CONOMAD: A New Architecture by Rachel Marie Frail

Master of Architecture, Arizona State University Co-Chairs Prof Olivier Vallerand & Prof Max Underwood Spring 2021

RACHEL MARIE FRAIL

CONO MA D

A N E W A RC H I T EC T U R E

DE S IG NE R' S NOTE

The modern, vehicle-dwelling nomad comes in many forms. Some are forced into the lifestyle through economic and social circumstances. But there are the few who use the vehicle-dwelling lifestyle as a way to capitalize on their greatest asset – time – in order to pursue entrepreneurial interests and build a life of passion. These people are eliminating their highest expense in order to have the freedom to build a better life for themselves. They are effectively paving the way for a new American dream, one that rejects materialism and consumerism in favor of autonomy. Too often these individuals are misunderstood and marginalized. They are confused with the homeless, the migrant workers, and the snowbirds that also populate the roads. But they are driven to this alternative lifestyle not by misfortune, but instead by ingenuity and the drive to build a different life. A life founded on choice rather than obligation. These nomads are independent, resilient, and empowered individuals. I hope this project assists in celebrating the resourcefulness and creativity of this growing community and brings awareness to this alternative path. May all those who live on the road now and in the future find everything they are chasing.

RACHEL M AR I E FR A I L

ISSUE

Portrait by Amanda Ahlman March, 2019

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RACHEL MARIE

ABSTRACT The modern world is rapidly changing physically, socially, and economically. We see lifestyle and employment shifting as a response to technological developments and the Covid-19 pandemic, an ongoing affordable housing crisis fueled by the consolidation of the nation’s wealth, and a mounting student debt crisis which threatens to prevent younger generations from reaching the financial milestones of adulthood. These conditions have resulted in the perfect storm that can be resolved only by drastically and irreversibly changing the way people live – and in many cases, survive. And many individuals are embracing just that: a frugal lifestyle that capitalizes on time. Strapped with debt and discouraged by the stagnant wages of the current corporate structure, these individuals are taking to the road, living in vehicles to minimize their housing expenses, and using their time to build online businesses. This is happening all over the world, fueled by a shift of values and social change, which are emergent, self-correcting, self-regulating, and empowered by instant communications and internet connectivity. This research will seek to answer the question of how the United States can support the changing culture by providing community-based and nomad-adaptable resources in a range of existing vehicle-dwelling environments including natural BLM land and suburban parking lots. Moreover, the applied project seeks to explore spaces for which vehicle-dwellers can physically plug into their current context in order to strengthen the existing social network of this emerging culture.

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C ONTE NT

INTRODUCTION 8 ABRIDGED LITERATURE REVIEW

USER ANALYSIS

A PROPOSED SOLUTION

BELLEVUE POP-UP

COTTONWOOD TRAILHEAD

CONCLUDING STATEMENT

REFERENCES 78

CONOMAD: A NEW ARCHITECTURE RACHEL MARIE FRAIL ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY CO-CHAIRS PROF OLIVIER VALLERAND & PROF MAX UNDERWOOD SPRING 2021

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A N E W G E N E R AT I O N O F A LT E R N AT I V E L I V I N G INTRODUCTION

How can architecture assist in providing for the underserved physical and psychological needs of the existing vehicle-dwelling, nomadic community? And how can this discipline assist in growing the movement by providing stability and organic community connections between vehicle dwellers? PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION The devastating economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to light the social and economic injustice embedded in the United States. Prior to the onslaught of the pandemic stay-at-home orders, the US saw homeownership decline 10 percent among households in the bottom quintile between 1986 and 2016; at the same time, the average percentage of income households spent on rental expenses rose from 28% in 1960 to 42% in 2016.

In 2020, the percentage of average household income being allocated toward rental expenses continues to rise with the price of real estate leaving families with very little income to pay for the basic necessities of food, utilities, medical care, and transportation. Therefore, solutions are needed to provide a low-cost, adaptable alternative to the current housing market in order to account for the economic and social landscape of the United States and provide social mobility through empowerment of choice. Fortunately, without access to truly affordable housing options,

individuals are taking to voluntary, preemptive vehicle-dwelling as a way to pull themselves out of debt and strategically leverage their financial present to invest in their financial future. The movement of individuals living in their vehicles continues to rapidly grow following the Coronavirus pandemic as seen through social media accounts and public interest. The New York Times reports, “dozens of new companies are popping up to rent or sell retrofitted sleeper vans, some now with yearlong wait-lists.” The problem becomes the resources these individuals will require on the road to sustain their nomadic lifestyle including the physical infrastructure and social systems. Often relying on public spaces, commercial gyms, and coffee shops, the nomadic community found themselves without essential resources during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Individuals were forced to shelter in place with friends and family or found themselves retreating into traditional apartment living dipping into their savings. The lack of consolidated and specified

services for these individuals became a major issue as their public spaces, commercial gyms, and coffee shops were deemed unessential during the pandemic restrictions despite providing essential services to vehicle dwellers. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The research and proposal here within seek to address the following questions (1) How can architecture assist in providing for the underserved physical and psychological needs of the existing vehicle-dwelling, nomadic community? (2) How can this discipline assist in growing the movement by providing stability and organic community connections between vehicle dwellers? The underlying issues in these questions include underserved needs pertaining to sanitation services, food services, health services, and coworking and/ or makerspace. These questions seek to explore ways of supporting the vehicle-dwelling community by embracing their chosen lifestyle in the overall design strategy and celebrating the ingenuity of these individuals.

ISSUE

SIGNIFICANCE Housing must adapt to the physically changing environment by remaining as flexible and as mobile as possible; moreover, the population must continue to adapt to the economic environment in a similar way. Coupled with the advancement of technology and an evolving workforce, lack of affordable housing and increasing levels of student debt fuels the potential for a nomadic revolution, where people regain agency through the power of choice.

Vehicle dwelling offers individuals the financial agency to determine when and where to spend their income regardless of inflated rental rates. The importance of acknowledging the cultural shift in values of these individuals and supporting vehicledwellers, who are using their ingenuity to work within the capitalistic system, remains of upmost importance in providing relevant facilities for the modern world. Moreover, the need to connect these individuals becomes vital in order to strengthen the community of vehicle dwellers and facilitate peerto-peer learning in an effort to keep these individuals on the road longer in order to achieve their financial goals.

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Nomadism begins to address the interiority of the landscape, the interiority of the built environment, and the interiority of self as the definition of the ‘home’ transforms to meet the demands of the ever-changing landscape. The potential for lower expenses and simplified lifestyles could break middle-class households free from the chains of debt and mounting living expenses; moreover, this model of living could make basic survival possible for those failing to meet their financial needs in the lower-class.

