in the

significance of walking. By recognizing walking

as creative, and accepting it as an immersed

experience, a deeper connection to place is

achievable.

This thesis is a call to do primarily

what I, as a designer, want users to do: to go

outside and walk. Walking has the power to

build connections and test ideas. Ben Jacks

writes that “walking narrows the traditional

Western division between mind and body,

a split that is so often expressed as the

difference between the rational and the

irrational” (Jacks 2007). Place experience has

the dual effect of internalizing the significance

of that place, as well as physically activating

and reinforcing its significance as a place.

Walking can flip expectations and build new

links. Place is fittingly seen as a process of

transitional significance that changes through

and with an emerging experience. Place is

a becoming. A place is not just the terrain,

and not merely the people; it is a mind-body-

environment, all embedded on the same field

of opportunity.

Walking is a uniquely immersive

experience. To walk a place, is to potentially

know a place in a direct, intimate way.

Walking, seemingly quantifiable as a series of

individual steps over a measurable distance, is

rather an analog of continual experience and

movement. Walking brings the body, through

experience, into an emergence of a path.

Anthropologist Tim Ingold, in Lines: A Brief

History, writes that “an ecology of life, in short,

must be one of threads and traces, not nodes

and connectors” (Ingold 2007, p. 93). A walk,

as Ingold describes it, is a continuous process

of linear trajectory. A walk is a process, it is a

becoming.

Both body and site are activated

through movement, embracing forces that

underlie experience and the intimacy of a

continued engagement. Forces, consciousness,

and the flesh mingle. I contend that place and

experiences are necessarily transitional, and

that there is a role of subjective interpretation

in the understanding of place and design. In

addition, fleeting attempts to shift to the

purely immanent plane, which presupposes

the categories of subject and object, effectively

23

inspire new understandings of the unfolding of

experience. In this manner, from transitions

of pure immanence emerge new trajectories.

The walking experience is a continual process

of movement and becoming, open to the

unfolding of situations and interpretations,

with the intent of a deeper understanding

of the site. Based on this knowledge of site

experience, I planned to find a foundation for

design appropriate to the significance of place.

Lewis, Michael

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25Figure 13: Precedents.

CHAPTER 3: PRECEDENT STUDIES

In the previous chapter, I provided

an account of the literature that framed

my stance on experience and knowledge

of place that, in turn, informs my approach

to design. The philosophy and theory in

Chapter 2 grounded my method, walking, as

an approach to site analysis. This chapter will

cover precedent studies that were influential

to my walking experience and design process.

Based on my interest in experience, place,

and walking it was important to me that I

ground my exploration in a physical experience

in a specific place. The chosen site is an

“abandoned” industrial site on Harbor Island

on the banks of the lower Duwamish River in

the midst of an industrial region of Seattle.

The following precedents are projects for

similarly “disturbed” sites.

The following precedent studies

were influential to my walking experience, site

selection, and design proposal. Gas Works

26

Park is a Seattle, Washington example of place-

based industrial reuse. The site embraces

the aesthetic and cultural value of historical

preservation. Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord,

in the Ruhr Valley of Germany, is an example

of a post-industrial park that embraces the

iconic history of an industrial past. Herring’s

House Park, as a counter example, embraces

a reclamation approach for an industrial site.

The park is situated along the Lower Duwamish

just south of Harbor Island. Additionally, three

projects by earthartist Robert Smithson are

explored in depth, as his work entails a similar

interest in the exploration of place, history, and

process in the context of “disturbed” sites. His

work has been influential in my exploration of

the selected derelict Seattle site.

GAS WORKS PARK

In the 1970’s, the 20.5 acre Gas Works

Park (Fig. 14 and 15) was opened in Seattle at

the northern end of Lake Union. Gasworks

Park was, and remains for me, an innovative

park design. Landscape architect Richard

Haag fought to create a park that sustained

the cultural and historical significance of this

previously industrial site. The innovative

use, by Haag, of much of the old gasworks

structures as artistic forms gained Gasworks

Park notoriety and attention that continues

today (Carr et al. 1992) . Gas Works Park

is an important early example of a post-

industrial site that has inspired my interest and

approach.

The most notable aspects of the park

are the towering gas towers, the climbable

warehouse of machinery, and the large kite hill.

The steel forms serve as a towering landmark

that can be seen from around the adjacent

lake. They are a unique element that makes

a powerful statement about the previous life

of the site, and marks the area as a place of

significance in the surrounding neighborhood.

The warehouse also houses elements

reclaimed from the industrial past and have

been preserved and reutilized. No longer

functioning as motors, conduits, and gears, the

collection of artifacts serve as sculptural forms

to interact with and climb upon.

Kite hill is a revelatory form. Encased

below the hill is much of the contaminated

soil excavated from the site. Now a popular

place to lie in the sun or fly a kite, the hill

collects into one massive form the scale of

contamination. The remaining contamination,

though capped, has been a source of

contention. While some, including myself,

see capping as a means to reflectively confine

the contamination to its site of origin, others

contest the safety of having contamination in

such close proximity to the public.

At the time it was created, Gas Works

GAS WORKS PARKLewis, Michael

Figure 14: Gas Works View.

27

Park brought the “wrath” of many in the local

community upon Haag for his inclusion of

the industrial ruins. The structures challenge

perceptions of aesthetics, serve as a reminder

of the previous use of the facility and of the

effects on the lake (Howett 2002). It is easy

to understand the community’s uneasiness.

To many the industrial heritage embraces the

troubles that the aging facility had posed.

Haag however, not easily deterred, was able

to work with the community to build support.

Rather than erase the past, the elements were

seen by Haag as sculptural forms unique to this

place and history.

From my experience on the site,

sunny days are met with a park full of visitors

flying kites on top of the hill, children climbing

over brightly colored gears and motors, and

picnickers enjoying the breeze coming off Lake

Union. As intended by Haag (Carr et al. 1992,

p. 127) , there are a variety of opportunity for a

mix of passive and programmed activity.

Haag is quoted saying that “I haunted

the buildings and let the spirit of the place

enjoin mine. I began seeing what I like and

then I liked what I saw –new eyes for old” (Carr

et al. 1992, p. 127). This idea of haunting the

site summarizes my approach. In addition to

my interest in Gas Works Park as an example

of post-industrial landscape architecture,

there is a deeper inspiration I have gleaned

from Richard Haag. For Haag, this transitional

awareness of understanding allowed him to

see new uses inspired from his observations.

The items he found inspired him to project

a process of reuse for his design proposal.

Most notable for me in his approach was the

concept of ‘haunting’ a site. Rather than look

to the site specifically as a means to reinterpret

the objects I encounter, as Haag had, his

words inspired me to embrace the process

of change that dwelling in a place embodies.

An extended encounter with place, as Haag

implies, alters the relationship experienced on

site. I walked to weave myself into the site and

to embody this connection of self and site in a

place, as Haag alludes to.

DUISBURG-NORD

A later and much larger scale project

is the Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord (see

Fig 16-18). As a central piece to a larger

redevelopment project, landscape architect

Peter Latz systematically reused, repurposed,

and reprogrammed the site as a vast, 570

acre, playground made of ominous structures

recycled from the old steel and coal works

(Reed & Museum of Modern 2005, p. 124).

The landscape park, like Gas Works, is an

example in which the traditional conceptions

of public open space, and of toxic remediation,

were challenged (Reed & Museum of Modern

Art 2005, p. 25).

DUISBURG-NORD

Lewis, Michael

Figure 15: Gas Works Kite.

28

Latz writes that the old blast furnaces

symbolize the park, and that each preserved

piece compliments a narrative of the past that

underlies the current uses he has programmed

such as climbing, swimming, and festival

events (Latz, Peter 2001). It is apparent that

the programming of the site is a primary

approach to envisioning new uses for specific

elements. Similar to Haag, Latz mines the

forms as a resource for new utility, value and

meaning while simultaneously preserving an

aesthetic of the industrial past. Like Haag’s

process of imaging new futures, Latz even

went as far as creating mythical pasts. For Latz,

the experience of finding industrial ruins in the

landscape has an emotive force that is deeper

than the rational. At Duisburg-Nord there is

the connection to a real past by encountering

old steel towers, and countless industrial

structures and objects, and yet there is also

the instinctual reaction to these forms due to

their scale and state of decay (Reed & Museum

of Modern 2005, p. 26).

The heroic landmarks embody a past

that may otherwise have been buried. The

ideas that both Haag and Latz have built upon,

the value of experience, imagination, and

reuse, inspired me to venture to similar sites.

It is important in the design of the landscape

to investigate underlying value as found and

not entirely camouflage the past (Hardy 2005;

Latz, Peter 2001; Latz, Partners 2005). This is

particularly true of post-industrial sites whose

structures and past uses are a part of a larger

narrative of land use. As Latz writes, abolishing

the current essence would be a travesty equal

to the original insult of natural degradation

(Latz, Peter 2001, p. 157) On the other hand,

Landscape Architect George Hargreaves

warns that Duisburg-Nord is “perhaps a

troubling celebration of the industrial sublime”

(Hargreaves 2007, p. 165). Hargreaves is

questioning the narrative told. And yet he

recognizes the value of these structures when

he refers to them as sublime.

An important lesson from Lat’z is

the idea that relinquishing control can be a

powerful design approach. For Latz, issues

of scale encouraged him to do just that. The

nearly six hundred acre site inspired Latz to

take on a process approach in which nature

was embraced as a welcome resource to alter

and assist the remediation process (Reed &

Museum of Modern 2005, p. 25). I agree

that process is important, however, I contend

that it is so at multiple scales. In this thesis

therefore, even at a smaller scale, the concept

of transition is intentionally harnessed as a tool

of knowledge and design.

Duisburg-Nord, similar to Gas Works,

serves as an example of the success of linking

historic structures to a contemporary program

for public space. Saving old forms is one

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Figure 17: Duisburg-Nord Form.

Figure 16: Duisburg-Nord View.(Spekking 2006)

(masteruser1999

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29

means of referencing the historical narrative of

site that is particularly valuable in the story of

place. Both of these projects share the reality

of an entirely displaced industrial function.

They have been remade as public space for

the surrounding residential population. The

following example, however, is a restoration

project within an otherwise active industrial

region.

HERRING’S HOUSE

Herring’s House Park (Fig 19) serves

as a contemporary design along the lower

Duwamish River which is just upriver from

Harbor Island. For the design of Herring’s

House Park, restored shoreline habitat

greatly outweighed any concern for historical

preservation or cultural narrative. In this

situation, reestablishing some resemblance of

the historic shoreline process was paramount

and serves as an example of the general

approach to landscape design along the Lower

Duwamish River (Fig. 20).

In addition to habitat, history is only

revealed through name. Herring’s House

was an important native Duwamish place for

fishing. However, there is little connection to

culture and history otherwise. For example,

the Seaboard Lumber Mill, an early Seattle mill

located in this site, is no longer a part of the

narrative of the site (Dolan & True 2003). As a

restoration, then, it is apparent that ecological

process and function, though almost entirely

engineered, is the primary concern. The mill

history, seen as part of the industrial hazards,

is not. Erasing the history of the site almost

entirely and establishing a naturalistic fishbowl,

I contend is not an ideal solution. Ecological

concerns regarding habitat for endangered

species fueled the drive to create this eddied

wetland. Though it functions as a tidal respite

for habitat, it has nothing otherwise to do with

the natural structure of the historic river. It

is now a patch of tidal estuary surrounded by

industry.

Herring’s House Park is a reclamation

site for ecological restoration. As such, great

efforts were taken to restructure the landscape

into a fictional past and replicate a desired

ecological function. Besides the place name,

there is no readily discernable connection to

the years of human use, both good and bad.

Gone, is an important history of land use in

which various peoples interacted with each

other and this place. This physical history

is all but lost in the naturalized aesthetic of

the restored site. As the trees grow in, it is

unlikely that visitors will even be aware that

the site has been so heavily constructed to

camouflage its industrial past, and I wouldn’t

be surprised if some thought it was a preserve

that had eluded development. I contend

that this masking of the past is as arrogant of

HERRING’S HOUSE

Figure 20: Herring’s House Park Marsh.

Figure 19: Herring’s House Park.(Edelstein 2001)

Edelstein, Ian. Herring’s H

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30

an approach to place as the initial industrial

construction. While this is a current approach

to an industrial landscape along the Duwamish

River, upon reviewing this precedent, I realized

that this is not an approach I intended to take.

ROBERT SMITHSON

SPIRAL JETTY

I am not the first to identify with

the work of Robert Smithson in the context

of Landscape Architecture, and still I am

indebted to his influence on my work (Reed

& Museum of Modern 2005, p. 25). Rather

than focus on his similar interest in sites of

industrial disturbance, I want to address

concepts explored in his earthworks and

writing: dialectics, sites of time, and entropy.

Johnson, argues that the study of aesthetics is

essential in the exploration of the experience

of meaning and thought (Johnson 2007), and

accordingly I have looked into some of the

work of Smithson.

Projecting from the shore on The

Great Salt Lake in Utah one can find, though

not easily, Robert Smithson’s coiling earthwork,

Spiral Jetty 1970 (Fig. 21). Repeated from a

revolving helicopter above, Smithson describes

the work as, “mud, salt crystals, rocks, water”

(Smithson et al. 2004, p. 113). It is a spiraling

pile of basalt and earth piled into the sea. The

actual work, like much of his explorations, is a

dispersed collection of various media. Spiral

Jetty is a film, an article, various photographs,

and the earthwork (mud, salt crystals,

rocks, water). Spiral Jetty, in addition to its

various formats, is the combination of form,

process, and setting. It is, in other words, a

combination of the figure and the ground; a

concept I borrow and carry through my walking

experience to design.

Smithson, for me, has served as the

artistic experiment in meaning that I have

found guidance in approaching my site. The

overlying lesson I have gathered from his

work and maintained through this thesis has

been the importance of process. Lessons

from Smithson challenge many concepts of

landscape design. As Robert Shapiro writes:

We should note that Smithson’s

earthworks are in many ways the

opposite of the English garden. They

are often not easily accessible; they

do not exist for the sake of pleasure

and escape; they are explicitly

entropic rather than creating the

illusion of timelessness; they make

manifest the work that has gone into

their production; and they involve a

theoretical critique of the humanism

that is essential to the garden’s

aesthetics (Shapiro 1995, p. 119).

The work of Smithson provides an alternative

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ROBERT SMITHSON

Figure 21: Spiral Jetty Form.(Smithson 1970)

31

to the ideals of Eden, and instead acts as

a commentary on culture, perception, and

experience. One does not transcend to

perfection, but rather dwells in the reality of

place and time, free of a predetermined ideal.

In Spiral Jetty, the film, the reflection

of the sun on the water within the Spiral Jetty

earthwork refracts into multiple specters

of light (Fig. 22). The monotone voice of

Smithson quotes, “Gazing intently at the

gigantic sun, we at last decipherered the riddle

of its unfamiliar aspect. It was not a single

flaming star … It was, in fact, a vast spiral

nebula of innumerable suns.” (Montcenis).

Spiral Jetty is at once many things, just as this

quote he uses from the science fiction novel

The Time Stream implies. Not at first obvious,

but communicated most directly in the film,

the focus of Spiral Jetty moves to the edge, and

the periphery is hence centralized, spiraling the

figure and ground together with a multitude of

scalar realities of reference. The combination

of the image and the quote make it clear

that the reflective water and refracted sun

bear great significance, while the jetty itself

becomes more of an organizing framework.

