Play-Hacking The City: Tools for Out-of-Line Architects in the Apathetic City by Kelsey Willis

Play-Hacking the City: Tools for Out-of-Line Architects in the Apathetic City Kelsey Willis

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Table of Contents

Essay

Case Studies & Precedents

Program Analysis

Site Analysis

Project

117

Conclusion

119

Bibilography

Thesis Statement Architects have the ability to combat corporatization and the ever-increasing homogeneity of cities by working with empowered residents to hijack or dĂŠtourne neoliberal spaces, turning them temporarily into urban common spaces that encourage exploration and play, allowing for radically new methods of experiencing the city.

Essay

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Abstract This thesis begins with a series of observations: We are in are in a world of constant digital connectivity, in which we are less genuinely social than ever before. While cities are being revitalized, they are also becoming increasingly exclusionary. Because of this, public space feels increasingly less "public" as we are expected follow strict social norms dictating how we share and interact in urban space. Decades before the digital age, a group of artists in the 1960s called the Situationist International sought to critique the growing banalization of cities by reintroducing art and surprise into the urban environment. Through a series of replicable techniques to cause unexpected social interactions and serendipitous “situations”, they encouraged people to take to the streets in resistance to modern capitalism and the accompanying tide of apathy. More recently, these philosophies have resurfaced with a global movement of “socially engaged” artists and designers who seek to critique and challenge the social stratification and isolation of individuals in cities under late capitalism through collaboratively produced installations and artworks. Building on the philosophies of artist groups like the Situationists and their contemporaries, this thesis assumes that human activity on the street is inherently a political act that can be used to challenge the homogeneity of the globalizing city. A child playing in the street can stop traffic at a busy intersection just as effectively as a group of protesters. Considering this stance, I seek to explore attitudes through which fed-up architects can become activists in their own right to support individuals and communities in the “commoning” of gentrified or privatized streets by reoccupying public(ish) spaces through public play and acts of playful creativity. Because architects are specifically trained to understand and manipulate the built environment, the architectural skillset and implied social status can be employed, (paired with a rebellious attitude!) to help communities leverage their social imagination to participate in the creative détournement of privatized streetscapes, helping to repurpose apathetic spaces into playful environments that encourage activity and interaction in public space.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Introduction When was the last time you looked up from your phone when walking outside? ...You walked down the street without a phone in your hand at all? ...You remember playing a game with no rules? ...You remember laughing with someone you didn’t know? For most people, it’s been a long time. This thesis is based off of an observation that, as the world around us accelerates, we accelerate too, rushing to keep up with the pace of development pushed on us by the fast-paced and high-tech world. Neoliberal social norms idolize individual consumption and stigmatize the sharing of “life in public” to the point that we no longer feel ownership over public space, meaning that we hide away in private, comfortably themed spaces. So begins a vicious cycle of social isolation, paired with the need to perform through social media an active social life. As a means of emotional self-preservation, we become apathetic, uninterested in the world around us or the people we pass on the street, assuming we are on the streets at all. This sounds bad, I know. In most American cities, it’s not far from reality. I don’t believe that architecture alone can change capitalism. I don’t believe that design can save the world. But I do believe that architects, who have the privilege of being trained to analyze and influence the movement of people in the built environment – within which we all inevitably live - should do what they can to support activists who are trying to do those things. I believe architects should be activists themselves. This thesis offers up just one attitude with which fed-up architects can leverage their skills and knowledge to help communities use their social imagination to radically alter neoliberal environments to create playful, creative common spaces in the city that, just maybe, will help reclaim public space for residents. The proposal has three categories of information, loosely ordered as a narrative of my thought process and philosophy: “Nouns” – Context, history, and analysis of problems facing us today “Verbs” – Possibilities for action in response to these problems “Adjectives” – Brief (and perhaps rather trite) visions of another future While disparate ideas, they should be read together to understand a vision of the way radical architects can work with communities to reinterpret their built environment into playful, hopeful, sympathetic, social, urban space. 7

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Adjective: Fed-Up "Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reject conventional strategies of urban beautification and innovation that turn our public spaces into sites of leisure and consumption. We question the agendas of the creative class and their pop-ups. Too often they accelerate gentrification, cynically appropriate arts and culture for private ends, commodify multiculturalism, and become an apology for the absence of more substantial public investment in the city. No. Public space must be a site of debate and contestation, and infused with resources and tools that increase public knowledge and cultivate community capacity for political action." Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman, "A New Public Imagination"1 1. Cruz and Forman, 2017.

For decades, architects have been complicit in this neoliberal system, producing ever more expensive and technologically complex buildings to meet the desires of corporate commissions. While at its best beautiful, impressive, and awe-inspiring, architecture serving these sorts of clients is intended to serve not the city itself but the parasitic presence of corporations that are housed within cities. When financed and guided by these institutions, architecture is often reduced to a spectacle of highly concentrated wealth, a monument to the power of corporations. These buildings signify that big business has power over not only our consumption habits but over the entire built environment that we occupy. The only people who live comfortably in this performative version of a city are those who can afford it, meaning they already benefit directly from corporate power. But the fed-up architect wants something different: Perhaps they have worked too long under corporate scrutiny and are tired of modeling yet another glassed-in foyer without ever being able to enter it. Perhaps they are deeply committed to working in a community whose public spaces has been changing or shrinking due to gentrification. Perhaps they feel that they've been reading too much and doing too little. Whatever the reason, the fed-up architect is finally recognizing that they are more than tools of the rich and powerful. They are ready to find a way to use their skills to critique the neoliberal imbalance of wealth and power in cities, and to infiltrate the spaces resulting from that imbalance. Dangerously idealistic, the fed-up architect believes that by changing the way people move through the built environment they can change society. This causes them to step out-of-line.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

“The kind of knowledge and experiences that urban explorers seek and find, hidden in plain sight, is exciting, empowering and ultimately has less to do with fetishising the aesthetics of decay or embarrassing forces of social control, and more to do with creating a new type of relationship with place, one not offered but taken. Urban exploration is an effort to connect in a meaningful way to a work rendered increasingly mundane by commercial interests and an endless state of ‘heightened’ security.” Garrett Bradley, “Explore Everything” 1

1. Garrett, Bradley 2013.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Adjective: Out-of-Line I have identified a number of different types of Out-of-Line Architects and ways that they can engage in atypical practice. This is, of course, a limited list but intends to address a variety of different ways that architects can work towards the construction of interventions, whether independently or in partnership with organized communities . Guerrilla Architect working alone or in a small group to quietly create under-the-radar interventions as a stand-alone art or architecture practice, creating new critiques of space Agent Provocateur Architect building or designing interventions reflecting existing activist ideals, acting as a visible rallying point for others Participant Architect participating in existing activist movements, offering their design skills as a resource when needed by the group but not engaging in a leadership role Convener Architect acts as an organizer to bring people together around their idea for change in the built environment and encourages dialogue around a specific space or issue Facilitator Architect brought in by other activists or groups to facilitate dialogue around an issue, working with a group to frame a spatial critique and then design a response or solution Closer Architect brought in by other activists or groups who already have a goal in mind but need help materializing a built intervention Double Agent Architect working in traditional for-profit practice but who incorporates radical views into proposals and designs

Highly Visible Direct Action

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

ideal zone

Closer Degree of Visible Direct Action

Convener Agent Provocateur Facilitator

Guerrilla

Low Visibilty of Direct Impact

Participant

Double Agent

Independent of Specific Group Interests

Degree of Collaboration with Communities

Highly Collaborative

For the purposes of this thesis, the ideal intervention work is highly visible and provocative, though not always highly collaborative .

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Apathy "He becomes a single cog as over against the vast overwhelming organization of things and forces which gradually take out of his hands everything connected with progress, spirituality and value. The operation of these forces results in the transformation of the latter from a subjective form into one of purely objective existence.” Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life"1

1. Simmel, Georg 1905.

In the 21st century, urban apathy as I understand it comes about because of two main factors emerging from the alienating conditions of late capitalism: First, apathy caused by the built environment, as corporations redevelop land in cities and begin to regulate that land, often eliminating local business/culture and accompanying social memory. Second, apathy caused by the digital and global, as the rapid dissemination of information through the internet both draws our attention to on-screen interactions and “assimilates non-western ideas into late capitalism”, further eliminating global social traditions.2 From an architectural viewpoint, most often considered is apathy caused by loss of local space and memory in the built environment. This privatization of space results in the creation of what anthropologist Marc Augé refers to as a “nonplace”, an area devoid of cultural or social memory for the humans that occupies it.4 It seems that the rapid modernization of cities around the world has occurred mostly without the involvement of residents, fueled by rapid changes in industry and technology with the digital age and leaving many developed urban spaces as non-places. In the US and elsewhere, the pervasiveness of car culture has remained steady for decades5, meaning that large roads and highways are cut through formerly cohesive neighborhoods, increasing passage through but decreasing the opportunity for unexpected human contact within. In the nowmaligned era in which modernist ideology spawned Robert Moses' urban renewal strategies for New York City, many cities followed his lead by developing carcentral transport networks, encouraging the sprawling growth of (white) suburbs while dis-investing or demolishing whole (non-white) urban neighborhoods. The still-devastating divide of New Orleans' Tremé neighborhood by the I-10 highway was an act of racist urban renewal in the 1950s that makes a particularly striking example of this subjugation of neighborhoods through the creation of anti-social space.6

2. Stimson, Blake and Gregory, Sholette 2007.

"Fast casual architecture" (recognized by its fiber cement color block facades) is now emblematic of the elimination of cultural memory through development.3 3. Wagner, Kate 2018. 4. Augé, Marc 1995. 5. Small, Andrew 2017. 6. Nagel, Kiara 2006.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

While most American city governments today acknowledge that the 1950s and 1960s was a problematic era of urban development, limited political action has been taken in the past decades to dramatically change the private culture of American space. Even in the cores of our oldest cities, we are faced with streets that can barely be crossed on foot and corporate franchises in the place of corner stores. They are not really built for human occupation, but for the rapid movement of money and goods.

The driving and parking-lot culture of suburbs tends to create a sprawl of non-places that is also working its way into the hearts of cities.7

Ubiquity

Corresponding dimensional growth of commercial buildings, signs, attempts to grab attention

of Growth

7. O’Connell, Jonathan 2016.

tu Car Cul

e Culture Growth of Cell Phon Pre-Digital Era

Present Day

Our urban environment, and the attention-grabbing mechanisms in the urban environment, scale up as we become increasingly apathetic. Technological advancements like cars and cell phones greatly increase our efficiency, but to the point that we ignore the world around us.

There is a strong association between these contemporary urban environments and what Marc Augé refers to most generally non-places: “The multiplication of what we may call empirical non-places is characteristic of the contemporary world. Spaces of circulation (freeways, airways), consumption (department stores, supermarkets), and communication (telephones, faxes, television, cable networks) are taking up more room all over the earth today. They are spaces where people coexist or cohabit without living together.”8

8. Augé, Marc 1995.

Many of these spaces of circulation, consumption, and mass communication, devoid of input or memory of residents, are part of the construct that I will refer to as “neoliberal space”. I consider this to mean that they are generated in contemporary urban environments at the intersection of late capitalism and modernism – spaces built for the optimization of corporate profit and function, not for the development of public life and social relationships.9

9. Lakides, Nicholas and Bavo, Jan 2007

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Neoliberalism, Neoliberal Space Neoliberalism is a blanket term used to describe economic, political, and social structures that favor free-market capitalism. Under pure neoliberalism, human progress can be attained exclusively through economic growth. First coming into widespread use in the early 1980s under the economically laissez-faire leadership of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, it often refers specifically to the deregulation of markets and the "de-commoning" of social resources like healthcare, food support, and multifamily housing.1 In great part because of a hardline American stance demanding neoliberal trade agreements in this era (and the present day), large corporations have been given room to thrive in a deregulated market , while driving out smaller competition, as well as the social and common spaces often supported by local business and social housing. Neoliberal space, therefore, can be: a) Space controlled or maintained by capitalist corporations b) Otherwise public space that has been privatized c) Space that is created as a byproduct of neoliberal economic and social system, such as highways, parking lots, prisons, and private hospitals d) Space controlled or maintained by institutions who promote these corporations, such as government, military, and infrastructural space

1. Smith, Nicola 2018.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

“Neo-liberalism goes back to the oldest ideas of the ‘boss’, under a message chic and modern. It’s a conservative ‘revolution’ trying to impose a return to a form of savage and cynical capitalism, who organizes around insecurity and precarity, who demands progress but glorifies the archaic law of the ‘strongest’.” Pierre Bourdieu2

2. Bordieu, 1998.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Neoliberal Space The boundaries of social enclaves are defined by innumerable social and spatial cues. In diverse urban environments, neighborhoods can change dramatically in character and demographics over the course of just blocks. It would be impossible to catalogue every variable in a cityscape. Fortunately, because of the attitudes of uniformity that neoliberal institutions favor, it is easy to spot at least surface conditions of corporate space. A checklist: Scales of Built Space at Odds with Other Spaces Giant buildings and tiny sidewalks, or vast expanses with low, boxy buildings. Many Visual Barriers Perhaps it means there's something to hide. Locked Doors Literally and figuratively. Do people need key cards to enter every business or office? Are most resources targeted at a specific class? Materials Reflecting a Specific "Brand" or Aesthetic Particularly if that is at odds with the rest of the city's textures: blocky concrete buildings in a residential area, shiny metal buildings in a historic area, etc. Repetition of Brands Advertisements in places other than the immediate institution. Could be billboards, televisions, needlessly large signage, etc., or recurrence of the same brand in multiple places. Extreme Maintenance or Sterility Maintenance is good, but too-clean is performative.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Uniformity of Individuals A symptom, but a telling one. Causes an immediate feeling of self-consciousness and otherness. Extreme Setbacks or Divisions Between Sidewalk & Occupiable Spaces A condition that causes "public" space to be only available for those who feel comfortable wandering far off the sidewalk. Highly Supervised Public Spaces When "Eyes On The Street" doesn't mean what it's supposed to mean. Fences and Physical Barriers Obvious but critical - there are places you're not welcome. Overly enclosed public spaces, too, create a sense of being an intruder under watch. Proliferation of High-Budget Distractions Particularly technological spectacles and flashy public art, to keep your eyes off of the things going on behind the scenes. Appropriation of Once-Radical Urban Ideas Food truck pop-ups, pride flags, wide sidewalks - all examples of ways that big corporations ease us into a feeling of complacency and approval.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

In response, I propose a counter-list to these definitions of Neoliberal space - a series of visible and spatial conditions of the communal city. Built Spaces that Relate to the Human Scale A city without monoliths or glassy planes – even in areas of tall buildings, architecture encounters the street level in a manner that humans can respond to. Examples of this included brokenup facades, porches, or setbacks. High Visibility Around the City Humans can peek into alleys, windows, and businesses, creating a sense of openness. Open Doors Literally and figuratively. Parks don’t close, businesses welcome visitors. There are places of refuge. Diversity of Materials Reflecting Local Context No more glass curtain walls. Textural spaces, evoking human responses and connections to the environment and materials. Diversity of Local Producers and Vendors Brands aren’t important - people buy what they need from residents, boosting their own community. People Maintain and Transform Spaces People can mark or alter their city, “wearing it in”, so to speak. Well-worn jeans are the most comfortable.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Economic, Racial, and Social Diversity People from all walks of life feel comfortable spending time in the space. They can find “their people” there. Public Connections Between Thoroughfares and Occupiable Spaces Publicly accessible paths between pocket parks, plazas, and seating areas, specifically that don’t require uncomfortable passage through private buildings. Supervised Public Spaces Eyes on the street – in the form of residents looking out for each other. Easy Access Between Buildings, Public Spaces, and Streets Ease of flow between public and private spaces helps break down the psychological barriers imposed by the privatization and prioritization of city space. Space for Outdoor Free Play and Social Activity Free, accessible social spaces and activities in which people can play without judgment and without cost. Strong Culture of Informal Urbanism The ability and space for residents to individually or collectively temporarily alter their environments – selling food, making art, etc – without prosecution or forced removal.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Verb: Intervening "Under these conditions, ideals of urban identity, citizenship and belonging, already threatened by the spreading malaise of the neoliberal ethic, become much harder to sustain... Yet there are in fact all manner of urban social movements in evidence seeking to overcome the isolations and to re-shape the city in a different social image to that given by the powers of developers backed by finance, corporate capital, and an increasingly entrepreneurially minded local state apparatus." David Harvey, "The Right to the City"1

Temporary urbanism, a buzzy term used to describe any manner of architecture or intervention in the built environment specifically intended to last for a limited period of time, is a powerful tool for reengaging cities. Proof of this is visible recently, as trendy pop-ups, street fairs, and other branded spaces of social encounter defy the fixities of the built environment and create playful moments within otherwise neoliberal spaces2 . Sadly, these interventions are now even the harbingers of gentrification. These sorts of temporary spaces, of course, are capitalist appropriations of urban environments seen worldwide for thousands of years: street vendors, public markets, and the genuine social use of public space is nothing new for the majority of the globe. 3 Despite its recent western history as a weapon of displacement, it’s important to recognize this sort of formal-informal urbanism as a valuable tool for rapidly creating a sense community in an otherwise empty space. The popularity today of temporary social environments (e.g. markets, parks, play spaces) reflect the way humans respond positively to common spaces when given the opportunity.4 Already reaching near-saturation, it’s relatively easy for an architect to produce, single-handedly, pleasant temporary public space. The examples are many and global.3 More powerfully though, the term “intervention” best refers to creating new urban experiences at the human scale within an existing urban frame. Ali Madanipour writes of the power of this manner of imagining space, “The fixity of the surrounding boundaries, therefore, is an integral part of the ephemeral sense of openness that public spaces offer. It is not possible to separate the fixed from the flexible, the permanent from the ephemeral… The frame shapes the conditions that create a space of possibility and multiplicity.”2

1. Harvey, David 2003.

2. Madanipour, Ali 2017. 3. Hoidn, Barbara 2016.

Re:Start Mall in Christchurch, NZ, a temporary adaptive reuse of shipping containers into a trendy shopping district5 5. LivInSpaces 2016.

