Resilient urban design
A good urban space first of all accommodates the lifestyles of a broad public whereas casually invites to new experience. It’s like a good conversation - easy, interesting, and insightful. The underlying studies, strong political will, knowledge of the cultural context, community outreach, conflict mitigation - all this hard labour dissolves in the lightness of updated cityscape. A citizen interacts with it as an intuitive interface, reading the spatial language of a city. The notion of resilient urban design adds here other dimensions - such as synergy with natural systems and risk tolerance over time. It adds some uniqueness and memorability - no cookie cutter solutions work with vernacular nature. Which definitely increases construction costs - and most of the time saves the maintenance.
Resilient waterfront parks get to be increasingly important as a decently soft edge and scenic places for everyone. As the old economic uses lose the meaning and move landwards or away, reclaimed spaces bring the balance of green to cityscapes. There are so many parks in Charleston area, and these two - resilient long-livers J.Riley Waterfront park and Memorial Waterfront Park allow people let more nature in a daily lifestyle while native vegetation - trace its life through urban areas. These two examples are remarkable in how instead of the program they create spaces for freedom and opportunity through minimal intervention.
Devil is in the details and the Memorial park vocabulary - such as shades and fixtures on the swings against the constant wind, meadows of the local wetlands gently protected, and places for fishing - actually make the promenade easy and casual.
The masterpiece of Joe Riley and Sasaki Associates is reconsidering the space with the original pierce footprint and local wetlands grown into a boundless field over time. Since its inception in 1988, Waterfront Park experienced and survived multiple hurricanes including Hugo right during the construction. Well if not this - what else can prove the resilience?