Spiraling to the central void in the film there

is a reflection out to the cosmos that suggests

that the negative space is essentially the figure,

and the earth fittingly the ground.

The significance of Spiral Jetty in

my work has been Smithson’s exploration of

relationships. Rather than focus only on the

sculptural object or prominent form, there is

an emphasis on the surrounding environment

and tangential connections. There is an

alternative to form that is much more

dependent on interaction and connections.

This became important as an alternative

means to address the forms that apparently

dominate post industrial sites in general, and

my site of interest in particular. Rather than

focus only on the abandoned objects as ties to

the industrial past, Smithson here has inspired

in me an additional interest in other marginal

relationships. It will be clearer later, but this

dialectic of figure and ground, or center and

periphery, informed my walking experience

and my sensitivity to relationships and

connections.

Another concept I have found useful

in Smithson’s work is the idea of ‘sites of time’

which I find to be inspirational both physically

and philosophically. Spiral Jetty serves again as

an example. Shapiro writes that,

The “sites of time” are those locations

that manifest the forces of growth,

change, decay, spoliation, mixture,

and drift. They confirm rather than

contest the temporality to which they

(and we) are subject. (Shapiro 1995,

p. 120).

Baker, G., Cooke, L., &

Kelly, K. J. (2005). Robert Sm

ithson: Spiral Jett

y : True Fictions, False Realities. Berkeley, U

niversity of California Press.

Figure 22: Spiral Jetty.(Baker et al. 2005)

32

This consideration of time recognizes that a

variety of forces are at play, and that linear

progression is not a necessity. Progress implies

an advance from the past in a linear march

toward perfection, but I see in Smithson’s

work other forces contrary to this traditional

notion of progress that are equally meaningful.

Smithson, in the multiple mediums of Spiral

Jetty, challenges the rational progression

where the past follows one line through the

present and on to the future.

Stephen Clucas, writing on the

theories of Michel Serres, helped me grasp

the implications of Smithson’s explorations.

Stephen Clucas writes that “Serres suggests

theories of time ‘to draw us away from the

tempest’ of this culture of fire, with its violent

oscillations between extremes” (Clucas 2005,

p. 79). Accordingly, a slower restful state,

which Serres describes as a slow meandering

river, would serve as a stronger conceptual

understanding of time. Progress, according to

Serres, is relevant, but not the only valuable

framework of being. I see this in the work of

Smithson as well. In A Sedimentation of the

Mind: Earth Projects, Smithson writes “One’s

mind and the earth are in a constant state

of erosion, mental rivers wear away abstract

banks, brain waves undermine cliffs of thought,

ideas decompose into stones of unknowing,

and crystallizations break apart into deposits

of gritty reason” (Smithson & Holt 1979, p. 82).

At first, forces opposed to progress may seem

negative, but as shown in Smithson’s body

of work, and those of landscape architects

such as Latz and Haag, other processes

communicate equally valuable meanings.

Rational linearity assumes that time builds

layers up, but there is this other more naturally

dynamic play through a variety of forces.

Fitting for a study of the lower

Duwamish River is the notion of time as a

stream that is, “both progressive and entropic”

(Clucas 2005, p. 81). Serres concludes these

two variables of time, progress and entropy,

together reveal a third modality made of

both, a spiral. The combination creates a

semicircular causality, or “a spiral in three-

part time, the reversible time of isonomy, the

irreversible time of drift, and the productive

time of compensation” (Clucas 2005, p. 81),

that parallels the foundation and form of

Robert Smithson’s work.

The centering of the periphery of

process and of the site results in a ‘site of time’,

“and it is as a proposition about the passage

of time- its shape, course, and implications

for history- that Spiral Jetty interacts most

profoundly with its site” (Roberts 2004, p.

97). The lake contains what Robert Smithson

called a collection of “modern prehistory.”

The saltine lake is desolate, secluded,

and dispersed with remnant vehicles, and

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Figure 24: Entropy.

Figure 23: Great Salt Lake.(Smithson et al. 2004, p.119)

(Smithson et al. 2004, p.119)

33

abandoned sheds that lay testament to a

passage of time and change (Fig. 23 and

24). The periphery of site, construction, and

process are brought forward to be experienced

on the frame of the center which is the spiral.

The experience is like that of an eddy

of turbulent time. It is a vortex, as philosopher

Michel Serres might say, where vast expanses

of time are brought into close quarters much

like a thought that floats a memory to surface

in a present experience (Fig. 25). According

to Smithson, the site“…must instead explore

the pre- and post- historic mind; it must

go into places where remote futures meet

remote pasts” (Smithson & Holt 1979, p.

91). The film, also a spiral, overlaps the

events of construction and completion. The

act of dumping the stones into the sea is an

important feat; a part of its past brought into

contact with the form and the accumulating

salt.

RUNDOWN

Entropy can be beautiful. Think of

the mountains and the rivers that course from

them, reaching ceaselessly to the sea. The

water scours the mountain in a continuous

effort to pull it down grain by grain, loading

the water with sediment. Water and gravity

in geologic time tirelessly carry the mountain

toward the shore to be fanned out and layered

in the shallows. The following two examples by

Smithson are “entropy made visible;” Partially

Buried Shed and Asphalt Rundown provide

insight into Smithson’s exploration.

Entropy is a force that standard

assumptions of constructed order resist.

It counters the control assumed by many

efforts in the built environment which, in

general, resist disorder and decay. It would

first seem contrary to the expectations of

a builder to build structures that age. In a

disposable society, as items wear and degrade

their value is lost, and they are discarded

for a new replacement. Robert Smithson

refers to Humpty Dumpty as the general

consensus about entropy. Once broken, there

is no putting him back together (Smithson

& Holt 1979, p. 194). Not just a final state

of uselessness though, entropy is a process

of erosion, settling, wear, and collapse; all

destined to a resting state. It is the running

down to a more stable position.

According to Shapiro, “The resistance

of earth, what Heidegger calls its self-

sheltering and concealment, bears the name

of entropy in Smithson’s writings” (Shapiro

1995, p. 138). This resistance was revealed

in another of Smithson’s works entitled

Asphalt Rundown, Rome 1969 (see Fig. 26),

by dumping a truckload of asphalt down

a steep eroding quarry bluff. According to

RUNDOWN

Smithson, Robert, et al. Robert

Smithson. Berkeley: U

niversity of California Press, 2004.

Figure 25: Stills from Spiral Jetty film.(Smithson et al. 2004 p. 172)

34

eyewitness accounts and images, the pour

followed the grooves of the slumping quarry

cliff. In an experienced moment of the pour,

layers of entropic process are highlighted.

The quarry wall previously eroded and fluvial,

was left slumping down to wear away. The

asphalt followed this path and dried, in a loss

of momentum. The entropic release of heat

brought it to rest and allowed it to harden.

Entropy in this case halted the asphalt, which

in turn temporarily protected the soil below

from further entropic erosion. Entropy was

encouraged to highlight and subsequently halt

entropy (Smithson 189-196, Shapiro 49). The

process here was the focus of the work.

In Smithson’s words, “I am for an art

that takes into account the direct effect of the

elements as they exist from day to day apart

from representation” (Smithson & Holt 1979,

p. 133). Smithson was attempting to separate

himself from the work and let it be what it

was. It was his attempt to decenter himself

from the work, a move to abandon the siteless

nature of modern sculpture and have the place

and its physicality dictate how the work would

ultimately unfold (Krauss 1979). Place is a

significant aspect of Smithson’s work.

Rosalind Krauss categorized another

of Smithson’s works, Partially Buried Shed

(Fig. 27 and 28), created at Kent State

University in 1970, as a “site construction” in

an “expanded field” of sculpture (Krauss 1979,

p. 41). Krauss in this assertion is recognizing

the overlapping quality of Smithson’s work as

it progressed into other design fields. In this

installation, Smithson piled earth on a shed

until its center beam fractured. Similarities

to Asphalt Rundown can be seen in Partially

Buried Woodshed in the alluvial forms of soil as

gravity tries to pull down a slope. Eventually

the structure collapsed and only traces of

the foundation remained (Shapiro 1995, p.

57). The object itself was not the focus of this

work, though it is physically central. Entropy

was pulled into the core of the project. Rather

than his construction efforts, or the particulars

of the structure, it is the forces of structure

and gravity interacting that embodied this

construction.

The shed was built to stand,

but time would inevitably pull the shed

down. Smithson, through the intentional

manipulation of the site (piling it on the shed)

increased the pressure on the structure to

speed up the results of time, weathering, and

decay. His “site construction,” as Krauss refers,

manipulated the earth into a pile to take the

structure down with it as gravity reduced the

potential energy of ordered matter into a

resting pile of eroded debris. The shed and

earth, no longer the center of attention, were

merely left to be acted upon by the process of

entropy. Life, in terms of everyday peripheral

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Figure 26: Asphalt Rundown.(Smithson. 1969)

35

experience, became a central concern.

These works by Robert Smithson

highlight an abandonment of the modern and

offer a dependence on site and force. Krauss,

in addressing the concept of monument writes

that “It sits in a particular place and speaks

in a symbolical tongue about the meaning or

use of that place” (Krauss 33). Though not

monuments in the general understanding,

Smithson’s work reintroduces the background

in art, and of the forces at play in a site,

becoming something of a champion of place in

his time.

The lessons I have garnered from

studying Asphalt Rundown and Partially Buried

Woodshed are that the force of entropy can be

a powerful realm with which to work. These

two projects exemplify a perspective I valued

in approaching the “disturbed” site on the

Duwamish River, and it inspired a personal

interest in exploring underlying processes and

entropy.

The precedents described in this

chapter –Gas Works Park, Landschaftpark

Duisberg-Nord, Herring’s House, and the

landart of Smithson –were central to my

approach to the lower Duwamish River.

Each contributed to my understanding of

past approaches to post-industrial sites, and

influenced how I proceeded with a design

process. I had understood from Gas Works

and Duisberg-Nord the power in new meaning

from past form, from Herring’s House the

potential sacrifices of ecological restoration,

and the significance of process and time from

the works of Smithson. Inspired to discover

the value inherent in a specific derelict site on

the lower Duwamish, I embarked on a series

of site walks. Together, these projects helped

to situate my approach among other designers

with similar values and faced by similar

challenges.

Figure 28: Partially Buried Woodshed fall.

Figure 27: Patially Buried Woodshed.

(Smithson et al. 2004, p. 186)

(Smithson , R. Partially. 1970)

Smithson, Robert. Partially Buried

Woodshed: det.: exterior. 1969.

database online. ARTstor. A

ug 2010. <htt

p://library.artstor.org/library/se-cure/View

Images?id=8CJG

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Smithson, Robert, et al. Robert

Smithson. Berkeley: U

niversity of California Press, 2004.

36

Lewis, Michael

37Figure 29: Clarity.

CHAPTER 4: EXPERIENCE

The findings presented in this chapter

are an interpretation of my understanding of

the site through qualitative descriptions of my

experience. Motivated to nourish a deeper

knowledge of site, I “haunted” the area I

chose for my thesis exploration. I wanted to

explore the site as an integral part of it and so

I wandered the site to foster the relationship

of mutual becoming (Holland 1998). My

exploration of the site was an evolving

process in which the walk served to embody

an intellectual and physical wandering.

That wandering was a gradual process in

which novel encounters precipitated from a

flow of lived experience unfolding through

the situation. This process should not be

construed as an aimless wandering, though. It

was rooted in my recording and interpretation

while remaining open to intuition and

cognizant of my own grounded experience and

background.

38

As will be described below, a series of

site visits influenced me to progress through

several stages of perception and experience. I

began the approach with the assumption that

I would land on a [a]generic site characteristic

of the generalities with which I associate the

Lower Duwamish River. By walking the area,

however, I discovered a unique “derelict” site

within the Lower Duwamish that I defined as

a [b]figure/ground bound by a distinct lined

edge. As I began to interact with the site more

intimately, that edge dissolved and I connected

with the site as a mutual [c]becoming in

which movement and process expanded the

boundaries of the site and my explorations.

This transition of understanding occurred while

simultaneously nourishing the [d]emergence

of various design explorations through

sketching, rendering, and writing. Not entirely

distinct, these phases overlap and continually

informed each other.

[a] GENERIC

My first impression of the site,

which at this stage was not yet identified

and so entirely theoretical, was based on

the industrial character of the region (Fig.

30- 34). I assumed the Lower Duwamish

River was industrial, and almost uniformly

so. Armed with this generic understanding

of my potential site as industrial, I set out on

foot to find a site that would satisfy my desire

to investigate place through an embodied

method of investigation. I use the term

generic, as opposed to context, intentionally

because at this stage of my findings the specific

site was not yet defined or known. Generic

is a useful term because it is spatially and

thematically inclusive rather than exclusive.

A generic concept of site, as I am using it,

refers to both the site and context as a general

region. The site of study therefore is some

space within this generic site. The site in this

phase is therefore defined by a great deal of

assumptions and uncertainty. By walking, I set

out to continually challenge my generalizations

of site and place with particulars of immersed

experience.

Immersed in the generic site, I

explored the industrial character of the River

and recorded my observations. Walking on

the shore proved extremely difficult. Factories,

barbed wire, rubble, abandoned automobiles,

steal shrapnel, warning signs, riprap, and

fences made trekking along the water not

only restricted, but often dangerous. I set out

on foot to walk along this “waterway.” My

observations were disjointed and dominated

by obstacles and hazards. Chain fences barred

access to much of the shore, and security

was always quick to point out that I was on

the wrong side of such barriers. I therefore

understood the generic to be almost entirely at

odds with my desire to walk.

[a] GENERICLewis, MichaelLewis, Michael Lewis, Michael

Figure 32: Harbor Island to Southeast.

Figure 31: Harbor Island to Northeast.

Figure 30: Harbor Island to West.

39

Walking a heavy industrial sector

seems unappealing. It is difficult, discouraging,

dangerous, and often confusing, but walking

promotes opportunity, surprise, and creativity

and it was therefore how I set out to find a

site to inhabit. I wanted to experience what

walking could bring to my understanding of a

site that I would otherwise be inclined to see

as disturbed and wasting.

An important framework of my

understanding of the area upon entering

the region was the work of environmental

and community groups who describe the

shore through a narrative of degradation

and ecological injustice. In response to the

ecological and cultural impacts of industrial

activity, including the designation of the five

mile portion of the river and upland areas as

a superfund site, there has been a patchwork

of restoration and environmental mitigation

in the area. Herring’s House Park and North

Wind’s Weir are two nearby examples of

contemporary habitat restorations. I began

with the perception that this river was a source

of conflict and was poised for change between

two dichotomous states –species habitat and

industrial use. I understood the generic site

of study as an industrial superfund site on a

path to becoming a reclamation project for

shoreline restoration. Having yet to identify a

specific site, my imagined designs mirrored the

current standards of design on the river.

