It will look like an underground park in the world's first and why New York

Much has been said and written about the New York High Line - the park is divided into a disused railway viaduct. Urbanists but we decided not to stop there and are now offering to arrange Loulayn Park (Lowline) In one of the oldest underground depot of the city.

In such a venture many problems do not arise in the case of the park outdoors. How can green space exist without sunlight? To answer this question, activists built a demo project in one of the warehouses of lower Manhattan. So they arranged an open day for the city residents. I went to see, and now tell you about this venture.

New York public transport system - one of the oldest in the world. There are a lot of idle tunnels and abandoned stations. Now everything is idle, but is willing to transform these spaces into public places. The successful model of the High Line is an example: Urbanist managed to build a modern fleet and turn thereby depressing the western area of ​​Manhattan in the area of ​​elite and expensive housing.

project activists

Lowline want to do the same in the Lower East Side, only in the absence of unnecessary overpass there they offer to arrange the park in an underground room of an abandoned tram depot. As you know, in New York for a long time we have cut all the trams, and now this room looks like this:

This underground wasteland occupies the space of three quarters, which is about the size of a football field. ceiling height of six meters here. That's so imagine the guys from the park Lowline:

The main problem for them - how to make plants grow in this dungeon? In order to solve it, designers have proposed a complex of sunlight transmission system. To test this idea, they have collected a lot of money through Kikstarter, Rented a large warehouse near the very depot and found there a complete fragment of the system. The photograph shows that the room is very similar in shape tram dungeon.

February 22 I saw this miracle. New Yorkers love this kind urban historySo the whole day in the demonstration area was a huge turn. It curled around the entire block, but, fortunately, moved very quickly. We have defended it for 15 minutes.

Acces equipped with turnstiles like those that are in the New York subway. Very smart. Despite the fact that the room is on the ground level, from the local people immediately get the impression that they are on the subway. Inside, the crowds walking around the central part of the warehouse, where the ceiling is installed a prototype and growing herbs.

These plants receive sunlight only directed outside sly system of lenses and mirrors. The experiment will continue for several months. The team needed to prove that the flora can survive in such conditions.

On the roof of the building with large mirror. They direct sunlight in a special collectors, which focus it and sent down into the room.

Inside, the light is transmitted system of mirrors. They are placed in a transparent plastic tube. Not in order not to "funneling" the light, and that the system does not leak excess dust, which would reduce the effectiveness of the mirrors.

As a result, the rays of light coming out of special openings in the ceiling. See how bright the light is obtained? This is despite the fact that the street is now overcast all day.

It is said that on a clear day the light of these pieces is too intense. Therefore, at the very top of reflectors attached disks that reflect light back into the ceiling. And the ceiling is made of opaque panels that can scatter light throughout the room.

The results are impressive. In the center of the room is quite light, even on cloudy days.

Since there is only a small prototype, its light is not enough for all the great hall, and the edges are ordinary electrical spotlights, so that people could see better.

Vegetation, placed under the curved ceiling, planted on an artificial hill made from a sheet of plywood. From the ceiling hangs too green. Generally, it is a small space with something like a jungle.

What will happen next? One of the purposes of the demonstration - to assess the degree of interest that this project will cause the residents of the district and the entire city. And long queues hint at the fact that this will be all right.

Lowline activists are currently negotiating with the MTA, the management of public transport, is who owns underground spaceWhich it is planned to transform. Probably, the MTA is also closely monitoring the success of the installation, which can be seen for several months.

According to the most optimistic forecasts, the active phase of construction will not begin before 2020, so that all of us will have to wait a little longer.

But if the project is still materialize, it would be incredibly cool. Personally, I reminded Loulayn some elements of the fantastic gardens in the future Singapore. It would be great if in New York there will be something like that.