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T H E R E T U R N TO NOMADISM ABRIDGED LITERATURE REVIEW

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF NOMADISM IN THE US Property ownership in the United States was and continues to be part of the American dream. Historically, the manifestation of the home existed as a, “means of gaining access, belonging, inclusions and power” However, at the turn of the 20th century a counterculture emerged to rebel against the notion of the home as a means of stability in favor of a life untethered. Largely comprised of white males, hobohemia emerged introducing new, “rules of membership, codes of behavior, and shared values of the good life.” Rejecting traditional male roles and the stereotypical nuclear family, members of this counterculture often worked odd-jobs and assisted in fueling the industrial and agricultural sectors when working before moving on. These individuals were often criticized in society as lazy and incompetent as many viewed homelessness as a failure instead of

as a lifestyle choice. This emerging counterculture or “hippie movement” placed little value on material possessions and valued adventure. They were typically made up of young, college-aged individuals who sought an alternative to consumerism and the dominant culture. By the 1980s, conservative views began to blame homelessness on the response to this change in ideals citing the alternative lifestyle promoted, “countercultural habits and values such as laziness, irresponsibility, criminality, and the rejection of family life.” These reaction to the hippie movement and vehicle dwelling are believed to be largely misunderstood by conservative opinions; moreover, the predominating opinion of nomadic individuals associated vehicledwelling with homelessness which are not always corresponding conditions. In the 21st century, this perception of the modern nomad continues to be characterized as a form of

homelessness; however, these individuals choosing to travel selfidentify as “house-less” by choice. The continued misperception and criminalization against vehicledwelling individuals persists; however, social media has glamorized and popularized the lifestyle which has caused the vehicle-dwelling community to grow in recent years. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO RECENT VEHICLE-DWELLING POPULATION GROWTH The world is changing physically, socially, and economically at an alarming pace. Many factors are causing these drastic shifts in the United States; however, three factors are overwhelmingly evident: the consolidation of wealth further devastating the affordability of housing market, lifestyle and employment shifts as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the rise of student debt and awakening to employment volatility. Each of these factors will continue to produce a

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shift in lifestyles and values of the American public presenting the notion that more individuals will choose to live nomadically in the next century in order to save for their financial future or build small businesses.

(1) WEALTH DISTRIBUTION & THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CRISIS Wealth distribution in the United States continues to consolidate in the favor of the wealthy with each passing year. To demonstrate the rapid rate of wealth consolidation in the United States during the second half of the 20th century, the Congressional Research Service provides the following: “The top fifth’s share of total household income rose

from 42.6% in 1968 to 51.1% in 2011; the top 5%’s share rose from 16.3% to 22.3%.” Moreover, in 2019, American Economic Review reported 33.6 percent of all wealth in the nation was held by the top 1 percent of the richest households. This extreme concentration of wealth is creating a two-class society: the haves and the have-nots. Coupled with crippling student loan debt and stagnate wages, Americans are struggling to pay for the basic necessities of food, utilities, and housing. Luke Petach from Belmont University found, “the share of monthly income spent on rent increased from 28% in 1960 to over

42% in 2016.” This substantial jump in the expense of housing as percentage of income prevents many households from eliminating debts, saving for retirement, and paying their day-today living expenses (2) LIFESTYLE & EMPLOYMENT SHIFTS AS A RESULT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Since the boom of the 1990s, technology has been empowereing individuals to break free from the traditional nine-five employment model and chart their own path through free agency. In 2001, Daniel H. Pink argued the economy was shifting to a free-agent system, moving away from corporations and traditional

employment that marked the second half of the 20th century. Moreover, the “gig economy” continues to boom among the millennial generation as people seek independence and flexible work schedules to meet the demands of their professional and personal lives. Even within traditional employment, the Covid-19 pandemic showed many corporations that work-from-home models are possible with existing technology. Donnelly and ProctorThomson noted, “Disasters disrupt the nature of work, creating a culture of ambiguity with shifting priories for individuals, organizations and their wider communities. Operating within

subsequent uncertain environments promotes a reassessment of the spatial configuration of work and the adoption of new ways of working.”

pandemic assisted in revealing more of this systematic injustice through the impact of the economic shutdown.

Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed many lifestyle hardships occurring in American society and exacerbated many of the systematic issues fueled by distorted capitalism and social inequality. Existing trends were made clear by the economic shut-down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The workforce inequality has been exacerbated between social classes, races, nationality, sexual orientation, familial status, and age. Discrimination is and has been alive and well in the United States, and the

The COVID-19 pandemic brought these workforce inequalities into the spotlight, and this critical look at traditional working conditions may inspire many young entrepreneurs to break off and start their own business ventures as a way of building more flexible and autonomous lives. The taste of this experience gained through the pandemic lockdowns has and will continue to inspire young workers to take more professional risks in the future in order to build lives that best align with their values.

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(3) RISE OF STUDENT DEBT & THE ACADEMIC AWAKENING During the COVID-19 pandemic, university students transitioned to remote learning in March 2020 with all classes deployed on an online platform. Although there were deficiencies in the education provided, the model proved education can be offered at a far more flexible and cost-effective rate. However, tuition did not decrease for most students throughout the remote learning provided during the pandemic which has begun to produce a riptide between students and the administration. Universities have grown into massive institutions and the cost of an education has skyrocketed. An article from the 1989 New York Times archive announced 5-9% tuition increases for four-year public colleges bringing the cost of tuition to $1,694 for the 19891990 academic year; meanwhile, the average cost of tuition in 2020 for a four-year, in-state public university, following an average 4% tuition decrease for pandemic-associated discounts, remains $9,687. After adjusting for 2.47% annual inflation over the last 30 years, tuition in 2020 is nearly three times the cost of tuition in 1989. Moreover, the value of formal education may begin to sway following the wake of the pandemic, as students saw how quickly employment can shift and the lack of loyalty towards employees witnessed during the pandemic panic. The result of these observations may push many young students out of academics and into low-priced online learning platforms that teach specific technical skills needed to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. However, despite the new revelations pertaining to formal education, the overall impact of the student loan

crisis has yet to be fully realized. The millennial generation have entered their home-buying years, and many are currently unable to purchase due to the debt from their higher education. Moreover, universities are completely uninvested in the financial return of their students, which causes a massive influx of students being admitted into popular degrees without the job market to support those new hires. The result becomes a generation of educated individuals who are essentially unemployable. 21st CENTURY NOMADS IN THE UNITED STATES There are three distinct nomadic movements booming during the COVID-19 pandemic: the vanlife movement, digital nomads, and RV living. These types of nomads were determined based on the amount of media coverage made on each of these groups of individuals from April 2020 to March 2021. Overall, each sector has seen drastic growth as a result of shifting values of the American people, and that growth is predicted to continue into the foreseeable future. VANLIFE MOVEMENT #VanLife is, “a one-world life-style signifier that has come to evoke a number of contemporary tends: a renewed interest in the American road trip, a culture of hippie-inflected outdoorsiness, and a life free from the tyranny of a nine-to-five office job.” The movement began in 2011 when Foster Huntington documented his adventurous lifestyle as a photographer living in a 1987 Volkswagen van on the social media platform, Instagram; Huntington coined the hashtag #vanlife as a opposition to rapper Tupac’s “Thug Life”, often associated with glamor and materialism.