Continued walking however revealed

to me that there was more going on here

than I had assumed. The juxtaposition of

the river, warehouses, residents, and parks

became clearer to me. Knowing that the lower

Duwamish River, including the floor, banks, and

upland, has been designated a “superfund”

site, I was surprised by the proximity of these

various uses. Superfund is a label that places

the river amongst the most toxic sites in the

United States (http://yosemite.epa.gov/

R10/CLEANUP.NSF/sites/hi). Fearful of what

this means, I found myself hesitant to even

touch the water or soil. It was obvious to me,

however, that individuals work and live within

this area and their exposure is clear. Moreover,

there is a growing movement among the

community and government to increase public

access to the water, reduce toxic hazards, and

increase regional habitat which only serves to

increase contact with the industrial waters.

The toxicity of the soil and water, concern for

salmon, and pockets of ecological restoration

made it clear to me that the region is in flux

and need of innovative design approaches,

including first-hand investigations made

through walking. A variety of interests are

layered in this sector and how they proceed to

relate is an important consideration.

It appeared industry and production

along the river are slowing, but in no

immediate threat of halting. For example,

Coetzee, Derek. Aerial view of Harbor Island in Seattle. April 2010. Online Image. Wikimedia Commons. May 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_Harbor_Island_in_Seattle.jpg>.

Lewis, Michael

Figure 34: Generic Site.

Figure 33: Harbor Isaland.(Coetzee 2010)

40

even as I observed the bustle of activity such

as the unloading of shipments, the crushing

of salvaged automobiles, and the hustle of

employees, it was clear that the facilities and

equipment acquired a fair amount of wear. I

found paint peeling from multiple surfaces.

Amid odor of petroleum and cement I could

sense the oxidized iron now exposed to the

saline air. Not only could I see it, but the

rust seemed to resonate within my skin and

through my lungs. Sloughing as a fine powder

into the wind, the tensile strength of steel was

slowly being eroded by the entropic force of

time and salt air. I could almost taste it.

Peering through the slats of a wood

fence I saw carefully categorized piles of

steel forms of unknown purpose left to the

elements. Previously essential technologies

of production were left parked perhaps for

future uses, re-uses, or abandoned entirely.

The objects were portrayed part of the life of

this place, which was visibly still unfolding,

even if in unforeseen ways. Entropy typifies

the river and continues to challenge the

ideals of progress and production. The items

I found reflected a spectrum of patinas that

I interpreted not as a sign of degradation,

but as utilization and endurance. I sensed

a span of time eroding on most surfaces I

encountered along the river. The wear is a

trace of life leading through to the present.

The traces told a story in the present marked

from movements of the past. As I walked and

pondered, I thought of time as an active force

that preservation and restoration both attempt

to disguise. Preservation is an attempt to halt

time, and restoration to erase it. Entropy,

however, relentlessly counters both regardless

of the extreme efforts to prevent it.

Entropic considerations of time, the

sedimentation of a meandering river, the

persistence of tides (Serres & Latour 1995),

and the extreme efforts to channelize the

Duwamish River, coupled with the surrounding

neighborhoods made this a dynamic place to

investigate. The ‘running down’ is alarming at

first, but contains a depth of life that is both

tied to the past and a clear character of the

present (Shapiro 1995; Smithson & Holt 1979).

Entropy has a life, and it is in that wearing,

peeling, rusting, and crumbling in which I saw

opportunity to understand how process might

be otherwise understood as both a natural and

human phenomenon.

At this stage of walking ideas of design

were simultaneously loose and expectant (Fig.

35). Fueled more by my understanding of

precedent studies, I found myself hoping to

find a site to rival Emsher Park, or to explore

ideas inspired by landartist Robert Smithson.

My doodles were primarily sketches of

factories on the opposite bank with notes to

try to get there later. In general, my ideas were

Lewis, Michael

Figure 35: Early Sketches

41

fleeting and expressive, but limited to their

connection to my walking experience in the

generic site along the river.

[b] FIGURE/GROUND

After a series of exploratory walks

along the river, I focused on a specific portion

of Harbor Island as a site of study. Already

walking for hours along the river, I came

upon what appeared to be yet another

restricted industrial space. However, I

could not discern any activity from within

and it became obvious that this site was no

longer functioning as an industrial facility; it

was apparently an “abandoned” site in the

context of an industrial region, or rather a

distinct figure (site) defined separate from the

ground (context). This clear definition of site

surrounded by context, however, was short

lived and continued to transition through this

phase of my walking experience. At first clear

and separate, various details and encounters

encouraged me to reconsider the edge dividing

the figure/ground as an ambiguous gradient of

continuous interaction.

SEPARATE

I walked the contour of the fence

that surrounded the site and peered in at the

towering silos that, from outside, seemed to

be the dominant landmark within. My initial

understanding of the site in this phase was that

this edge acted as a boundary to differentiate

the interior from the exterior. Rather than the

encompassing generic site considered in the

last phase, this phase begins by distinguishing

an object, the site, in space (Fig 36).

Upon my first approach to what

eventually precipitated as my site of focus, I

found signs along the edge that warned of a

variety of consequences for given behaviors,

essentially saying “stay away,” “do not enter”

and so on. The combination of barbed fencing

shrubs (Fig. 37), and warning signs (Fig. 38)

marked a clear boundary that emphasized the

division between the apparently “abandoned”

site the surrounding industrial context. It

appeared, therefore, to be a space of complete

dereliction resting securely within the bustle

of surrounding activity and production. At

this stage, I defined the site by the property

boundary which was clearly outlined by the

fence.

Fortunately for me, the fence ran only

to the bluff at the shore with just enough room

for me to swing around it at the river’s edge.

I followed a subtle path already trampled in

the gravel up to and around the fence. Upon

entering the site I was greeted by a bright

yellow warning sign. Expecting yet another

feeble warning against my intended infraction,

I was surprised to find something else entirely;

a hazard sign warning of the health risks

[b] FIGURE/GROUNDSEPARATE

Lewis, MichaelLewis, MichaelLewis, Michael

Figure 38: Separate.

Figure 37: Figure/Ground.

Figure 36: Separate Figure/Ground Site.

42

associated with consuming fish from the river.

It said nothing of the legality of fishing, but

instead informed me of the potential toxicity of

fish and shellfish living in the river.

Drawn forward by the silos, I made

my way through a staggered stretch of

opportunistic plants (Fig. 39). Gridded across

the site through cracks in the concrete, the

scrubby plants had emerged where there was

access to soil, water, and sun. Shaded surfaces

were covered in moss, and plants that could

handle salt sprung from the gravelly shore.

Even on the top floor of the tower, I discovered

moss growing on the handrail (Fig 40). The

apparent lack of tending within the site felt

markedly different than outside the dividing

fence.

The site was no longer a place of

productive industry, and seemed abandoned

(Fig. 41-43). The warehouse was vacant and

littered with papers from an upturned file

cabinet. Light fixtures from the ceiling were

either pulled to the ground or shattered in

their perches. The surrounding sheds held only

a scattered display of rusted artifacts. I found

the silos to be eerily empty with little more

than the maddening sound of a low drip falling

from the roof of the tower. My solitude began

to consume me as I prowled stealthily through

the site.

Besides the slow dripping of water

coming off the tower and my cautious steps,

there was no other apparent sound or

movement from within the site. In response

my senses grasped for stimuli from the

adjacent site context. The site seemed to

consume sound produced from beyond the

fence. The noise of traffic felt safely distanced

but made its way effectively to me. Growing

more attuned to the sound of surrounding

traffic I became much more aware of the

relationship this particular site had with the

context.

GRADIENT

My reconsideration of the site as

a separate entity came from the constant

sound that was being directed toward me

from beyond the fence (Fig. 44). In addition to

the constant rushing of automobiles, I heard

trucks, ships, hammering, and the occasional

flock of ducks. The silence within the fence

created a relative void for sound to enter from

beyond and it created a gradient of experience

immune to the presence of a fence. Intrigued

by this relative transparency of the fence, I

began to reflect on my previous experience as

well. My experience was not merely isolated

to my immediate environment.

At the edge, according to philosopher

Gilles Deleuze, “…interior and exterior are

Lewis, Michael

Lewis, Michael

Lewis, Michael

Lewis, Michael

Lewis, MichaelFigure 42: Graffiti.

Figure 41: Derelict.

Figure 43: Searching.

Figure 40: Moss.

Figure 39: Opportunists.

GRADIENT

43

equally a part of immanence in which they

have fused” (Deleuze & Guattari 1987). In

other words, the edge is where interaction and

unification mesh together; it is the contour

line that unites the figure and ground. I

reconsidered this specific site to rest at the

center of the edge where the distinctions

of figure and ground, or rather the site and

context, are interwoven and dependent. It

is the periphery where, as Deleuze would

say, nomadic deterritorialization may occur

(Ballantyne 2007; Deleuze & Guattari 1987).

Deterritorialization, in this case, is a reference

to the transitional quality of loose space that is

freed of rigorous control. As a peripheral loose

space, movement and interaction characterize

this site at multiple scales. Walking the

boundary of land and sea, home and industry,

attraction and repulsion, industry and post-

industry, site and context revealed to me the

fluctuating interaction of deterritorialization

through this overlapping region.

Thinking back to my traversal of

the perimeter fence described above, it was

obvious from the pedestrian tracks along the

crumbling bluff that I was following the steps

of others. The boundary was readily breached

as my later discovery of bent gates and cut

holes would reveal. Not only had I found it

easy to enter the site, but the strategically

placed hazard sign regarding toxic fish (see

fig. 38) reveals that my access point was a

known entrance by others hoping to reduce

community exposure. In addition to the

location reinforcing my new consideration

of the permeability of this edge, the sign’s

content hinted at another violation. It

dawned on me that there was a very real

risk of absorbing environmental toxins found

throughout the river.

My observations of chaos and ruin

were also evidence of continued inhabitance

of the site (see Fig 39-43). I also began to

consider plants as an indicator of transport

across the fence which would do little to

prevent spores, and seeds from moving into

or out of the fenced area. Such evidence

revealed the movement and action of

continued use. My consideration of the site as

a figure/ground therefore became less defined

and continually looser. Instead of two distinct

spaces, I began to look closer at the dialogs

that occur across apparent boundaries (Fig. 44-

45). I considered the figure and ground at this

time to be dynamic and integral to each other

(Fig. 46).

Although I first considered the site

abandoned, I found evidence of intrusion and

activity that reinforced my new perspective

of a fluid gradient (see Fig. 47-49). Graffiti,

although found elsewhere, was relatively

concentrated within the fence. It is almost as

if the graffiti escapes this place and disperses

Lewis, MichaelLewis, MichaelLewis, Michael

Figure 46: Gradient Figure/Ground Site.

Figure 45: Gradient Egde.

Figure 44: Figure Interacting with Ground.

44

out. More likely however, it is people from

elsewhere converging within this one site for

its reclusiveness. I found empty bottles and

cans piled in corners and along appropriated

seating. Piles of garbage including newspaper,

magazines, and food packaging, were

scattered about. I began to realize that people

frequented the site by continually fluctuating

in and out of the space. I considered that

much of the character that caused me to label

the site originally as abandoned was actually

a testament of its inhabitation (compare Fig.

47-49 with 39-43).

I began to explore the relationship

between the site and surroundings as a rather

dynamic process of interaction at the edge of

the figure and ground. I felt at this point that

the site balanced a peculiar state of being both

within and separate from the buzzing activity

and that the edge was much more malleable

than the apparently static line created by the

fence. The boundary of the site does not

remain restricted to the property line. I took

the liberty to embrace the idea of the edge of

the figure/ground as a dynamic interface freed

of the static delineation of defined boundaries,

and continued to explore it through walks and

design studies.

My study of dynamic edges was not

limited to the edge of the site, but included

various surfaces as well. The towering silos

serve as an example. The looming forms,

which drew me to the site because of their

prominent form, were subdued in significance

by my continued exploration. Through time

they became less of an object of reverence or

curiosity and were increasingly understood by

me as a general landmark among which I found

myself moving near, or through. By walking,

I became increasingly tuned to the process of

permeability and exchange through and among

them. The silo became a wall that defined the

open space, a gateway to cross into the site, or

a set of stairs to ascend.

My designs took shape in response

to my experience of the site as a discrete

object embedded in its surroundings. At

first, captivated by the silos and the derelict

state of the site, I deconstructed the forms in

hopes of finding some new significance to the

prominent landmarks (Fig. 50). I thought that

these unique features would foster a design

particular to this place. The figures could be

recycled within the existing context to bring

new meaning to the site.

As the edges became more obscure,

however, I tested alternative ways to utilize

the dialog I was considering between the site

and context. I considered methods to enhance

the interface of the site with that of the

surrounding hustle. For example, I considered

the site as a uniquely human scale from which

Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael

Figure 49: Moss and Mushrooms on Concrete.

Figure 48: Graffiti above Toy Bin.

Figure 47: Steps.

45

to connect users to the industrial activity

surrounding it. The asylum of the site resides

close enough for one to feel the industrial

pulse and yet distant enough as to avoid being

assaulted by it. Rather than settling on the

boundary as an edge to define the site, I was

now exploring a fluid gradient of exchange to

the greater surroundings. In other, words, the

edge was seen by me as an expansive space

of vitality and overlap rather than a precise

division.

Embracing this loose boundary, I

imagined the site could be an initial respite

at the edge of Harbor Island that would be

the first in an initial submersion of users to a

larger network of increasingly direct industrial

experiences. For the purposes of this thesis,

I wanted to restrict my attention to walking,

and therefore, did not address this more

regional concept any further, but did however

continue to explore my new appreciation for

process and interaction. The following section

is a continued exploration of movement

and change which I am referring to as a

“becoming.”

[c] BECOMING

As described in the literature review,

“becoming” is an open-ended state of

transition. The type of walking I considered

during my experience is gradual, nuanced, and

meandering. I moved through the landscape

not in a channeled abstract grid, but coursed

to and fro in direct response to the site and

unfolding events. Walking in this fashion was

not a repetitive endeavor to trace an abstract

grid of measured paths between designated

points and bumping into objects as I move

through space, but was rather an experience of

becoming in which the site and I were a shared

process. In this manner both self and site

were in an open-ended transition of increased

familiarity; referred to in an earlier chapter as a

mutual unfolding of becoming-place.

Becoming is characteristically

transitional (see Fig. 51). My descriptions are

appropriately shifting as I continued to revisit

the site. There are a series of train tracks

that follow the fence and trace the eastern

edge of the defined site (see Fig. 52). Initially

I understood the tracks as an obstacle to site

access and fell just outside the contour of

the figure/ground. I would cross the tracks

and picture the hazards that a train passing

would cause for public access to the site. I

imagined the train as a nemesis that might be

best to ignore, but considering the site as a

“becoming” encouraged me to expand my site

boundary and embrace the train and tracks.

Not until the fourth visit, did I have a direct

encounter with a moving train (see Fig. 53).

Upon this encounter I felt the train first as a

rumble in the ground followed by a bursting

[c] BECOMING

Lewis, Michael

Figure 50: Deconstruction.

46

approach

south gradient

southwest edge

core site

general site

north gradient

Figure 51: Becoming-Site.

Lewis, Michael

47

horn. At the time I was planning to leave the

fenced site but the train lurched slowly past

and blocked my route. What emerged from

the encounter was both a new trajectory

for walking as I was forced to pioneer a new

course, as well as a fresh string of design

explorations.