4. Stavrides, Stavros 2016.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

By virtue of understanding how to work within these sorts of physical and conditional boundaries, architects have the ability to step into the realm of activism and politics by critiquing their environments through built form. On a route paved by generations of socially engaged artists before, trained architects can help communities understand how to subvert the regulation and restriction of neoliberal space, a context which we all learn to negotiate in architectural education. Particularly, they can help manually intervene to joyfully revive and re-animate the experience of living in cities. While actions of this sort will not (perhaps, cannot) change the power systems that govern space in cities, the use of public (or not public) space as a venue for self-built intervention offers city dwellers the opportunity to challenge and push the boundaries of what is normalized in the current socio-political environment. Most simply, the act of building in, performing in, or altering space will at least spark a sense of ownership and interest in the city. If taken down, at least they provoked controversy, and hopefully discussion. If unchallenged, perhaps it means that these playful uses of space have been normalized. Either way, the result is productive in inviting people to look up, talk to people on the streets, and actively consider the environments around them. And perhaps, with input from architects as facilitators, if enough people do that, the passivity of western city dwellers to the construction of their cities can change.

Parasite Collective reoccupies abandoned buildings in Italy, creating occupiable playgrounds out of string and inflatables.6 6. Shafrir, Tamar 2013.

power intervenes removal

social impact

execution

regroup

plan idea

time

spark for new action

Diagram of the potential for gradual social change, as sparked by conflict with power holders in the built environment

The Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency temporarily transforms contested spaces in Palestine into a "bingo hall", sparking a series of confrontations and challenges from Israeli government over ownership and use of space in a theoretically demilitarized zone.7 7. Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency 2010.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Enclave “The social order is progressively inscribed in people’s minds. Social divisions become principles of division, organizing the image of the social world. Objective limits become a sense of limits, a practical anticipation of objective limits acquired by experience of objective limits, a ‘sense of one’s place’ which leads one to exclude oneself from the goods, persons, places and so forth from which one is excluded.” Pierre Bourdieu, "Distinctions"1 1. Bourdieu, Pierre 1984.

These neoliberal spaces turn apathetic as they become coded with social norms and restrictions that limit the way people interact in spaces. One method of understanding this phenomenon is what Pier Aureli considers a these are a function of divided "enclaves", bounded areas with specific restricted uses.2 In Western cities today, these make up the islands in what Aureli dubs an urban “archipelago”, chains of well-funded, well-policed spaces that demand specific normalized social behaviors.3 To use the familiar city of New Orleans as an example, two contrasting “enclaves” might be Bourbon Street and Magazine Street. In the deregulated party atmosphere of Bourbon street, it’s socially acceptable to stumble on the street because people pay to participate in that themed environment. On the contrary, on the glossier sidewalks of Magazine Street, people tend to walk and dress unusually politely, surveilled by posh stores and customers. Urbanism scholar Edward Soja uses the term “Normalization” to describe these boundaries of socially acceptable behavior. He discusses how, under late capitalism, the multitude of cultural and social networks and their complex social roles that traditionally make up a city are broken down into “repeatable, predictable, social roles” that determine the ways people are allowed to act in a space.3 Of this phenomenon he writes, “The contemporary metropolis is an archipelago of normalized enclosures.”5 While here Soja is considering “normalized enclosures” to mean literal enclosures – shopping malls, banks, and the like – I think this notion can apply on a broader urban scale as well to neighborhoods and regions. In rapidly gentrifying or declining areas social norms do vary so dramatically from building to building, but that is often an indication that existing cultures are slowly being pushed out to make way for subscribers to the incoming “normalized” lifestyles.3 In these enclaves, Michel Foucault says that sovereignty (in this context, capitalism) creates and stigmatizes outsiders in these places. In order to sustain normality and apathy, these outsiders who challenge normality and normalized uses of space are scorned and even forcibly removed.6 22

2. Aureli, Pier Vittorio 2011.

3. Stavrides, Stavros 2016.

Luxury developments: a sign of rapid gentrification and changing social norms.4 4. Higgins, Kevin 2017.

5. Soja, Edward 2000.

6. Foucault, Michel 2007.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Consider as an outdated example vagrancy and loitering laws, which in local governments can ban the “act of remaining in a particular public place for a protracted time without any apparent purpose”. 7

7. Marshall, Aarian 2014.

Perhaps because of the way this anti-lingering attitude is ingrained in American minds, we have been conditioned to feel uncomfortable in public without the crutch of something to create the appearance of being “busy”. So, more broadly, we are both increasingly afraid of loneliness and being perceived as lonely, all while - what a vicious cycle - becoming increasingly lonely, clinging to an appearance of industriousness. In comparison to much of the sprawl and hustle of North America, there are a multitude of global precedents to learn from in the way public space is used as a space for social pause in cities. For example, the narrow alleys of the vernacular architecture in most of South America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are so dense as to be figure-ground inversions of the wide-spaced lots of North America. Beyond the hyper-modern downtowns of these incredibly populous continents, social norms are less likely to have de-stigmatized the use of even very small public spaces for most elements of “private” life in much of the non-western, world. Basic social activities like play, eating, meeting, and even wandering are performed in the open, creating communities centered around social, sympathetic activity.9

Author's photo of a group of friends in public space, but on phones instead of socializing. 9. Elleh, Nnamdi 2014.

But perhaps by consciously ignoring or rebelling against systems of normalization - or over-categorization - in public space, these western attitudes that reinforce apathy can be challenged. 10. Hoodmaps.com 2018.

"Hoodmaps" crowdsources information on these sorts of enclaves in cities, asking people to apply tags to locations to associate them with members of different social strata (the limited categories: hipsters, suits, rich, students, normies, tourists). It also asks people to tag specific buzz-spots of gentrification, such as cafes and coworking spaces, often with witty or sarcastic labels.10

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Public Space Pure public space is accessible to and shared by everyone, independent of class, race, origin, or role. Use is not time-restrained (e.g. there are no closing hours or curfew). Events, gatherings, and rest can all happen in true public space without legal risk of being removed or chastised. However, public space is still subject to the same social norms and restrictions of its surrounding community. It must be maintained and, to some degree, monitored, whether by users or by governments. While it can be a gathering place, a commons, or social space, not all of these necessarily occur in public space. A venue for easy encounters, public spaces have traditionally been the center of urban social life. However, as the way humans communicate and move through cities has changed, the use of public space has lessened accordingly, creating a new wash of not-quite-public spaces that respond to the same human needs to socialize.

denny park

amazon

amazon chain hotel

amazon

Diagram of space use on the corner of Denny, Bell, and 8th in Seattle's South Lake Union district. White shows fully private spaces. Uncolored spaces are technically "public" but only the zones within dotted lines are safe or welcoming for pedestrian use or lingering. Even then, the sidewalks are typically maintained and policed by Amazon, making them "private" space.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

"Architecture can expand into a multidisciplinary game where everyone brings his own tools and knowledge to contribute to a collective piece." - EXYST Architects 1

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Verb: Commoning "In a society becoming steadily more privatized with private homes, cars, computers, offices and shopping centers, the public component of our lives is disappearing. It is more and more important to make the cities inviting, so we can meet our fellow citizens face to face and experience directly through our senses. Public life in good quality public spaces is an important part of a democratic life and a full life." Jan Gehl, Life Between Buildings1

But what might be alternatives to these apathetic spaces? What makes people feel that an urban space is truly theirs to occupy and even change? Introductory economics classes (my own included) often discuss the “Tragedy of the Commons”, Garret Hardin's hypothesis of how resources made common will be used up until exhausted.2

1. Gehl, Jan 2010. 2. Hardin, Garrett 1968.

However, contrary to Hardin’s capitalist metaphor, I believe that in terms of urbanism the opposite situation is the case: underutilization is the true problem. “Non-places” can become unmaintained or remain off-puttingly sterile, while spaces that support heavy public activity are often well-maintained as a byproduct of their continued use. People at play tread down weeds, wipe tables for picnics, and throw away trash.

Diagram demonstrating the way the pooling of common resources and effort has net positive outcomes, due to the positive byproducts of social relationships

In his book “Common Space: The City as Commons”, Stavros Stavrides defends the notion of radical public space, or “common space”, which he defines loosely as “both a concrete product and collectively developed institution of sharing”. He then introduces the term “commoning”, which he describes as “a series of practices and inventive imaginaries which explore the emancipating potentialities of sharing.”4 26

Photo and site projection of a Tokyo park by MAS urban design to analyze and compare strategies for designing commons.3 3. Hehl, Rainer.

4. Stavrides, Stavros 2016.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Most basically, this means that when people choose to share resources or space through commoning, they (contrary to Hardin’s hypothesis) come to feel a sense of belonging or ownership of a space, leading them to participate more actively in its maintenance. Through this process of participation, in returning and continuing to share the space individuals become tied to a space and its surrounding community. In this way, that space gains its own associations and identity, becoming a “place”. This phenomenon is also described by Situationist Chombart de Lauwe, who writes, “An urban neighborhood is determined not only by geographical and economic factors, but also by the image that its inhabitants and those of other neighborhoods have of it.”5

5. Chombart De Lauwe 1952.

For communities struggling to develop social connections within apathetic urban environments, changing this social imaginary is critical for restoring a shared sense of pride and engagement in the city.6

6. Stimson, Blake 2007.

Design can play a critical role in engaging the social imaginary. In contemporary western cities, architects typically function as third parties, with little commitment or connection to the humans impacted by a built project. Even when already alienated from their site, they still have the power to play a significant role in determining the conditions between buildings and the street but often refrain from engaging further in urban conditions and the streets around their projects. However, spatial sensibility, the architect’s trained ability to analyze and alter space, can and should be employed by architects to aid communities in the identification of neoliberal spaces and to facilitate their (un-) built reclamation and ultimate commoning.4 Through the commoning of design power among community members and trained designers, engaged residents can challenge the “imposition of the capitalist order”4 that occurs in the repetitive, apathetic use of neoliberal space.

MAS Urban Design, analysis of an alternate form of commons with ETH Zürich in Rio De Janeri.o3

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Spectacle "Boredom in the production process originates with its speed-up (through machines). The flâneur with his ostentatious composure protests against the production process." Walter Benjamin, "Arcades Project"1

Fortunately, artists and activists have been working to reclaim and restore public life the city for as long as modernists and their fellows have been parceling and privatizing it. Architects have long sat at the boundary of these two poles, complicit in the privatization of land to earn a living, but often sympathizing with radical artists. 1800s France, a hotspot for revolutionary political thought as well as avant-garde literature since the 1700s, angst-ridden male poets like Baudelaire and Rimbaud reclaimed the pre-modern city through the act of flânerie, or aimless, thoughtful wandering and urban observation.2 Following in their stead, in the first half of the 1900s artists aligned with the surrealist and Dadaist movements created games to tap back into the imagination and creative spontaneity available, as adults, only to their subconscious. These “surrealist games”3 led them on long rambles through the city as well: artist-writers like André Breton and Francis Picabia looked for artistic inspiration in the strangeness of encounters in the real world.4 They were inspired and creatively stimulated by experiences of public life, but at the same time felt powerless to alter it.

Conceptual interpretation of the role of the “spectacle” in contemporary life - fascinating and distracting us from the true problems at hand.

1. Benjamin, Walter, and Tiedemann, Rolf 1999.

2. Seal, Bobby 2013.

3. Kochhar-Lindgren, Kanta 2009. 4. Breton, André 1924.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

By the 1960s, these Dada artists spawned the Situationist International, headed by philosopher Guy Debord and painter Asger Jorn. They incorporated into their body of work a direct critique of capitalism and the “spectacles” that fed it.6 In his manifesto “The Society of the Spectacle”, Debord says,

5. Debord, Guy 1967.

“The spectacle corresponds to the historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life… commodities are now all there is to see; the world we see is the world of the commodity.”5

6. Stracey, Frances 2014.

While a rather hyperbolic statement, over the course of the text Debord uses the notion of “spectacles” to describe the domination of space – physical and mental - by capitalist systems of power. In doing so, these systems reinforce attitudes of social isolation and apathy, pushing us to crave new stimuli and technological progress in place of human interaction.

Original cover image of Debord's "Société du Spectacle"5

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Verb: Détournant "If détournement were extended to urbanistic realizations, not many people would remain unaffected by an exact reconstruction in one city of an entire neighborhood of another. Life can never be too disorienting: détournement on this level would really spice it up." Guy Debord, A User’s Guide to Détournement1

1. Debord, Guy 1956.

After more than half a century, it would seem that architects have something to learn from the manner in which the spontaneity and surreal exploration of the Situationists and their contemporaries inspired critique and political action in modernist cities. As a method of response to what they deemed “Spectacles”, the Situationist International proposed the use of apathy-combatting “Situations”. Based on two major tenets, Dérive and Détour, they sought – like many contemporary Social Practice artists - to find art in the reengagement of humans in their cities.2 In doing so, their art found ways to quietly challenge capitalism and its influence over life in the modern city. Debord described Spectacles, rather poetically, as “the concrete construction of momentary ambiances of life”.3

2. Stracey, Francis 2014.

Phrases like this, while obviously metaphorical, are used repeatedly throughout to call attention to the array of architectural possibilities in the creation of these attention-grabbing “ambiances”. In his “Situationist City”, Simon Sadler engages the Situationists through a specifically architectural lens, processing the group’s limited visual work into a range of architectural possibility.4

4. Sadler, Simon 1998.

In architecture, one definition of détournement, “repurpose”, tends to refer to literal reuse of material. However, in the context of this thesis, the nuances of détournement that mean to “divert” or “hijack” can be extended to refer to the appropriation of ideas and to space. 5 So, the tactic of détournement can be used to reclaim and repurpose spaces to take on new meanings and uses in the urban environment – particularly to combat or mock institutional power.

3. Debord, Guy 1957.

5. Wigley, Mark 2001.

In early manifestos on the tactics of detour, which referred mostly to film and satirical artworks, Debord suggests that the power of détournement lies in the creative recombination of elements to both mock capitalist propaganda and create a new propaganda in response, based (rather ambiguously) on “the material environment of life and the behaviors which that environment gives rise to and which radically transform it".1 From an architectural perspective, the disruption or transformation of public space is a powerful tool. We have the skillset to reevaluate our dwelling, working, and public spaces, what I perceive rather broadly to be this “material environment of life”.6 In fact, much of it is already shaped by architects. 30

Photoshopped image from anonymous forum user exemplifying the method of détournement.6 6. UnManuel. Date Unknown.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Adjective: Détourné Below, a few methods that architects can employ to practice détournement in the built environment. It is most poignant and politically meaningful in places that are already loaded with meaning or controversy.

