Parti and Precedent, Big’s “Basin 7”

          When Big started their project “Basin 7,” in Aarhus, Denmark, the developing area surrounding their site had no connection to Leisure Harbor (figure 1). Instead of waiting for the private residences to be built and inserting the public spaces in between, Big took the initiative to create public space before private residences by weaving together the land and water with a “meandering promenade” that serves as an instant urban intervention (figure 2). According to Big, “the curved shape defines a series of urban spaces on land and on the water” (figure 3). Consequently, this curved shape that defines the space becomes the “lens that organizes the facts” of the project as a parti should.

          Similarly, my intention with my parti was to “weave together” the three slices of the South Town, San Antonio site with an urban intervention, allowing my own curved shape to define my own urban spaces. Although the San Antonio site has a smaller scale and different context than Big’s “Basin 7” harbor intervention, the two projects have many of the same end goals such as: 1) providing a public community space amidst pivate and commercial residences, 2) connecting land and water (harbor vs river and pool), and 3) weaving together spaces that were previously inaccessible or useless to the community. It is because of these similarities that I was able to draw from Big’s precedence and was inspired by their “big idea” and the methods they used to resolve the space.

          I chose to incorporate my own curved shape not only as the figural edge defining the program, but as the pathway itself, now outlining and connecting it as well. The parti, then, is not only the shape that delegates the program to different areas of the site, it is a tangible way people can connect with the big picture. Visitors to the site will not be able to see the overall design from the ground, but will get to experience it firsthand by walking, jogging, or even biking on it. The curved shape, or pathway, guides visitors from one end of the site to the other making even the highway and train tracks traversable and the river accessible, which allows the site to transcend the diversity of the context. By studying precedents like Big’s “Basin 7,” I am exposed to new and effective ways to resolve challenges posed by the site, context, and program in this project and many others.