Urban Soil, 2024
Using Pfeiffer’s method for circular chromatography, Kaja’s residency project at Swale House in 2024 explored the soil health of the existing landscape along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn – a major urban arterial street. Multiple sources of contamination impact the soil health in these car-dominated environments. Among them, particulate matter (PM 2.5) and ground level ozone are the most dangerous to human health. While chromatomes cannot replace scientific soil analysis, they visualize soil health and composition through color, patterns and structure. These images were then used as inspiration to research the use of phytotechnologies in urban arterials.
Removal of petroleum hydrocarbons and nitrogen – contaminants derived from cars and car-related uses – have shown to be some of the most successful case studies in phytoremediation. Plants can remove these pollutants permanently through degradation or volatilization. Plants that can accumulate, degrade, stabilize or evaporate contaminants tend to be robust and can endure difficult conditions, making them ideal candidates for high traffic, low maintenance environments like truck routes. Allowing more soil surface to capture these pollutants and strategically planting species that have shown in previous case studies to be effective remediators of car-related contaminants is but one strategy to convert urban arterials into corridors of climate action and environmental justice.
See the online publication “Phyto Corridors“ – A research to envision the city’s largest roads as models for transformative climate action, sustainability, and public health” for more detail.