Passing the train, I wandered below a

nearby bridge just south of the site, and to my

surprise, stumbled on a view of Mount Rainier

(Fig. 54). A fortuitous layering of weather,

rail schedules, courses, worked together to

provide a spectacular opportunity during

that one visit. The train encounter gave me

reason to again wander beyond the fenced

site defined previously, but now with a new

interest in the process of experience. Having

the train interrupt my path unexpectedly

was an encounter entirely different from the

abstract knowledge of routes and schedules for

the train. Walking forced a physical encounter

and reaction. This experience modeled what

others could possibly encounter while walking

in this place.

Based on maps and observations

described in the previous section, I had first

defined the site by the fence. I considered the

tracks as they might reinforce this stationary

understanding of edge. However, my new

appreciation of a loose edge and the train

encounter inspired me to include the tracks

as an essential process of site experience.

Having veered from my intentional route in

response to my train encounter, I explored

the neighboring terrain with new motive.

In addition to embracing the tracks, this

path that I was pioneering guided me to

envelop portions of the adjacent sites which

I had previously eschewed as part of the

context (Fig. 51). The boundary of the site,

as I understood it, was also engaging in

“becoming.” No longer defined by the static

border of the fence, I found that the site had

taken a transitional character of place that

was becoming organic and responsive. The

site, through the movement of the train, had

influenced my course. My response was to

explore new terrain, which then became part

of my definition of the site. This alteration of

perception encouraged me to consider the site

and my experience as a process of “becoming.”

Looking back, entering this site each

time, for me, was a process of relinquishing

absolute control and allowing the experience

to dictate a loose scenario of encounter and

engagement. This release was freeing to me

as a means to flow through the experience and

recognize the dynamic at play between the site

and me. Rather than stand back and observe,

or dictate the scenario, I embedded myself

in the unfolding of the situation. Walking

became fun, and often transgressive. There

was an immediacy in which I could no longer

Figure 54: River View.

Figure 53: Train and Fence.

Figure 52: Tracks.

Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael

48

resist the desire to touch, turn, dig, kick, break

and open whatever was accessible.

When I left, it was an entirely

different experience than I had expected

upon arrival (Fig. 55-57). I walked without

any specific direction or particular intent,

but spontaneously moved in imaginative and

unpredictable ways throughout the site and

surroundings (Casey 1997; Edensor 2005).

These walks were about expanding the

possibilities of experience and therefore my

imagination and creativity. Together, the site

and I were in a state of “becoming.”

In addition to this freedom to act in

ways I might otherwise subdue, the site had a

direct influence on my response. Intentionally,

I am addressing the mutual agency that this

scenario of letting go and walking enhances. I

had the power to alter the site, and it too had

power to alter me. I would argue that the site

had agency to manipulate through experience,

and in this method especially I experienced site

as an equally animate participant in a flow of

encounters made possible through my walks.

The site therefore, as a place of physical and

cultural significance, had a direct influence on

my movement and understanding. The site, I

found, was not merely a thing, but a dynamic

process that acts and reacts.

As a process of “becoming-other,”

according to philosophers, there is a state of

flux that does not have a definitive outcome.

There is no requirement in this understanding

to resolve a walk in order to progress to a final

outcome, or satisfy a particular desire, but the

act is in essence an ontological perspective

that embraces flux and becomes fulfilled in a

state of transition. Philosopher James Williams

writes in regard to Deleuze that, “the ontology

of “becoming” turns against progress, defined

in terms of the move towards ideals or lost

origins” (Williams 2000, p. 203). Accordingly,

it is the process of movement, not progress,

which is important. This perspective is not

characterized as a journey from an origin to

some final ideal, but in my case of walking.

I walked and designed because it is the

process that is fulfilling, not necessarily the

result. For my project this meant that process

takes physical and creative precedence over

subjects, objects, points, and paths.

[d] EMERGENCE

It is from this understanding of

becoming that my designs of process emerged.

As a continued dialog of transition, my design

explorations began to consider and question

experience as a process of site design.

Discussed more in Chapter 6, I explore how my

discoveries of a site as a becoming influenced

my conceptual framework for an emergent

design (Fig. 58). As with my approach to

[d] EMERGENCELewis, MichaelLewis, MichaelLewis, Michael

Figure 55: Danger.

Figure 56: Coin Washer.

Figure 57: Perched.

49

walking, my proposal relies on the repeated

visits of others to the site and actively engages

their movements as a trace for others and me

to read and respond to.

The designs at this phase were

inspired by my understanding of place as

a process. My proposals are intended to

highlight to others the relationships of people

and place, and in particular to this place as

a becoming. I was inspired by the site as an

organic and active force to explore how the

agency of the site might best be encouraged,

how continued traces of movement could

be clearly read, and in how my particular

experience continues to influence my designs.

Lewis, Michael

Figure 58: Emerging Design

50

Lewis, Michael

51Figure 59: Walking.

WANDERING

CHAPTER 5: METHODS

Simply put, the primary method

of investigation for this thesis was walking.

This chapter will outline my particular

method of walking and its implications for

observation, recording, analysis, and design.

Using a mixture of photography, sketching,

and journaling, I documented my walking

experience as a creative endeavor (Ballantyne

2007). Walking, for me, straddled the dual

aspects of investigation and performance

and nourished a rich connection to the site.

While sketching, photographing, and designing

are acts of creativity that supported my

exploration, I gave primacy to walking as a

method of site investigation.

WANDERING

Initially inspired by American

environmental writings, I became fascinated

with walking and the particular connection

to place that it fosters. As noted in Chapter

52

2, the literature explored the importance

of developing a personal connection to the

landscape and of the significance of qualitative

description of experience. Drawing on the

literature, and supporting concepts of place

and process, I actively engaged the physical

practice of walking the site, thus engaging

a praxis of theory, doing and knowing. In

particular, I took a series of walks (Fig. 60)

in order to study how my understanding

of experience, site and place transitioned

through increased familiarity. The discursive

walks, as Filepa Wunderlich (2008) refers to

them, were engaged rambles during which

I recorded personal reflections on the place

and my emerging experience through notes,

sketching and photography. I used the records

from the walks to study my interaction and

understanding of the site. This emergent

approach to understanding through experience

was ultimately applied to a phased design

strategy (see Chapter 6).

I utilized Christophe Girot’s (1999)

trace concepts: landing, grounding, finding and

founding to help describe my design process.

Girot’s concepts, in addition to systematizing

a method of investigation, require a longer

interaction with place to challenge the

limitations of short encounters. Landing is an

initial state of interaction prior to the designer

knowing anything about the site. Grounding

is a second stage consisting of research and

analysis. Finding is the process of searching

for and discovery of aspects of the site and

experience. Founding is the synthesis of the

other three as a generative response. Rather

than rely on this method as a progressive

system, I recognize the four trace concepts to

be cyclical, with each taking turn as a dominant

aspect of my experience through walking and

design. The result of my revisiting the trace

concepts was the increased experience of

wonder, excitement, and novelty described

for each. The phases I identify in Chapter

4 (generic, figure/ground, becoming, and

emergence) associate to a retracing of Girot’s

concepts throughout my experience.

Walking, though seemingly

quantifiable as a series of individual steps, is

understood for the purposes of this exploration

as an analog of continual experience and

movement (Ingold 2007). My process was not

a series of measured steps or linear routes, but

rather a flow of relational trajectories. In other

words, I was not interested in the specific

route between any particular points; rather I

took a more appropriate record of transition

as interaction of force and proximity. In this

manner walking was a mode of open-ended

sensual experiences based on a sustained

desire to pursue the slow unveiling of

occurrence. I mapped a series of these walks

and was surprised how sporadic the routes

seemed in comparison to the fluid unfolding I

Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael

Figure 60: Some Mapped Wandering.

53

felt at the time. Wandering an emergent route

made sense on the ground as an intentionally

fluid experience, but in comparison appears

irrational as plotted.

Regardless of weather, I scheduled

one walk on the site per week, making

additional visits when time permitted. I

participated in at least two visits a week,

and often three at various times. This was

an arbitrary scheduling and was meant to

ensure that I walked the site through at

various times and durations, but not overly

rigorous as to stifle the spontaneity I desired.

Brazenly subjective and ultimately haphazard,

I explored the way I knew best; I wandered.

I trampled about in an effort to trace how

weaving my own experience into the site

informed my interaction and understanding of

it. As described in Chapter 4, walking the site

through a series of visits resulted in a shift in

my experience which I recorded in a variety of

ways.

OPEN INVENTORY

With each walk of the site, I

conducted an open inventory of my

experience. This is a record of all observations,

conclusions, assumptions, and creative flights

during my walking experience (Fig. 61). I

refer to it as open because it includes a wider

range of data than I would otherwise have

recorded had I not made the conscious effort

to challenge my own assumptions. In other

words, I included a wider scope of data so

that new connections might emerge for the

purposes of design. The inventory served as

record of personal observations and insights

collected as a list of notes, short descriptions,

considerations, questions, narratives, and

assumptions supplemented by sketches and

photographs. The goal was to maximize

the variety of data collected as it became

apparent. Through this process of open

inventory, I remained prepared for unforeseen

horizons.

Each form of recording was an

intentional process I facilitated in order to

appreciate the composition of experience and

creativity. They are imaginative expressions

of flow serving to mediate what lies between

moments; that elusive “plane of immanence,”

also called “becoming.” Movement, thought,

and creativity were integrated in a variety

of ways into my approach. Photography,

sketching, and journaling were a means to

inform interventions appropriate to the site

and my understanding of it as a place.

PHOTOGRAPHY

The collection of photographs I took

during each walk was used to document

the site and my experience and served as a

OPEN INVENTORY

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lewis, Michael

Figure 61: Inventory Samples.

54

medium for creative exploration and design

composition. In reviewing these images I

noticed that they portrayed the relationships

between structures and site elements,

provided me a record of material details and

close ups, captured portions of the views that

drew me forward, and mapped a perspective

storyboard of my walks. Although some of

the photographs were careful compositions

intended to instill an aesthetic reaction, many

were quick snapshots that later exposed

hidden aspects of my experience that were not

intentionally documented. Going back to the

images and reexamining them revealed that

they were becoming more than a catalog.

Following each visit I would catalog

them chronologically and cross reference them

by themes or concepts. The chronological

sequence helped me to interpret how my

focus changed across disparate walks and

provided an easy way to remember the

general sequence of my experience. One

collection of images grouped together the

visible traces from the ground surface (see Fig.

64). Organized together I was able to see the

relative importance of this particular subject.

Other collections were collated by themes of

shape, color, and composition. This process

allowed for quick reference and a continual

reflection of what themes were present in my

walking experience.

While shuffling through the

photographs I explored new connections

from my walking experience through the

juxtaposition of various images. For example,

I grouped images of common forms as an

experiment to find patterns on the site. I was

able to link, through photographs, relatively

disparate images through this method.

Another activity was the pairing of similar

photographs to imply subtle movements

between the images. My goal in this exercise

was to investigate the resonant encounter of

two images as a metaphor for the literature

on becoming and process (Fig. 62). These

pairs echo each other, not to imply a direct

movement from one moment to the next,

but to reveal an infinite depth in the invisible

process that lies between them (see Fig. 63).

These new compositions helped me to explore

the ideas of process philosophy through a

physical medium and to better grasp the

potentials of understanding process.

In addition to the photographs of

views, materials, and spaces, I captured

particular frames in an effort to communicate

the site as an experience of “becoming” (see

Fig. 64). Certain compositions were intended

to give an indication of my physical presence

and movement, users’ movements, and still

other compositions were to imply imagined

events (see Fig. 10). This was done by framing

spaces and relationships and blurring through

55

movement and depth of field, rather than

concentrating on the composition of objects.

Through these photographs I investigated ways

to communicate my understanding of walking

the site. The photograph collection helped

me connect space, scale, and experience to

theories of place, process, and becoming.

This connection helped me to approach

design as a transitional experience. With

each consideration of photographs, the

new connections were reflected upon with

emerging design ideas created both by hand

and digitally.

SKETCHBOOK

The sketchbook was a familiar

medium to record my observations. The pages

were a critical environment to explore my

understanding and begin to draw connections

between site, observations and interpretations.

Most of the pages included quick doodles

scattered with notes and arrows to explore my

passing expression of the situation. I made

quick sketches that were rather expressive,

whereas a few of these included much more

detail and therefore more dedication to

produce. The sketchbook was an important

tool for recording, reflecting and exploring on

my experience and design ideas.

The information in the sketchbook

provided notes and sketches that were

supplemented by photographs. This data was

a necessary record of my experience and a

valuable tool for the expression of my insights

and ideas. Rather than rely strictly on memory,

the sketchbook provided a visual form of

notes. Relying only on photographs would not

have allowed me to record specific thoughts

and moods that were arising in the situation.

These less tangible details became important

for my design process. Recording through a

variety of modes can be a challenge, but had I

relied on only one, my records would not have

been as encompassing.

Throughout the series of walks I

explored various design alternatives. As

described in Chapter 4, the various studies

reflected my phases of understanding. The

designs were represented in doodles, sketches,

and modeled renderings, as responses to

categories such as, restoration, preservation,

deconstruction, overlap, and transition. Not

entirely a progression, I utilized a variety of

ideas from each category in my developing

proposal.

Perspective graphics are a vital

element of my design process. Building from

my emphasis on the physical embodiment of

space and place through walking, my approach

to design is rooted in perspective. The intent

is to highlight and transcribe my ideas through

the spatial format from which I experienced

Lewis, Michael

SKETCHBOOK

Figure 62: Between-Places.

56 Figure 63: Between-Moments.

Lewis, Michael

57Figure 64: Traces and Marks.

