Port of Being
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Ameen Farooq
Department
CACM – Architecture
Abstract
In the furthest, West Point of Africa, Dakar Senegal, the current fishing port is dually acting as a driver for survival and a neglected civic threshold. This site is identified by its fast paced utility usage and has quite a bit of infrastructural decay. My architectural thesis is driven by research to reimagine how Dakar’s fishing port can turn into an iconic civic space for the community. I believe that built environments show a reflection of the mental state of its people. How can we heal social fragmentation by changing the necessity of this infrastructure into an experience? To have a piece of infrastructure that transcends beyond simple industrial usage. Using ideas from Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs this project defines designing from a framework that meets survival instincts and discovers self actualization. By creating a space where physiological safety needs can propel the community to have a sense of belonging through cultural expression and empowering the economy. I plan to use methods of spatial mapping, as well as socioeconomic statistics to understand the relationship that lies between vendors, fisherman, and the transportation of supplies. I propose that this port gets transformed into an area where it contains educational facilities, markets, communal gathering spaces, and food supply storage. By threading in public gathering spaces and proper circulation into this area, it can now be positioned as a space to be the civic common area rather than feeling excluded if you are not utilizing it for labor. Utilizing this as a form of framework really attacks how infrastructural architecture that is typically ruled by logistics and efficiency can transcend into a place with urban resilience. By redesigning this area, it's no longer just a place that people go to fish or transport, but a renewal framework of civic gatherings. This piece inevitably argues that architecture can address a full spectrum of what a person needs, evolving from an instrument of survival into a heart of community nuance.
Disciplines
Architecture
Port of Being
In the furthest, West Point of Africa, Dakar Senegal, the current fishing port is dually acting as a driver for survival and a neglected civic threshold. This site is identified by its fast paced utility usage and has quite a bit of infrastructural decay. My architectural thesis is driven by research to reimagine how Dakar’s fishing port can turn into an iconic civic space for the community. I believe that built environments show a reflection of the mental state of its people. How can we heal social fragmentation by changing the necessity of this infrastructure into an experience? To have a piece of infrastructure that transcends beyond simple industrial usage. Using ideas from Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs this project defines designing from a framework that meets survival instincts and discovers self actualization. By creating a space where physiological safety needs can propel the community to have a sense of belonging through cultural expression and empowering the economy. I plan to use methods of spatial mapping, as well as socioeconomic statistics to understand the relationship that lies between vendors, fisherman, and the transportation of supplies. I propose that this port gets transformed into an area where it contains educational facilities, markets, communal gathering spaces, and food supply storage. By threading in public gathering spaces and proper circulation into this area, it can now be positioned as a space to be the civic common area rather than feeling excluded if you are not utilizing it for labor. Utilizing this as a form of framework really attacks how infrastructural architecture that is typically ruled by logistics and efficiency can transcend into a place with urban resilience. By redesigning this area, it's no longer just a place that people go to fish or transport, but a renewal framework of civic gatherings. This piece inevitably argues that architecture can address a full spectrum of what a person needs, evolving from an instrument of survival into a heart of community nuance.