TRANSFIGURING INDUSTRY

​

The project operates at the intersection of industry and community in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Allegheny.  Plagued by issues of vacancy and disinvestment, the proposal seeks to leverage the latent potentials embedded on site to generate a new industrial paradigm.  Rather than existing in opposition to community and encouraging waste and inefficiency, I examine how waste streams can be reintegrated to generate new forms of urban habitation and collective space.

Through leveraging Philadelphia’s thriving pharmaceutical industry to bolster faltering utility and food sectors a campus is created, organized based on systemic relations rather than Euclidean zoning.  Biopharmaceutical research facilities, organic recycling centers, biofuel generation facilities, urban agricultural facilities, and performative public open space mix to create a place where material and knowledge flows are structured to create the framework around which the diverse mixing of actors takes place.  The intended outcome is a transfiguring of industry in Philadelphia, with emphasis placed on material flows, education, and integration.