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The City Score case study here was performed by the Urban Nature class
during the first week of November, 2005. Each class member was given a
workbook, which guided them through a course beginning at the Kendall Square
T stop, Broad Canal and the surrounding area. The
results were then compiled in a large-scale collage format for class
discussion.
Broad Canal
was chosen as the site for the class score experiment for several reasons: it
is easy to access by T, it is located at a key point in the Cambridge/
Boston boundary of the Charles
River, and it has a long history of flux and adjustment. The
canal, once used as a shipping route outside of Kendall Square in Cambridge, has been shortened over time to
make room for development. This active past has left some trace on the
current site, crowded with high-tech office parks and very limited canal
access. Huge concrete bridge counterweights loom static above Memorial Drive;
some urban wilds have sprung up at the canal's end, suggesting some struggle
between the truncated canal and the asphalt road directly beyond it.
The site is rich with such indicators of some ever-shifting relationship
between human development and the influence of natural forces.
As with any score, one must accept agency for the subjective choreography.
The instructions were designed based on certain assumptions and reads of the
site on my part. The subjective responses of the participants were then
layered onto my designed inquiries to create a more complex map of
understanding about the multi-layered dynamics of the canal area.
The results of the Broad
Canal score collectively
spoke of possible frameworks for the future planning of the site area. More
than posing specific design responses, the holistic view of the impressions
and experiences of the participants allows pressing design frameworks and
site issues to emerge for further consideration.
The following pages (parts 1-7) show both the pages in the
workbook (at the top of each section) and some of the responses received- in
the form of text, photographs, and sketches for that section.
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