Stemming from a popularization of the hashtag, vanlife has become a popular trend and aspiration among many young adults in the United States. The social media movement gained traction among adults impacted by the 2008 recession, a time when recent college graduates and young workers saw the disillusion of the American dream while they were entering a hostile job market. The hashtag #vanlife became an, “attempt to aestheticize and romanticize the precariousness of contemporary life.” The values of young Americans shifted with the poor economic circumstances following the recession: why work a 9-5 job that won’t even pay the bills? From a series of interviews performed by Jessica Bergstrom at University of Maine, research found vanlifers define #vanlife as making, “your passion your lifestyle,” and the movement was found to include people choosing to cultivate the lifestyle associated with the movement rather than as an organized group of individuals. The movement of van living extends beyond the changing of physical domestic space and completely alters all aspects of live. Those participating in the lifestyle need to adjust to new ways of cooking, cleaning, how they associate with material culture, lesssecure work models, and less privacy. Because of the depth of lifestyle changes the movement requires, “the movement can be thought of as more of a long-standing culture rather than just a temporary trend.” Van living remains far cheaper than the increasing cost of traditional housing, but it is not without costs. Rachel Monroe, a reporter for New Yorker, found individuals living on the road in 2017 participated in various types of paid work including remote tech positions, social media marketing, food services, writers on book tours,

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musicians, and temporary handywork. Many of these professionals are traditional in nature, but being carried out in nontraditional ways through gig work and free agency. Corporations are beginning to rethink the way young Americans will choose to live in the future. Nomadism continues to rise in popularity among millennials as, “45.4% of millennials in 2017 reported that they had lived in their current space for under two years, a rise from 33.8% in 1960.” With the rise in nomadic lifestyles as a result of the pandemic, companies are quickly finding ways to turn the minimalist, low-budget lifestyle into a constant stream of cash. Prior to the pandemic in the fall of 2019, Cabana, a travel-tech startup began using vanlife as a model for boutique hotels offering campervans to vacationers for short-term rentals appealing to individuals romanticizing the #vanlife moment without the fulltime commitment. The impact of the pandemic created new demand for isolating while traveling, escaping the cities, and regaining agency over mobility and movement. Kibbo, a company focusing on capitalizing on the #VanLife movement through the creation of van-specific communities for fulltime digital nomads, attributes increasing housing costs, frequent relocation, an epidemic of loneliness, and a rise in remote work as a result of the pandemic to creating a viable market segment for van communities for young professionals.

DIGITAL NOMADS The term digital nomad was first coined in 1997 with the release of Makimoto and Manners book, Digital Nomad, where the authors explored the emergence in popularity of individuals who capitalized on the use of mobile technology. Since it’s introduction,

the term has encompassed the identity of the few who choose travel as a lifestyle. Digital nomads can be characterized as, “digital workers in the sense that their work primarily involves the manipulation of digital knowledge, and requires constant negotiation with digital services, protocols, and algorithms.” These individuals capitalize on the freedom of technology and remote work to travel continuously throughout the year while maintaining their own work schedule. The continued effect of globalization has resulted in cosmopolitanism, “the idea that human begins all belong to one global community, not just to particular local ones.” Therefore, the 21st century may be redirecting the definition of culture away from geographic definitions and toward shared values and lifestyles of individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds. For example, “contemporary nomads symbolize agency that can defy economic rationale and is informed by cultural motivations. Many have abandoned material conceptions of status in order to shape an alternative lifestyle which instead values autonomy, experience and self-expression.” As a result of these shared values, the culture of digital nomads manifests between individuals from various locations, “making social and cultural identities sustainable in a world where change is unpredictable.” The number of individual considering digital nomadism in 2019 offers insight as to how the community will grow in the future; “27% of traditional U.S. workers mentioned that they might become digital nomads in the next 2-3 years and 11% of them actually planned to be.” The acceleration of remote work as a response to the

Covid-19 pandemic indicate these numbers may climb faster than originally anticipated in 2019 and expand to include more individuals working for large organizations. Because digital nomads value their autonomy and flexibility, personal and professional freedom, the boundaries between work and life can often blur. While some individuals thrive with this holistic lifestyle, others seek ways to separate the two for improved work performance and/ or life enjoyment. This separation of functionality results in the needs for a home space and a working space. Additionally, a research study form Ohio State University found 76% of digital nomads interviewed for the study were experiencing feelings of loneliness while traveling. Therefore, a third space is required for the digital nomad: a space to socialize and build relationships informally. RV LIVING A large RV culture has persisted among many retirees in the United States allowing many individuals to retire early or in financial comfort despite saving small retirement nesteggs. This group of individuals have created an entire culture around RV living and “instant cities” pop up every year in southern states during the winter months full of RV full-time travelers seeking a warm spot to ride out the winter. One such city is Quartzite, Arizona. During the winter months, “authorities say the population mushrooms from 3,500 people to peak at around one million, as the seasonal migrants, or snowbirds, arrive in rumbling convoys of recreational vehicles, or RVs.” The increase of RV living participants can be seen in the growth of these gatherings over the last decade and

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CONCLUSION OF USER GROUPS This highly diverse group of individuals participating in the vanlife, digital nomad, or RV living culture explores new ways of living, moving, and working as they reimagine the traditional nomadic lifestyle in the modern world. They are not “down on their luck”; they are not homeless; and they are not the misfortunate. They are smart, calculated, and driven, highly educated individuals. They capitalize on their most valuable resource – time – in order to focus their energy on entrepreneurial ventures facilitated through the virtual world. They take advantage of social media platforms,

educated individuals."

not the misfortunate. They are smart, calculated, and driven, highly

online stores, and virtual networks to live their passions and design their dream careers. And they do so by living as frugally as possible to achieve freedom from the traditional nine-tofive structure. Vehicle dwelling becomes the easiest way to cut their most costly expense – housing. And they do so happily in order to live out their passions on their own terms and save their financial resources for other seasons of life. Vehicle dwelling may seem unappealing to some, and many in the mainstream public may find it difficult to understand this lifestyle as a choice and as a freedom, but this movement toward frugal living is attracting more and more members every day, and people – young and old – are living on the road to increase their overall quality of life.

"They are not “down on their luck”; they are not homeless; and they are

will continue to persist into the future. The RV lifestyle has also become more popular among younger generations due to the exposure to RV living through Youtube channels and social media. RV dwellers tend to be more conservative, in contrast to their van-dwelling, liberal counterparts. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a soar in recreational vehicle sales. The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association saw the, “North American RV sales rising 4.5% in 2020, to 424,400 units… The trade group went up a gear with its 2021 outlook, which calls for a 19.5% surge in unites sold, to 507,200. That would be the industry’s best year ever. The market is uncertain as to whether the industry boom will persist following the widespread distribution of the COVID vaccine.

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T H E V E H I C L E - DW E L L I N G NOMAD USER ANALYSIS

DEFINING USER NEEDS Through the growth of Vanlife and RV Living social media accounts and channels, one can quantify the publics’ fascination and longing for this nomadic lifestyle. People following these accounts are the checkout clerk at the local supermarket, the receptionist at the dentist’s office, and the next-door neighbor. These people are dreaming of rather attainable lives; however, the underserved needs of those living on the road are the reason for hesitation. In order to identify these needs, the project introduces two users as a means of representing a subsect of the nomadic population: Katie Carney & Novel Kulture. These users' stories are detailed on the following pages. While these two users are only a fraction of the broad nomadic community, they are representative of many common ideals shared by a diverse group of vehicle dwellers.

METHODOLOGY In order to better understand the users’ needs, I watched Youtube videos from each of the users to piece together their life story. In doing so, I watched hundreds of videos spanning across years of the users lives and was able to determine their approximate locations, frequency of their movement, fluctuations in their health (physical and mental), as well as their financial position. Other

social media platforms were used to fill time gaps including Facebook and Instagram. These user case studies provided valuable insight as to how the typical vehicle-dwelling nomad’s life fluctuates on the road over long periods of time, and the underlying motivations for living this alternative lifestyle. Overall, this process assisted in unearthing the value system of this emergent culture and the underserved needs of the community. Moreover, to better understand the daily hurdles and practices that comes with living in a vehicle, I renovated a cargo van and spent six weeks in the summer of 2020 traveling throughout the American West. This exercise assisted in understanding privacy, spatial and safety concerns, while also providing valuable insight into the logistics of frequent home relocation and parking restrictions. Together, these research techniques assisted in painting a comprehensive picture of life on the road for the modern American, vehicle-dwelling nomad. The research derived from such activities created the foundation for the applied project, which focused on a user-centered design process. Therefore, the users’ needs took precedence over all other design considerations.

