snow-free urbanity

"snö"

brooklyn, new york city. pen on paper. Magnus Ohren 14-feb-2007.

Excerpt from "The world without us" by Alan Weisman

"Dr. Eric Sanderson sees water flowing everywhere in town, much of it bubbling from underground ("which is how Spring Street got its name"). He's identifed more than 40 brooks and streams that traversed what was once a hilly, rocky island in the Algonquin tongue of its first human occupants, the Lenni Lenape, Manhattana referred to those now-vanished hills. When New York's 19th-century planners imposed a grid on everything north of Greenwich Village - the jumble of original streets to the south being impossible to unsnarl - they behaved as if topography were irrelevant. (...)

Later, new contours arose, this time routed through rectilinear forms and hard angles, much as the water that once scuplted the island's land was now forced underground through a lattice of pipes. Eric Sanderson's Mannahatta Project has plotted how closely the modern sewer system follows the old watercourses, although man-made sewer lines can't wick away runoff as efficiently as nature. In a city that buried its rivers, he observes, "rain still falls. It has to go somewhere."

Lets not deny this fact. Snow and our 19th-century urban fabric does not melt together well.

Last year in Oslo public cries has been put forth to dump excess snow into the ocean, possibly without concern for the logistically failed idea of dumptrucks filled with snow clogging up already soaked infrastructure. On the other side of the globe the Chinese are using traditional methods of firework deployment to eliminate snow before it reaches the ground.

With new urban development being planned in snow-filled urban regions the world over, I ponder this question; has anyone ever considered attacking the problem where the snow actually falls?

This constitutes new concepts of urban development. Imagine infrastructure intergrated into new urban development, using low or high-tech methods. Melting the snow instantly as it falls with an intergrated pavement heating system is a tempting solution, but no. It is stupid.

Consider this: In the developed urban fabric, intergrate cavities for snow processing. In this controlled environment, snow can be dealt with in a proper manner. Lets not forget that this very snow is now no-longer romantic white and light-reflecting, but turned brown with exhaust and other human residues, soaked by arrays of kidults' dirty wet sneakers and old ladies fighting for their very lives, dragged into local bar-cafés, bookstores and conventient-stores making urban life unbearable for more or less anyone who has any concept of "the good life" in the city.

Our lazy sundays ruined just by thinking of stepping out the doorway.

These horrors aside, let's not forget that snow is water and water is a resource not to be messed with. I leave it to the crowd to ponder what glorious potential an underground waterpool can be used for. First impulse: pumped in tubes throughout the 4-5-6 story housing unit, heating the now care-free inhabitants in winter-hiatus. Anyone want to go out for a nice cup of cocoa? Imma put on my nikes. Lets just do it. Winter boot sales plummet. Clubs are packed with chicks in high heels. International logistic services celebrate.

To sum up; what the hell are we waiting for?

Sketch: Magnus Ohren, Oslo 27-feb-2010

Photo: Magnus Ohren, Oslo 28-feb-2010