When congested cities like New York become saturated, what new sort of urban dynamics could be formulated in order to address those issues? This thesis will investigate how one can address saturated gridded cities after it has reached its point of saturation and how new urban synergies can impact positively on congestion and allow saturated urban areas to achieve a better urban performance. The design proposal will test and experiment what other possibilities are there for rethinking areas that can encourage new kinds of uses, new exchange of activities with the un-built space and intensification of saturated urban areas. There is already an initial approach to street use in the Bloomberg Administration such as bike lanes and pedestrian plazas but what types of new policies could be formulated in order to address saturation in highly congested cities like New York??
How might new interventions interact with the Grid and its existing buildings so that one can promote a new sort of adaptability that could vary during different times of the day?? Is it possible to enhance more dynamic connections amongst the different city layers such as metro, ground floor and the skyscraper? How could the existing urban blocks be reconfigured in order to rearticulate new possibilities and activate new elements inside and outside the Grid??
The challenges and possibilities that complex congested cities like New York offer opens a whole new set of innovative solutions to intensify saturated gridded cities. Given the grid’s capacity for reinvention, how might it continue to adapt and respond to the challenges and opportunities–both large and small–that New York faces now and into the future?