Lewis, Michael

58

sun noonriver high

park empty surprisewiggle path

covered benchesstone

painted steelpennieswasher

tipping off edgegrass tall

brown grasshide riprap

traffic noisewhoosh

see jet flyingT18

old terminalfishing string

chip bagdrift wood

concrete rubblepier polestrain bell

hornsink hole

eco blocksslumping gravel

armoredtensequiet

vacantmarginal

weedscracksworn

wettoy car broken

toysexacto knife

broken boardsrope

moss ropecoiled

rustpitting

steal toweryellow paint

elevatedframed

empty shedopen cabinet

cut wireswarning sign

carvedriver

light beamcornered

dark cornersfalling gatehole in wall

step throughlocked door

broken windowlight

plastic tarptripped

drippinggutter

muggy wet airclimblowerraise

pulleystep

shardsperched

telephonegreen funnel

yellow polefilm

descendoutside

stairascendstep up

turnsteal

slipperypool of water in room

dead enddescendcircular

pipessense someone watching

cat ran bycat in tunnel

bloody knuckledrip drip drip

saw shoesleeping bag

pillowhandles to touch

dizzy heightmoss

see towerspectacletrespass

safetyhearing buzzing

my own heart beatsweating

logpaint

broken glassclimb roof

hole in wallslippery metal

skylightbedding

beerpolice stopped to watch

head northgeese

trussesgravel

walking on trackschain link

latchesbalance on rail

engine noisesmells bad

swarming birdsshoreline

crumbling pierrotted woodbirds in pier

waves lappingjet noise

shore birdshear ducks quackchirping honking

steam or smoke across rivercrunch rock

siren in alkaiheron

rebar trippedpebble beach

wetwater sound calming

glad to be away from silencebirds everywhere

sqaukingintrude on birds

slimy mud parking lothungry

hands drysmell rust or blood

earthen fellburied tracksgravel peaks

diagonalwarm sun

long shadowwarning signbarbed wire

walk around fencesun on back

pavement over waterlinear

zig zagsand patchrust stripe

railoil

gasstraw bails

slabs in waterreflection pools

dead endfootprints

loud carexposed open lot

windmillstall wall

prison walltrain tracks

chain linkrumbling ground

cargo shiptug boat pulling

chest rumbleuneven walkkids playing

truck broke downrush of traffic to leave

see downtownsun setting

sidewalk secondarycross road

cross trackscross road

cross trackshuge funnelcold breeze

wall risingtall towers

tunneledchase geese

drivinglost

passed bytent

woman in truck waitingrain

wet benchesriver flow fast

pacingshipyard lights on

eveningriver straight

structure straightpath wiggles

tileswrappers

bottlescans

tall grassduck honk

whoosh of carstrain horn

growl of truckcalm

swarm aroundgeese over water

bell

no smellwide tracksboat motor

metal bellhonk

bridge turningholes lights

delaybarge gone

slow passtrain bridge honk

raindrips

tap tap rainmore train

warning fish toxicnew art

porous crete slabsdoor moved

sense presencegrass on roof

rocks on cementslick moss

hole in fencebroken glass

tap tapahhh a voice

a person yellingslipped

open lotgravel

sandcompact soilunder bridge

steel stairnumb cold

train bridgerust

downtown viewspace needle

dark shadow going westlights

overcasttackle weight

basketballrest on bench

water appears to flow upstreamblackberry

rip rapgeotextile

filldesire line

path to watercandle

waxed curbshore across riverstacked concrete

logmowed grass

water fountaincreak

falling wood walkfeel train

slowdoor prop

wedgeasbestos warning

shelterlow tide

pilingwood plank

plantpower lines

bikesbell

bridge swingcaution buried cable

caution toxic fishgate close

noaabirds

train bridge dropwalk bridge

roller bladerto train

geesecross river

waitcold

distant viewfeather

dead birdsandmoss

clovergravel

train trackflat island

pedestrian bridgepebble

shrubevergreen tree

annual grassrope

logplastic bag

rubber hosepole

copper discsbroken light

shedrusted steelhazard sign

cut fencethorns

trucktrailer

wireceramic triangle

noaapedestrian

squattersleeping bag

pillowempty can

bottleflaked paint

broken glass windownorth wind

scaffoldtide high

tentmoss on steel rail

up highberries

empty paintpants

exacto knifefishing wire

sunrain

screwship gone

electrical pulled outcabinets open

steal laddergrated walk

water in pitssteal cover

drainwiring

wood shelvescurved room

arched openingsteal funnel

gravelpier

sink holeeco straw bags

orange fencestair

bridge gatetower guy

curved pathopen shelters

wet benchvacant

hereladder

dustreflection

beamcrumbling catwalk

jacketdesire line

overpassbridgeswivel

tug boatbolt

shardscardboardpolice car

shippingtrucking

wood dolphinstoy car

rusttelephone

bottlesilo

footprintpools

rectangle slabwater fountain

penniesslow

train bridge upbridge down

turnbalanceseagull

weightsfence

thornsconcrete crack

handlesriprap

skateboardertruck parked

truck leaveman on tower

watcherclack clack clack

new shipunder bridge

bike ridersanother person

birds chirpingbirds not visiblecompacted soil

gravel crunchwalkers on bridge

terracesfenced pillars

riders on bridgebike pathsquatter

no crosswalkcurve road

poor sight linelost bike rider

no crossing visiblepower lines

shadeoverpass sidewalk

nowheresee pier

transitionempty

shelteredMt Rainier

skateboarderjaywalk

ha! minivan caravantrain tracks

slumped soilnew entrance

squeezecave-in

bellsail boat

bridge turnasbestos

distrust asbestosgraffiti

gate lockedwire knot

new graffitiskateboarder clack

creaky woodsoggy unsafe

rottenrail broke

edgeover water

want to jump incold

time

difference

trace

entropy

process

texture

material

relationship

embodiment

view

scale

perception

spontaneity

chronological observations concept example

Figure 65: Coding Spectrum.

Lewis, Michael

chronological observations concept example

59Figure 66: Observation Sample.

sun noonriver high

park empty surprisewiggle path

covered benchesstone

painted steelpennieswasher

tipping off edgegrass tall

brown grasshide riprap

traffic noisewhoosh

see jet flyingT18

old terminalfishing string

chip bagdrift wood

concrete rubblepier polestrain bell

hornsink hole

eco blocksslumping gravel

armoredtensequiet

vacantmarginal

weedscracksworn

wettoy car broken

toysexacto knife

broken boardsrope

moss ropecoiled

rustpitting

steal toweryellow paint

elevatedframed

empty shedopen cabinet

cut wireswarning sign

carvedriver

light beamcornered

dark cornersfalling gatehole in wall

step throughlocked door

broken windowlight

plastic tarptripped

drippinggutter

muggy wet airclimblowerraise

pulleystep

shardsperched

telephonegreen funnel

yellow polefilm

descendoutside

stairascendstep up

turnsteal

slipperypool of water in room

dead enddescendcircular

pipessense someone watching

cat ran bycat in tunnel

bloody knuckledrip drip drip

saw shoesleeping bag

pillowhandles to touch

dizzy heightmoss

see towerspectacletrespass

safetyhearing buzzing

my own heart beatsweating

logpaint

broken glassclimb roof

hole in wallslippery metal

skylightbedding

beerpolice stopped to watch

head northgeese

trussesgravel

walking on trackschain link

latchesbalance on rail

engine noisesmells bad

swarming birdsshoreline

crumbling pierrotted woodbirds in pier

waves lappingjet noise

shore birdshear ducks quackchirping honking

steam or smoke across rivercrunch rock

siren in alkaiheron

rebar trippedpebble beach

wetwater sound calming

glad to be away from silencebirds everywhere

sqaukingintrude on birds

slimy mud parking lothungry

hands drysmell rust or blood

earthen fellburied tracksgravel peaks

diagonalwarm sun

long shadowwarning signbarbed wire

walk around fencesun on back

pavement over waterlinear

zig zagsand patchrust stripe

railoil

gasstraw bails

slabs in waterreflection pools

dead endfootprints

loud carexposed open lot

windmillstall wall

prison walltrain tracks

chain linkrumbling ground

cargo shiptug boat pulling

chest rumbleuneven walkkids playing

truck broke downrush of traffic to leave

see downtownsun setting

sidewalk secondarycross road

cross trackscross road

cross trackshuge funnelcold breeze

wall risingtall towers

tunneledchase geese

drivinglost

passed bytent

woman in truck waitingrain

wet benchesriver flow fast

pacingshipyard lights on

eveningriver straight

structure straightpath wiggles

tileswrappers

bottlescans

tall grassduck honk

whoosh of carstrain horn

growl of truckcalm

swarm aroundgeese over water

bell

no smellwide tracksboat motor

metal bellhonk

bridge turningholes lights

delaybarge gone

slow passtrain bridge honk

raindrips

tap tap rainmore train

warning fish toxicnew art

porous crete slabsdoor moved

sense presencegrass on roof

rocks on cementslick moss

hole in fencebroken glass

tap tapahhh a voice

a person yellingslipped

open lotgravel

sandcompact soilunder bridge

steel stairnumb cold

train bridgerust

downtown viewspace needle

dark shadow going westlights

overcasttackle weight

basketballrest on bench

water appears to flow upstreamblackberry

rip rapgeotextile

filldesire line

path to watercandle

waxed curbshore across riverstacked concrete

logmowed grass

water fountaincreak

falling wood walkfeel train

slowdoor prop

wedgeasbestos warning

shelterlow tide

pilingwood plank

plantpower lines

bikesbell

bridge swingcaution buried cable

caution toxic fishgate close

noaabirds

train bridge dropwalk bridge

roller bladerto train

geesecross river

waitcold

distant viewfeather

dead birdsandmoss

clovergravel

train trackflat island

pedestrian bridgepebble

shrubevergreen tree

annual grassrope

logplastic bag

rubber hosepole

copper discsbroken light

shedrusted steelhazard sign

cut fencethorns

trucktrailer

wireceramic triangle

noaapedestrian

squattersleeping bag

pillowempty can

bottleflaked paint

broken glass windownorth wind

scaffoldtide high

tentmoss on steel rail

up highberries

empty paintpants

exacto knifefishing wire

sunrain

screwship gone

electrical pulled outcabinets open

steal laddergrated walk

water in pitssteal cover

drainwiring

wood shelvescurved room

arched openingsteal funnel

gravelpier

sink holeeco straw bags

orange fencestair

bridge gatetower guy

curved pathopen shelters

wet benchvacant

hereladder

dustreflection

beamcrumbling catwalk

jacketdesire line

overpassbridgeswivel

tug boatbolt

shardscardboardpolice car

shippingtrucking

wood dolphinstoy car

rusttelephone

bottlesilo

footprintpools

rectangle slabwater fountain

penniesslow

train bridge upbridge down

turnbalanceseagull

weightsfence

thornsconcrete crack

handlesriprap

skateboardertruck parked

truck leaveman on tower

watcherclack clack clack

new shipunder bridge

bike ridersanother person

birds chirpingbirds not visiblecompacted soil

gravel crunchwalkers on bridge

terracesfenced pillars

riders on bridgebike pathsquatter

no crosswalkcurve road

poor sight linelost bike rider

no crossing visiblepower lines

shadeoverpass sidewalk

nowheresee pier

transitionempty

shelteredMt Rainier

skateboarderjaywalk

ha! minivan caravantrain tracks

slumped soilnew entrance

squeezecave-in

bellsail boat

bridge turnasbestos

distrust asbestosgraffiti

gate lockedwire knot

new graffitiskateboarder clack

creaky woodsoggy unsafe

rottenrail broke

edgeover water

want to jump incold

time

difference

trace

entropy

process

texture

material

relationship

embodiment

view

scale

perception

spontaneity

chronological observations concept example

SPECTRUM CODINGLewis, Michael

the site. Rendered perspectives fulfilled that

desire. The use of site maps is therefore

secondary and presented to communicate the

spaces in the greater network of experience on

and around the site.

SPECTRUM CODING

The sketchbook served as a resource

for analyzing the significance of walking as

a series of visits. For example, I created

a coding spectrum (Fig. 65) to reinterpret

my observations. First, I transcribed my

experiential notes into a chronological list (Fig.

66). Wanting to conceptualize the specifics

of my experience within a general framework

for analysis, I tried to code the observations.

I did this by giving my observational notes

conceptual labels that captured the nature of

each observation. This method is similar to the

process of coding for qualitative data analysis

based on grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin

1990). From the list of codes developed, I

distilled my walking experience into thirteen

distinct concepts: difference, embodiment,

entropy, perception, material, trace, process,

relationship, scale, spontaneity, texture,

time, and view. As a graphical exploration

of the process and the concepts, I created

two columns with the list of miscellaneous

observations on the left, and the thirteen

distilled concepts on the right. Using a

color coded schema, I then connected each

observation to the relevant concept with a

line. The primary focus of this exploration

was to determine the relative persistence for

each concept. Like a walk, the story of each

concept, seen in the figure, is more significant

than attempting to hone in on each step. This

stage was particularly important in highlighting

the significance of walking as a series of visits.

The process of analyzing the walk revealed an

underlying pattern I had otherwise missed.

Hidden from the senses of my experiential

observations there resided a significant

conceptual pattern of transitional interaction.

From the coding process, a visual

pattern was formed. As a process of

emergence, a complex pattern resulted from

a relatively simple set of rules (Holland 1998).

In this case, connecting a chronological list

of observations to an alphabetical list of

concepts enabled the relative prominence of

certain concepts to emerge. These patterns

embedded in my walking, and interpreted

through coding, take the sensory recording of

my experience and interpret it from another

perspective. The pattern suggests a deeper

aspect of my reality that I had not consciously

discerned during my observations, but still

embodied through the experience. Although

the visual pattern is constructed through

coding, the process of coding is an attempt

to understand my experience from another

perspective; to see what I was not seeing. Like

60

a body of water, walking seems simple rippling

on the surface, but has a volume below

coursing with a depth of movement.

Rather than focus on the specifics, I

am concerned with the general pattern. The

pattern for the concept difference caught

my attention. The pattern and the way I

interpreted the definition of difference reveal

a subtle alteration in my understanding of

this place that is the result of a continued

relationship with the site. It is, in other

words, the result of me having revisited the

site. It reveals a correlation between time,

experience, the emergence of a pattern, and

my understanding of place as dynamic and

variable.

The cone of black lines (Fig. 67)

depicts a gradient for difference. There were

a few initial outliers, seen as a few sporadic

lines higher on the spectrum that condense

as one proceeds down the graphic. For the

initial observations of difference, the outliers

are observations of the uniqueness of the site.

These lines represent the observation that

the site was unique in comparison to adjacent

spaces. The larger region, for example, is

industrial, whereas the site is post-industrial.

There was a subtle alteration in how I defined

difference in later visits. It transitioned from

difference between site and non-site to how

I understood the site as different from visit to

visit. This pattern plays out in the transitional

analysis already described. Based on a [a]

generic idea of what type of sites I would find

I first became aware of the [b] figure/ground

in which I saw the site as a distinct place.

On later visits I became less attentive of the

distinctions between sites, and instead found

the site as a [c] becoming where difference

occurring within the site felt significant. A

series of walks, as revealed here, is essential to

an understanding of the site and its internal life

of flux because some processes are not quickly

apparent or obvious.

The other twelve concepts I

developed have relatively wide spectrums.

The concepts are more continuous. They

are dispersed relatively even throughout my

observations. Had the spectrum dissipated

through time then I would consider that

only one or a few visits are necessary, but

each concept is characterized by a dispersed

spectrum. This persistence reinforces my

argument that repeated visits continue to

build a knowledgeable relationship with the

site. Familiarity, I found, does not suggest a

complete understanding, but can be seen as a

more informed connection that continues to

grow. Even at the bottom of the observation

list, each concept continues to be represented.

Therefore, after multiple visits significant data

continues to arise. Based on the particularity

of the concept, difference, this information

61

is not merely a superfluous pile of cataloged

date. According to this graphic exploration,

later observations remain valuable and

interesting. It follows that a series of walks

altered my experience and therefore my sense

of place.

The figure signifies an emergence

of complexity from a simple set of rules. It

reflects a process of immanent communication

in which much more than the immediate

encounter is embedded in place experience.

This supports the hypothesis that a series

of walks continues to provide a dynamic

relationship to site. This reinforces Ben Jacks’

statement that, “Only by walking the land, fully

engaged and immersed as we read carefully

and deeply, can we truly know a place” (Jacks

2004). Walking takes time, and the more we

walk, the more we know.