Reusing Repurposing spaces to host ironic or inverted program of the original space. reusing

existing

Recycling Totally transforming the program of a space, but allowing the physical appearance to remain relatively similar, leaving remnants of the past.

recycling

Reducing Pointedly "working around" a space or barrier so that it becomes absurd. Welcoming Occupying a space consistently enough that it becomes associated with a specific group or program with an unassigned gatekeeper. This gatekeeper can welcome all into a space.

Basurama’s Residuos Urbanos Solidos projects "reuse" and "profane" politically charged spaces into play environments.7 7. Basurama.

Profaning Twisting the messaging or intent of an image or space so it becomes a mockery of its former self. Masquerading Replicating a space or a program, but with a carefully chosen altered variable that cues visitors that something is different. This can also be a performance or social action. Idolizing Bringing forgotten, ignored, or hidden facets of a space or group to the forefront in order to reveal a concealed truth.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Verb: Engaging “Whenever I think of these writers together, I am reminded that what gives a city its special character is not just its topography or its buildings but rather the sum total of every chance encounter, every memory, letter, color, and image jostling in its inhabitants’ crowded memories after they have been living, like me, on the same streets for fifty years.” Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City1

The Situationists have had a critical impact on contemporary socially engaged art practice. Détour or détournement, the “hijacking” of ideas and imagery, has become a central principle for creative direct action in activist realms. From the radical student uprisings of May 1968 all over France and Europe to punk music to Burning Man, their irreverent combination of philosophy and satire blended with widely available commercial imagery was highly influential.

1. Pamuk, Orhan 2005.

Now, in the era of late capitalism, a growing movement of conceptually related artists grouped haphazardly under the term “Social Practice Art” are finding creative ways to bring communities together in the context of art. Sometimes, in the case of contemporary artists like Mel Chin2 and Assemble3, the end goal is to produce stand-alone works carrying a social commentary. Sometimes, as in the Reclaim the Streets movement4 and Rick Lowe’s Project Row Houses5, considers the gathering of disparate humans around the arts to be an art form in and of itself.

2. Chin, Mel 2018. 3. Assemble Studio 2018. 4. Jordan, John. 5. Finkelpearl, Tom 2013.

More traditional architects and designers are also jumping on this crowded bandwagon under the umbrella of “creative placemaking”, where they work to combat apathy through the construction of creative places in cities. There are innumerable artists, designers, and nonprofits doing this work.6 Some are interested in finding a place for kids to play together on weekends. Some groups of architects, like Madrid’s Basurama and Berlin’s raumlabor7, base their work in political critique of the ways that space is used and possessed.

6. Markusen, Ann and Gadwa, Anne 2010.

But only rarely are “regular” people – those without design training or without the free time to commit to making art – getting the opportunities to engage the built environment of their cities in this way. When architects or artists build interventions in the city, residents don’t necessarily feel ownership over or commitment to a solely architect-designed site.

7. Raumlabor 2018.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

In fact, the assumption that an architect working independently of greater context and social imagination can simply "make places" seems a neoliberal stance in its own right. The new role of the architect in this context is not that of master builder, but of facilitator. As the architect Yona Friedman said so eloquently,

8. Belogolovski, Vladimir with Yona Friedman 2016.

“An architect does not create a city, only an accumulation of objects. It is the inhabitant who ‘invents’ the city; an uninhabited city, even if new, is only a ruin.”8 Consider the way that downtown business districts become ghost towns almost immediately after 6 PM. While full of massive offices garnering impressive profits, even corporate employees retreat to their comfortable residential neighborhoods rather than remain downtown. Because they were created as a vehicle and icon of capitalism without the engagement of residents (current or future), people feel no uncomfortable and isolated, with no desire to live or play there. There is no cultural memory in these places. Bringing this logic down to a much smaller scale, I would argue that even creative placemaking is only truly “making place” when coauthored with communities who imbue projects with their own imagination and creativity, thus engaging the local social imaginary.

Cover of a text on engaged architecture by raumlaborberlin, reflecting on learnings from The Osthang Project9 9. Raumlabor Berlin 2015.

Striking political poster from the Mai 68 uprisings.10 10. Les Murs Ont La Parole 2014.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Homo Ludens All education that prepares the future adult for the 'useful' role he will play in society tends to repress the creative instinct. However, it often comes about that 'utility' disappears with the development of technology, even before the child arrives at the end of his studies. Under these conditions 'education' can only play a negative role in the repression of all spontaneous creativity. If this were not the case, the adult would be more creative than the child, while in reality the opposite is true.” Constant, New Babylon: A Nomadic Town1

Johann Huizinga, a Dutch philosopher, coined the term homo ludens, “man at play”, in a 1938 text by the same name. He is known for his belief that play is central to human society and development, and sought to highlight playful attitudes as something not learned but inherent in living beings that are repressed by socialization.2 “Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing.”3

1. Constant 1974. 2. Pérez De Arce, Rodrigo 2018.

3. Huizinga, Johan 1955.

In this book and over the course of his career, Huizinga proposed five characteristics of play which drive my understanding of play – for all ages – in this thesis: 1. Play is free, is in fact freedom. 2. Play is not "ordinary" or "real" life. 3. Play is distinct from "ordinary" life both as to locality and duration. 4. Play creates order, is order. Play demands order absolute and supreme. 5. Play is connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained.3 Of these points, I subscribe to all but the fourth. Unlike Huizinga, I agree with more recent philosophers such as Roger Caillois that play is an entropic and creative force that can, in its purest form, specifically defy order and institutional power. 5 As I see it, there is a crucial difference between “play” and “sport”, the structured and competitive capitalist interpretation of play. Play is, at its core, a diversion and escape from apathetic society, with the ability to engage creativity and the social imaginary. Constant Nieuwenhuys, an artist and prominent member of the Situationists, took Huzinga’s idea of homo ludens, “man at play”, and imagined it as the next generation of human, elevated from their state of constant toil (homo faber) to an ecstatic state of free play and world-building.1

Spaceship-like Dallas Cowboys stadium requires payment to enter and hosts scheduled, regulated events. A sport space but not a playful space.4 4. Wade, Brandon. AP Photo. 5. Caillois, Roger 2001.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

In New Babylon, homo ludens is in perpetual motion, wildly constructing and deconstructing their city. It is in no fixed location but the superstructure expands around the globe as homo ludens circulates.

He then designed the theoretical architectural project New Babylon, an elevated infinite network of buildings, intended to be an ever-changing selfbuilt utopia to house and entertain homo ludens. To me, this project seems both counterproductive and relatively dystopic: rather than allowing people – homo faber, “man as maker”, to play freely in the city they already inhabit, he wanted to create a second city for an exclusive group of homo ludens – therefore, designing a space of alienation rather than unification.2 However, as an architectural theory, the notion of free, ever-changing, permanently temporary playful space is hard not to gravitate towards – and causes one to wonder what this world of life in endless “dynamic relation with [one’s] surroundings”1, might look like when superimposed on the sprawl of American cities today.

Constant's painted representations of New Babylon.6 6. Accessed via Jorgensen, Darren and Wilson, Laetitia 2017.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Verb: Playing “Adolescents are always being criticized for loitering, but they can hardly grow up without it. The trouble comes when it is done not within society, but as a form of outlaw life. The requisite for any of these varieties of incidental play is not pretentious equipment of any sort, but rather space at an immediately convenient and interesting place… An immense amount of both loitering and play goes on in shallow sidewalk niches out of the line of moving pedestrian feet.” Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities1

As all things, urban play has a complex and interestingly political history in the Western world that parallels changing notions about family structure, child development, and urbanism. In lieu of addressing this vast range of topics, it seems most worthwhile to briefly address the changing dialogue of space for play over the course of the modernization and neoliberalization of cities. In her contemporary critique of projects influenced by New Babylon, Julia Chance notes,

1. Jacobs, Jane 1961.

2. Chance, Julia 2001.

“There is something paradoxical about trying to construct conditions for play through design; everyone knows that as a child the best place for playing was not the school playground but a location that was not specifically designed for this.”2

Major street turned temporarily into ageless play space in Nørrebro, Copenhagen3

Henri Cartier-Bresson's famous image of children playing among ruins in Sevilla, 19336

In his architectural history of play, Rodrigo Perez de Arce defines two central types of unstructured play, as originally proposed by Roger Callois: ludic and paideia play.4 Ludic play reflects Huizinga’s definition from "Homo Ludens" – structured play with agreed-upon rules, a designated space or field, and required skill. Paideia play, on the other hand, is inherently unstructured and unskilled. It can be done anywhere, at any age. 5 36

3. Photo Origin Unknown. 4. Caillois, Roger 2001. 5. Pérez De Arce, Rodrigo 2018. 6. Cartier-Bresson, Henri 1933.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Most people have some memories of the joys of imaginative paideia play as children – whether it calls back memories of running through tall grass or around sidewalk fire hydrants.

7. Madanipour, Ali 2017.

This variety of free play is the sort that is defiant of neoliberal regulation of space, the one architects should be attempting to facilitate as a means of reclaiming public space. Of course, this is easier said than done, as in western society, the normalization of “adult” behaviors, even for children, means that it is not acceptable to play or create in this paidea manner in public spaces. 5 The fenced and maintained “playground”, so ubiquitous in public-ish parks (arguably a new walled arena for the children) is little more than one more method of segregating public life from the streets and inspiring fear of the “other”.7 As Ali Madanipour writes, “Playgrounds specialize space and allocate the function of play to specific areas, both protecting children from possible harm and confining them to predictable patterns of behavior.”7 It is worth noting that children can, essentially, play anywhere. Early modernist architects who predated the ubiquity of fenced, paved playgrounds in the 1940s and beyond, such as the Smithsons8, Aldo Van Eyck9, and Isamu Noguchi10 were fascinated but conflicted by how to make room for childlike imagination when limited to a paved lot. As these play spaces became increasingly parceled and separated from the rest of street life in the west, new norms around parenting concurrently made it less acceptable to allow children to play outdoors unsupervised at all.

Aldo Van Eyck's rigorously geometric modernist playgrounds were still concerned with what sort of spaces allow for imaginative play.9 8. The Guardian 2015. 9. Oudenampsen, Merijn 2013. 10. Larrivee, Shaina 2011.

In this way, the increasing privatization of public space has interfered in the way that fun and play are perceived and allowed. This endangers not only childhood development, but also the basic social well-being and creative thought of adults. Paidea play, described lovingly as “The shared assumption of the illusory ‘as if ’’, can be a radical act in and of itself, relying upon the creative social imaginary to generate new interpretations of space and motion. 5 As I see it, play in unexpected spaces is the ultimate detour. Universal, arguably necessary, and inherently simple, the temporary creation of spaces for play can be a powerful method of intervening in neoliberal sites even for people without deep technical or construction knowledge. Open to interpretation and inspiring invention, play is an opportunity for all – young and old - to be involved in the creation of their city.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Paideia Considering paideia play from an architectural standpoint poses challenges. How do you create something that encourages creativity? How do you cue to someone that they can "play" here? How do you make someone "play" at all? It is generally agreed upon that play is central to human survival, but little attention has been paid to its tangible existence. Below, an investigation into several manifestations of play. Designated "Field" of Play Creating thresholds that highlight the transition into and out of the structured normality of everyday life. ...But No "Playing Field" Spaces associated with a specific sport or structured game tend to nudge players towards simply playing that game. Room for Risk-Taking - Physical and Social Challenge and risk - even danger - encourage alertness and full engagement in play. Human creativity thrives in perilous situations. Stimulation for All Five Senses Particularly scents, sounds, textures, from an ever-changing variety of materials and high numbers of diverse people occupying and building on the site. Movable Parts: Ability to Manipulate and Build Generating feelings of ownership and creativity - and allowing people to tap into their social imaginary. Social Focal Points People should come here just to meet. Full of interesting spaces to talk, build, and party with unexpected others when in the midst of creativity. Constantly Evolving Much like the world of Constant's Homo Ludens, play spaces should be constantly changed to fit the creative whims of the occupants. Changing Ground Planes This can be as simple as molded earth, or as complex as vertical and diagonal movement around the site. New visual perspectives breed new cognitive perspectives. 38

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

“Why should challenging play environments be just for children? Don’t adults have the same need for discovery, experimentation, and opportunities for both constructive and destructive acts in their leisure environments? Couldn’t people of all ages benefit from unstructured and uninhibited play?” Daniel Campo, “The Accidental Playground”1

1. Campo, Daniel 2013.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Verb: Occupying “Better to do nothing than to engage in localized acts whose ultimate function is to make the system run more smoothly. The threat today is not passivity, but pseudoactivity, the urge to 'be active', to 'participate', to mask the Nothingness of what goes on. People intervene all the time, 'doing something'; academics participate in meaningless 'debates,' etc.; but the truly difficult thing is to step back, to withdraw from it all. Those in power often prefer even 'critical' participation or a critical dialogue to silence, since to engage us in such a 'dialogue' ensures that our ominous passivity is broken.” Slavoj Žižek, "In Defense of Lost Causes"1 1. Žižek, Slavoj 2008.

Architects have been trained to perceive the use of space and social gathering patterns. We are also trained to represent these patterns in graphics. This knowledge and communication ability can also be applied to the perception of exclusion in public space, helping people to understand where, when, and for how long to “intervene” in their environments as an act of apathy-combatting insurgence. In his book Cities and Time, Ali Madanipour says, “The continued acceptance of social institutions depends on the acceptance and reenactment of ideas. Therefore, if large enough numbers abandon a particular way of thinking or behaving, it would disappear; after all, social institutions are not static, and they do change over time.”2

2. Madanipour, Ali 2017. 3. Talk of the Nation 2012.

Recently, the word “occupy” often calls to mind the 2011 Occupy Movement that sought to challenge and call attention to economic inequality through, among many other methods, the literal occupation of public space, often near large financial centers like Wall Street.3

Symbolic occupation of Taksim Square in Istanbul during the 2016 coup attempt4 4. Popp, Maximilian 2017.

A relevant meme - “occupation” as social and physical intervention. 5

5. Welcome to my meme page 2018.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Over the last decade, similar tactics have been used around the world, notably in Istanbul4, Cairo6, and Paris7. As the limited success of these various movements prove, it is not news that institutional change is never guaranteed. However, even in the case of "failure", Noam Chomsky pointed out that the "bonds, linkages, and networks that are taking place all over" as a result of Occupy - it's a household name, after all - are still valuable results of the movement.8

6. Al Jazeera 2011. 7. Hilaire, Eric 2015. 8. Chomsky, Noam 2012.

To truly challenge apathy would mean challenging capitalism in a way that architecture simply cannot. However, by intervening temporarily in the public built environment (in direct dissent of rules like zoning, construction regulation, and privatization of public space), architects can work with activists in communities on micro-actions: cause people to look up, pay attention for a moment to the people around them, and perhaps question the power structures governing their built environment. Who built this? Why? And can I climb it? are valuable questions we ask all too rarely about public space. If people can climb it, all the better. For architects, that even the simple act of introducing built elements to inspire joy or surprise in a static, highly regulated neoliberal environment, can challenge power systems in a small way – potentially inspiring a “butterfly effect” of greater change over time. These are more powerful when occurring in public space, those “spaces of contingency and recognition” that allow for cross-inspiration with others2.

Second line steppers in New Orleans, temporarily occupying the streets for performance and revelry.9 9. Cotton, Red 2015.