KATIE CARNEY THE SOLO TRAVELER

atie Carney purchased her first vehicle, a Toyota Yaris, when she was 24 K years old, and she has always had a passion for being on the road. Her first time sleeping in her car was on a road trip from Nashville to New York, and she pulled over at a truck stop for the night saving herself $75 in hotel charges, so she just continued to do it. Her first experience living in her car was involuntary when she was 26. She found herself with nowhere to stay and no funds to rent an apartment when she was living in Portland, OR. She started her YouTube channel at this time to provide a resource and general humor to those living under similar circumstances. By the Fall of 2019, Katie had lived in her car part time for four years and full time for three years. She graduated with a college degree in 2008 with a degree in social science and a minor in special education, but her work since graduation has primarily consisted of editing, copywriting, and transcribing. For large periods of time, she has help full-time remote positions in customer service for online entrepreneurs, and in her younger years, she worked receptionist and service jobs in the cities she travelled to. Today, she has a large YouTube following where she can monetize the channel through product reviews and paid advertising, and she has hinted at authoring a book in the near future. She currently has over 208K followers on YouTube. atie does not stress financial reasons as her primary reason for living in her K car. She has a deep desire to be on the road and moving between spaces. She will travel to Austin for a few weeks, then Nashville for a month, then visit her parents for a month, then head to Bozeman. She returns to places where she has friends and family, church connections, and just a deep love of place. She enjoys being in her car and will complete her 8-hour workdays behind her computer inside her vehicle. She suffers from childhood trauma and mental illness, and she claims to have less anxiety on the road then when living a stagnate lifestyle. She became a Christian in January 2015.

he talks openly about not having many friends and feeling lonely. One can S see her mental health fluctuate throughout her life through her videos. Just before the pandemic, she rented an apartment in Charleston, NC close to her father as an experiment to see if it was time for her to end her nomadic travels. However, by March 2020, she was already planning to hit the road full-time again when the pandemic struck. She extended her lease for two months, and then in June 2020, she sold her furniture and packed her car. She headed to Nashville to ride out the rest of the pandemic with a close friend with a spare room. In July, she opened an Etsy shop as another form of income, and as of today, she is still hunkering down in Nashville. When she feels safe to get back on the road, she would like to head back to Montana or Utah. Katie’s values include traveling, agency, mental health, self-discovery, autonomy, nature, experiences, friends, and family.

Mapping Katie's Travels

NOVEL KULTURE TRAVELING COUPLE

Lovell and Paris began their #vanlife journey in 2017 when they decided to forgo their $2,300/month Los Angeles apartment and move into their cargo van full time. They are both marine veterans and primarily support themselves through the Post-911 GI Bill while attending undergraduate programs in San Francisco. They met in the marines when stationed in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and married in December 2014. At the time they moved into their van in 2017, Lovell and Paris were 23 and 24 years old, respectively. They travelled around the United States on school breaks, returned to San Francisco during their semesters, and sheltered with family in Indiana during the pandemic lockdowns. Lovell graduated his undergraduate studies in Dec 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Marketing. Paris continues to work on her degree in film studies. The two write a personal finance blog on their own experiences living in the van, paying of $50,000 in consumer debt, and starting new investment ventures. Their reason for living in the van was entirely financial. They were tired of living in poverty, paycheck-to-paycheck, and they wanted to be able to invest in real estate and build a financial portfolio. Travel was just a bonus. They also are very entrepreneurial. They have worked to create several businesses over the years, some of which have not worked out or projects were dropped to work on others. The flexibility of their time has allowed them to build their modest social media accounts and gain traction in the #blackvanlife community. They also promote safety strategies for POC living in vehicles to spread awareness on how to protect oneself when living on the road. Their long-term goal has always been able to build wealth to invest in real estate, and the two plans on eventually settling down and building a production company making narrative and documentary films. In 2020, they thought they might leave van living behind for good; however, they ended up purchasing a used Sprinter van, an upgrade from their current model, and recommitted to another 3-5 years on the road in order to hit their financial goals.

Their most recent income ventures have included vending machines and creating a collection of massage oils they sell through an independent website. Their YouTube channel is still young, but the two regularly post and have adjusted their content over the years to align with their own personal growth. Lovell and Paris have been very calculated in their travels. They make travel plans and timelines prior to departure due to the limitations of their school breaks and financial goals. However, with the pandemic leaving schools remote, the pair can now be far more nomadic than ever before once their new van is finished renovations. Novel Kulture’s values include quality time together, traveling, saving money, investing in their passions, education, financial literacy, educating others, physical fitness, agency, autonomy, and financial mobility.

Mapping Novel Kulture's Travels

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COMPARISON OF USERS The users are extremely different when evaluating their core values and their ‘why’ for living in a vehicle. Katie uses vehicle-living as a goal, and Novel Kulture uses vehicle-living as a catalyst toward their goals. Novel Kulture is working toward the American Dream of financial stability and prosperity, and Katie is more of a day-by-day nomad. However, she still works to build an online presence that assists in building her financial stability and streams of revenue. The users present different obstacles. Katie talks openly about being lonely, health issues, both physical and mental, whereas Novel Kulture discusses the black experience of police harassment and discrimination. Novel Kulture put a great deal of planning into their vehicle living. They built-out a cargo van investing in the comfort of vehicle dwelling. They also are strategic about where and when they travel. They always have a plan. Katie, however, did not make any modifications to her vehicle, and she rarely has a plan in mind when hitting the road. She prefers a small car for parking and gas mileage.

Moreover, prior to the pandemic, Novel Kulture was tied to San Francisco where they both physically attended a university. They have since transitioned to Indiana to ride out the pandemic. Katie does not have physical ties to place, so she travels freely when she is in good health. However, she also rode out the pandemic in one place – her friend’s apartment in Nashville, TN. Some similarities between the users are the resources they capitalize on.

They both use gyms as a means of showering regularly, and they both spend the majority of their time in towns/cities. They use social media and online resources to grow their online presence. Katie has branded herself as her business, and Lovell & Paris started Novel Kulture. They both use vehicle dwelling to save money; however, Katie is not nearly as frugal as Novel Kulture. They both travel quite often to spend long periods of time with family members and surf on family/friend’s couches when available. They both plan to continue the nomadic lifestyle when they feel safe to do so. A big similarity to note is neither groups are “camping”. They are not living in the wilderness for long stretches of time. They occasionally visit national parks, and Katie does appear to enjoy tent camping on occasion. Lovell and Paris are generally stealth camping, camping in public parking or street parking, in urban areas; and Katie often camps at truck stops and large Pilots. Both users seek community through their car-dwelling experiences. Katie seeks community through online dating apps in cities she frequents (pointing to the lack of resources for meeting others when traveling nomadically). Moreover, Lovell and Paris seek community through meetups and #blackvanlife. However, these meetups are infrequent, and they often try to connect to other POC living alternative lifestyles through their social media.

