Of
the
thesis
entitled: Reclaiming
Water
and
the Right
to
the
City
in
Los
Angeles: Compton Commons
Abstract:
The
greater
Los Angeles
urban
area
is
home
to
nearly
19
million
people,
but
has
local
water resources
that
can
only
support
a
population
of
approximately
one
million.
Los Angeles
has
always
depended
upon
a
large
proportion
of
imported
water,
but severe
droughts within
the
last
three
years
have
resulted
in
water
shortages that
have
critical
implications
for
the
future
of
the
city.
In
addition
to these
water
supply
issues,
this
thesis
examines
larger
questions
of
scarcity, inequity
and
social
justice
that
manifest
themselves
in
the
urban fabric
of
Los Angeles,
a
city
that
has
the
least
amount
of
parks
and
public
spaces
of
any major
city
in
North
America
and
has
been
rife
with
inequality,
racism,
poverty and crime.
The
term
‘metabolic
rift’, refers
to
the
division
between
humanity
and
nature,
and
the
resultant ecological
crises
wrought
by
industrial
capitalism
(Bellamy-Foster,
1999).
This concept
can
be
expanded
to
include
all
manner
of
socio-ecological
crises produced
by processes
of
neoliberal
global
capitalism.
The
metabolic
rift
is
a space
of
exclusion
and
subjugation,
degradation
and
precarity,
scarcity
and toxicity—an
expanding
territory
of
perpetual
crisis.
In
examining
the
evolution of
the
urban
development
of
Los
Angeles
in
the context
of
the
production
of metabolic
rifts
and
increasingly
critical
water
scarcity,
this
thesis
correlates the
production
of
a
capital-driven
urban
fabric
and
the
expanding
network
of hydrological
infrastructures.
In
this,
issues
of
sustainability,
environmental and
social justice,
as
well
as
critiques
of
late
capitalism
and
nature-culture discourses
are interrogated.
To
address
issues
of
water scarcity,
this
thesis
proposes
a
strategy
of
tapping
into
the
storm
water
sewer network
of
Los
Angeles,
channeling
this
water,
regarded
as
a
waste
product
and a
hazard,
and
transforming
it
into
a
resource.
This
water
will
be
reclaimed through
a network
of
constructed
wetlands
that
perform
a
hybrid
function
as storm
water
management
and
water
treatment
infrastructure,
as
well
as
parks
and public
spaces.
This
design
proposal
also
includes
a
mixed
use
development
in Compton
that
incorporates
housing, community
programs
and
a
constructed wetlands
park.
The
ambition
is
propose
a
model
that
can
be
a
robust
and sustainable
approach
to
water
conservation
and
management,
as
well
as
a
space of
inclusion—a
productive commons outside
the
territory
of capitalism.
Supervisor:
Committee Members:
Elizabeth English, University of Waterloo
Adrian Blackwell, University of Waterloo
Rick
Andrighetti,
University of
Waterloo
External Reader:
Sarah Wolfe, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
The
Defence
Examination
will
take
place:
Tuesday
May
10,
2016
6:30PM
BRIDGE
Centre
for
Architecture
+
Design
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.