Because it evades the regulatory grip of capitalism, public space has the potential to be the stage for “spontaneous displays of difference”, whether in the form of protest, play, or performance.2 The unique condition of being automatically elevated from spectator to participant upon entering a public space means that more and more people can become involved in the slow progress of reclamation and growing of space. As these groups gather, there can be another thing entirely: Consider New Orleans, known for its second-line culture, the ubiquity of Mardi Gras celebrations, and the months-long “festival season”. Here, are examples of the ways that social gathering in public spaces becomes a way of reclaiming streets and a way of life. Here, what is abnormal for other American cities has been normalized, even in the eyes of many police during parades.10

10. Turner, Richard Brent 2016.

Madanipour describes seemingly spontaneous and even anonymous gatherings of this sort as part of the urban experience that, as a form of temporary occupation, “inherently create[s] the possibility of the generation of new meaning in social life.”8 41

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Carnival "Thousands of good, calm, bourgeois faces thronged the windows, the doors, the dormer windows, the roofs, gazing at the palace, gazing at the populace, and asking nothing more; for many Parisians content themselves with the spectacle of the spectators, and a wall behind which something is going on becomes at once, for us, a very curious thing indeed." Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame1

Literary philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin first coined the use of the term "Carnivalesque" to describe the use of chaos and disorder as a subversive tactic. This is based on stories of medieval carnivals, particularly the "Feast of Fools", in which townspeople elect fake clergy, mock religious rituals, and switch roles across classes. Interestingly, there are striking similarities between the Situationist theories of dĂŠtournement and the way that Bakhtin imagines a "carnivalesque" literary character moving through the world. His ideas come from deep research into the festival of Carnival, in which the restrictions of social norms and enclaves are lifted, often resulting in fantastically chaotic use of space.

1. Hugo, Victor 1833.

2. Bakhtin, Michael 1998.

He proposes four literary themes that define the Carnivalesque. Of course, these can also be understood with reference to the way that humans liberated from responsibility act in a carnivalesque environment2:

Familiar and Free Interaction Between People Regardless of prior introduction. Eccentric Behavior Occurring in public, without judgment or reprimand.

Carnivalistic MĂŠsalliances Unexpected or oxymoronic pairings ("misalliances") of people or images as a result of carnivalesque debauchery. Profanation Mocking or hijacking the sacred.

Scene of carnivalesque irreverence in "Feast of Fools" by Flemish master Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

During the carnival, all power except for the free-flowing desires of the crowd and the individual within it, are rejected. In fact, he believed that the crowd became a unified whole, orderly in its disorder in that within it all social strata are flattened. In fact, Bakhtin was fascinated with the way public life came to a boil during carnival, particularly centered around medieval town squares. Of this, he wrote, "All were considered equal during carnival. Here, in the town square, a special form of free and familiar contact reigned among people who were usually divided by the barriers of caste, property, profession, and age."3 In this context, all humans are connected by the shared experience of being in a particular space and time together, much like a crowd of fans at a concert. In both examples, centuries apart, one becomes member of a community situated in that precise location and experience. (A perfect application for mapping through a Situationist psychogeographical lens.4) This union of intention creates opportunity and impetus for progress, in which carnival attendees claim the space for their own, breaking down constructed and social barriers.

3. Bakhtin, Mikhail 1965.

4. Sadler, Simon 1998.

Psychogeographical map of one night at carnival in New Orleans. There is no start or end point, as each stop - and the ensuing encounters at each stop - all seem to be a final destination while at them. Constant motion and the uniform density of crowds blend all road spaces into a single zone of experience.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Hacker “You look at places that people don’t even think about, that are completely negative places in daily life... Those are the places that I look for—underground, behind buildings, on top of buildings, in abandoned buildings, in between freeways, under freeways. Places that you don’t even know exist. I think about what I could give there.” San Francisco Cacophony Society

While associated most recently with perpetrators of illegal internet activity, “hackers” can be anyone who enjoys exploring the fine workings of something, whether ditigal or IRL. The Wikipedia entry for “Hacker Culture” defines hacking as “the act of engaging in activities (such as programming or other media) in a spirit of playfulness and exploration.” Hackers are simply people who enjoy this activity, looking to find meaning in the doing rather the end result.1

1. “Hacker Culture”, Wikipedia.

Hacker as it is used today came about with the tech era, first regularly used at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab in the 1960s. However, rather than referring to their coding skills, the students deemed the best hackers were skilled real-life practical jokesters, who excelled at getting into closed buildings, messing things up, and slipping out before being caught.2

2. MIT. 2018.

Today, use of the term has snowballed, gaining social significance as a label of counterculture for the tech age in a time when technical understanding - that of the programmer, the mechanic, the architect - is a significant form of social capital. There have been many attempts to classify the essentially anarchic beliefs of contemporary hacker culture, the most famous of which is by Steven Levy, who wrote of several core tenets including the mistrust of authority, promotion of public access to information, mutual respect, and an interestingly utopian pursuit of personal and public betterment.3

3. Levy, Steven. 2010.

Considering this ethic, the act of putting these sorts of skills to use to reevaluate or find work-arounds in the world is an inherently subversive act. When we questioning the objects and systems around us, we question the larger existing paradigm of constructive power.

The Glider, often considered an emblem of hacking - a highly effective configuration in an early computer game.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

For an out-of-line architect, for example, an exhaustive understanding of the systems of buildings and cities can allow for what Bradley Garrett calls PlaceHacking, a semi-illegal extension of Urban Exploration rooted in an appreciation for the built environment and a critique of the systems that close spaces off to the public. Moving creatively through these hidden “networks” - the complexity of tunnels, passages, and walkways supporting but ignored by the majority of the city - is a form of hacking exercised by a single, knowledgeable person. In his essay “A Theory of Urban Hacking”, Eric Wycoff Rogers proposes, “A kind of ‘hacking’ of the city can be achieved if more open, participatory, subversive spatial uses are coordinated diagrammatically, effectively running new software on the existing hardware of the built environment... that utilize the junkspace of the existing urban configuration in open-ended use patterns that more effectively meet the needs and desires of the population.”4

4. Roger, Eric Wycoff. 2015.

Perhaps Levy’s hacker ethic of “open access to information” can be applied to ways that we consider access to the apathetic city as a whole. Why not consider movement, conversation, and spatial access a component of “information”, encompassing the visual, social, and physical knowledge that we gain by moving. In this sense, “hacking” could mean the act of enlarging the space available for human movement or vision. With a highly analytic vision of the city and perhaps a good sense of whimsy, the architect might cause an urban WikiLeaks of sorts, offering the ability to place-hack to the public.

5. Garrett, Bradley. 2013.

Bradley Garrett, “Place-hacking” subway tunnels. While he does not destroy or leave marks, he does break and enter into many spaces he visits - a move disliked by much of the more traditional UrbEx community. 5

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Noun: Hacktivist “Do it for the lulz” Anonymous

Amidst thousands of subcultures tied to hacking, perhaps the most iconic is that of the “hacktivist”, made famous by groups like Anonymous, a decentralized internet alliance among formed between thousands of hackers and real-life activists. Rather than being ‘good’ or ‘bad’, they often identify more as tricksters, questioning and pushing back on societal pressures, wherever they may come from. Despite the apparently strange and dark corners of the internet that birth much of this culture, coordinated hacktivist attacks have been used to critique exploitative industries, mock organized religon, and even expose corrupt governments. While it sounds more grandiose at times, they are in fact part of the prankster lineage coming from MIT. Today’s “hacktivists” also draw inspiration from artprank groups like the San Francisco Cacophony Society and the Suicide Club, who mocked contemporary society through strange and whimsical events and installations around American cities. One philosophical generation further back is the Situationists, a primary source for these troublemaking societies, who regularly employed methods of derive and detour in their practices, particularly in “culture jamming”, repurposing the “spectacle” of public advertisements into witty art pieces that critique consumer culture.1

1. Evans, Galbraith, Law. 2013.

In general, hacktivists today operate with the intention of critiquing contemporary authority, its manifestation in corporate, capitalist, and consumerist culture, and the inequities these cause. With varying degrees of legality, they invade corporate web space through tactics like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, essentially crashing or redirecting servers and Doxxing, the publicizing of classified material, often about individuals. While these are not specifically spatial tactics, the playful mindset of the hacktivist can easily be extended to that of the out of line architect.

2. Norton, Quinn. 2011.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

On a conceptual level, when faced with the seeming monolith of capitalist power, hacktivists again turn to pranking and play as a means of challenging authority. A famous example is the long-running fued between Anonymous and the Church of Scientology, in which at one point members of Anonymous “Rickrolled” the church on a massive scale, redirecting their website visitors to a now-meme video of Rick Astley singing “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

3. Jacobsen, Jeff. 2008.

While acts like these rarely cause permanent damage, the process of seeing seemingly untouchable entities scramble to “pick up the mess” after a hack is enough for most hacktivists. In fact, when asked why they do something, the classic internet response is “I did it for the lulz”, basically saying, “just for fun”. While many people in this subculuture are, recently, motivated by a political stance - as seen by an impressive turnout of Guy Fawkes-masked protestors at “IRL” protests - many are here just to have some fun, seeking to cause others to look at the world differently by encouraging them to play. It’s easy to romanticize the skilled hacker as a Robin Hood of sorts, stealing information from the rich to give to the exploited. Of course this isn’t the case. But for an architect - much like a hacker, used to dedicating long hours to consideration of small details - the notion that even hidden expertise can be a tool for sparking change is significant, whether you’re challenging the censorhsip of the internet or the policing of the streets of your city.

4. BBC. 2012.

A gathering of Anonymous members at a protest about copyright laws and intellectual property, wearing ubiquitous and eerie Guy Fawkes masks.4

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Adjective: Occupied Below, a few simple ways in which architectural interventions can help people to creatively occupy space. Different interventions are of course more effective as responses to particular spaces or urban conditions.

Sitting Create a new space to sit, and then sit in it. Look around. Roaming Create a new path through an existing space, and then follow it. Bring others with you. Walk it together. Performing Find an available space and - even in the smallest way - turn it into a stage. Without one, you're a drunk on the street. With one, you're an artist. Play a song, read a poem. Host an event and invite everyone who passes. You'll need to find room to sit. Inhabiting Move in. Build your childhood dream home. Invite your friends over. Throw a dinner party. Play charades. Be the suburbanite you've always wanted to be, but expect a lot of house guests. Decorating Take surfaces that seem soulless and give them pizazz. Permanent paint isn't necessary (but not discouraged), silly props and googly eyes will do. If you have a message to share, share it. Carousing The street is your fairground. Bring food. Bring drink. Bring music. The crowd will bring itself. Summiting Build a route to the top - the very top - of your chosen space. Survey the scene, explore a new viewpoint, and then clear a route for others to find their way as well.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The increasingly traumatized inhabitants have to take over the shaping of their own spaces to recover the pleasure of living.â&#x20AC;? Thomas Malaby on Constant 1

1. Malaby, Thomas 2011.

Case Studies & Precedents

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Burning Man Black burning man Rock

Desert, Nevada, USA Occurring annually since 1986

Institutional Critique

Architect as Convener & Participant

Roaming

Familiar & Free Interaction, Eccentric Behavior

labofii This (in)famous annual “event” (the planners insist that it is not a festival)1 is one of the most significant Western embodiments of ageless, radical play and creativity, which happens to exist unconstrained by an urban environment.

Originally started as a solstice bonfire ritual among friends, the event grew to be held as a “dadaist free autonomous creative zone” which was also directly inspired by the Situationists and their interest in wandering and discovery.1 The manner in which Dada embraced the absurd and unexplained, and even explored ways to tap into the artistic subconscious, was a great inspiration for the Situationists decades later. In keeping with the anti-capitalist nature of the situationists, there is no money used at the event - a core principle called Decommodification - instead, a “gift economy” is practiced where goods and services are shared openly or exchanged for other goods. (Though it’s worth noting that the event costs upwards of $300 to attend and that the installations, while often made with recycled materials, are rarely cheap to construct.)2

1. Burningman.org 2018.

An occupiable creation from the 2018 Aerial view of the highly regulated radial “urban” convening, made with repurposed metal layout of the event, which is planned ahead of time by organizers and populated by arriving participants shopping carts.3 and volunteers.1

3. Marchese, Kieron 2018.

With the event’s increasing popularity, it has sprawled into a temporary city of its own. In recent years there are 70,000 people occupying the desert for a week. This temporary city is arranged radially around a central “man” and a temple, both of which are lit on fire on the last day of every convening on the summer solstice in a cathartic act. On the playa, here are no roads or permanent structures, only art installations (many of which are mobile) and temporary tents for event-goers. 52

2. Limbach, Elizabeth 2014.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Manufactured Sites:

Amanufactured Housing Urbanism Made out of Waste / Maquiladora sites Estudio Teddy Cruz + Forman San Diego-Tijuana Border, 2005-2008

Capitalist Control

Architect as Agent Provocateur

Reusing

Inhabiting

Over his years of architectural practice, Teddy Cruz has examined the politics domebooks of borders and nationality, with a particular focus on the societies and spaces of people living in the interstitial spaces along borders. This project, one of his longer-term research explorations, addresses the slums along the US-Mexican border and the factories called maquiladoras that exploit the labor of the border dwellers.1

1. Informalism 2008.

2. Cruz, Teddy 2014.

They should contribute micro-infrastructures to support that surrounding housing

As maquiladoras get cheap labor from the surrounding slums

Concept diagram explaining the relationship between maquiladoras and production of flexible structures. Based on diagram by Estudio Teddy Cruz.2

Cruz proposes a system of maquiladora-produced (therefore, locally available) flexible frame systems, which he calls “surplus pieces” that can be combined to form a scaffold with which residents can use to creatively assemble or reinforce existing dwellings of recycled materials that cross the border as construction junk from the United States.2 It is worth noting that little in the "real world" has come of these proposals - while there are prototypes built around the MexicanAmerican border region, ETC's work is more likely to be seen in modern art museums than in Southwest border towns. While materials are cheap, the dissemination and outreach around these tactics is incredibly expensive and time-consuming. This gap between "practice" and "praxis" poses a wicked problem of how to translate heady proposals into practical change at the ground level. This project is a fascinating example of détournement on a large scale: Cruz hijacks the exploitative industrial production methods of the maquiladora system to support the creativity, entropy, and semi-legal dwelling of the residents working within that system.

Exploratory model by Estudio Teddy Cruz, now housed at the MoMA.3 3. MoMA Digital Collection 2005.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Action-Adventure Game for Climate Justice The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Labofii) labofii Paris, France, 2015

Capitalist Control

Architect as Profaning Participant

Performing

Eccentric Behavior, Carnivalistic Mésalliances

Labofii, a well-known and highly active pair of organizers working on urban and environmental issues since 2003, teamed up with groups of activists around the world to protest at the Paris COP21 Climate Summit in 2015. However, rather than organizing a traditional blockade or protest action, they created an immersive months-long “game” as act of civil disobedience.1

1. Brussels, Arthur Nielsen 2015.

Leading up to the weekend of the summit, they engaged thousands of activists around the world in anonymous “teams” through their digital app and platform and through person-to-person dissemination of maps showing locations and ideas for playful, peaceful performative “actions” at major intersections in Paris. Teams completed performative missions commenting on climate change, which allowed them to score points. Through the online platform, the points system allowed highly active groups to be lauded and to encourage other activist groups to do the same. Photograph from a protest events at the COP21 Climate Summit.1

A graphic from a Labofii inspiration guide to the tactical carnival process, which encouraged unusual constructions and rewarded creativity.2

Termed a “tactical carnival”, 124 teams performed a series of 215 actions based in the notions of carnival and peaceful gathering to combat corporatization and homogeneity. Many of these performative actions - spectacles to combat the spectacle, so to speak - involved temporary structures occupied by protesters in a form of performance art. Designers were central to the process of organizing and rallying activists, as the construction of built forms and barricades in the streets of Paris became emblematic of the entire protest struggle. 54

2. Labofii 2015.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Project Beginnings June 2015 Digital

Coalition of 150+ global climate activist organizations

Online Game-like Platform for planning and inter-group networking: “peer to peer disobedience game”

Interactive map to mark & set targets

Individual grousp share actions via online platform for points & likes

Physical

Kickoﬀ “Action-Adventure Game Lab for Climate Justice” - hosted in Berlin

Groups connected by online platform meet up in real life to plan & create

Hundreds of performative actions (protests, installations, performances) in cities around the world, centered in Paris

Final “Awards Ceremony” for most engaged teams “collective celebration and catharsis”

COP21 Climate Summit December 2015

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

1970s DIY Guides Domebook - Lloyd Kahn, 1971 The Dome Builder's Handbook - John Prenis, 1973 How to Build Your Own Living Structures - Ken Isaacs, 1974

domebooks

Institutional Critique Architect as Double Agent

Masquerading

Inhabiting

These three books from different authors and publishers are listed as a set in this document because they are all part of the same lineage and movement. To me, they are interesting not so much because of their technical content but because of the larger do-it-yourself movement they exemplify. At the beginning of the 1970s Bernard Rudofsky brought up in his famous text “Architecture Without Architects” the radical notion of “nonpedigreed architecture”, which these embody.1 As hippie and commune culture sought to find new ways to live collectively beyond the constraints of western society, people - especially young people - looked for ways to build shared living spaces cheaply and in closer connection to the environment, without the formality of architects.