The photographs, sketchbook

contents (both images and words), and

coding strategy helped me to analyze and

communicate my experience in a more

careful, systematic way. Through this process

I learned two primary lessons. On one hand,

the method of walking as wandering created

a more intimate connection to the site as

a place. On the other, the analysis of that

method of walking through coding helped me

to interpret the significance of the experience

and identify concepts of the site that resonated

with me.

sun noonriver high

park empty surprisewiggle path

covered benchesstone

painted steelpennieswasher

tipping off edgegrass tall

brown grasshide riprap

traffic noisewhoosh

see jet flyingT18

old terminalfishing string

chip bagdrift wood

concrete rubblepier polestrain bell

hornsink hole

eco blocksslumping gravel

armoredtensequiet

vacantmarginal

weedscracksworn

wettoy car broken

toysexacto knife

broken boardsrope

moss ropecoiled

rustpitting

steal toweryellow paint

elevatedframed

empty shedopen cabinet

cut wireswarning sign

carvedriver

light beamcornered

dark cornersfalling gatehole in wall

step throughlocked door

broken windowlight

plastic tarptripped

drippinggutter

muggy wet airclimblowerraise

pulleystep

shardsperched

telephonegreen funnel

yellow polefilm

descendoutside

stairascendstep up

turnsteal

slipperypool of water in room

dead enddescendcircular

pipessense someone watching

cat ran bycat in tunnel

bloody knuckledrip drip drip

saw shoesleeping bag

pillowhandles to touch

dizzy heightmoss

see towerspectacletrespass

safetyhearing buzzing

my own heart beatsweating

logpaint

broken glassclimb roof

hole in wallslippery metal

skylightbedding

beerpolice stopped to watch

head northgeese

trussesgravel

walking on trackschain link

latchesbalance on rail

engine noisesmells bad

swarming birdsshoreline

crumbling pierrotted woodbirds in pier

waves lappingjet noise

shore birdshear ducks quackchirping honking

steam or smoke across rivercrunch rock

siren in alkaiheron

rebar trippedpebble beach

wetwater sound calming

glad to be away from silencebirds everywhere

sqaukingintrude on birds

slimy mud parking lothungry

hands drysmell rust or blood

earthen fellburied tracksgravel peaks

diagonalwarm sun

long shadowwarning signbarbed wire

walk around fencesun on back

pavement over waterlinear

zig zagsand patchrust stripe

railoil

gasstraw bails

slabs in waterreflection pools

dead endfootprints

loud carexposed open lot

windmillstall wall

prison walltrain tracks

chain linkrumbling ground

cargo shiptug boat pulling

chest rumbleuneven walkkids playing

truck broke downrush of traffic to leave

see downtownsun setting

sidewalk secondarycross road

cross trackscross road

cross trackshuge funnelcold breeze

wall risingtall towers

tunneledchase geese

drivinglost

passed bytent

woman in truck waitingrain

wet benchesriver flow fast

pacingshipyard lights on

eveningriver straight

structure straightpath wiggles

tileswrappers

bottlescans

tall grassduck honk

whoosh of carstrain horn

growl of truckcalm

swarm aroundgeese over water

bell

no smellwide tracksboat motor

metal bellhonk

bridge turningholes lights

delaybarge gone

slow passtrain bridge honk

raindrips

tap tap rainmore train

warning fish toxicnew art

porous crete slabsdoor moved

sense presencegrass on roof

rocks on cementslick moss

hole in fencebroken glass

tap tapahhh a voice

a person yellingslipped

open lotgravel

sandcompact soilunder bridge

steel stairnumb cold

train bridgerust

downtown viewspace needle

dark shadow going westlights

overcasttackle weight

basketballrest on bench

water appears to flow upstreamblackberry

rip rapgeotextile

filldesire line

path to watercandle

waxed curbshore across riverstacked concrete

logmowed grass

water fountaincreak

falling wood walkfeel train

slowdoor prop

wedgeasbestos warning

shelterlow tide

pilingwood plank

plantpower lines

bikesbell

bridge swingcaution buried cable

caution toxic fishgate close

noaabirds

train bridge dropwalk bridge

roller bladerto train

geesecross river

waitcold

distant viewfeather

dead birdsandmoss

clovergravel

train trackflat island

pedestrian bridgepebble

shrubevergreen tree

annual grassrope

logplastic bag

rubber hosepole

copper discsbroken light

shedrusted steelhazard sign

cut fencethorns

trucktrailer

wireceramic triangle

noaapedestrian

squattersleeping bag

pillowempty can

bottleflaked paint

broken glass windownorth wind

scaffoldtide high

tentmoss on steel rail

up highberries

empty paintpants

exacto knifefishing wire

sunrain

screwship gone

electrical pulled outcabinets open

steal laddergrated walk

water in pitssteal cover

drainwiring

wood shelvescurved room

arched openingsteal funnel

gravelpier

sink holeeco straw bags

orange fencestair

bridge gatetower guy

curved pathopen shelters

wet benchvacant

hereladder

dustreflection

beamcrumbling catwalk

jacketdesire line

overpassbridgeswivel

tug boatbolt

shardscardboardpolice car

shippingtrucking

wood dolphinstoy car

rusttelephone

bottlesilo

footprintpools

rectangle slabwater fountain

penniesslow

train bridge upbridge down

turnbalanceseagull

weightsfence

thornsconcrete crack

handlesriprap

skateboardertruck parked

truck leaveman on tower

watcherclack clack clack

new shipunder bridge

bike ridersanother person

birds chirpingbirds not visiblecompacted soil

gravel crunchwalkers on bridge

terracesfenced pillars

riders on bridgebike pathsquatter

no crosswalkcurve road

poor sight linelost bike rider

no crossing visiblepower lines

shadeoverpass sidewalk

nowheresee pier

transitionempty

shelteredMt Rainier

skateboarderjaywalk

ha! minivan caravantrain tracks

slumped soilnew entrance

squeezecave-in

bellsail boat

bridge turnasbestos

distrust asbestosgraffiti

gate lockedwire knot

new graffitiskateboarder clack

creaky woodsoggy unsafe

rottenrail broke

edgeover water

want to jump incold

time

difference

trace

entropy

process

texture

material

relationship

embodiment

view

scale

perception

spontaneity

chronological observations concept example

Figure 67: Difference Spectrum

Lewis, Michael

difference

embodiment

entropy

62

Lewis, Michael

63

CHAPTER 6: DESIGN

Figure 68: Silos.

EMERGENT DESIGN

EMERGENCENT DESIGN

As my understanding of the site

transitioned through experience and analysis,

so too did my application of that information

for design purposes. Particular points of

interest and questions emerged from walking

and influenced my design interventions

with aspects currently salient to the site. I

attempted to base my design strictly within the

confines of direct experience and build upon

the observations, thoughts, and connections

I encountered while walking. This resulted

in a design in which the proposal is, in its

most basic level, a phased reorganization of

the current state of the site as it was found.

This was achieved through a combination of

a physical embodiment of place reinforced

by the artifacts of my direct observation and

analysis of that experience. My goal was to

provide a design that embraced my growing

relationship with place, and to continue the

dialog of the walking experience for further

design interventions. The design is therefore a

64

minimalist set of interventions that clarify the

legibility of transition already embodied within

the site.

The design strategy, as described

in this chapter, is intended to translate my

developing understanding of this place and

to maintain an open-ended experiential

dialog between the site, users, and me. This

understanding of site is inseparable from use,

discovery, and design. They are seamlessly

bound together in an emergence of place.

The strategy for this particular site and

thesis is illustrated in the proposal through

three elements: Sedges, Edges, and Wedges.

Emerging from my personal encounter with

this site, the proposal is a culmination of the

various stages of my understanding of place

(see Chapter 4) and maintains the desire

for further discovery. These elements are

intentionally minimal, yet have powerful

implications. Sedges is the core design

element through which I explored the potential

of a site dialog. It is conceptualized as a loose

blanketing of the site’s ground plane to track

movement on site. The resulting traces are a

legible language inspired by this place. Edges,

that include glass walls and a silo gateway,

reinterpret my understanding of various

figure/ground relationships on site. Wedges,

inspired by my experience of cross boundary

flows, is a restoration strategy for a portion of

the shoreline. These elements are similarly

inspired by my walking the site and can be

seen as increasingly intrusive as the dialog of

movement becomes clearer.

My design is intentionally minimal.

It is a mark upon the site motivated by

observations of various traces left on site. By

orchestrating my designs as a direct response

to the site, they are intended to continue a

dialog of experience and movement of future

users and a way to explore my experiential

insight into place and narrative, and discuss

my own consideration of walking as a method

to approach site and design. The proposal is

not a final design, but rather a reply to the

site ‘as found’(Braae 2010), intended to make

clearer the sustained mediation between

place and experience. Recognizing that I see

this design process as a conversation, the

proposals are not drastic changes that would

risk the interruption of a healthy discourse.

The proposal is, however, subtle in hopes of

fostering clearer communication. In other

words, I do not see this proposal as a solution

to a problem, but rather as a conversation to

maintain a relationship with the site.

SEDGES

My observations of the site revealed

that patterns of movement had emerged in the

landscape as desire lines. These marks were

few, but clear. Through walking, I developed

Figure 69: Emergence.

Figure 70: Novel Path.

SEDGES

Lewis, MichaelLewis, Michael

65

an appreciation of them. For example,

access to the site at the edge of the fence

created a desire line through the perimeter

of shrubs. At first, I moved right through the

path and noted it, but thought little of it. I

focused my attention instead on the deliberate

traces made by visitors, such as graffiti and

shattered windows. My attention to these

observations was driven by the novelty of

such drastic markings. They were rare on

the island otherwise, and drew my attention

accordingly. As the dialog between the site

and I developed, however, my attention moved

to the desire line I had earlier noted only in

passing.

To reflect my design approach as

open-ended and flexible I chose to work

with sedges as a primary medium. Rather

than concrete, sedges are proposed to be

propagated throughout the space. Essentially

this was a strategy “as found”; a means to

leave my own mark that reciprocally traces site

as a “becoming-place.” The field of sedges is

my response to the dominance of concrete,

intermittent desire lines, and markings on

walls. Like the graffiti, I see the field of sedges

as my mark on the site that traces my interests

and observations. As a result, others then

continue to alter and mark the site through

their movements across this new ground plane

(Fig. 69 and 70). I see it is a minimal alteration

that harnesses the life and character of place

and fosters a continued relationship with a site

in transition.

Though my primary design insertion

features one minimal alteration, it has an

intentional depth to inform a dialog of

continued design. The planting scheme creates

a dynamic surface that highlights many of the

subtle characters inherent in the site. It is a

medium to enrich communication with site to

introduce a phased dialog of intervention that

relies on what emerges from the initial phase

to highlight the significance I found by walking

and to initiates an open-ended experiment of

further discovery.

Sedges blanketing the site create a

field of potential on which desire lines can

emerge (Fig. 71-73). The paths will trace a

gradient of movement in which primary and

secondary routes appear distinct. The open-

ended palate of sedges would encourage

alternative trajectories to emerge. Walks

are founding events of generative capacity.

They are creative acts that leave traces for

future intervention (Girot 1999). In this case,

the walk is marked upon the landscape for

others, such as other walkers or designers,

to potentially shape their subsequent

experiences. The ground plane would act

as a medium for communication in which

movement on site would mark the ground for

others to interpret through observation and

Figure 72: Concrete.

Figure 71: Concrete.

Figure 73: Sedges.

Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael

66

interaction. Users would become aware of

their collective immanent connection to the

process. The marking would also serve as a

legible means to interpret and respond to the

site for later design phases. The site, in this

case, becomes a place of movement made

legible through the site itself.

The native sedges, a mixture of

Lyngby’s Sedge Carex lynbyei,and Slough Sedge

Carex obnupta, reflect seasonal variation

through their cycles of dormancy and bloom.

Dispersed among the site through both

planting of plugs and seeding, growth patterns

will be affected by soil variations. These sedges

would not remain one mass of plantings to be

waded through. The situation is intended to

be much more complex and engaging being

spatially variable due to resources such as soil,

nutrients, water, and sun. As this expanse of

seasonal marshland sedges grows and dies

back, the emergent routes would fluctuate in

response. The desire lines then would not just

be traces of how a person intended to move on

the site, but would be traces of the experiential

interaction of an engaged dialog of walking.

For example, an individual may want to walk

in a direct linear route to quickly traverse the

site. However, a vigorous patch of sedges

may provide a wedge to block that trajectory,

therefore causing the path to veer through a

neighboring clearing. Thus a meander through

the path of least resistance is a direct response

to the site (see Fig. 70). The path that emerges

may seem to wander but it is the result of a

few simple marks of traced behavior.

Walks along routes less travelled

would leave lighter traces of use on the

landscape. As with my experience with the

train, unexpected encounters would encourage

a walker to venture off the marked desire line,

and mark their own route of experience and

consequence. This errant path may remain

or dissipate depending on the willingness of

others to follow the pioneered route. The path

is a potential that for a time can be seen and

followed.

Marks, or paths, if overused could be

made into more permanent paths, if necessary.

A formal hardscape path would be a reaction

to the emergence of desire lines. Spaces less

traveled could be augmented by additional

species appropriate to an emerging tidal

estuary. Walking in this situation becomes a

process of clear dialog in the illegible noise

(by noise I am referring to the metaphor of

dissonant messages) of a paved open space.

The sedges act as a medium in which the site

and walkers communicate through kinesthetic

language. Walks in this proposal alter the site.

This new condition could be read by others

who would then respond according to their

preference and experience which the site

would record. The ground of sedges is a plane

Figure 75: Armored Shore.

Figure 74: Fence and Shrubs.

Lewis, Michael

Lewis, Michael

67

of becoming, in which the past, present, and

future open in a plane of immanence where

thought, movement, and the environment are

set out on equal terrain. This plane can be

understood as a conception in which the walk

folds upon itself, the site, the sedge, and the

individual into a process of movement. The

field is an open plane of potential routes, but

it is the act of walking from which a physical

path emerges. The emerging paths trace the

process of movement, and create a deeper

appreciation of the hidden life of the assumed

derelict.

EDGES

In addition to Sedges, I have included

additional constructed elements that emerged

directly from my walking experience. The

dynamic experience traversing the boundary

of the fenced portion of the site (Fig 74 and

75) instilled in me an interest in edges. As

described in Chapter 4, the site is at once

a ‘center and an edge.’ This dialectic is an

integral feature of the site that I hoped to

reinterpret and encourage through design.

There are two features I have included within

the concept of Edges: glass walls, and silo

gateway. The third concept is shoreline

Wedges. Together the two concepts reinforce

the permeability of the site as an integral

gradient of place experienced.

GLASS WALLS

My idea for creating glass walls

(Fig. 78) emerged from a combination of

experiences I had while walking the site,

particularly when I considered how best to

engage the train boundary (Fig. 76 and 77).

These glass art panels, with ghosted tree

forms, would be similar in function to the

current fence, with its cut passages, but would

serve to mark this site more significantly and

artistically. The arrangement as a series of

panels would make for physical and sensorial

permeability, while providing a safe enough

refuge for close encounters. My objective was

to balance access, safety, and risk by providing

a semi-permeable boundary. This is subtle

enough to not entirely alter the character of

the place, but is a definite move to mark the

site as accessible. My intention is that the

interior and exterior of the site are not entirely

separate from one another and that they are

easily traversed. The edge is felt as a gradient

of movement and transition as opposed to a

definitive boundary because it is permeable

and relatively transparent. The scattering of

panels would preserve the experience of being

able to move closely to a passing train. The

panels would enable one to cross the tracks

and edge when necessary, but then provide a

refuge by moving behind a panel when a train

comes through. The glass then serves as a

threshold, an edge, or a focal point depending

Figure 78: Glass Walls, Silos, and Warehouse.

