Catalyzing the In-Between : Mediating Architecture, Landscape and Infrastructure

Dominated by motion, time, and event, the contemporary American metropolis has evolved into a loose agglomerated field, where residual space rules over built form (Lerup,2000). Theorized as Dross by Lars Lerup, these interstitial residual territories disrupt connectivity and urban cohesion (Lerup, 2000). They emerge as the by product of infrastructure where processes accommodating flows are more valued than physical place-generating public domain. Architecture has become increasingly marginalized and is no longer the building block as traditionally understood in Aldo Rossi’s terms (Rossi, 1984). By redesigning a specific site within the degraded downtown core of Houston Texas, this thesis contends that Architecture can seek new opportunities for urban cohesion when intersected with Landscape Urbanism and urban infrastructure. This synthesis has the potential to generate a public realm through strategies that can catalyze novel relationships and connections between territories that are separated by infrastructural systems. By mediating between architecture, landscape and infrastructure, the subsequent site will be restored and become a catalyst for further socioeconomic developments.