South Boston Waterfront

The USA belongs to the so-called first world, but we all know how social inequalities are very present in reality. Particularly in East Coast cities, whose image is filtered through the skyscrapers typical of financial districts, it is easy to forget the critical situation of many suburbs and their housing problems. What's more, the deep economic crisis of recent years, which partly originated within the same skyscrapers in the city center, has made this problem even worse.

The intervention area is located in the northwestern part of South Boston, along the edge of the industrial area near a residential neighborhood that is rapidly transforming and changing its uses. A careful analysis of the site leads us to consider a broader reading that brings together the potential for future development and moves away from both restrictive urban planning and unplanned, substandard expansion. For this reason, it was decided to study a kind of prototype block, capable of containing within itself a multitude of possible combinations of its pivotal urban element: a large pedestrian walkway that crosses the housing block diagonally, and which, combined with other identical blocks, allows us to think about creating a real linear park for pedestrian circulation.