giving space back to the public.

following the site visits to brooklyn my interest was in the temporality. temporality of the materials as well as the temporality of the site conditions or state. the stalled construction site dithers on the spectrum of enclosure, non-enclosure, existence and non-existence only at this temporary point in time. the city wide condition was also something that, like many of us, sparked my attention. the over all quantity of these construction sites within the small area of williamsburg was always a point to address in my project proposal.

almost immediately i turned to pneumatics because of both its similar and contrasting characteristics to the stalled construction site. like the stalled construction site the inflatable blurs the distinction between interior and exterior with self challenging boundaries. however the experiential qualities of these elements are very different. while the stalled construction site is hard, cold and dead, the inflatable with an inviting glow offers a warm, safe and attractive space. pneumatics also share a temporal aspect similar to the stalled construction site. they have the ability of being inflated or deflated at an instance or over a period or time. with this easy of erection comes the ease of mobility. a movable instillation proposal is an ability that can be exploited to possibly address the city wide condition of multiple sites all with a fluctuation of activity turning on and off.

further i wanted to push these ideas of blurring interior and exterior and use fickle or indefinite boundaries to play a role in the project proposal. this ultimately led me to using an inhabitable safety wall as a primary prototype. by pulling the inflated wall into the site, it was able to still act as a safety wall but allowed for a larger space to be created for a larger party gathering. the relationship between this central gathering area and the surrounding inhabitable wall questions what is interior and what is exterior on the inflatable as well as the construction site. by allowing the wall to fold back on itself, around and even over itself, spaces can be further blurred.

from these formal moves my interest shifted to the challenge and control of public space. by pulling the inflatable safety wall into the site and making that area accessible, space is being given back over to the public realm. the inhabitable area within the wall is also to be considered a public path of travel similar to a city side walk. as this path of travel is allowed to enter into the side the distance of public space is increased. this progressed the design of the safety wall to be continuous. as the wall parades the streets, public space is consistently being challenged. other moves deployed to increase the amount of public space include manipulating the width of the inflated sidewalk. by stretching the inflatable wider as the path enters a construction site it creates another larger gathering space or construction park for seating, group activities, parties, performances or rallies.

the invasion of the pneumatic instillation on the city of williamsburg, new york offers a surprise of experiential phenomenon while exercising a critique on the social affects and impacts these stalled construction sites are having on the people of the city. it offers an encounter both familiar and foreign to the people and inhabiters. the scale of its existence is exhausting but appropriate to the quantity of stalled sites in the city and the girth of their projected undesired quality in the public relm.

boundaries

my interest in stalled construction sites started in their temporality. the temporality in materials that make up safety walls, construction fences, and scaffolding as well as the temporality in the state of the construction site. a stalled construction site teeters between existing and non-existant, enclosure and limitless. for an architectural project it offers a stage to play off of, a system to tap into and an anchor to tie onto as well as a project in itself to follow and support or challenge and command.

with my interest in temporality i looked to pneumatic architecture. inflatables offered the same quality of temporality as the stalled construction site. its ability to inflate and deflate at an instance or over a given period of time allows for any state of its presence to be temporal. it also allowed for the instillation to be mobile and move easily from one construction site to another to address the issue of stalled progress in williamsburg as a whole and consider an idea of conservation in material.

the effects of pneumatic architecture have a tremendous affect in a habitat such as a stalled construction site because it has a great potential for a very dramatic change in experiential quality but in many ways support some theatrical qualities such as its bordering of exterior and interior and degrees of enclosure. the inflatables challenge of the notion of boundary. it is a thin membrane that clearly dictates one area from another while still sharing the same atmosphere as the construction site. its dictation of what is outside and what is inside is questioned in its transparency and enhanced but its position, form and interaction with other micro-climates and light.

the intent of my project is to push to challenge the notion of interior versus exterior and the concept of boundary in general; through the tangible boundaries of the delicate inflatable membrane and the construction site and intangible boundaries of space such as light, air and projected planes.

