Following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans faced the challenge of rebuilding the urban fabric from blighted and decaying structures. Mandeville Shed is a material archive for the city of New Orleans. It suggests a new civic infrastructure to store and recirculate building materials salvaged from blight demolitions. A new form of civic infrastructure is required to face the challenge of processing, storing, and redistributing salvaged material. The proposed Material Archive becomes a mix of logistical warehouse and Park extension by leveraging existing infrastructure and transportation networks, such as the Mississippi River, train lines, interstate highways, and the Crescent Park trail. In doing so, the Material Archive aims to fulfill the logistical demands of the materials and revitalize the existing urban fabric while informing the public about growing environmental concerns.