Architectural Movement

Political Movement

Radical DIY Movement

The start of this movement, the publication of Lloyd Kahn’s “Domebook One” (yes, followed by a “Domebook Two”)2 coincided with the release of a series of hippie ecotopian publications like The Whole Earth Catalog and the peak of Buckminster Fuller’s dome doctrines. Based around the central axiom “access to tools”, these dome and structures building handbooks contained highly detailed instructions, examples, and information theoretically showing people how to build shelters for living themselves, without the help of an architect or designer. Of course, part of the appeal of structures like geodesic domes was their relative simplicity and their rapid constructibility with limited technical skill.3 These texts, which are now cult favorites for collectors and designers alike, are also interesting because of their collaged, zine-like quality. Sold both in alternative lifestyle catalogs and alternative bookstores, they convey a way of living and a political agenda that the reader can achieve through built form. By allying themselves with a political agenda, these “hippie modernist” instruction manuals were able to elevate building beyond household DIY.4 56

1. Rudolfsky, Bernard 1964.

2. Kahn, Lloyd 1971. 3. Blauvelt, Andrew, Castillo, Greg, Choi, Esther, and Walker Art Center 2015. 4. MoMA 2011.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

The most effective of these manuals, Ken Isaac's, is less focused on the scientific backing of the construction process, instead featuring photographs of humans at work. These build a feeling of empathy between the "architect" who typically proposes plans and the "builder" who constructs them, thus combating the sense of alienation sometimes felt between design, production, and habitation.

Pages from "How to Build Your Own Living Structures"5

5. Isaacs, Ken 1974.

Pages from "Domebook One"2

6. Prenis, John 1973.

Pages from "The Dome Builder's Handbook"

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

RUS: Residuos Urbanos Solidos

Self-Made Playground / Autoparque de Atracciones

basurama

Basurama Lima, Peru, 2010

Spaces as Byproduct Architect as Facilitator of Capitalism

Reusing Profaning

Summitting

Eccentric Behavior

Balancing on the line between serious art practice, urban design agency, and playgroup, Basurama uses play as a strategy for challenging the ways we think about abandoned or under-served urban environments. With their ongoing project series Residuos Urbanos Solidos (a wordplay on urban solid waste), they use their role as designers to critique the political systems that leave people alienated from their urban environments, particularly in developing Latin American cities.1

Conceptual sketch from Basurama, describing the way that they built off of the social imagination of the neighborhood to design the installation.2

In “Self-Made Playground”, architects from Basurama worked closely with residents of a peripheral neighborhood in Lima to turn the grassy zone under a half-finished & abandoned light rail track into a lively neighborhood playplace. Because this project is a political critique of car-centric city planning and the loss of safe public space in Lima, they decided to use clearly identifiable materials like car tires and road repair signs as the basis of their play structures, which were the primary designed "architectural element" of the intervention. Its location, cleverly sited in the shadow of the “broken promise” of the abandoned train tracks, calls into question the charged issue of physical mobility, social mobility, and the Peruvian government’s disregard of informal development in booming Lima.3

1. Basurama 2011.

Another Basurama conceptual sketch showing the different play structures they made out of repurposed car waste.2 2. Basurama, RUS Lima.

3. Basurama 2010.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Through this appropriation and reclamation of space and material from carcentric infrastructure for human use, Basurama generated common space and critiqued the broken promise of mobility for residents of this district. It is also the site of a festival where people were able to climb up on the tracks of â&#x20AC;&#x153;el tren fantasmaâ&#x20AC;?, elevating play spaces vertically over the city.4 Because of the festivities associated with the installation, it is still remembered by residents today, though it lasted only two months.

4. Divisare 2012.

Diagrammatic model showing how interventions are used to conceptually "pierce" an infrastructural obstruction.

Photos of the installation. Dangerous, unwelcome environments are converted into joyful play spaces.4

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

The Osthang Project Raumlabor Berlin & Arkhitectur Sommer Rhein-Main Darmstadt, Germany, 2014

Privately Held Public Architect as Closer Space

Recycling

Inhabiting

Summitting

Familiar & Free Interaction

The Osthang Project International Summer School and Festival for Future Modes of Living Together was designed as a freeform “summer school” for architects, artists, social scientists, and planners in a vacated site outside the industrial city of Darmstadt, Germany. There, for a summer 60 adults from around the globe lived together collectively with the intention of specifically questioning the meaning of communal spaces and how to design “public space” from scratch.1 To begin this process, Raumlabor paired with other architects known for their playful graphics and non-traditional approaches to built space such as Atelier Bow Wow and ConstructLab.

Conceptual drawings and completed building spearheaded by ConstructLab and Atelier Bow Wow to be the central commons of the summer camp.2

1. Arkhitectur Sommer Rhein-Main 2014.

2. Raumlabor.

3. OHA Osthang. Conceptual axon and completed building kitchen and gathering building spearheaded by ConstructLab. Now, it's available year-round as a flexible, multi-level space for casual community gatherings.3

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Over three weeks on-site, participants in the Osthang Project eventually built a series of kitchen, gathering, and co-living buildings using cheap and found materials in an experimental building workshop.2 By marketing the event with hand-drawn illustrations, whimsical symposium descriptions, and unusual photographs of (gasp!) architects and builders having fun while at work, Raumlabor was able to bring a group of designers together specifically around the shared intention of creating a safe, playful public space in the heart of a declining historic town center.2 This context is reinforced by the style of the buildings, which seem to be inspired by nostalgic European architecture and childhood treehouses in the way that they play with elevation change and encourage adults to climb and occupy unexpected surfaces. Through the staggered forms of the buildings, occupants are encouraged to swing between structural beams, climb onto roofs, and (in the case of the “kitchen”) leap from one shelter to another.4 As ConstructLab says in their manifesto,

4. Collectif etc.

5. ConstructLab.

“A building site is a learning site / a meeting point / a microcosm / a party”. 5

Conceptual illustrations of the project and design process by Raumlabor, focusing on their central idea, "the city as a sphere for action". This later became the title of a book documenting the Osthang project and its offshoots.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

2014

Cabins orizzontale Workshop House Main Hall ConstructLab & Martin Kaltwasser Atelier Bow Wow Kitchen collectif etc

Info Bridge m7red & Umschicten

Site plan of Osthang Project as constructed during the Summer School session. "Coach" architects for each project are listed.

Present Day

Playspaces

Concert Hall & Music Venue Event Venue Kitchen & Event Seating

Park Entryway

Site plan of Osthang Project as it is now used as a state-maintained park. All of the buildings remain and are used for open public exploration as well as a calendar of scheduled free public events.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

“Actions: What You Can Do With the City” CCA: what you canCanadian do with the city Centre

for Architecture Curated by Giovanni Borasi & Mirko Zardini Montreal, Chicago, Sao Paulo, 2008-2009

Privately Held Public Architect as Agent Provocateur Space

Profaning

Performing

Eccentric Behavior

This exhibition is centered around a series of “tools” or media to re-appropriate basurama

for the purpose of, as the exhibition brief states, “instigating positive change in contemporary cities around the world”.1 Rather than focusing on the work of a few chosen artists or designers, the curators chose 22 thematic tools, e.g. “Clothing”, “Parking Structures”, and “Farm Animals”.Within those groups, they exhibited a multiplicity of ways that designers were using each of those tools in socially engaged art and creative placemaking practices around the world.

1. Becker, Jochen 2008.

2. Canadian Centre for Architecture 2008.

The website’s “tools” menu.1

At the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where the exhibit was first displayed, the curators also put out a “Call to Actions”, asking people to put this toolkit to use in their own cities, document the process, and share the results through a portal on the exhibit’s website.2 Successive exhibitions in Chicago and at the X Bienal de Arquitetura in Sao Paolo incorporated these actions and encouraged people to continue the movement using the recommended tools. 3 Today, the website is maintained as a database of sorts to see how participants used the proposed tools. Ten years later, the submission link remains open for designers and activists to post photos of their guerrilla installations, and the archive is updated occasionally with photos from recent temporary art interventions.

Chicago exhibition floor plan. Exhibition items are grouped in separate rooms by "action" and "tool". 3 3. Graham Foundation 2008.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Assorted Works Haus-Rucker-Co Based in Vienna, Austria 1960s

Easily identifiable for their striking, colorful graphic style, Haus-Rucker-Co exemplified the utopianism of the 1960s counterculture design, combining architecture, product design, and fantasy into the modern world. Pneumatics, their primary medium, exemplified to them the disobedient, low-cost world of counterculture design. 1 Intending to critique what they called the “formalist and bourgeois occupation of architecture”, they played with air, plastic, color, and the way that all these unfamiliar materials responded to the human form. Easily installed in public space, these strange rounded inflatables were shocking in that they reject all the complexities and detailing of classical and modern architecture, endlessly modifiable by the touch of a human or a puff of air.2

2. Choi, Esther. 2015.

3. Kohlman, Janine. 2018.

Inflatable structure “Gelbes Herz” (Golden Hearts) and models wearing environmentally altering “fly helments” designed by the group.3

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

While they fabricated many of their projects at the consumer product and temporary art installation scale, Haus-Rucker-Co also engaged in speculative work, which extended their ideas to the urban scale. By representing their theoretical designs through a layered combination of sketch, technical drawing, and photographic collage, they soften the boundaries between the real and the imaginary - is this a real city or a combination of many disparate buildings? Are these details showing a real pneumatic system or something imagined? In forcing the viewer to ask these questions, their architecture mocks - even hacks - wherever it appears: museums, public spaces, and among traditional forms of architectural representation.

3. Kohlman, Janine. 2018.

A collaged utopic/dystopic intervention in an imagined city. 3

Program

Narrative In every city in the western world, public places are underutilized by residents, often because they are being dominated by neoliberal institutions and attitudes. Feeling frustrated and alienated from the city they love, the fed-up architect wants to take back their city by creating new ways to occupy and move playfully through the streets of the city. They seek to explore their bigger ideas of urban autonomy in the form of temporary deployable interventions, creating unexpected play spaces among soulless streets.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Conceptual Program A temporary public commons created by installing structures for play and exploration in inhospitable or privately-controlled urban spaces. While technically unprogrammed, it is intended to encourage three-dimensional circulation and unrestricted, unstructured play, giving people new ways of physically and socially perceiving their city. The excitement and wonder caused by this can result in carnivalesque revelry. It is a space intended to be free of social inhibitions or self-consciousness. It is the job of the architect to generate a simple, easily usable structure that encourages users to explore their city in all three dimensions, by climbing/ jumping/swinging/dancing. The less conventional the modes of occupation and movement, the greater the impact and the joy. Paired with simple instructions, this structure can also be distributed to non-architects to allow them to continue intervening as they see fit, supporting a larger culture of spatial autonomy.

Publicly-Owned Private Space Temporary Reoccupation Culture of Apathy or Social Isolation Human & Aesthetic Homogeneity

Removal to Avoid Appropriation

Scale These interventions are intended to be quickly made and transportable, for rapid deployment on a site. The ground space should be relatively small and in border spaces of a dense urban area, allowing for more foot traffic and visibility. Vertically, there are no limits but the surrounding buildings. Because many of the laws governing the built environment (e.g. zoning, building codes, and permitting) are intended to limit and slow the alteration of city space, they are rejected in this thesis. The political stance of the right to spatial autonomy and self-construction in public space means that building codes currently in place are not necessarily applicable or relevant.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Considering the Site Based off of the research criteria and precedents considered over the course of this research, I propose a framework for a temporary deployable â&#x20AC;&#x153;tactical interventionâ&#x20AC;?, to be made accessible to residents with the help of simple instructions.

The role of the architect:

Agent Provocateur

Modes of occupation of the site:

Sitting

Roaming

Carousing

Summiting

Play experiences to spark on the site:

Social Center

Movable Parts

Risk Taking

Constant Evolution

Changing Ground Planes

Goals for the breakdown of social norms in the area:

Eccentricity

Free Social Interaction

Mesalliances

Profanation of Space

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

El Campo de Cebada Designed by the community of La Latina, Madrid 2010

Institutional Critique

Privately Held Architect as Reusing Public Space Participant

Idolizing

Architect as Participant

Reducing Summitting

Roaming

Familiar & Free Interaction

Sitting

Carousing

Familiar & Free Interaction

Situated in a low-income neighborhood in Madrid, this community space por y para los vecinos is a reclamation of a space left abandoned in a failed urban renewal project. A huge private sports center in the midst of a working-class neighborhood became an emblem of urban blight, a constant reminder of how city funding was being used to support corporate interest. So in response, local architects rallied residents to reclaim the area around the center, turning a driedup pool it into their dream of a collaboratively-created urban commons.1

1. Bravo, David 2012. 2. Sprackland, Martha 2016.

To begin this process, a board of community members, frustrated by the lack of care given to their needs by the administration, began a series of weekly public meetings on the vacant pool site. Understanding that the public space needed to accommodate many different social activities, they began to petition the city to give them the autonomy to have free and unprogrammed use of the space. This dream was threatened by the existing private athletics company, who wanted to expand to fill the entire plaza.2 In spite of objection from city government, residents took matters into their own hands. Deciding to use temporary installations to make the site on their own, the organizers developed a calendar-based system with which resident volunteers are constantly building and modifying the plaza. Using cheap and recycled materials, volunteers build movable furniture, install art pieces, and arrange workshops to teach community members different skills that can be used to improve the space (e.g. gardening, construction, welding).3 “El Campo” is now host to a multitude of informal public events and is occupied 24/7 by people of all ages: drinking, skateboarding, playing games, and gathering. Because of this success, the city of Madrid eventually acquiesced to organizers, giving residents legal control over the space. 3 The success of this informal project (international newspapers like The Guardian laud it as “a space for all” and a “community focal point”2) reflects the success of a method in which architects working in partnership with residents over a long period of time can combat neoliberal occupation of space.

