Municipal waste and its related infrastructure were a key theme in my understanding of the site. Trash can be seen as documentation of our contemporary existence and the forces which govern our lives. The processes required for the management of this trash are a synchronized dance between humans and machines. The historical flow of garbage through the site via the 135th Street Marine Transfer Station links the site to the Fresh Kills landfill.
In order to explore this anthropological interpretation of municipal waste and the landfill, I proposed a system of caves and chambers within the now-capped West Mound of the Fresh Kills Landfill. The ground-level entrance, a small-scale waste-to-energy incineration plant, represents the contemporary moment. From there, visitors gradually descend through tunnels into the heart of the 200 foot mound. The largest chamber houses a landfill observatory, which provides a meandering path back in time, with up-close views onto the excavated walls of the landfill. Another chamber, the Municipal Waste Parliament, serves as a home to operations and governmental work. Data-visualization projections onto the membrane of this chamber add a functional and interpretational layer to the walls of the excavated landfill which lie just beyond.
