What is a Charrette?
A charrette is an intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others collaborate on a vision for development. It provides a forum for ideas and offers the unique advantage of giving immediate feedback to the designers. More importantly, it allows everyone who participates to be a mutual author of the plan.
As a requirement for our Architectural Design 09 course we were told to do something out of the box and develop innovative designs and solutions to existing problems in our environment. But we were not quite happy that our site was Mandaue City because we originally wanted to go out of town like the previous batch did in Tuburan. Even so, being an industrial City, they were aiming to make Mandaue City, a world City by 2020; a city that will have their own tourist destinations.
We were divided into groups of 5 and assigned areas where they can see possible developments. The proposals were Mandaue City Government Center, Revitalization of Bantayan sa Hari, Vantage Points of the City, Streetscaping, the redevelopment of old Mandaue Market, Cansaga development project, Butuanon River revitalization program, Umapad dumpsite rehabilitation project, and the Casili Nature Park. We chose the revitalization of the Butuanon River. We never thought it was a very big work to do…
BUTUANON RIVER: A PROPOSED REVITALIZATION
“All civilizations started in rivers.” Now that we are urbane what have we done to our rivers???
Before we were able to present solutions, we had to know the existing problems that the river has. All most all rivers had the same problems: pollution. The river was considered biologically dead and it all you can see was a product of exploitation to the river over the years. New developments contributed to the devastation of the river and it is evident on the color of the river’s water that was already mixed with chemicals that were unfiltered and directly thrown into the river.
We did a site visit and even walked along the river bank. It was exhausting, yet it was fun. Unfortunately, some of us got sick because the river was unclean.
THE SITE VISIT.....
THE PROPOSAL- A RIVERPARK DESIGN
In order for the river to be revitalized certain issues needed to be tackled and luckily we were aided by CLEAR- an organization that tackles issues of the Butuanon River. Aside from the ordinances that need to be followed by the factory owners, the riverbanks need to be protected in order to avoid destruction and eventually soil erosion. That was one of the concerns that we focused on. The river needs to be cleaned.
In line with the vision of providing a greener area for Mandaue where people can relax and unwind, we came up with a riverpark design. Along the river bank we decided to provide nodes; this will serve as a pit-stop, an area where people can relax, do picnics or exercise and be able to appreciate the beauty of the river. We provided 7m setbacks on both sides of the river in order to provide a carriageway. In such way, the river will be properly maintained because service trucks can pass through and also provision of these park nodes will eliminate informal settlers that were considered main contributors of the river’s destruction and pollution. To protect the riverbanks, we provided the gabion system to prevent soil erosion and eventually help in filtering solid wastes that are thrown into the river.
WHAT ARE GABIONS?
In simplest terms, gabions are stone filled baskets used to stabilize soil and prevent erosion...
an example of gabion system
THE SOLUTIONS....
The nodes are designed as open as possible in order to avoid dark spots that will cause possible crimes. Lamp posts are provided to light the park during night time and to provide emphasis to the beautiful trees within the park.
Carriageways are provided in for easy maintenance of the river as well as access for patrol cars that will do the roaving to secure the safety of the river park goers. Security posts are also provided in each node.
THE MAKING and behind the scenes....
a full blast over night with all other groups @ cafa lounge before the presentation day...
Just as we thought that we were done with our work and look forward for the presentation, we received feedback that our mentors didn't like the works of other groups. Some were mediocre and only some group's scaled model passed their standards. So the only alternative left is to work as one and help other groups.
THE OUTPUT....
(left) scaled model for the butuanon river (right) blow up of the butuanon river that crosses the whole mandaue
THE PRESENTATION DAY......
(RIGHT) Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and Vice Mayor Glenn Bercede with other officials of Mandaue City for the ribbon cutting of the Mandaue 2020 exhibit...
(left) my groupmates with the representatives of CLEAR ( an organization that takes care of Butuanon River revitalization)
the butuanon river group with other design 09 classmates
the whole design 09 class with our mentors and CLEAR representatives....
The last 3 weeks before the presentation day was like hell for all of us. All out stress was felt and all the pressure in order to produce a satisfactory output that we can showcase to the officials of Mandaue City. We slept for barely for about 2-4 hours and do eat a lot and drank coffee twice at night just to fight the sleepiness and be able to continue with our work. It was indeed tiring but after seeing the observers satisfied with our work, it was very fulfilling for us. It was worth the sacrifice...=)
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