Figure 77: Glass Wall early Iteration.

Figure 76: Warehouse Wall Alternative.

EDGES GLASS WALLS

Lewis, Michael

Lewis, Michael

Lewis, Michael

68

on the circumstance.

SILO GATEWAY

Similar to the fencing, the silos (see

Fig. 78) also have an allusive functional aspect

that is experienced differently depending

on the situation. Again inspired directly by

my site experiences, the silos act initially

as a landmark, but becomes recognized by

walkers as less of an object than a setting

in the landscape and more of a spatial

boundary upon closer encounter. From afar,

the silos appear to be the central sculptural

element towering over the site. Being tall and

distinctive, the silos appear to be the essential

ingredient of form and meaning. Walking

up to the site across the tracks however,

one would grow less inclined to focus on the

entirety of the objects in space and more as

surfaces and spaces in relation to one’s body

and movement. The silo acts as a ‘center of

the edge.’ It is a threshold to traverse, acting

as a beacon from afar and then a catalyst for

continued experience through itself and the

rest of the site.

It is not my intent to glorify the form

or history of this site’s previous industrial

use, but I found it important to acknowledge

that the site is a part of a history that holds

to the current and future understandings of

this place. Rather than preserve the forms

as a testament to a lost past, or tear them

down to make way for a new future, I was

interested in including the silos as a part of the

transitional process of place and experience.

Rather than repurpose or recycle the silos

to fit a future program, I am proposing to

maintain them for what they are: a landmark

that is easily inhabited and readily infiltrated.

Their preservation maintains the character of

movement on site. As a process of experience

it is not entirely discernable what the primary

story is or should be, but there is a clear

indication that there are stories to be found

walking the site.

WEDGES

Wedges (Fig. 79 -83) serves as an

example of how the propagation of desire

lines for Sedges might be approached for

further design interpretation. In this case,

the shoreline on the northern portion of the

area of study is currently armored to prevent

erosion. Lining the top of this rocky drop is a

strip of tall grasses that appear to physically

and visually prevent access to the river.

However, strategic desire lines traverse this

edge from land to shore to be read for design

inspiration. These paths reveal that there is

an interest among the inhabitants to access

the river, and my intent is to facilitate that

movement.

Figure 80: Wedge Plan.

Figure 79: Wedge Section.

WEDGES

Lewis, Michael Lewis, MichaelSILO GATEWAY

69

Considering my strategy of process

design, I read the desire lines through the

barrier of foliage as a clear indication that

people were crossing to the water, and

therefore have proposed a more drastic

alteration of the site. The design is intended

to support this transference of movement

perpendicular to the current boundary. Like

Edges this proposal, Wedges, is inspired my

understanding of figure/ground. I propose

that the contour of the site be seen as an

area of transference rather than an edge of

restriction. This requires the softening of the

armored shore. Not only would the softening

of the edge provide access between the

land and water, it will sway the river toward

naturalization. Softening the shore is not as a

simple intervention as the others, yet it is still a

direct response to my developing relationship

with place. I see it as a reasonable response

to the observed traces of movement. The

desire lines reveal that there is an interest in

a more accessible shore. The intervention is a

response to the visible traces.

As a balance of cultural and ecological

observation, this section of the site is proposed

as a wedge of transitional shoreline. This is

an alternating system of eddies intended to

ease the movement between water and land

while preventing uncontrolled erosion. As a

deconstruction of an edge, I have proposed

that the riprap be removed, a ‘softer’ beach

edge be engineered, and that this boundary

be increasingly blurred and transgressed.

Breaking up the linear flow of the industrial

shoreline, patches of perpendicular access

between shore and river would become

increasingly eased. People, tides, and habitat

would mingle. Movement would overlap in a

narrative of site and experience.

NARRATIVE

My experience of walking, in addition

to influencing the conceptual design, inspired

a narrative series that is evident in the

graphics (Fig. 83 for example). This section

describes the emergence of the illustrated

story recounted in Chapter 7. For me, walking

often resulted in a scattering of thoughts that

might seem obscure, but the imagination,

whether fictional or real, is a potent attribute

of experience.

For better or worse, design is a

personal affair, and I find it interesting to note

that a great deal of the walking experiences

that occurred in my imagination, but can

be found in the work. Like walking, a little

narrative rambling is a powerful aspect of a

deeper personal experience. I felt that this

process of thought was an integral part of my

experience of walking through the site and

is embedded in the physical folding of the

environment into my body and mind.

Figure 81: Desire Line.

Figure 83: Wedge.

Figure 82: Desire Line.

NARRATIVELewis, MichaelLewis, MichaelLewis, Michael

70

This story is primarily a fictional

exploration of walking that fueled the storyline

for my graphic representation of the design. It

is not necessarily the only experience designed

for, but it is a potential that was represented

through image, and now through text as a way

to test how the site might become an integral

character in the life of others.

DESIGN REFLECTION

The design of the site emerged

from my practice of walking, and is similarly

nomadic and changing. That is, the design

strategy I propose is an incremental move

to continue an experimental inquiry into the

emergence of place and to nourish the voice of

the site through a dialog of becoming. Based

on a process approach, I consider design to be

long term, and made as incremental responses

to changes that emerge on site. This proposal

is an initial response to the site to create an

opportunity for the site to engage users, and

together actively respond through movement

and marking. By the site responding, I am

referring to the visible traces of new behavior

likely to emerge from continued use. My

design, as described, is an influential part in a

continuum of site transition that would persist

through continued use, further site visits, and

recurring design.

Sedges is a walking experiment to

support the primary character of the site as

marked by a hidden vitality. I saw the proposal

as a subtle process of marking and tracing

that opens up a new field of potential for

later investigative exploration and continued

design if appropriate. It also has the humbling

capacity to place me in the shoes of others

I intended to design for. Edges are based

on initial observations of conditions of the

core site boundary, my interaction with the

train, and material on site. Considerate of

site conditions, this is an element that shifts

the concept of the space from private to

increasingly public. Less subtle than other

elements, the glass walls and silo threshold

maintain the core experience of a semi-

permeable site boundary, but is a material

relationship common on the site. The mixture

of edge, glass, and foliage was already present,

but I see this as a stronger aesthetic element.

Wedges is a relatively concrete intervention

based on the interpretation of current desire

lines. As a response to the interpretation of

traced movement, this element serves as an

example of how future dialogs may unfold.

This rather sturdy condition should not be seen

as terminal, but a phase in the continued life

of the site. Together, these three elements

provide a glimpse into the conversation

between the place and me, as designer. My

design proposal for this site is a dynamic

system intended to be sensitive to the past,

present, and future, but primarily rooted in my

unfolding experience of place. In this sense,

the design remains emergent and will continue

to change with new movements and novel

uses (Fig. 87).

The goal in this design strategy is not

to transform the site into something entirely

different, but to responsibly encourage a

becoming of place ‘as-found.’ With my design

strategies, I embraced an open-ended future

to initiate an active relationship with the site

that responds to change through a perceivable

trace within the field of immanence. This

tracing, in other words, is a physical result of

the intimacy of walking. Walking is a creative

force on site and gives others the power to

perform, mark, and read movement on site as

well (Careri 2002). Walking is a primary mode

of engagement and communication that was

embraced to establish a deep connection to

site.

DESIGN REFLECTION

71

Figure 84: Wedge Secti on

Figure 85: Sedge Secti on.

Figure 86: Found View Secti on.

Silo Gateway

Sedges

Glass Edge

Shoreline Wedge

Found View

3

5

4

2

1

Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael Lewis, Michael

Figure 87: Gradient Site Plan.

72

Lewis, Michael

73

CHAPTER 7: NARRATIVE

Figure 88: Becoming.

I would be irresponsible not to admit

the peripatetic aspect of thought through my

walking experience. Not entirely focused,

this wandering of my mind emerged in the

composition of the images for this design

proposal. Not only did walking provide for

observation and an extended sense of dwelling

as described earlier, but I often found myself

lost in thought and rather oblivious to what

I was doing. My mind would seamlessly slip

between actual and virtual encounters, or

rather as stories. I would often shudder and

realize I had been wandering for some distance

without any conscious effort in walking. I

was moving for the sake of moving, and my

thoughts were set relatively free to wander.

As Rebecca Solnit notes, the

peripatetic experience links walking and

thinking together. In this state, for instance,

I developed a fictional story that transferred

to my design proposal to build graphic

74

Lewis, Michael

75

compositi ons of the site. It would be rather

easy to gloss over and insist the characters in

these images are merely fi gures for scale, but

they serve to personalize the compositi on of

rendering perspecti ves and highlight the power

of personal input. The fi cti onal narrati ve

serves not as an example of the concrete, but

of the peculiar and personal dialog hidden in

the moti ves of an individual; me. The narrati ve

portrays a clear mood in the images and

helped me to organize the presentati on of the

design.

What appears below is a narrati ve

created through the process of walking the

site, thinking about it, and imagining how

experiences on site could possibly unfold. This

story then is one way in which the site, in an

open fi eld of opportunity, might be marked.

SHE

She steps up on the bluff aft er having

spent some ti me watching the river. Her feet

damp, she shakes the drops free with a subtle

kick, and slips on her sandals. She hears the

rumble of tugboats guiding an Alaskan freight

ship upstream. The sound subsides as she

ascends the slope. A faint odor of petrol

waft ing in the air surrounds her in an ether

of smoke that veils the details of her face.

She gracefully stands her bike up from its

side. Jutti ng the bike forward, she begins her

walk. The horizon radiates deep amber. Her

shadow begins to dissipate into the earth as

the evening sky grows soft er. The sun seems to

pause a moment then ti ps below the Cascades

to strike one last blade of blood-red light.

Instantly, the rift on the horizon is gone, but

the sky conti nues illuminati ng a somber rose as

she pushes forward.

She is oblivious to her surroundings.

Details such as the rolling of the smoke, the

waving of grasses in the wind, the transiti on

to night, a murmuring tempo resonati ng up

through her feet, all go unnoti ced as she fl oats

eff ortlessly on in thought. Moving among

the textures of life, she toils with one detail

that remains beyond her immediate senses.

Reality, for her, is bound in thoughts. Although

she is walking, her thoughts are encircled

around encountering him. He was an integral

1 Figure 89: Emergent Path.

SHE

76

Lewis, Michael

77

part of this place and she fi nds herself pulled

toward thoughts of their past here. It was

here they met and here that they spent a turn

of seasons exploring together. It is also here

that she founded the two paths they would

follow apart. Withdrawn in her thoughts, she

eff ortlessly moves along a path in the fi eld.

She trudges in thought as she drift s through

the landscape. Having spent so much ti me

together here, she conti nued to imagine

diff erent encounters that could unfold should

she fi nd him here again. Concerned about

how he would react to her, she longed for

something hopeful, possibly easy.

The surface she traversed conti nued

to pulse, stronger now and growing. A blow of

a horn and he was gone again. She shudders

and realized her path was soon to be blocked

by a train. Unwilling to wait or turn back, she

veers the bike into the thicket of knee high

sedges to fi nd another way.

Now fully aware of her movements,

she pioneers a new course. A trace was

marked behind her as she tramples through

the grass-like blades. She stepped under the

bridge and made her way to a platf orm along

the shore of the river. Startled by the call of

a bird she looked fi rst across the water and

then followed with her eyes the extent of the

industrial presence. The rusti ng ships with

their peeling paint, stacks billowing clouds,

Figure 90: Found View.2

and the arching cranes now sti ll, all struck her

as peculiar when juxtaposed to the river with

Mount Rainier rising in the south. Realizing

the ti me, she turns quickly, and reatt empts her

trip home, the train now having passed.

78

Lewis, Michael

79

HE

All those subtle gestures, words of

seducti on, and projecti ons of a unifi ed future

eroded away with the ebb of a receding ti de.

Those waters falling back only to reveal she

too had rescinded. Walking up to the towering

silo, his head low, he plods on. He found

himself here now without any intent to do so.

He had left home to walk and unconsciously

wandered to this site. This should not be

too surprising considering how oft en he had

walked here.

When he realized where he had

gone, he found himself overwhelmed with

uncertainty. He ached to fi nd her, but was

terrifi ed that he might. He takes a look up

at the silos as he walks up. This was oft en

a comforti ng beacon, but now something

enti rely diff erent. Prominent and erect, the

silos marked a trajectory the two pursued. It

was a signal to an ends, but ulti mately served

litt le more purpose than to bring them to this

place together. Now though, it signals his

solitude. He pauses. Standing there in the

middle of the street below the silo he stops.

Fears that he might fi nd her with another in

this place leaves him dumbfounded. Weighted

by doubt and jealousy, he imagines stumbling

upon them here in their place. In a fl eeti ng

jolt he pictures himself poised at the top of

the tower to embrace an inti mate aff air with

gravity for the sake of love and desperati on.

Startled by the intensity of this fl ash, he

shudders, forces his thoughts to the interior

space beyond the silos, and walks on.

Distressed by his state, and fearful of

what he may fi nd, he moves quickly across the

site and to the shore. Unsure how to inhabit

this place he thought he knew, he conti nues to

linger, again on the edge. To him, this place is

her, or rather the medium through which he

understood her, and so he fi nds himself lost

and eager for something familiar. The water,

the foliage, and the concrete were as much her

as the air that had carried her voice, and so he

sti fl ed his desire to come into this place. This

was their relati onship. The site is now strange

and foreboding. He lurks along the edges.

He is along the western shore. He

hears the rumble of tugboats guiding an

Alaskan freight ship upstream. The sound

subsides as he ascends the slope. A faint odor

of petrol waft ing in the air surrounds him in an

ether of smoke that veils the details of his face.

He gracefully picks up a piece of weathered

drift wood as a walking sti ck. Jutti ng it forward,

he conti nues his walk. The horizon radiates

deep amber. His shadow begins to dissipate

into the earth as the evening sky grows

soft er. The sun seems to pause a moment

then ti ps below the Cascades to strike one

last blade of blood-red light. Instantly the rift

3 Figure 92: Center of the Edge.

Figure 91: Night Edges.

HELewis, Michael

80

Lewis, Michael

81

on the horizon is gone, but the sky conti nues

illuminati ng a somber rose as he pushes

forward.

Stepping along the gravelly

embankment, he watches the lapping of

the slow moving river. Having rarely looked

beyond the immediacy of the embraced

familiarity he had shared here, he was startled

to fi nd that the river was so compelling. To

him the place had been a way to know her.

This place was an extension of him that

immersed the two in each other. This was

part of the language of their experience, but

at this moment he realized that the site is also

something to know regardless of her presence.

It is sti ll part of them, but in a new light.

The wedge shaped shore appears

pulled back into the site as a loosening of the

hard edge. Not merely an armored edge, there

was now a pocket beach he imagined could be

a pleasant place to get to the water and move

through and beyond this place. As he walks he

realized once again that this place, so marked

by its proximity to a complex personal history,

is rather beauti ful. He fi nds himself eased

by this and strolls down to put his feet in the

water.

Figure 93: Becoming-Shore.4

82

Lewis, Michael

83

WE

We sedges fi nd most our pleasure in

the wind, but occasionally we fi nd ourselves

clinging to more. Aft er having sat on the shore

for some ti me, Jane, who had been resti ng

for what felt like a moment but was assuredly

hours, abruptly rose from her resti ng spot.