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BATHROOMS & SHOWERS

SAFE & WELCOMING SPACE

KITCHENS & REFRIDGERATORS

STABLE INTERNET

COMMUNITY

ANALYSIS OF USERS' NEEDS & VALUES Based on the lives and motivations of the users studied, the community appears to encompass a range of values as can be summed up by the following: nature, autonomy, freedom, rest, travel, frugality, time, relationships, quality over quantity, entrepreneurship, minimalism, selfdiscipline, and family. Because of this value system, it remains clear these nomadic individuals are willing and open to sacrificing modern, everyday comforts in order achieve their personal and professional goals. For this reason, the needs discovered are rather basic and primitive. Both users lost vital resources through pandemic restrictions Just the act of making frequent grocery store trips and using public restroom facilities became an issue for the users. They were forced to spend a period of time off the road sheltering in place with family members. These public amenities were vital resources for these individuals, and the world saw just how quickly they could disappear overnight. In order to provide stability to the nomadic, vehicle dwelling community, a consolidation and clear designation of these resources as essential services is necessary. The act of gathering these users based on the promise of physical resources would also organically solve the psychological needs that were proven to be vital issues to both users: a welcoming environment and community development. The needs of users: access to showers and toilets, access to kitchens and refrigerators, access to stable internet, access to safe and welcoming spaces, and access to a community. The users

prefer sleeping in their vehicles and storing their items in their vehicles. Their car/van offers the most amount of security for themselves and the most comfort because all their belongings are already there. Katie even prefers to work remotely in her car for her 8 hour shifts instead of frequenting coffee shops because its more convenient for her, and she is more comfortable doing so. The users really need a place where they can “touchdown” from time-to-time while traveling between cities. And this touchdown site must provide them informal opportunities to meet and gather with other nomadic individuals living similar alternative lifestyles. The need to build a community is very high between both users. They are both craving connections to others living similar lifestyles. In stating this, it is important to note that the people who need community the most and say they want more community often are hesitant to seek it. For example, Interior Student Alliance at Arizona State University in the Spring 2021 found students continuously polled that they wanted virtual events to build community within the organization during the pandemic; however, not a single person ever showed up to the planned events. Community is only built when people gather to address pressing physical (not mental or psychological) needs. Exhibit X shows the users’ needs. The needs on the left are the reasons people will gather initially; the values on the right are why they will continue to gather again and again over time. The individual need’s circle size notes the importance of the need.

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S PA C E - U S E D I A G R A M D E P I C T I N G LO C AT I O N O F DOMESTIC ACTIVITIES AND OBJECTS AS O B S E RV E D I N S E L F - S T U DY.

SELF-STUDY OF NOMADIC, VEHICLE-DWELLING DOMESTIC LIFE In addition to the user case studies, I conducted a self-test to determine the domestic activities and shift in interiority while living in a vehicle. I purchased and self-renovated a 2006 Ford E150 cargo van in the spring of 2020, in the same manner many nomadic individuals renovate their vehicle. Wood was used as the primary building material for bed and storage components. Electrical components including two 100w solar panels and two lithium batteries were added to the vehicle. The van also featured a small refrigerator and transportable inverter. The entire cost of the project (including the vehicle, renovation elements, all components inside the vehicle and travel gear) amounted to $15,000. I spent six weeks traveling through the American West between June 2020 and August 2020, hitting eleven states total, with my research partner. We documented the daily experience on a website: www. seekingahumanexperience.com. The frequent blog posting assisted in determining the difficulty associated with finding reliable internet sources on the road.

Throughout the self-study, many of the public and commercial spaces

in the US cities visited were still shutdown as a result of the persisting COVID-19 pandemic, providing a pivotal look into how difficult it is to survive on the road without access to public and commercial resources. Paradoxically, the pandemic also caused overcrowding on BLM land, campsites, and national parks. The diagrams to the right detail the our documentation of movement of essential domestic objects and activities in various contexts. For example, the van was parked in campsites, parking lots, BLM land, etc. in order to capture a wide variety of conditions one would encounter when living in a vehicle. The diagrams also note levels of perceived privacy during our stay at the noted locations. The research found similarities between our experience and that of the case study users. Sleeping and storing objects inside the vehicle felt safe. We found working outside the vehicle to be easier due to the lower ceiling height of the cargo van and socializing also occurred outside the van when in more natural settings. Overall, cities were difficult to navigate for parking and stealth camping. Suburbs were far easier when possessing a Walmart or other large box store allowing overnight parking. The natural environment was the easiest for sleeping purposes.

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C A S E S T U DY U S E R S ' T R AV E L PAT T E R N S W E R E U S E D TO

IDENTIFYING PILOT LOCATIONS FOR NOMADIC INTERVENTIONS Katie Carney and Novel Kulture’s travel paths were analyzed to predict where they may head following the pandemic. These individuals often revisit places they have already traveled; therefore, it was predicted they would cross paths in cities already identified by their historical travel paths.

Overlaying their maps, one finds Joshua Tree, California to be a destination for both parties, as well as Nashville, Tennessee based on travel patterns to the east and west coast. The I10 heading into California and the I40 crossing Tennessee were the

key travel corridors which lead to the selection of these two locations. Located right off the I10, the South Joshua Tree BLM presents a wonderful opportunity for a nomadic intervention. The site's location off Cottonwood Springs Road leading to the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park provides ease of access. The site attracts many nomads throughout the year; the weather is mild compared to northern locations; the land is set back off the highway so it is accessible, but also private; the space is perceived as being safe as determined by the number of people already inhabiting the area; the

land is close to Quartzite, AZ, where nomads are known to gather; the land is perfect for nature-drawn and urban-drawn nomads alike because of its proximity to Joshua Tree National Park and its location between cities on the I10. And although being somewhat secluded and on BLM land, cell service is still available at this site, which allows for the ease of internet connection. The land gets plenty of sunlight for solar powered energy, and during the dry months, water can be delivered to the site. Located off the I40 (stretching from the east to west coast), the shopping strip located at 7657 US-70S in the Bellevue neighborhood of Nashville,

O S E L E C T LO C AT I O N S F O R N O M A D I C I N T E RV E N T I O N S.

TN presents an opportunity for the implementation of a nomadic intervention in the suburban parking lot environment. The location is situated in a strip mall in close proximity to services nomadic travels often seek: Planet Fitness, Home Depot, grocery stores, discount stores, pharmacies, banks, automotive shops, post office, office supply stores, etc. This is a vibrant shopping district – across the street from the address, a dead mall was recently torn down for new retail and dining development. Because of this, a craft and services market would pair nicely with a small, nomadic hub and present financial viability, as

crowds of shoppers already frequent the area. This address is also situated within proximity of multiple parks and recreation areas, and health facilities. Water and electric can be captured through existing infrastructure to aid solar and water collection if necessary. Overall, these two sites provide two very diverse application of the nomadic intervention showcasing the adaptability of the idea to a wide range of contexts. These sites are meant as a small representation of what could later be adopted on a larger scale providing a network of resources for nomadic individuals all across the United States in a broad range of urban, suburban, and natural

environment. This level of accessibility to resources would assist in supporting the existing and future nomadic community. This infrastructure may also assist in encouraging individuals on the sidelines to live nomadically for periods of time in order to start their own entrepreneurial ventures and assist in providing a vehicle for social mobilization for the lower-middle class.

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COMMUNITY NEEDS

ATM DISPLAY STAND WALK-UP WINDOW

VEHICLE-DWELLING NEEDS

WATER SHADE ELECTRICITY TOILET COUNTER SPACE REFRIGERATOR SINK

SHOWER PRIVATE OFFICE

ABOVE: EXHIBIT A SHOWS THE CROSSOVER BETWEEN CO M M U N I T Y A N D N O M A D I C N E E D S. B E LO V E : E X A M P L E O F PROGRAM AND INTERIOR FLEXIBILITY AS PROPOSED F O R T H E N AT U R A L S I T E .