following site visit

exercising my idea and what i need to represent it:

following the site visit to williamsburg, i took an immediate interest in the temporality of the stalled construction sites. the temporality of both its phase in construction, or its stalled phase of, as well as the temporality of many of the materials found on site. these materials make of the safety wall, construction fences, and on site scaffolding. i saw these elements, although very necessary, very wasteful. these materials, after construction is completed, are often thrown out.

given my interests i want to create something temporary as well as these sites are constantly turning on and off. also the use of a temporality of an instillation should have the potential to be picked up and moved off site to another stall construction site. this is in efforts to make the project reusable otherwise the installation is no better than the existing temporary materials that are often wasted.

thinking of temporality and conservation of material while considering the flexibility to move into new sites, i started to look into temporality and mobility of hot air balloons and broadened my research to inflatable and pneumatic architecture. inflated space offers a sense of temporality in its ability to deflate or inflate over an instance or period of time. it also has the ability to take shape to house program or social inhabitance in a wide range of sites because of its manipulability and because of the properties of air to take the form of its container.

the effects of pneumatic architecture have a tremendous affect in a habitat such as a stalled construction site because it has great potential for a very dramatic change. a change from a hard, cold and dead, environment to a soft, warm and vibrant space. also because of the state of the site and its existing elements, and, not existing elements, it gives a loose sense of boundary to what would otherwise be an infinite bubble of atmosphere in a floating field. the construction site boarders a container of space with definite defined edges and a suggestion of boundaries to be broken and challenged and even a boundless plane. it acts as an anchor to latch on to and and a stage to play off of.

studioblock pre-project ug4

the studioblock was the first project, set up to get us to begin to start thinking about infrastructure. particularly infrastructure of an individual piece in the context of a whole or to a community. the idea of one piece to a whole or as an individual to a community brings up many concerns to be considered in the design process including physical and visual connections/isolation, and functional and conceptual support/interruption.

the studio randomly drew one position of the 12 unequally divided from the block. some were given corners, some side pieces and others the middle surrounded by others on four sides.

immediately, i began thinking of my roll to the block as a whole. to the whole, my roll is to support my neighbors of their intentions and goals; to make way for the individual of all to succeed in a harmonious natural flow (to enter undisturbed and whiling). however, my individual block also has needs of its own. as a corner block i am in prime location for collection. i imagine marbles stop moving at the corners. with two exterior walls it is an easy place to rest. i can also see this as a potential problem. as the smallest block of the studio, i find myself susceptible to crowding and pressure. this brought on the idea of flood gates or the ability to control the flow of marbles coming in and going out.

by designing pull tabs on all sides of my block to allow relief, an internal infrastructure was constructed to unsure the tabs perform correctly. tracking and structural columns were built on the inside of the block. this is an interesting concept to me. the idea of a smaller form of infrastructure in relation to a larger community of infrastructure.

the next step, i began trying to think of the studioblock to have no top or bottom but rather as an object to be picked up played with and rotated. with this in mind i imagined pressure release is needed on all sides. it is now as well that i begin thinking of connections to my neighbors. however as concepts are shared between my neighbors and me, i find my internal logic of marble build up and community self assignment as the flood gates of the studioblock, has been proven unnecessary. my neighbor kyle does not wish to pass marbles between me or any of his neighbor in his concept of deception, and bethany is more interested in an experimental idea in which all if her marbles remain still.

a twist was added to the project later. we were to now begin to think of how the studioblock could house marbles as well as ice. this is to signify a change in program much like how it would be to take over a stalled construction site which was intended for one use and then being challenged by our own design and program ideas. some chose to address the program change while others did not.

what interested me most about the studioblock project was not only the plugging of one piece into a larger whole, but the insertion of one conceptual idea into a social community of other idealogical notions. i enjoyed how a social overtone came to the forefront. i imagine the same sociological ideas will come up in new york with the construction sites of williamsburg.