Jane’s toes, wet from the water, dampen our

roots enough to accept this as her name. Aft er

a swift kick to shake off the water, she slips

on her shoes and picks up her bike. Following

the same trajectory of others before her, she

steps cauti ously through. Already half way

along the course, Jane pauses. There is no

bother asking why, but in her hesitance arose

a sti llness of anti cipati on. Digging her foot

into the soil, she abruptly turns to the side and

submerses herself into our midst. No longer in

the clearing she wades through. Riddled with

the excitement, we reach out. It wasn’t oft en

that we found ourselves so confronted with

movement. Aside from the occasional birds,

she was the fi rst in a long ti me to grace our

desire to be joined in the caress of the wind.

Brushing against the sway of Jane’s hips, we

dance in the breeze through the setti ng of the

sun.

Just as we were joined in the frolics

of Jane, John plods his way from the Silos

toward the shore. His steps are heavy, and

more so than usual. Compared to Jane, John

is, well, not Jane. He moves with short strides

that pound the earth. He made no eff ort to

wander, or pause, but had a determinati on of

movement. His steps felt like a pulse, or rather

a drum that surged through our dance with

Jane. His thundered rhythm coursed through

us as a driving tempo of our lust to cling to

Jane. John reached the shore and paused. Our

rhythm gone, Jane turned back, and so left ; our

dance complete.

Figure 94: Immanence.5

WE

84

Lewis, Michael

85

NARRATIVE REFLECTION

Regardless of the sagas of individuals,

real or fictional, the site in this narrative is an

indispensible part of experience. Others may

assume they strictly act upon it, but it too has

a life and possibly something akin to sense.

Place, as I have considered it, is a medium

of experience with the potential to facilitate

interaction and to actively participate in it.

This story of the couple told above unfolds

neither in a firework reunion nor a catastrophic

plunge, but rather in the slow sedimentary

aspect of topologic time and entropic force

where the complexities of life are driven by

movement and chance rather than fate and

plot. The two worn thin by trudging through

their relationship, these two walk alone while

the site traces their movements as one event.

Their trajectory, motivated by chance in a

field of potential encounters, is real, but the

final outcome is intentionally unclear as they

continue to walk. They move not to ease a

specific desire, but to remain in a process of

fulfilling desire in a state of transition. It is

therefore a life, or rather a “becoming-place.”

The sedges, anthropomorphized in

the narrative, are part of the story regardless

of the individual’s perception of it. The five

scenes of the storyboard serve to visualize

the future of the site according to my design

intent, but they also communicate an

atmosphere reflective of a deeper experience

I had on site. It may seem off topic to detail

the narrative, however this fiction traces the

creative depth that walking not only afforded

me through engaging the site, but is a potential

for how others might encounter the site as

well. It is an important part of my experience

that can be traced directly into the graphics.

My mind fluttered while walking. At times

an embodiment of the environment; without

warning my thoughts would spiral off a line

of thought loosely traced to the reality of

the actual walking experience. This is a trait

of walking that is difficult to describe, and

often emerged in the minutia. This narrative

is a story that may not be necessary, but that

ultimately breathed life back into the process

of my creativity. It resonates as something

personal and profound within the design

process.

Figure 95: Becoming-Place.

NARRATIVE REFLECTION

86

Lewis, Michael

87

CHAPTER 8: REFLECTION

Figure 96: Reflection.

QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS

Much more than a means of

transportation, I see walking is an important

design approach for the field of landscape

architecture, as well as an integral part of my

larger interest in process and place-based

experiential investigation. Through this thesis I

set out to explore the following questions:

How might the embodied 1)

experience of walking, as an

engaged mode of site inventory

and analysis, convey a deeper

understanding of the complexities

inherent in a post-industrial site?

How can this embodied 2)

knowledge enrich the

design process in landscape

architecture?

How might such an embodied 3)

knowledge challenge or

compliment conventional

assumptions about post-industrial

sites?

88

I began with an interest in experiential

design and so set out to investigate these

questions. Along the way, I was swayed

by the inherent connections implied by

Deleuze’s philosophy about immanence, and

by the concepts of process, becoming, and

emergence. I found that walking worked as a

fundamental activity from which to organize

and pursue my thesis exploration. Upon the

conclusion of this thesis, I am still inspired by

walking and plan to pursue my approach to

design as a site dialog. In addition, I hope that

this exploration has a greater influence beyond

me in the sectors of design, research, and

education. Through this thesis, immanence

has served as a perspective of inseparability

in which the approach, the experience, and

the design were understood as one. For

the sake of writing this thesis however, they

were separated into relatively distinct topics.

Below is a synthesis of those steps that I have

recombined through this reflection.

DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

As described in this thesis, there

is much to be gained from the embodied

experience of walking. On the surface,

walking provided me with an organizational

framework from which to study and describe

my experience and understanding. More

importantly, walking provided the motion

necessary to fully inhabit the site, and thus

better understand it. The process was gradual,

changing, and direct, and therefore more in

tune to the relationship that was building

between the site and me.

The general way in which a site is

portrayed and communicated is through

mapping and diagramming. Although those

are powerful tools, maps are an abstraction

of reality. The basis of the relationship we

have with the world is one of immersion and

thus my attention to walking. As an embodied

experience, this was my primary means of

engaging the site. Mapping relies on objects

and boundaries, whereas through walking,

enables an emergence of relationships

based on an unfolding perspective of the

haptic senses which readily crossed through

apparent boundaries. This perspective of

moving through space was subtle, complex,

and variable. The transition between Chapter

5 and 6 highlights the deeper understanding

of place that evolved through a series of site

visits, while Chapter 7 exemplifies a particular

creative exploit found walking. Rather than

begin with an abstraction, walking unfolds

a reality from which new place-based

concepts can then be developed through

representational abstraction. In this manner,

walking builds familiarity through direct

interaction and allows for the emergence of

spontaneity and surprise.

DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

89

I found that walking contributes a

deeper understanding of the complexities of

a post-industrial site, but that this depth also

poses challenges of its own. As a standard

pactice, is can be difficult to visit a site often,

or regularly. To do so, can be time consuming

and potentially costly. However, the benefit

of a deeper understanding outweighs the

costs. Through this relatively simple everyday

act, rather complex insights and processes

become more apparent. What can be learned

or discovered through walking becomes an

open-ended encounter that fuels a perception

of process and becoming. In addition to

developing a deeper understanding of site and

place, the embodied experience of walking has

important implications for design as well.

DESIGN PROCESS

As I continued to walk, my

understanding of site and design wandered

through various strides. In Chapters 4-7, I

revealed the meandering nature of my process

of analysis and design. Walking, in my case,

emphasized the importance of movement

for the process of design. Movement kept

my design iterations in a parallel flux with my

physical and conceptual process of walking the

site. Walking is a mode of learning through

doing, and such a place-based perspective is

prone to novel encounters, and spontaneous

connections. Such wandering of ideas through

experience proved to be inspirational in my

design exploration.

My design proposal, described in

this thesis as a dialog with site, was ultimately

a continuation of my walking experiment.

The design is meant to propagate a new

medium from which to clarify the language

of place through traces of movement on

site. This dialog, in another broader context

might be called a “sustained design.” By

sustained I mean that the design, as inspired

by experience, is not a terminal endeavor,

but one in which the design is a piece of

the transitional process of place. Sustained

design is therefore a model of open-ended

flux in which the inhabitants, the site, and the

designer are all a part of an equal plane of

communication.

The design as a sustained process

would continue to be managed by an unfolding

story of place. This approach to design

emphasizes Deleuze’s notion of immanence in

that the designer is part of place, and as such,

is considered an active agent with the capacity

to make marks and participate in the process

of a living place. Design of this type is an

open-ended experiment that embraces change

rather than stifling it.

The design narrative –Chapter 7 –is

directly inspired by my walking experience.

DESIGN PROCESS

90

The story I described in that chapter was an

underlying narrative that I utilized to convey

various hints of site detail, the dynamics of

process, and a bit of personal revelation.

Walking, as an unfolding encounter, is open to

a variety of creative responses and so includes

narrative and story. In this case, rather than

focus on what I did, that chapter describes my

insights into what I consciously thought while

walking.

Although there is much to gain from

an embodied experience of site for design,

there are potential drawbacks. Visiting a

site as a series of walks would require a

commitment many may be unwilling and

possibly unable to take. A sustained design

also requires a similarly committed investment

of time, attention, and resources following the

initial intervention. It is also apparent from

my exploration that this method, although a

beneficial endeavor, might be taken at the loss

of other paths of understanding. I assume

that had this thesis not been a directed effort

to walk, there might have been other ways in

which to research the site to compliment my

embodied understanding of place.

An embodied process would require

resources to encourge designers to visit sites

repeatedly. A series of site visits is admittedly

more costly. Spending time in a site may even

seem unwarranted or unproductive. However,

as shown in Figure 66 and throughout Chapter

4, revisiting a site continues to be a fulfilling

process of deeper site investigation. Not only

are more data collected, but one’s relationship

with place changes and builds upon previous

visits.

Following installation, the initiation

of a sustained design, or site dialog, too has

an obvious critique. It is apparent that in a

climate of slowed economic growth, however,

that rampant development is no longer likely

and therefore new models of design, such as

this, may prove valuable. The grand “one-

night stands” of landscape architecture might

be best left in the past, and so new methods

for urban ecological design can begin to alter

the strategies of how professionals relate to

the places in which they work. I would argue

that this, as well as other new models, should

be considered as new ways to build stronger

relationships between designers and place.

The current market, as well as the

established ecological values of the profession,

has created an opportunity to find alternative

design approaches and processes that

might better serve the practice of landscape

architecture. One means to survive has been

to practice in areas abroad where growth

continues. I would argue, however, that there

is a need for good design in a local context and

that chasing growth might contradict the urban

91

ecological values of the field as a whole, and

this department in particular. I see this as an

unsustainable model in which the profession

and practitioners remain dependent on forces

beyond their control. As seen domestically,

relying solely on growth has had its drawbacks.

Looking back upon my thesis, though not

my primary motive, I have maintained an

underlying curiosity as to how designers might

otherwise approach the built environment.

Management in some form or another could

be a more sustainable design model. By

sustainable, I am referring to a continuation

of practice without a reliance on the heavy

burdens of growth and development. I find

that the sustained design model, including

a site dialog, has the potential to support a

design profession interested in a sustainable

urban ecological perspective. This gradual

investment nourishes the process character

of place and provides a safety net for an

emergent process of creative exploration.

CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS

Under the impression that novel

approaches to the ubiquitous industrial

hazards of “disturbed” sites are needed, I set

out upon the Lower Duwamish breaking my

first assumption – hazardous sites should be

avoided. Rather than look to second hand

sources for generalities to apply to the river, I

walked right into the fire, per se, and hoped for

the best. I thought the most obvious method

from which to understand place was to face it

directly, and in so doing, established a primary

method and a strategy of openly addressing

my assumptions.

The primary assumptions I found that

were most aptly addressed through my process

and design were the apparently distinct ideas

of the site as wasted, historic, and artistic.

These three ideas are often characterized as

such and so predetermine what the general

outcome of design will be, therefore hindering

much of the creative opportunity that might

arise otherwise. The site as wasted requires

reclamation, and as either historic or artistic

requires either restoration or preservation

depending on the public interest in shine or

patina. Rather than choose one of these three,

or abandon them all for another, I found that

there was a middle ground in the nourishment

of embodied process which superseded these

distinctions.

My decision to challenge the

assumptions of what the site is and what

ought to be done with it, were based directly

on my embodied approach to walking. This

method of repeat visits nurtured my growing

familiarity with the site and appreciation for

its lack of definitive utility. Rather than rely on

what others predetermined concepts of waste,

dereliction, and decay were, I found a naturally

CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS

92

challenging perspective based on my own

intimate connection to place.

The emergent nature of my

experience was however, not always an easy

route. Having no final definition or strong

conceptual guidelines to follow, makes for

unsure ground. It was challenging to remain

confident, or feel assured when faced with

an ever-changing perception. Because of this

challenge, however, the process remained

interesting. Without any real solid moment on

which to rest, learning was continual, and so it

follows that my interpretation and reflection

was also in flux.

SELF REFLECTION

Walking has been described in this

thesis as a way to investigate a site as an

intimately inhabited place, and therefore a

rich basis for design. This strategy is linked

to the pedagogical framework of place-based

learning in which knowledge emerges through

the process of first-hand connection with

the surroundings. As such, lessons I have

learned are appropriate as a self reflection

on how I may best transition toward practice,

research, or instruction, for this thesis was an

investigation into how to embrace knowing as

an unfolding process of physical embodiment.

Not only do have I learned many

valuable lessons from this thesis, but even

more significant I now wish to continue to

pursue in greater clarity the implications of the

approach I adopted here. In the professional

practice of design, I am inspired to continue

to explore in more detail the potential of

a sustained design model. Despite the

challenges such a model might face, I would

be curious as to how it could be successfully

implemented and applied to the larger context

of the built environment.

In an academic context, I find that I

am still driven to further develop and refine

this thesis exploration. This thesis, for me,

has been an introduction into the uses and

values of appropriated space. I have found

a desire to learn more. Through a place-

based experiential model, I am curious about

what else might be learned about the people

and current uses of marginalized spaces. A

“derelict” site along the Lower Duwamish

is just one example of a greater network

of appropriated spaces or loose spaces as

described earlier in the thesis. With neglect as

their commonality, I am curious as to how this

lack of oversight and stewardship plays out in a

variety of sites.

Based partly on this thesis, I have

also been involved in a series of place-based

assistant teaching roles in which I would like to

continue to share parts of what I have learned.

Walking for example was a way for me to build

SELF REFLECTION

93

connections between rather abstract readings

on place and philosophy. Experience allowed

me to bridge theory to concrete examples

of personal relevance, and therefore enable

those theories to resonate more fully with me.

An important concept which I am currently

pulling from this thesis is the concept of

narrative as a method of understanding place

and experience. This thesis is a narrative,

and as such, it is equally part of the story of

experience that has unfolded throughout these

pages. Each heading as such is a fluid step

in a continuous walk. Accordingly, when this

process of writing is over, I will continue to

weave these pages through an immanent field

of whatever comes next.

Cheers, now go outside and walk!

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FOUND WALKINGAN IMMANENT APPROACH TO A DERELICT POST INDUSTRIAL SITE

m i c h a e l a l l e n l e w i s SS

S S S

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At once repulsive, and yet surprisingly alluring, derelict post-industrial sites are common

entities on the edge of urban cities. They are an in-between, characterized by overlap and

flux, where life and entropy challenge the assumptions of progress and time. What began

by entering an apparently vacant site became a dialog with place through the embodied

approach of walking. Walking was explored as an immersed investigation of a site and a

physical meandering through the philosophies of place, experience, and immanence. Relying

on movement and observation, this research is an account of the continual unfolding of the

mutual resonance of both self and site, which are bound through the concept of place.

The observations and findings are described as they applied to the process and approach of

design. By walking a site as an extended series of visits, it is perceived as an encountered

relationship of mutual becoming. Based on the series of visits, the design process is equally

immersive and open-ended. The resulting proposal embraces the transitional relationship

through a process of long-term iterative design.

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