Movable seating, storage, and plantings built by volunteers in courses held on-site by architects and designers.3 3. Plataforma Arquitectura 2013.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Pro-El Campo

Interested Architects & Urbanists

“La Noche En Blanco” Art Initiative Leftist Political Organizers

Educators and professionals running education programs Local architecture collectives Street Drunks

Public Square: “El Campo” vs. Sports Facility

Non-Residents

Madrid City Finance Department

Neighborhood Children & Parents Residents

Madrid City Council

Private Sports Facility Owners

Anti El Campo

Stakeholder map of the users and space-makers of El Campo de Cebada. Note that nearly all resident groups (primary users) and local architects are in favor of the project, while resistance comes from higher political powers and the groups that fund them. Existing State of El Campo

“Something New” built & installed on plaza by community members, often led by design expert

Graﬃtti and installation welcomed as new addition to the public plaza as well

Drawing of site by architect stakeholders.1 Weekly neighborhood meetings

Weekly neighborhood meetings

Residents organize workshop with local expert to design & build “Something New”

Someone leaves graﬃtti and a scaﬀold structure onsite

Residents at meeting express interest in “Something New”

Regular upkeep done by users as needed

1 Month

Timeline of changes to El Campo over the span of one month. While most "organized" interventions are facilitated by the neighborhood experts, most anything constructed on the site is considered welcome.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

The Commons Gap Filler & Life in Vacant Spaces Christchurch, New Zealand, 2014

Spaces as Byproduct Architect as of Capitalism Convener

Welcoming

Decorating

Sitting

Performing

Design nonprofits Gap Filler and Life in Vacant Spaces converted the downtown site of a former luxury hotel into a public space that hosts a variety of different pop-up activities, food carts, and formats of seating and gathering. The stated goal of the site is “a space where people feel they could contribute to making ideas come to life; a space they could help to shape; a space for small-scale experimentation; a space that feels welcoming and inclusive. The site should serve as an invitation to people who want to do things here – projects, events and more. It will evolve and change to support new ideas and ‘makers.’”1 In the wake of the earthquake that devastated Christchurch, these organizations partnered with a range community groups and local architects, acting as the “brokers” for blighted spaces around the city. “The Commons” is their flagship site of sorts, a highly social and ever-changing public space in the midst of an otherwise imposing - and still partially destroyed - downtown.2

Audiences at the Pallet Pavilion, catalyst for The Commons.3

First established as a site for a single temporary guerrilla performance space called the “Pallet Pavilion” in 2012, Gap Filler installed utilities, toilets, and nighttime lighting on the site for use by anyone in need of a space to work or create. The success of this installation, in part because of the provision of these amenities, led to it becoming a space for many different artists and designers to work. Ultimately, movable food vendors and a temporary “makerspace” followed.1 Because the site is not owned, only managed, by Life in Vacant Spaces and a small group of residents, its future is always in limbo as Christchurch redevelops. However, the success of micro-interventions such as this around the city has helped to change the city’s political stance on public life and art in the longer-term rebuilding process.3 74

1. Gap Filler 2014. 2. Agile City.

3. Creative Spaces 2018.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Chain Hotel

Earthquake Lot sits vacant in the heart of the city

Designers rally community support to build “Pallet Pavillion” and install utilities

Artists and food stalls pop-up on site unoﬃcially, seeing new public space in revitalizing city Developers begin to show interest in site

Pavillion removed; more pop-ups arrive under temporary formal arrangements with city Architect input formalizes and legitimizes long-term system of allowing space for temporary installations

“Arcades Project” installed as a permanent art piece to anchor The Commons as public space For now, developers halted

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Adventure Playgrounds Europe & Japan Typically run by CDC’s & Neighborhood Associations Movement founded in the 1940s

Institutional Critique

Architect as Participant

Reducing Summitting

Roaming

Familiar & Free Interaction

The Adventure Playground movement, which has seen a resurgence in the last decade, is a low-cost response - made of literal junk - to the structure and limitations of modernist playgrounds, while still containing children in the way contemporary society demands. Originally known as skrammellegepladsen, or ‘junk playgrounds’ in postwar Denmark, these playgrounds propose an alternative way of engaging children in creative, thoughtful, and active play.1 Of this movement, Jonas Bertelsen, one of the original creators, wrote,

1. Kozlovsky, Roy.

2. Bertelson, Jonas 1946.

“The adventure playground is an attempt to give the city child a substitute for the play and development potential it has lost as the city has become a place where there is no space for the child’s imagination and play.”2

Early photograph of children at an adventure playground in St. John’s Wood, London.1 `

The colorful Glamis Adventure Playground in East London. 3

Nowadays, re-branded "adventure playgrounds" are typically constructed by unskilled volunteers in residential neighborhoods. They are funded by local nonprofits or CDCs, meaning there is rarely budget for an architect or landscaper. Funding goes towards staffing the site with “playworkers” who support and monitor children without interfering in their play. Still filled with scrap materials and simple construction tools, children are encouraged to add to and create new play spaces (within the confines of the playground) as they desire. 76

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Core benefits of all modes of play

Creative

Unimaginative

Exploratory

Physical

Proscribed

Ugly

Social

Pleasant

Unsafe

Safe

Adventure / Junk Playgrounds

Modernist Playgrounds

Sites today typically have some pre-built play structures as well, unlike the original Danish version. While recently there is often increased opportunity for program and structured activities within the space, typical day-to-day activity in contemporary adventure playgrounds is still very much unstructured paidea play.3

3. Misra, Tanvi 2018.

But because these are - of course - child-centric spaces, it begs the question of how architects can work towards creating or encouraging similarly utopic play environments for adults.4

4. Campo, Daniel 2013.

While resulting structures are often less attractive and perhaps less "safe", children are given the autonomy to create their own play environments, within the space of the playground. This helps children develop a sense of ownership over the built environment from a young age and a creative, collaborative mindset.

Structures are pre-constructed and fixed on a site, allowing for a wide range of physical play opportunities but little in the way of creation or creativity. To a child, all playgrounds of this variety are essentially the same, scale and complexity of the play structure notwithstanding.

Site

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Roles One of the architect’s primary roles in this process is to select and prepare effective sites in which to intervene. They should always be on the lookout for (non)places with potential to becomeplayful space. The three primary urban conditions that can become this are: small privately held public spaces, completely abandoned spaces, or spaces on the periphery of areas maintained by capitalist institutions.

Criteria This project encourages intervention in any and all urban spaces. But an ideal site for this type of urban intervention should have most of these qualities: •Loaded with political, historical, or cultural meaning Meaning which can be détourned as a method of critique •Emblematic of capitalist or neoliberal interests Iconic or familiar sites make a more striking and poignant intervention •Situated in an urban “enclave” that subscribes to restrictive social norms To better defy them! •Under the control or supervision of neoliberal institutions (or next to them) Public (political) and private (corporate) institutions •Out of scale or mood with the rest of the existing neighborhood e.g. Corporate developments, shopping centers, and parking lots •Located in a trafficked urban space Be it surface-level cars, pedestrians, or highway traffic •Of manageable size One to two urban lots is quite large, even a small alley is possible •Visible & accessible to pedestrians Engage the target audience - humans •Hostile urban design tactics Design choices limiting who is welcome in the city

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Proposed Site

Amazon Main Campus South Lake Union, Seattle .68 square miles

Results When Checked Against Site Criteria •Loaded with political, historical, or cultural meaning •Emblematic of capitalist or neoliberal interests •Situated in an urban “enclave” that subscribes to restrictive social norms •Under the control or supervision of neoliberal institutions (or adjacent to them) •Out of scale or mood with the rest of the existing neighborhood •Located in a trafficked urban space •Of manageable size •Visible & accessible to pedestrians •Hostile urban design tactics

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

The heart of the tech giant Amazonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s headquarters is the former industrial neighborhood of South Lake Union, located just north of downtown Seattle. Until quite recently, it was a working-class and light industrial neighborhood first settled by early millworkers and boaters who relied on the eponymous Lake Union for their livelihood. Dramatically regraded in the early 1900s to be less steep for developers, it became an underutilized in-between zone of sorts in the city.1 However, in only ten years since Amazonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arrival in the neighborhood, SLU has transformed into a glamorous technology and biosciences hub, which prices out residents with a limited supply of mostly high-rent housing. Most wood, brick, and concrete structures from its light industrial past have been demolished in favor of an array of sparkling glass and metal towers.

Seattle with South Lake Union / Denny Triangle neighborhoods and The Spheres highlighted

1. Klingle, Matthew 2009.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

In the mid-1980s, a fascinating alternate history for this neighborhood gueststarring Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen could have come about. Activists rallied to turn a large portion of the ramshackle neighborhood into a waterfront public park, downtown, which Seattle didn't have at the time. An interested Paul Allen offered the city a huge sum of money to buy the land, develop it into a park himself, and set up a fund to permanently pay for all maintenance. Twice, city council rejected the offer because he also planned on purchasing nearby land for condos - their concern was that the area would become "a high-end new neighborhood anchored by biotech companies."2

2. Jacobs, Harrison 2018.

Huh, this sounds familiar. approx. 40,500,000 SF Total available oﬃce space in Seattle

Amazon occupies about 1/5 of Seattle’s oﬃce space

Next 40 Largest Companies in Seattle, Combined: Starbucks, Facebook, SafeCo Insurance, Boeing, Weyerhaeuser Lumber, Swedish Medical, etc.

Everybody Else 40% of oﬃce real estate is held by mega-businesses, lease prices rise accordingly

Two decades and many city council elections later, in a transition ironically dubbed “Amaggedon”, Amazon and subsequent tech companies have completely transformed the urban landscape of SLU, building dozens of new office towers, glossy pocket parks, and secretive tech incubators. While from an objective mobility perspective, the trees and bike lanes of the neighborhood road diet are welcome improvements to the otherwise too-wide streets, they are also a subtle means of exerting private control over public space.

3. Day, Matt 2017.

In an exchange with city hall for a dramatic upzone of the neighborhood to allow for high-rise towers and mixed-use development, Amazon became its own developer, agreeing to privately fund a radical urban redesign of the neighborhood.3

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

What about those lots Paul Allen held onto in the 1980s? Amazon just bought all 11 of them for $1.6 billion. In only one decade of development, Amazon now has at least 33 named properties around SLU and surrounding areas, with rumors of up to 50 buildings occupied by Amazon and its employees. Occupying 8.1 million square feet in the city, it holds what Business Insider deems “about 20% of Seattle’s prime office real estate”3. Forbes and the Seattle Times report that "Amazonians" occupy more office space in one city than any other one company in the US, and more in Seattle than the next 40 largest business in Seattle combined, including behemoths like Boeing, Facebook, Safeco Insurance, and Starbucks.4

4. Gudell, Svenja 2018.

By most counts, these statistics make Seattle the country’s largest company town. HQ: Seattle, WA

HQ2: Long Island City, NY HQ2: Crystal City, VA

5. Wikipedia.org 2018.

Locations of current US Amazon engineering and programming offices (note mostly coastal urban areas). The two HQ2 locations were selected in 2018 after a highly publicized competition between metro areas around the country. 5

In part because of this high degree of land occupation and rapid influx of highrent tech workers, rent costs in Seattle on the whole have risen at three times rate of the national average, meaning that even middle-class residents are being priced out of their neighborhoods in favor of million-dollar condominiums. Simultaneously, Seattle has the third largest homeless population in the entire US, second only to New York and Los Angeles County.6 Rent for a onebedroom apartment in SLU can easily run over $3,000 a month, making the area prohibitively expensive for any former residents of the neighborhood: mostly lower-income artists, families, and “vestiges of Seattle’s working-economy”.7 84

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

As this second wave of gentrification pushes out long-term businesses, this neighborhood has little feeling left on the street of a community or culture beyond shared employers in the tech industry. What remained of local business and familiar neighborhood anchors have been mostly replaced by chains or projects of "in" businesspeople who own multiple venues around the area. This superficial social environment only reinforces the existing culture of already superficial connections, long referred to as the "Seattle Freeze".8

6. HUD 2016.

Says a chef and restaurant owner struggling to cater to ever-changing trends of “Bezosville”, “South Lake Union has grown so fast, I don’t think it really has had a chance to grow a soul.”9

2017 "Store Closing" sign from pre-Amazon restaurant tenant. 7 7. Cohen, Stephen 2017.

8. Wikipedia “Seattle Freeze” 2018.

Buildings confirmed owned and occupied by Amazon in Seattle, as of 2017. 9. Vinh, Tan 2017.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

In only ten years, the social implication of this new capitalist power in Seattle is striking. A Business Insider blogger reflects on a specific experience marked by a feeling of being constantly on private property when exploring the area around the spheres on foot, saying, “There is a strange vibe that Amazon controls everything. Amazon security guards questioned this photojournalist about what she was doing — on public property. Shortly after, the guard began filming me, saying Amazon documents all media personnel. I hadn’t identified myself as a reporter.”17 While Amazon released a statement saying that this harassment is not company policy, the constant presence of guards and uniformly identifiable tech employees in this unfamiliar glossy environment creates a culture vaguely reminiscent of 1984: we all know Big Brother is watching. This is reinforced as the culture of intense surveillance is pridefully shown off in projects like Amazon Go, a grocery store where you simply take things off shelves and walk out, your online account billed as you leave. (Yes, terrifyingly, it works.)

Panorama taken from the corner of 7th Ave & Lenora St - notice two construction cranes, three constructions sites, the state of extreme transformation occurring. Five years ago, none of these sites existed.

17. Jacobs, Harrison 2018.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

The giant domes of the Amazon Spheres themselves are perhaps the most iconic buildings of the campsu , are closed to the public except for a few designated visiting days. Accessible only to Amazon HQ employees - all of whom wear bright blue ID badges on lanyards when walking around the area20 - the spheres are a capitalist “spectacle” in the truest sense. On the 60,000 square foot site, there is a small “dog park” and outdoor seating area that is open to the public, most of whom are tech employees themselves. On Tuesdays, there is a small farmers' market that pops up on-site, serving local produce and food - a classic appropriation of informal urbanist ideas.21

20. Cohen, Stephen 2018.

21. The Spheres, Amazon.

Kept warm and humid to support an array of exotic plants and living walls, the spheres contain no significant offices or program, instead acting as occupiable monuments to the influence of capitalism and neoliberal taxing policy on the city of Seattle. In the newly high-traffic neighborhood, they are certainly a source of fascination, a stopping point in a uniformly glossy and metallic part of the city that, on the whole, contrasts starkly with the collage of natural tones coming from the worn brick and wood buildings that make up much of the rest of Seattle.

Material Palette of SLU-Adjacent Seattle Neighborhoods: Concrete, wood, steel, brick Native plants.

Material Palette of South Lake Union: Glass, fiber cement, colored metal panels Non-native plants.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Consider the transformation of the site on the corner of Lenora St & 7th Ave in just ten years since the arrival of Amazonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campus:

Lenora Street & 7th Street, 2006

Lenora Street & 7th Street, 2017

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

amazonoccupied buildings

privately surveilled & maintained public spaces

designated privately owned public spaces

Control of spaces in the zone immediately surrounding the Amazon Spheres

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Sample site sections, though interventions can engage anywhere in the district: Under Construction: Amazon Rufus 2 Tower Construction Site: Yet Another Amazon Tower Amazon Day 1 Tower Via6 Luxury Apartments

521’ Anticipated height 420’

95’

Site Section from Lenora Street, looking NW

Amazon Doppler Building (Corporate HQ)

Amazon Day 1 Tower 524’

60’

12’

Site Section from 7th Avenue, looking NE

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Site Plan Pavement Blanchard St.

Plants

Buildings

8th Ave.

ke Av e W es tla

7th Ave.

5th Ave.

6th Ave.

Lenora St.

Site Plan: Privately Owned versus Public Spaces (Ground Floor) Private & Public Access

Blanchard St.

Private & Closed Off POPS (Privately Owned Public Space) Public 8th Ave.

ke Av e W es tla

7th Ave.

6th Ave.

5th Ave.

Lenora St.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

It seems that SLU balances on the border between utopia and dystopia, with the built environment is a manifestation of the ever-growing socioeconomic divide in Seattle. A strange live-work zone where life-work balance is scorned but entry-level tech employees can afford to live in luxury condos, it is a site of great economic wealth but offers very little in the way of long-term social or familial resources. Fortunately, there are a wide range of activist and watchdog groups at work in Seattle to keep their neighborhoods. Artist responses to the loss of "old Seattle" are many and diverse, primarily memorializing local places lost to non-places and gentrification, as well as critiquing the economic deregulation of Seattle that actively encourages the influx of high-budget tech companies to the city. A few artist-activists of note who are already at work critiquing the redevelopment and gentrification of South Lake Union: â&#x20AC;˘Jaimee Garbacik and Chin Music Press "Guerrilla Ethnographer" and editor of "Ghosts of Seattle Past", a collection of artworks and stories about the deep meaning of places lost to gentrification and cultural change as a result of tech booms paired with a crowdsourced digital archive. 11

Illustration from "Ghosts of Seattle Past.11

â&#x20AC;˘Displacement Stops Here12 A grassroots organizing group protesting new gentrifying development projects in historically black and immigrant communities across Seattle. Most of their work is through direct action: protests and poster campaigns.

"Fast-casual" apartment block looming over the only play area in South Lake Union at Cascade Park.10 10. Seattle Parks and Recreation.

11. Garbacik, Jaimee and Powell, Josh 2017.

12. "Displacement Stops Here." Facebook.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

•The Cascade P-Patch13 Surrounded by a wash of new condominiums and high-end retail, the Cascade Neighborhood P-Patch is a lush community vegetable garden in South Lake Union that has been maintained by volunteers for two decades. Protected (for now) by Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods, plot shares are $20 for families, but a number of plots are specifically reserved and planted to provide free food for anyone who comes through the public space - one of the only truly public places in the area.

13. Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.

The "Cascade P-Patch", a community garden holdout that shares a space with this play area. Built in 1996, it's one of the last remnants of the previous residents of the neighborhood.12

•Bring Seattle Home14 Rallying around what has become known as the "Amazon Tax", these activists, supported by a few radical city councilors , successfully pushed for Amazon and 131 large corporations in Seattle to be taxed $275 per full-time employee, generating almost $50 million to be put towards affordable housing and homeless support. Only weeks later, Amazon successfully lobbied for the tax to be repealed.