A C O M M U N I T Y FA C I L I T Y DESIGNED FOR NOMADIC TA K E OV E R A PROPOSED SOLUTION

DESIGNING THE PROGRAM Originally, the program sought to explore various types of architectural solutions that could travel with the vehicle-dwelling nomad and be assembled onsite. However, research revealed nomadic individuals prefer the comfort and safety of their vehicles for sleeping and storing their items and traveling light was of upmost importance; therefore, a new approach was necessary. With this knowledge, the project began to form touch-down sites where vehicledwellers could gather and disperse at their discretion abandoning the architecture for periods of time. These locations would seek to consolodate resources for the vehicle-dwelling nomads. This method meant the program demanded a duality of function. Because nomadic vehicle-dwellers are constantly moving, any architecture provided for the user group would need to also provide value to the existing community of the site. Therefore, the design of the project began with the communities needs and then was cross reference with the

needs of vehicle-dwelling individuals to determine the program, as shown in Exhibit A. The program of the Bellevue Pop-Up and the Cottonwood Trailhead will be discussed in the following section. This method of determining the program resulted in three stages of each site: a typical day at the site, an event occurring on the site, and the nomadic takeover of the site. These differing conditions suggest the programming and interior components must remain as flexible as the individuals who use the space. Because the proposal explores adapting community-based structures to the vehicle-dwelling nomad, this project also serves as an example of how similarly programmed spaces currently existing could also be adapted in similar ways if the public/ private owner were open to a nomadic takeover. FLEXIBLE INTERIORITY In order to create the highest level of adaptability within the sites, the projects aimed to provide a singular component for which space could

be manipulated. Many methods of stacking and collapsing elements were explored throughout this process, and the resulting design became a platform for which collapses into a partition wall. These elements assist in creating various levels of interiority within the site, and through their easy of mobility, these components allow the interior architecture to constantly be in a state of flux. Moreover, the site required a method for which the nomads could personalize space and modify the interior to adjust with their more domestic needs of comfort, work, and social space. Originally, the project sought to explore a singular, transformable object for which the vehicle-dwelling nomad could transport from place-toplace. However, research showed the spatial capacity of vehicle-dwellers was incredibly limited. Moreover, these individuals are part of a culture of ‘making do’ where they use the items at their disposal to fit their needs. Their ingenuity through current domestic practices became an inspiration for not a furniture design, but instead an application.

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P L AT F O R M / PA RT I T I O N S D E S I G N E D TO B E T R A N S F O R M A S TA C K A B L E TO C R E AT E VA R I O U S L E V E L

BLE THROUGH THEIR FUNCTION AND L S O F F LO O R H E I G H T.

PLATFORM/PARTITION DESIGN The platforms/partitions each site allow the exterior spaces to manifest the feel of interiority through a reconfiguration of partitions. When in the platform position, these elements are stackable and create various platform heights onsite. This becomes valuable in create stages for events and performances, but also the differences in elevation create an implied division of spaces. Once these spaces are programmed with people and objects, the activity occurring within the space determines the level of privacy of that space. Moreover, the stickability of these elements creates implied furniture opportunities. For example, three platforms stacked provides a seating height of 18” or six platforms stacked can provide a standing desk height or counter height of 36”. The wheeled elements of each platform

are designed to sit within the lower platform to secure the platforms when in a stacked position. Each caster is lockable once in its desired position in order to secure each element. These platforms are designed to move. With dimensions of 9’x4.5’, these platforms can easily be sandwiched into their partition position and wheeled to their desired location. Moreover, two people could easily stack these components with little coordination. The platforms are made from extruded aluminum, to maintain the lightness of the elements, and local wood finishes. Because of the high level of flexibility in use for these platforms, they can be used by the community and nomadic individuals alike and are easily stored in a container pod onsite when storage is necessary.

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CONOMAD APPLICATION The CONOMAD application becomes the platform for which facilitates and capitalizes on the ingenuity of nomadic vehicle-dwellers. Nomads from all over the world can post their experiences with DIY transformative domestic projects. For example, an individual who discovers a way to stuff a sleeping bag with dirty laundry and tie it into a lounge chair using basic rope would post their experience creating this project to the platform. The platform works to opensource design strategies – where one person’s attempt quickly becomes adapted over and over again – each time becoming more efficient and effective in its purpose. Therefore, the application creates a community of amateur designers and allows the community’s overall experience to advance the knowledge of the vehicle-dwelling user as a whole. These individuals already have the creative spirit of ‘making do’. Therefore, a platform that would allow these individuals to capitalize on this ingenuity would provide a great resource to and advancement of the domestic interiority of the vehicle-dwelling nomad.

E X H I B I T B D E P I C T I N G A S I G H T L I N E A N A LY S I S P E R F O R M E D O N T H E B E L L E V U E S U B U R B A N S I T E .

ISSUE

B ELLEV U E P OP-U P Located at 7657 US-70S off the I40 in the Bellevue neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, the Bellevue Pop-Up is a basic structure with a continuously evolving and rotating program. The pop-up location was determined using a site-line analysis of the existing parking lot points of entry in relation to the strip mall signage. The design acknowledges the need for community amenities in underutilized space and space which is often occupied by vehicle-dwellers such as parking lots. However, the design is also sensitive to the existing commercial use of the space; therefore, the location and overall massing of the Bellevue PopUp structure was determined by the site’s commercial context. Exhibit B provides a representation of this process.

Overall, the design seeks to maximize efficiency of the program within the footprint of two existing parking spaces while providing a shade canopy for a wide variety of uses. The structure's form maximizes views to existing store signage while still providing maximal functionality. Moreover, the design seeks to reclaim vacant, underutilized space to fulfill the underserved needs of the local and nomadic community.

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Because many nomadic individuals park overnight in commercial parking lots where allowed, Frail sought to grow the programming of the parking lot as it is used now to reimagine how the local community and the nomadic community could reclaim space that goes unused for large portions of the year. This strategy can be replicated in parking lots all over the United States and rebuild community activities in otherwise vacant spaces.

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NORTHWEST ENTRANCE

Sightline Analysis

A S I G H T L I N E A N A LY S I S WA S P E R F O R M E D TO D E T E R M I N E O P T I M A L LO CAT I O N F O R N O M A D I C I N T E RV E N T I O N O N S I T E . T H E S I G H T L I N E A N A LY S I S S O U G H T TO AV O I D H I N D E R I N G T H E V I E W S O F T H E C O M M E R C I A L S I G N A G E F R O M B OT H O F T H E C O M P L E X ' S E N T R A N C E S.

NORTHEAST ENTRANCE

Sightline Analysis

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3 DETERMINING INTERVENTION LOCATION Four locations on site were evaluated based on the sightline analysis. Locations 1, 2, and 3 were found to cause no obstruction to entrance views of commercial signage. For this reason, the project tackles the most challenging of the locations, location 3. The challenges of this location assisted in determining the form of the structure.

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RESTROOM AT M M E R C H A N D I S E S TA N D THE BELLEVUE PROGRAM The Bellevue program focuses on providing the local community with a space for small business to grow following the damage of the pandemic restrictions. The space features a kitchen where food-truck size businesses can rent space to promote awareness of their brand and sell their products. The kitchen features a large refrigerator, a sink, and a large amount of counter space where cooktops can be plugged in to the electrical supply. The kitchen also features a walk-up window for ordering and enough space for two people to successfully work in the small kitchen. The pop-up also features a single restroom with a small shower. A desk and sink sit just outside the restroom. This set up becomes perfect for pop-up medical services, such as vaccinations or mental health services. Just outside, a merchandise stand provides an excellent opportunity for flower vendors or other small businesses to sell their products to passing vehicles. The pop-up is supported by an ATM which activates the space when not in use and brings additional financing to the community space through local bank support. A large canopy covers three parking spaces just outside the facility. This cover provides shaded parking when not in use or becomes activated through the use of the transformable platforms and partitions.

