Post Vacancy for the Future

The City of Philadelphia, Urban Revitalization

An International Design Competiton on Philadelphia Urban Voids

How can a city respond to the crisis of vacancy? Philadelphia, with over 40,000 vacant properties representing nearly 1,000 acres, has become one of the nation's foremost examples of urban abandonment and extensive sprawl.

An International Perspective from AFP Ankara Members, A. Özge Özdamar and Nilüfer Gündüz

In the new landscape one major theme is that of urban context. That idea is based on the philosophy of revitalization of the city by creating “functional green areas”. In this project, vacant lands are transformed into potential: eco-islands, connectors and resonances in order to provide solutions at the regional and local scale.
Economic solutions are provided by increasing the land value and finding new functions to be applied to the abandoned buildings thanks to new green concept, namely “eco-islands”,

Physical solutions are provided by increasing the environmental quality and by taking advantages of the waterfront, diversity of the land

Eco-islands are located where the vacant land is incredibly dense. They simply are rural communities integrating sustainable development by ecological buildings, green production and alternative energy. Eco-islands are not necessarily integrated directly in the urban context; Their connectivity to the city is provided through the connectors which are located at the secondary vacant land. Tertiary vacant land approach is provided by resonances acting as buffer zones of the connectors and eco-islands.

These areas are designed to be a space “usable” by the whole range of local residents. Growing food as much as possible within the community bio-region and supporting organic food production, using village-based integrated renewable energy systems will contribute to the economic solutions. That will indeed contribute to the environmental quality which is actually the second main idea of the project by protecting the biodiversity and by preserving clean soil, water and air through proper waste and energy management.