“Post Carbon Necklace: A Green New Deal for Boston”

The Post-Carbon Necklace studio focuses on how urban designers can contribute to dismantling the spaces of environmental violence and structural inequity. Design is the instrument through which to articulate a concrete set of proposals to decarbonize the city, amplify public space, and better equip communities for the forthcoming effects of climate change. A few scholars and practitioners such as Pamela Conrad, Kate Orff, Malcom J. Rio, Fadi Masoud, Billy Fleming, Kian Goh, Elisa Iturbe amongst others have proposed ways to tackle resilience and justice.

In Boston, Frederick Olmstead’s legacy consists of a set of infrastructural elements that have a high resilience efficiency, by removing carbon from the atmosphere, providing a cooling effect, air quality, proximity to (a reconstructed) nature, while supporting storm management systems.

The studio will start by opening up a series of research directions building on a list of readings on climate and urbanism as well as an overview of precedent projects that address the nexus of climate in Boston. The second phase consists of mapping exercises to highlight significant issues of the urban condition. A following step will require a position proposal diagram, the outline of subsequent spatial strategies and the elaboration of a public communication action plan. After that the students will propose an urban project addressing the material context with its constituencies. The final step will consist of a coordinated presentation of multiple site-specific visions for a green and just urban future in Boston.