gospel swamp /back/

a California future

Gospel Swamp is the future of Garden Grove, CA. It doubles down on the backyard as the heart of the city, amplifying the many activities occurring in these important cultural spaces. In Gospel Swamp, the backyard is not personal property but a shared civic infrastructure, capable of effectively responding to diverse urban and environmental problems.

project info

🏫 princeton university
🧑‍🏫 prof. Marshall Brown
📐 master's thesis
📅 spring 2023

jump to: context, master plan, architecture

context

This project was developed out of a close consideration of local and regional contexts. Situating current trends and problems facing Garden Grove alongside its history established a strong foundation for assessing possible futures. Scenario-building exercises (such as the "what if?" exercise pictured) helped to confront assumptions and position the project in a specific and plausible future.

master plan

The master plan was developed by layering historical and present site conditions with planned changes, such as to property lines and landscaping. The planting grid of the site's former life as an orange grove, for example, provides a useful structure for defining program within the proposed paseo. These changes will be executed in phases over time, allowing the master plan to continue to adapt to reflect the rapidly changing conditions of the neighborhood.

architecture

As the paseo develops across the site, the homes will begin to respond to this new condition. Alongside the master plan, the project proposes how the architecture of Gospel Swamp can begin to adapt. Houses seeking to benefit from the new civic life of the paseo and Garden Grove's pleasant weather will shift emphasis away from the street and towards the back. This places greater importance on designing thresholds and defining each home's relationship to the paseo.