Speedbump
Year 5 Studio - The Inter-modal Public Destination
San Fernando City - 2010.07
San Fernando Metrolink Station exists separate from San Fernando City. It stands one bicycle ride north-west of downtown SFC without the necessary connecting infrastructure. Instead, the car dominates the space between station, downtown and housing.
The car is a generic, regional system being imposed on a specific, local problem. This local problem is the distance between the train station and home or work. Both these places are too far to walk to and require an extra infrastructure type.
The project fills this gap between public transport and private life with a new inter-modal transportation system based on a symbiotic relationship between the bicycle and the Metrolink train.
The current dependency on an inefficient personal transportation system spawns a prototypical bike rental station at the San Fernando Metrolink station. This station is the seed for an expansive, local, and social infrastructure throughout San Fernando City that simultaneously makes public infrastructure and public space.
The project re-imagines San Fernando transportation as not just peripheral city activity but as a vital source of cultural intersections that can opportunistically bridge the city physically and culturally.
As activity increases, the speed bump becomes a necessary tool for control. Like a speedbump, the project allows a level of control over infrastructure: It slows down vehicles and changes the environment. Both the speed bump and the project follow San Fernando City's basic principles: Slow down life, change through small interventions, and keep density low.
Degree Project Advisor - John Southern
Design, Production, etc. - Artur Grochowski
Download Full-size Boards - Speedbump Presentation
Woodbury University School of Architecture Web Archive - Waiting for Architecture