MIND THE GAP
Via is an infrastructure and housing project that aims at filling in the gap created by the 676 expressway in Philadelphia. By extending the urban fabric north and south of the passage into a new infrastructure network above street level, the local transportation hierarchy is shifted and the bisected neighborhoods re-connected.
The proposed infrastructure is responding to the existing flow patterns of pedestrians, cyclists and retailers crossing the 10th Street over-pass. Furthermore, the expressway gap is taken advantage of by proposing express-bicycle lanes along it, thereby advancing bicycle traffic in Philadelphia as a truly efficient mode of transportation.
Through local transformation of the ramp geometry and by bringing the different routes together, urban features and programmatic voids are created along the paths. The ramps are further unified through the structural system, which stitches the ramps together, turning the network of ramps into a dome that rises above the overpass. The structural mesh is also contributing to activate the spaces in between the ramps, supporting social occupation and vegetation, and acts as railing along the paths where internal structure in not needed.
PennDesign Graduate Studio. Instructor Brian Phillips
Juvenarte 2011 Bronze Winner