DESK K I TC H E N S E RV I C E W I N D OW

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The hope is the pop-up could assist the community in rebounding from the effects of the pandemic by supporting small businesses, providing people spaces to gather and connect, and by offering an architectural model of how flexible buildings could become more resilient to the changing world.

The pop-up provides the community with an accessible way to start and promote small business without the need for long-term commercial leases, which were shown to be dangerous commitments for small businesses during the pandemic lockdown. The pop-up provides highly flexible commitments for small business owners so they can quickly adapt to changing times and the needs of their customers. Moreover, the pop-up provides a safe space for individuals to gather. Through observation, it has been shown that teenagers often hang out in parking lots for lack of better options, and the pop-up provides a safe and welcoming space for individuals already gathering in parking lot conditions. The act of linking small restaurant businesses to teenagers also assists in boosting sales for these small businesses as they capitalize on the teenage consumer market who is known to spend their small income

P L AT F O R M / PA R T I T I O N C O N F I G U R AT I O N S

The Ever-Evolving Pop-Up Model

recovery of small businesses following the COVID-19 pandemic.

on food options and opportunities to socialize with their peers.

business model without the long-term commercial lease is vital to the

Opportunities for small businesses to capitalize on a brick-and-mortal

The platforms/partitions available onsite transform the canopy space. These can be arranged in numerous configurations that allow the space to be programmed based on the businesses occupying the facility or if an event is occurring onsite. These spaces can be constantly transformed throughout the day to accommodate changes in programming from the morning hours farmers market to the evening restaurant atmosphere.

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THE NARRATIVE OF KATIE & NOVEL KULTURE'S EXPERIENCE Both users are back on the road. Novel Kulture spent the last week in Atlanta taking part in a vanlife profile promoting a small van business. Meanwhile, Katie spent time in North Carolina traveling with her friend and visiting mom & pop eateries. Lovell & Paris head toward Nashville for a vanlife workshop they helped organize in the suburbs. Meanwhile, Katie is heading in the same direction. She heard about an artistry fair taking place close to her friend’s apartment and wants to promote her hand-knit Etsy shop. Traveling along the i40, Katie arrives at the Bellevue Pop-Up just after 1pm. Katie was here last fall for a farmer’s market when passing through Nashville, but today, the space is alive with craft vendors selling their products and sharing their artistry. She spends the day talking with local artists and connecting with them on Instagram.

As night falls, the artistry fair clears out. Katie parks her car for the evening under the structure’s canopy and takes advantage of the kitchen and bathroom amenities onsite. The next morning, she meets Novel Kulture. They arrived at the site late last night in preparation for their vanlife meetup. They have already begun setting up for the nomadic event, and Katie is thrilled to be in the right place at the right time. She jumps into action helping set up the pop-up’s platforms. As the nomads arrive for the workshop, the space is transformed through their innovative use of recycled and found materials. Branches are used to make tables, rope used to make swings, and cardboard used to make seating elements.

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ISSUE

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The workshop is a great success. Vehicledwelling individuals attended as well as members of the local community. Nomadic individuals share knowledge and resources among themselves while educating the public on the benefits of frugal vehicle dwelling. Katie and Novel Kulture witness the ingenuity of the nomadic community in creating interiority of space in under the pop-up's canopy. The eclectic atmosphere represents every individual present as nomads reconstruct objects to create furniture elements and learn from the creativity and craftsmanship of others. The act of gathering these individuals sparked this burst of creative exploration. This place made the gathering possible speaking the necessity of nomadic space. The pop-up may not have been designed soley for the vehicle-dwelling community; however, the space becomes so easily adapted by these individuals that it feels almost custom to this user group. Following the event, the attendees disperse, and the Bellevue Pop-Up returns to the local teenagers and small businesses who often take advantage of the community resources onsite. And through the comradery of facilitating this event, a bond is formed between Novel Kulture and Katie. They both hop on the road heading west and another opportunity to connect with their peers.

VA N M E E T - U P

Bellevue Pop-Up

Sections of land are from vehicle use.

Large southern exposure.

Expansive views. Site is open and all objects have a low profile.

Slight slope from south to north across site.

ISSUE

e already cleared out

Located just South of Joshua Tree National Park off the I10, the South Joshua Tree BLM land provides an oasis for vehicledwellers and vacationers alike. The BLM land is busy year-round and has many well-established camp sites dispersed throughout the area. The clearing off Cottonwood Springs Road provides an excellent location for a small trailhead. The area features hiking opportunities and a large influx of vacationers coming off the I10. A trailhead at this location would be ideal for the tourist population in order to refill their water bottles, use the restroom, and head out on a short hike before entering the park. The land itself is already cleared in this location from decades of vehicle camping on the site. Adding a trailhead to this location would not remove any vegetation and would capitalize on the natural elements surrounding the site, including expansive views. The site features a slight slope on the south and a large southern exposure. For this reason, a structure would want to capitalize on passive heating and cooling strategies by being mindful of the southern and western sun. TH E SYA H IM M AG

n abundance of desert vegetation.

C OT TONWO OD TRA I LHEA D

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One week of travel later, the caravan steers off the i10 onto Cottonwood Springs Rd heading toward the BLM land just south of Joshua Tree National Park. A small gathering of musicians are wrapping up a festival weekend at the Cottonwood Trailhead, casually known as the Cottonwood Pop-Up.

M U S I C F E S T I VA L

Cottonwood Trailhead

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K I TC H E N RESTROOMS DESK THE COTTONWOOD PROGRAM The facility contains much of the same functionality as the Bellevue Pop-Up. The space features two restrooms to accommodate a higher volume of travelers, a kitchen, a desk, laundry, and water-fill station. The facility is off grid will water being delivered to the site, and energy being collected through solar panels. The facility is aimed more toward everyday domestic activities; however, this facility can also host a medical professional for mental health services or vaccinations and support a catering service for an event through the kitchen amenities. The architecture is oriented with a natural ‘stage’ to the south with views looking out toward the desert and the expansive mountains beyond. The structure invites in the eastern sun while blocking out the harsh western exposure allowing evening events to take place in comfort while still providing views to the landscape.

WAT E R F I L L S TAT I O N WAT E R & B AT T E RY S TO R A G E L AU N D RY

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travelers the opportunity to have impromptu conversations with their fellows. By offering the physical amenities, the underserved social needs of those traveling will also being to organically resolve themselves through natural human connection.

The facility is meant to provide vehicledwelling individuals and tourists the access to needed facilities that are not readily available on this highly populated site, while also provide opportunities for revenue through the adaptability to a wide range of paid events. California is already known for many of their desert music festivals, and this site would provide a new location for smaller, more frequent productions.

and kinship between vehicle-dwellers and tourists alike.

A trailhead designed to bring people together for daily activities, events,

Similar to the Bellevue Pop-Up, the Cottonwood Trailhead is a highly flexible facility where a large number of different activities can occur in the space. The same partition/ platforms are used to adapt interior space throughout the day in order to accommodate the flux in programming between hikers, events, and nomadic individuals.