14. The Urbanist 2018.

• Seattle Department of Trans(f )or(m)ation15 Particularly interested in making hostile parts of the city safer for pedestrians and cyclists (thus the DoT pun) this group of anonymous activists makes undercover transformations of streets, particularly in rapidly redeveloping neighborhoods. Several of their guerrilla bike lanes and crosswalks have become permanent.

15. Mudede, Charles 2017.

• Vanishing Seattle16 An art collective that documents, critiques, and organizes around spaces that are being priced out of Seattle. It is host to the "People's Geography of Seattle" movement, which crowdsources narratives and memories of life in "old Seattle" in an effort to build solidarity though social media.

16. Vanishing Seattle.

Final Project

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Final Presentation

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Site

South Lake Union District Amazon Main Campus

Seattle, Washington, USA 47Â° 37' N 122Â° 20' W

amazon port 99

amazon oscar

amazon doppler

amazon alexandra amazon kumo

amazon coral

amazon blackfoot

amazon roxanne

amazon houston

amazon varzea

amazon arizona amazon low flying hawk amazon mayday

amazon ruby

amazon galaxy

amazon houdini amazon otter

amazon dawson

amazon day 1 amazon invictus amazon apollo

amazon cricket

amazon sea19

amazon van vorst amazon rufus

amazon gatsby

amazon obidos amazon stackhouse

amazon brazil amazon amelia amazon wainwright

amazon prime

amazonoccupied buildings

amazon fiona

amazon nessie amazon bigfoot

amazon delight

privately surveilled & maintained public spaces

designated privately owned public spaces

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Analysis of Capitalist Spaces

uniformity of individuals

materials representing a specific brand or aesthetic

repetition of brands example C repetition of brands repetition of brands

example D

example A

appropriation of once-radical urban ideas

repetition of brands example B

materials representing a specific brand or aesthetic

scales of built space at odds with occupants

extreme maintenance or sterility fences and physical barriers highly supervised public spaces

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Analysis of Capitalist Spaces

scale of built space at odds with occupants fences and physical barriers

locked doors

repetition of brands extreme setbacks or divisions between sidewalks and occupiable spaces

proliferation of high-budget distractions

appropriation of once-radical urban ideas

vegan snacks $18

uniformity of individuals

extreme maintenance or sterility

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Intervention Toolkit: Nets

Tubular Webbing Cargo-Strength Elastic Netting

Reinforced Tubular Webbing

Pressed Metal Crimp

Cargo-Strength Elastic Netting

100

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Intervention Toolkit: Net Tensioning

3 line lock

Rappelling O-Ring

Carabiners

O-Ring

Carabiners

Tubular Webbing Carabiners

Simple Pulley System

101

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Intervention Toolkit: Inflatables

mesh-woven vinyl rolls

air valve

the handles double as connection points: link with carabiners to help them hold form

webbing handles

vinyl tape parchment paper

102

portable air blower

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Intervention Toolkit: Ways to Transport Supplies

figure-eight knot fold the nets, roll the webbing

stack

roll

carry your attachment tools for easy access

spare carabiners chocks gear sling slings climbing harness

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Intervention Toolkit: Systems to Attach to Buildings

pitons

Attach below masonry or pound into concrete foundations to provide ground-level support. independent slings

chocks

anchor slings

fifi hooks Insert into small, sturdy cracks in facades or foundations - pound with a hammer if necessary.

104

Ideal for exposed columns or larger facade elements. use at two or three points for maximum stability.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Intervention Toolkit: Inflatable Installation

Partially inflate your vinyl tubes, so that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still flexible and easy to manipulate.

will disenchantment turn into a revolt?

3 Fully inflate the tubes so that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re stiff and sturdy. Experiment with combining multiple inflatables so they accumulate.

Park your vehicle so that it blocks one end of the road.

sc re ec h

Fold the inflatables dynamically, linking them together in convoluted shapes with webbing bands.

Unroll the inflatables and lay them flat on the street.

4 power to the imagination!

it is the inhabitant who invents the city !

105

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Intervention Toolkit: Team Members

sous les paves, la plage !

The lead climber places anchors and connects half of the ends of the net to the buildings on one side of the street.

The second climber picks up the remaining loose ends of the nets, tensioning them along buildings opposite the rest of the net. la beaute est dans la rue !

The anchor person ensures that all inflatables and ground attachments are tightly fixed.

put energy into a system you believe in !

The runner keeps watch for potential interference and refills supplies to climbers by pulley.

change your surroundings and you change yourself !

106

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Intervention Toolkit: Net Installation

When you’re done, affix your line to a stable high point and rappel down.

Leave a few loose ends dangling, for the second climber and people on the ground to attach from the opposite side.

Whenever you can stop stably, unfurl part of the net, attaching the loose end to the building.

Use your toolkit, wedging or wrapping hooks to back up your rope in case of a slip.

If there’s an easy route up, take it. no need to use ropes. Otherwise, step into your harness. “On belay?” Leave your hooks in place. Document your route so someone else will follow.

Gear up your lead climber. Wait until no one’s looking, then vault over any barriers to get into the site.

107

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Breaking Spatial and Social Norms in Play Environments

vivre sa vie!

fall in love, not in line !

108

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

ne travaillez jamais!

down with spectaclecommodity society!

expect anything !

fear nothing !

109

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Breaking Spatial and Social Norms in Play Environments

boredom is counter-revolutionary

mostly I just drift.

be realistic, demand the impossible !

110

reification... whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your scene, man?

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

South Lake Union Plan Oblique, with an Array of Temporary Interventions

111

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Qualities of Play & Elements of the Carnivalesque

eccentric

performing

behavior

room for risk-taking

exploring

carnivalistic mesallianc e s

exploring

112

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

summitting

inhabiting

carousing

profanatio n

of the sacred

familiar & free interaction s

113

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Models

Before: Corporate Buildings as Monolith and Spectacle

114

During: The Urban Environment Perceived as Modifiable, Made of Parts

After: Renewed Sense of Potentiality and Sense of Ownership of the Streetscape

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115

Conclusion

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

We know that the built environment often manifests social and economic power imbalances. It can also also emphasize or worsen these imbalances. On the other hand, this works both ways: by addressing issues of power and the right to space as it manifests in the built environment - particularly in cities small but significant social change can occur. In a sea of empowered activists, artists, designers, and architects, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m interested in ways that architects can that tend towards entropy: a lack of predictability and gradual transition into disorder. In an endless regulated and restrictive system, sometimes thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good thing. Architects are trained to perceive, respond to, and - typically - replicate the existing conditions of the built environment. However, when architects concern themselves with such issues as economic inequality, apathy, and urban homogenity, they can start to hack these sorts of socially restrictive, apathetic environments. Rather than replicating existing conditions of space, they can use their skills and knowledge to interfere in and radically reinvent them.

117

Bibliography

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Annotated Bibliography Garrett, Bradley. Explore Everything: Place-Hacking The City. New York: Verso Books. 2013. This text is an academic analysis of the UrbEx movement, breaking down the complex politics of entering and exploring controlled space with a philosophical bent. Bradley Garrett describes the practice of Urban Exploration - essentially, (breaking and) entering private or infrastructural space, for the sake of it. In this text about the fascinating contemporary counterculture, Garrett proposes a radically different way of interpreting and occupying the city that disregards both social norms and physical barriers. With regards to this thesis, Explore Everything is a catalyst for deeper thought about the possibilities and breadth of architectural intervention in the city. While Garrett isn't an architect, he engages much architecture-adjacent philosophy, particularly as it pertains to ownership and access to space in cities. In addition, the stories of his explorations and the accompanying photos are a reminder of the immense number of underutilized urban spaces. Increasing the number of planes and spaces that people can potentially occupy (drainage systems, train tunnels, abandoned factories are all ignored planes), will necessarily increase the variety and possiblity of architectural intervention. Borden, Iain., and McCreery, Sandy. New Babylonians. Architectural Design v. 71, No. 3. Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2001. While graphically outdated, this issue of Wiley’s bimonthly AD publication incorporates the work of many architects and designers apply or interpret Constant’s work (particularly his New Babylon project) to a more contemporary context. The text has a collection of academic essays reflecting on the implications of the notion of “homo ludens” (“man at play”) today in addition to graphics and documentation of projects – some speculative, some built – that incorporate many of Constant’s utopian “Do it yourself ” ideologies and high-tech architectural logics in tech-based mostly digital environments. This resource provides examples of what Situationist ideologies look like when interpreted as architecture in the digital age at various scales. However, the content is also often annoyingly academic and overly complex. Because of this, it acts as an important reminder that many attempts at “inclusive” architecture are often frustratingly opaque, despite good intentions.

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Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. 1st Paperback ed. New York: Zone Books, 1995. A central philosophical text for the Situationist movement, this short book is Debord’s manifesto of sorts, describing the way that capitalist society is built around a series of performative “Spectacles” of the globalized corporate world. In Debord’s explicitly anti-capitalist critique of society, he draws on Marxist theory to talk about the alienation of individuals from urban social life, from work, and from critical thought. He proposes that a commitment to transparent intentions and a radical repurposing of these created images (“détournement”) can be a way to combat the apathy of capitalist society. Reading Debord provides a crucial political context for its era and movement and, therefore, for any successive design work pertaining to the Situationists. Though my thesis steps away from explicitly engaging the philosophy of this 1960s-centric movement directly, it remains important to consider these ideologies because they continue to be brought up by many other texts and artists referencing social practice art/design today. Holmes, Brian. "Do-It-Yourself Geopolitics: Cartographies of Art in the World." In Collectivism after Modernism: The Art of Social Imagination after 1945. University of Minnesota Press, 2007. This book contains a series of essays on various global artist collectives, their methods of working, and the philosophies that influenced their works. In this essay, Holmes looks at several artist collectives who were interested in using mapping and engaging public space as a form of art and, ultimately, activism. Part of the significance of this text is that they are framed as part of a much larger movement in which art and activism intermingled in student protests, punk music, zine culture, and social art. For the purposes of my thesis, this essay helps form conceptual links between art, urbanism, architecture, and sociology as applied to the use of design in public spaces. It also specifically politicizes the occupation of public space and provides historical context as to how socially engaged artists have turned collaboration with communities into an art form.

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Pérez De Arce, Rodrigo. City of Play: An Architectural and Urban History of Recreation and Leisure. London, UK: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018. This text applies a specifically spatial lens to the abstract notion of “play”. The author situates changing societal perceptions of play within an architectural timeline, from prehistory to modernism. He also draws connections between the works of philosophers, anthropologists, and psychologists who studied social human interaction and play, and their influence upon successive generations of architects and urban designers as play became "worthy" of academic study. The primary thesis of this text is that there are two different types of play, ludic and paideia, which have different social and built implications: the former is structured play, with rules and formal requirements, while the latter refers to creative, unstructured play. Both, De Arce reminds us, can be practiced by all humans – the isolation of different play functions by age is a construction of modernism. For my thesis, this text was very helpful when considering the possibilities for the activation and “re-communalizing” of moderist public space through play. I am especially fascinated by the urban implications of paideia play - people moving freely through the streets - and the way that design can encourage play across generations. However, while De Arce reinforces this as a topic of interest, he has limited conclusions as to what works, aside from "no design at all". To him, the most valuable play areas in a city are surprisingly the urban voids, that is to say empty and unprogrammed interstitial space. Sadler, Simon. The Situationist City. Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press, 1998. This text is the most comprehensive and well-known analysis of the architectural implications of the Situationist movement of the 1960s. Because the Situationists themselves produced little documentation of their work – especially little visual documentation – this book is fairly unique in that it compiles and documents many otherwise difficult-to-find theoretical architectural visuals. Sadler mostly turns his focus to psychogeography and Constant Nieuwenhuys’s ideas of “Unitary Urbanism”, which are directly related to the mapping and analysis of architecture and built urban fabrics. For my thesis, this text is helpful for providing a historical / philosophical context to the Situationist movement and early architectural responses - dreamedup modifiable superstructures, in general. It also highlights what seems to me a disconnect between this and the “context-centric” Situationist works of the 1960s: their writings focused on the ways that humans interact with and experience the city, while the dominant architectural interpretations of these actions: typically free-standing superstructures that resisted existing urban 122 context.

Kelsey Willis | Professor Graham Owen | ARCH-5990 | Spring 2019

Stavrides, Stavros. Common Space : The City as Commons. In Common (Zed Books). London: Zed Books, 2016. Stavrides, a designer as well as an activist himself, highlights methods with which a range of design-activist groups have reclaimed their urban environments through protest, art, housing settlements, and the sustenance of informal economies. To more clearly discuss these topics, he introduces the verb “commoning”, which conveniently and specifically refers to the intentional, radical act of creating public or communal spaces in order to facilitate social interaction. In this book, the architect is most often seen as the logistical mastermind for an existing political movement. In the context of my research, this book provides a much more recent and much more explicitly radical look at the way people reoccupy urban space, whether through direct action or other methods. It frames public space at the intersection of the political and desgn worlds, and casts the architect as someone with the capability to negotiate both realms in the service of communities, usually on a long-term organizing scale. Thompson, Nato. Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011. 1st ed. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge, Mass.: Creative Time; MIT Press, 2012. Particularly: Cruz, Teddy. “Democratizing Urbanization and the Search for a New Civic Imagination.” in Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art. This book is a compilation of many art and design projects from the last two decades that specifically exemplify the relatively new “socially engaged art” movement. What becomes clear when reading through the case studies and reflective essays (Cruz’s short piece is of one of said essays) is something crucial in architecture school as well - that there is no one singular way to engage “communities” in art practice, and that art (as the title suggests) is defined by its intentionality and humanity, not its product. What Cruz, an architect and architectural theorist, proposes in his essay, is that capitalism can be combatted by returning the creation of urban environments to its occupants, especially in underserved communities. In Cruz's practice as an architect, he is most known for his work designing rapidly constructible methods which which border communities can use available low-cost materials to alter and construct semi-permanent buildings. Rather than design for or at people, he essentially provides the building blocks for structures and a radical anti-nationalist political agenda to back up the production of the structures. In consideration of my thesis, this book provides precedent inspiration for ways that art can engage and support communities, especially considering public space as a venue for art actions. It also helps provide new examples for what “protest” and “activism” can look like as temporary actions and/or interventions in a built environment.

