Design Build Blob! : Crafting Spatial Agency
Spring 23 | Thesis Partner: Isabelle Heldenfels Critics: Adam Elstein, Frank Gesualdi, + Saul Anton
Architectural design is a top-down process in urbanism, a field in which a limited and relatively exclusive group of politicians, developers, and design professionals determine the permanent built environment for all. If architecture is ever going to truly serve the needs of communities, it needs to shift from the design of determined spaces, to the design of flexible and deployable spatial protocols that can be directly implemented by users.
Our project seeks to create a radically accessible design and fabrication process that produces lightweight, temporary structures in order to give spatial agency to urban residents.
We envision an urbanism that allows everyone to be an architect. We envision an architecture after architecture, specifically, an urbanism after architecture.
Toward the goal of a radically democratic spatial protocol, we have developed techniques of creating engaging forms that are translatable to large-scale inflatables with materials and methods that are relatively cheap and accessible to all. While digital tools may expedite the process, they are not required, and the protocol can adapt to available tools. Our open source architecture is aimed at the everyday person who may not typically have the resources or the training to do this sort of spatial design which can provide them with the agency to interrupt the normal functions of their urban space.
From the protesters who want to block access to government buildings, to the resident who wants to repurpose their street for a block party, this process provides the urban resident with an easily identifiable, lightweight, and movable structure that can disrupt the normal use of space at a larger scale than previously possible. Regardless of one’s intentions or level of expertise, our procedure is able to resolve complex geometries and simplify construction by celebrating craft and imperfection.
