New Futures and the Wasteland Part 2 Project 2020 Brenda LimAndrew Keung Columbia University | USA The estimated contaminated land area in the USA amounts to approximately 508 Manhattans. Considering issues of urban and climate migration and the increased demand for housing and food in urban environments - how can toxic land be used as a productive catalyst for cohabitation between people and wildlife? Can we utilize temporary architectures - in this case, remediation structures - to become substrates for future social, natural, and infrastructural environments? The site is a National Grid Liquid Gas Holding Facility in East Williamsburg, New York. It is adjacent to Newtown Creek and several industrial facilities, and at risk of flooding due to rising water levels. Our project explores the concept of porosity across all scales, from building elements to urban infrastructures in order to create conditions where wildlife and humans exist not in opposition but in a parallel manner. Designing from basic elements of architecture, a series of manipulations - determined by three different remediation strategies (phytoremediation, in-situ chemical oxidation, excavation) - explore the notion that architecture can accommodate unpredictable and coincidental natural behaviors. Over time, these elements maneuver the various landscape conditions of the site with adaptable densities and depths, establishing architectural tectonics that are considerate of the existing and future ecosystemic adjacencies. Tutor(s)