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Works Cited a2 Architects. “Granby Park.” http://www.a2.ie/portfolio/granby-park/. Accessed September 18 2018. Akademie Der Künste and University of Texas at Austin. School of Architecture, Sponsoring Body. Demo Polis : The Right to Public Space. Zurich, Switzerland]: Park Books, 2016. Al Jazeera. “Timeline: Egypt’s Revolution”. February 14 2011. www.aljazeera.com/news/middle east/2011/01/201112515334871490.html. Arkhitectur Sommer Rhein-Main. 2014. Osthang Project: Complete Program. http://raumlabor.net/wpcontent/uploads/2014/03/OP_Program_Complete_LowRes.pdf. Assemble Studio. “About - Assemble Studio.” Accessed October 12 2018. https://assemblestudio.co.uk/ about Augé, Marc. Non-places : Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. London ; New York: Verso, 1995. Aureli, Pier Vittorio. Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, The. MIT Press, 2011. Bakhtin, Michael. “Carnival and Carnivalesque”. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader. ed. Storey, John. 1998. Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Paris. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. 1965. Basurama. “RUS Lima, Self-Made Playground.” http://Basurama.org/en/projects/rus-lima-autoparquede-atracciones/. Basurama. “RUS Lima, Self-Made Playground.” http://Basurama.org/en/projects/rus-lima-autoparquede-atracciones/. Date unknown. Basurama. “RUS. Lima.” 2010. http://www.Basurama.org/b10_rus_lima.htm. Basurama. RUS: Residuos Urbanos Sólidos, Basura y Espacio público en Latinoamérica. Salamanca, Spain, Iberoprinter. 2011. Becker, Jochen., Zardini, Mirko, Borasi, Giovanna, Centre Canadien D’architecture. Actions : What You Can Do with the City. Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture : SUN, 2008. Belogolovski, Vladimir. Archdaily. “Interview with Yona Friedman”. January 27, 2016. www.archdaily. com/781065/interview-with-yona-friedman-imagine-having-improvised-volumes-floating-in-space-likeballoons. Accessed September 8 2018. Benjamin, Walter, and Tiedemann, Rolf. The Arcades Project. Cambridge, Mass. ; London: Belknap Press, 1999. Bertelson, Jonas. “Emdrup Diaries”. 1946. Blauvelt, Andrew, Castillo, Greg, Author, Choi, Esther, Author, and Walker Art Center. Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2015. 124

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Bourdieu, Pierre. Translator: Nice, Richard. Distinctions: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. Bravo, David. “The Barley Field”. Public Space.org. https://www.publicspace.org/works/-/project/g362the-barley-field. 2012. Breton, André . Manifeste du Surréalisme. 1924. Brussels, Arthur Nielsen. The Guardian. “Activists promise largest climate civil disobedience ever at Paris summit; Thousands expected to take part in ‘red line’ blockades of Paris climate summit, after two weeks of colourful protests that have been dubbed ‘the Climate Games’.” 8 Oct. 2015. Burningman.org. “The Burning Man Timeline.” https://burningman.org/timeline/ Accessed 30 September 2018. Caillois, Roger, Trans. Barash, Meyer. Man, Play, and Games. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001. Campo, Daniel. The Accidental Playground: Brooklyn Waterfront Narratives of the Undesigned and Unplanned. New York: Empire State Editions, 2013. Canadian Centre for Architecture. 2008. “CCA Actions Exhibition - Tools for Actions.” cca.qc.ca. https:// www.cca.qc.ca/actions/. Cartier-Bresson, Henri. Seville. 1933. www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283312 Chance, Julia. “Connections Could be Made There”. New Babylonians. Architectural Design v. 71, No. 3. Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2001. Chin, Mel. “Bio - Mel Chin”. Accessed October 12 2018. http://melchin.org/oeuvre/mel-chin Choi, Esther. “Atmospheres of Institutional Critique: Haus-Rucker-Co’s Pneumatic Temporality.” Hippie Modernism: The Struggle For Utopia. Ed. Andrew Blauvelt. Minneapolis : Walker Art Center, 2015. Chombart De Lauwe, Paul Henry. Paris Et L’agglomération Parisienne. France. Centre D’études Sociologiques. Paris: Presses Universitaires De France, 1952. Chomsky, Noam. Occupy. London: Penguin Books, 2012. Cohen, Stephen. Seattle PI. “How Long Have You Been With Amazon?” March 16 2018. www.seattlepi. com/seattlenews/article/seattle-amazon-employee-identification-badge-12756024.php Cohen, Stephen. Seattle PI. “How Seattle changed after Amazon came to town”. September 22, 2017. https://www.seattlepi.com/business/tech/article/Seattle-before-and-after-Amazon-12181936.php Collectif etc. “Osthang Project.” http://www.collectifetc.com/realisation/osthang-project. “The Commons.” Gap Filler. https://gapfiller.org.nz/news/2014/the-commons/. 2014. “The Commons: Temporary Public Space, Christchurch.” Agile City. https://agile-city.com/agile-cityresearch/project-office-the-commons-in-christchurch-nz/. 125

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Constant. Haags Gemeetenmuseum. “New Babylon: A Nomadic Town”. The Hague, NL: 1974. Accessed http://www.notbored.org/new-babylon.html. ConstructLab. “About.” www.constructlab.net/about/ Cotton, Red. Gambit. “Second Line Sunday: Original New Orleans Lady & Men Buckjumpers Parade.” November 27, 2015. www.theadvocate.com/gambit/new_orleans/news/the_latest/article_898aa667-1ec85d7b-b613-ffd247413a3e.html Cox, Simon. “Anonymous, Hacktivism, and the Rise of the Cyber Protester.” BBC. November 26, 2012. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20446048. Cruz, Teddy and Forman, Fonna. Metropolis Magazine. “New Manifesto”. September 27, 2017. www. metropolismag.com/cities/teddy-cruz-fonna-forman-manifesto/. Cruz, Teddy. TED Blog. “The informal as inspiration for rethinking urban spaces: architect Teddy Cruz shares 5 projects.” https://blog.ted.com/architect-teddy-cruz-shares-5-projects. February 5, 2014. Day, Matt. The Seattle Times. “Ten Years Ago, Amazon Changed Seattle, Announcing Its Move to South Lake Union.” December 21, 2017. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/ten-years-agoamazon-changed-seattle-announcing-its-move-to-south-lake-union/. Debord, Guy. “A User’s Guide to Détournement”. Les Lèvres Nues No. 8. 1956. Debord, Guy. Report on the Construction of Spectacles. 1957. Accessed https://www.cddc.vt.edu/ sionline/si/report.html Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone Books, 1995. Originally published 1967. Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency. “Oush Grab Diary”. Feburary 28 2010. www.decolonizing.ps/ site/diary-oush-grab/. DiMari, Anthony. Conditional Design: An Introduction to Elemental Architecture. Amsterdam, Netherlands: BIS Publishers, 2014. “Displacement Stops Here.” Facebook. www.facebook.com/displacementstopshere Divisare. “Basurama: RUS Lima: Autoparque de Diversiones Publico.” 19 March 2012. https://divisare. com/projects/193825-basurama-rus-lima-autoparque-de-diversiones-publico. “El Campo”. Mas Context. http://www.mascontext.com/tag/el-campo-de-cebada/ reference 1. El Campo de Cebada. Plataforma Arquitectura. https://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/cl/02-281490/elcampo-de-cebada-la-ciudad-situada. July 25 2013. Elleh, Nnamdi. Reading the Architecture of the Underprivileged Classes: A Perspective on the Protests and Upheavals in Our Cities. Farnham, Surrey ; Burlington: Ashgate, 2014. Evans, Kevin, Galbraith, Carrie, and Law, John , ed. Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society. San 126

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Francisco: Last Gasp Publishing, 2013. Exyzt Architects. “Manifesto”. 2018. http://www.exyzt.org/be-utopian/. Finkelpearl, Tom. “Social Vision and a Cooperative Community: Project Row Houses”. From What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013. Foucault, Michel. Security, Territory, Population : Lectures at the Collège De France, 1977-78. Basingstoke: New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2007. “Gap Filler NZ - Pallet Pavilion”.Creative Spaces. http://www.creativespaces.net.au/case-studies/gap-fillernz-pallet-pavilion. 2018. Garbacik, Jaimee and Powell, Josh. Ghosts of Seattle Past. Seattle, Chin Music Press. 2017. Garrett, Bradley L. Explore Everything : Place-hacking the City. London: Verso, 2013. Gehl, Jan. Life between Buildings : Using Public Space. 6th Ed. Danish Architectural Press, 2010. Graham Foundation. “GF: Exhibitions: Actions: What You Can Do With The City.” grahamfoundation. org. 2008. www.grahamfoundation.org/public_exhibitions/253-actions-what-you-can-do-with-the-city. Gudell, Svenja. Forbes. “What Amazon’s Growth Has Meant for Seattle.” January 19, 2018. Hardin, Garrett. “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Science. 1968. Harvey, David. “The Right to the City.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27, no. 4. 2003. Hehl, Rainer. ETH Zurich & MAS. “Spaces of Commoning: Rio de Janeiro & Tokyo”. www.constellations. arcenreve.com/spaces-of-commoning/ Higgins, Kevin. Patch Brockton. July 11 2017. “Your Tax Dollars are Paying for Gentrification”. patch. com/massachusetts/brockton/your-tax-dollars-are-paying-gentrification-brockton-next Hilaire, Eric. The Guardian. “Thousands Defy Paris Protest Ban”. December 10 2015. https://www. theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2015/dec/10/thousands-defy-paris-protest-ban-call-climateaction-in-pictures Hoidn, Barbara. Akademie Der Künste and University of Texas at Austin. Demo Polis : The Right to Public Space. Zurich, Switzerland: Park Books, 2016. Hoodmaps.com. “Seattle”. hoodmaps.com. Last modified November 20 2018. HUD. “The 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.” Hugo, Victor. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 1833. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1957 edition. Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Netherlands, US. 1955. Informalism. “Estudio Teddy Cruz: Manufactured Sites.” http://informalism.blogspot.com/2008/11/ 127

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estudio-teddy-cruz-manufactured-sites.html. November 2008. Isaacs, Ken. How to Build Your Own Living Structures. New York, NY. Harmony Books / Crown Publishers. 1974. Jacobs, Harrison. Business Insider. “Amazon is holding Seattle hostage over a tax plan - and it shows how dangerous it is for Seattle and HQ2 to let the tech giant determine their future.” May 3, 2018. www. businessinsider.com/amazon-hq-photo-tour-seattle-make-any-city-wary-of-amazon-hq2-2017-12. Jacobs, Harrison. Business Insider. “The creepiest part of my walk through ‘Amazonia’ in Seattle.” January 10, 2018. https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-seattle-security-guards-film-media-near-hq-2018-1 Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. Jacobsen, Jeff. “We Are Legion: Anonymous and the War on Scientology”. 2008. http://www. lisamcpherson.org/pc.htm Jordan, John. Beautiful Trouble. “Case Study: Reclaim the Streets”. Accessed October 12 2018. http:// beautifultrouble.org/case/reclaim-the-streets/ Jorgensen, Darren and Wilson, Laetitia. InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture. “The Utopian Failure of Constant’s New Babylon”. November 28 2017. https://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/the-utopianfailure-of-constants-new-babylon/. Kahn, Lloyd. Domebook One, 1970. Kahn, Lloyd. Domebook Two. Bolinas, CA. Pacific Domes and Random House. 1971. Klingle, Matthew. Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle. Yale University Press: January 2009. Kochhar-Lindgren, Kanta. The Exquisite Corpse: Chance and Collaboration in Surrealism’s Parlor Game. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009. Kozlovsky, Roy. “The Junk Playground: Creative Destruction as Antidote to Delinquency.” Labofii. “Action-Adventure Game Lab for Climate Justice.” May 28 2015. labofii.wordpress.com. https:// labofii.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/action-adventure-game-lab-for-climate-justice-berlin-june-26th-tojuly-2nd. Accessed September 29, 2018. Lakides, Nicholas., Bavo, and Jan Van Eyck Akademie. Urban Politics Now: Re-imagining Democracy in the Neoliberal City. New York, NY: Ai Publishers; 2007 Larrivee, Shaina. “Playscapes: Isamu Noguchi’s Designs for Play.” « Les Affiches Pendant Mai 68 » Les Murs Ont La Parole. 2014. https://mai1968tpe.wordpress.com/i-quipourquoi-comment-en-cours/ Levy, Steven. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. O’Reilly Media. 2010. 128

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Limbach, Elizabeth. The Atlantic. “The Wonderful Weird Economics of Burning Man.” The Atlantic.com, 18 August 2014. Madanipour, Ali. Cities in Time: Temporary Urbanism and the Future of the City. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. Malaby, Thomas. “These Great Urbanist Games:: New Babylon and Second Life.” In Beyond Globalization: Making New Worlds in Media, Art, and Social Practices, 72. New Brunswick; New Jersey; London: Rutgers University Press, 2011. Marchese, Kieron. Designboom. “The Most Amazing Photos Taken at Burning Man 2018.” September 4 2018. https://www.designboom.com/design/amazing-photos-burning-man-2018/. Markusen, Ann and Gadwa, Anne. The Mayor’s Institute on City Design. “Creative Placemaking”. Washington, DC, 2010. Marshall, Aarian. Citylab. “A Guide to Legal Loitering”. September 23, 2014. The Atlantic Media. https:// www.citylab.com/life/2014/09/a-guide-to-legal-loitering/380615/ Misra, Tanvi. Risky Playgrounds are Making A Comeback. CityLab. https://www.citylab.com/ life/2018/08/can-risky-playgrounds-take-over-the-world/565964/. August 22, 2018. MIT. “IHTFP Hack Gallery”. http://hacks.mit.edu/. Last updated December 12, 2018. MoMA Digital Collection. “Teddy Cruz. Manufactured Sites.” https://www.moma.org/collection/ works/113261. 2005. MoMA. “Access to Tools: Publications from the Whole Earth Catalog, 1968-1974.” 2011. Accessed 30 September 2018. https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/AccesstoTools/. Mudede, Charles. The Stranger. “Anyonymous Group SDOTransformation Challenges the Car Power of SDOT.” October 10 2017. www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/10/10/25461925/anonymous-groupsdotransformation-challenges-the-car-power-of-sdot Nagel, Kiara L, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies Planning. “Understanding Place after Katrina: Predatory Planning and Cultural Resistance in New Orleans Tremé Neighborhood”. 2006. NBBJ.. “Amazon in the Regrade.” NBBJ.com. 2018. www.nbbj.com/work/amazon/ Norton, Quinn. “Anonymous 101: Introduction to the Lulz”. Wired. November 8, 2011. https://www. wired.com/2011/11/anonymous-101/. November 2016. https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2016-AHAR-Part-1.pdf O’Connell, Jonathan. Chicago Tribune. “In Some small towns, strip malls can’t die fast enough.” May 17 129

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2016. www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-strip-malls-20160517-story.html OHA Osthang. “OHA Osthang.” Accessed 30 September 2018. http://oha-osthang.de/. Oudenampsen, Merijn. MO Blog. “Aldo Van Eyck and the City as Playground”. March 27, 2013. https:// merijnoudenampsen.org/2013/03/27/aldo-van-eyck-and-the-city-as-playground/ Pamuk, Orhan, and Freely, Maureen. Istanbul : Memories and the City. 1st American ed. New York: Knopf, 2005. Kohlman, Janine. Haus Rucker: Gelbes Herz. Pencell Gallery. http://www.penccil.com/gallery. php?p=266138305272#. Pérez De Arce, Rodrigo. City of Play: An Architectural and Urban History of Recreation and Leisure. London, UK: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2018. Popp, Maximilian. Spiegel Online. “Revisiting Turkey’s Failed Coup Attempt”. July 6, 2017. http://www. spiegel.de/international/world/turkey-coup-a-chronology-of-events-a-1155762.html Prenis, John. The Dome Builder’s Handbook. Philadelphia, PA. Running Press. 1973. Public Art Dialogue. 2011. Raumlabor. “Raumlabor Osthang Project: Summer School.” Accessed 28 September 2018. http:// raumlabor.net/osthang-project/. Raumlabor. Art City Lab. Neue Räume für die Kunst. Berlin: Jovis, 2018. raumlaborberlin. “Building The City Together - Book”. 2015. raumlabor.net/building-the-city-togetherbook/ Rogers, Eric Wycoff. “A Theory of Urban Hacking”. 2015. http://ericwycoffrogers.com/ writings/2015/9/16/a-theory-of-urban-hacking “Restart, the Shipping Container Mall in New Zealand”. LivInSpaces. April 26, 2016. livinspaces.net/lstv/11158/ Rudolfsky, Bernard. Architecture Without Architects. University of New Mexico Press: 1964. Sadler, Simon. The Situationist City. Cambridge, Mass. ; London: MIT Press, 1998. Seal, Bobby. Psychogeographic Review. “Baudelaire, Benjamin, and the Birth of the Flaneur”. November 14 2013. www.psychogeographicreview.com/baudelaire-benjamin-and-the-birth-of-the-flaneur/. Accessed September 8 2018. Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Seattle.gov. “P-Patch Community Gardening”. www.seattle.gov/ neighborhoods/programs-and-services/p-patch-community-gardening. Seattle Parks and Recreation. “Cascade Playground”. Seattle.gov. www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/ cascade-playground. 130

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UnManuel-and_fig1_280947169 Vanishing Seattle. “#Vanishing Seattle”. 2016. www.vanishingseattle.org Vinh, Tan. Seattle Times. “Amazon’s Booming South Lake Union Still Awaiting Its Dinner Crowd.” August 23, 2017. Wagner, Kate. Common Edge. “Architecture, Aesthetic Moralism, and the Crisis of Urban Housing”. April 17 2018. commonedge.org/architecture-aesthetic-moralism-and-the-crisis-of-urban-housing/?utm_ medium=website&utm_source=archdaily.com. Welcome to my meme page. June 9, 2018. www.instagram.com/p/Bj0vfZuFKbz/. Wigley, Mark. “The Great Urbanism Game”. New Babylonians. Architectural Design v. 71, No. 3. Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2001. Wikipedia.org. “Hacker Culture”. Last edit March 4 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture. Wikipedia.org. “Seattle Freeze.” Last edit September 8 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze. Wikipedia.org. “List of Amazon Locations”. 21 November 2018. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon_ locations. Žižek, Slavoj. In Defense of Lost Causes. London ; New York: Verso, 2008.

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thanks!