To the nomads, this space becomes invaluable as access to laundry, bathroom, and kitchen facilities are difficult to find in public spaces and are rarely consolidated in one place. In order for this model to work on a larger scale, perhaps these facilities would charge a monthly membership for nomadic individuals which would allow for water delivery onsite, solar panel maintenance, and regular cleaning services. Overall, the site seeks to provide an oasis for individuals sleeping under the stars in the desert and provide

P L AT F O R M / PA R T I T I O N C O N F I G U R AT I O N S

The Ever-Evolving Pop-Up Model

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THE NARRATIVE OF KATIE & NOVEL KULTURE'S EXPERIENCE The BLM land is packed. The music festival is beginning to clear out, but vacationers and nomads alike are continuing to swarm the site seeking to recharge from the pandemic isolation. And the people are thirsting for human connection. It feels too personal to wander into one another’s campgrounds, so they find their common ground to gather at the trailhead.

The architecture is simple, a proposed trailhead pavilion provides restrooms, clean water, and electricity. The facility features the same mobile platform/partition elements as seen on at the Belleveu pop-up. Novel Kulture & Katie arrange the platforms and partitions on site. And slowly the people start to enter bringing with them ingenuity learned through years of experience on the road. They transform the space using common items in reimagined ways - building various conditions of interiority and expansive space. They learn through one another’s experience and share these lessons with the nomadic community at large using the same technology that keeps them so well connected. And during Katie and Novel Kulture’s time at the trailhead, they witness an evolution of the space as nomads come and go, and the objects within the space continue to rotate in and out. And throughout this evolution vacationers and nomads alike have one thing in common: their location.

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MUSIC FESTIVAL

SETTING UP PLATFORMS

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

PHASE 3

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The ingenuity of the nomads again takes hold as the space transforms through their objects and creative spirit. With a grid of ceiling hooks, the nomads hang objects to create partitions and through this making process, discoveries are made. The designs evolve. The beauty of the nomad spirit is taking a singular item and finding a multitude of ways to transform that one singular object. Everything one owns must have multiple uses in order to be considered valuable enough to store and haul around. And this process of making together allows them to find more and more ways to use the items they already have in order to enrich their domestic lives and support their alternative lifestyle. These spaces facilitate this creative energy, just as the CONOMAD application does for the virtual world. And these interiors continue to change by the people who best know how to adapt them. This evolution teaches designers how this community uses space and objects to facilitate various levels of privacy, and how these spaces created assists in strengthening the communities initiatives. And entirely present, free from the weight of the world, they share food, stories, deep concerns, and frustrations. They cry together recalling what occurred over the last year, the loss of close friends and loved ones, loss of meaningful encounters, and nurturing conversations with those who matter most in these uncertain times. And despite the deeply diverse backgrounds and circumstances of those who gather, they find common ground in their experiences and their love of the stars in the clear night sky.

VA N M E E T - U P

Bellevue Pop-Up

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HIKERS RETURN

They did not need much to start the conversation – just a place to gather, a place to cook. And through these unextraordinary conversations, Novel Kulture and Katie find their extraordinary truth: they are important. These unextraordinary conversations are important. These conversations matter, and the places to facilitate these interactions are vital. Even if the mainstream cannot see it, this group of nomads are growing. They are supporting one another, using their resources and their innovative PH A S E 1 spirit to flourish in this world. And everyone is welcome to join. Some nomads leave and others come. The site continues to transform to fit the current populations wants and needs. And through continued exploration –The online community builds a collective database of open-sourced knowledge. When the nomads leave, the trailhead returns to a picnic area for those visiting the park and a launch point for tourists hiking nearby trails.

NOMADS RETURN TO THE ROAD

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A CRITICAL REFLECTION CONCLUDING STATEMENT

Throughout the process of studying the vehicle-dwelling nomads – I learned their most pressing need is not derived from the built environment. I have found acceptance, understanding and inclusion in the public realm to be the nomads’ most pressing need. I learned that sometimes the solution to a design problem is not a building at all. But instead, a new architecture – founded on co-creation, temporality, and inclusion. This begins with the education of and acceptance from the public which would allow vehicle dwellers to overtake already existing underutilized public and private space – filling the gaps in not only our physical infrastructure, but also our social structure.

There is still much work to be done in the development of the architectural detailing of this project. Both sites need to be completely off grid; therefore, the systems must be evaluated and integrated into the overall design. Moreover, the materials and construction methods need further investigation to find the optimal solution that can resolve the programming of the site while being sensitive to cost and environmental impact. Overall, the project addressed the user's needs and programmatic issues quite well. Although these

aren't strickly architectural issues, it is important the profession expand the definition of architectural design beyond that of systems and structure to encompass the social systems and social impact of programmatic decisions. A vast majority of my time and effort was focused on educating the viewer on who the modern, vehicledwelling nomadic user is. Despite the relevant nature of the topic in today's society, there remains a lot of bias and assumptions made about these individuals; therefore, before I could even begin digging into the design of this project, I needed to find ways to educate the viewer on the background of this community of individuals living alternative lifestyles. This became my most important issue in executing this project - whether that was correct or not - I found educating the public to be the vehicle-dwelling individuals most pressing need; therefore, I first addressed this issue before adding architectural value to the project. For this reason, the projects are lacking a significant amount of detailing, for which can be completed at a later date. Overall, the vision, ideas and codesign strategies of the CONOMAD

project are very strong. My position and argument is for a new vision of architectural practice, founded on cocreation, temporality, and inclusion, that extends far beyond the traditional scope of the common professional practice is more pressing than ever, embracing social, environmental and technological change. The nature of the designs proposed offered simple solutions for providing community, small business, and nomadic resources to the United States following the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the country to bounce back socially and economically. The project also questions the common professional misconception, that architecture is a professional service controlled by a single architect or design team, through the proposal of a new combination of public and professional co-design and crowd sourced adaptive and resilient design strategies. Especially when dealing with user groups for which the design world is unfamiliar, it is imperative that the user be involved in the design process, as to provide optimal design solutions for these individuals.

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Hodder, Andy. “New Technology, Work and Employment in the Era of COVID-19: Reflecting on Legacies of Research.” New Technology, Work and Employment, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12173. Hubler, Shawn. “As Colleges Move Classes Online, Families Rebel Against the Cost.” Nytimes.com, August 15, 2020. https://www. nytimes.com/2020/08/15/us/covid-college-tuition.html?searchResultPosition=4. Jasinski, N. (2020, October 03). RV sales have soared during THE Pandemic. these stocks could see more Gains ahead. Retrieved April 22, 2021, from https://www.barrons.com/articles/recreational-vehicle-stocks-could-see-further-gains-51601671189 Lee, Ahreum, Austin L. Toombs, Ingrid Erickson, David Nemer, Yu-Shen Ho, Eunkyung Jo, and Zhuang Guo. “The Social Infrastructure of Co-Spaces: Home, Work, and Sociable Places for Digital Nomads.” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3, no. CSCW (2019): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359244. Lustgarten, Abrahm. “HOW CLIMATE MIGRATION WILL RESHAPE AMERICA.” Nytimes.com, September 15, 2020. https://www. nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/15/magazine/climate-crisis-migration-america.html. Lustgarten, Abrahm. “THE GREAT CLIMATE MIGRATION.” Nytimes.com, July 23, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/ interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html. Martin, Joseph Robert. “The Cost of Freedom: Houselessness as a Nomadic Lifestyle.” Dissertation, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2016. Monroe, Rachel. “#VanLife (Short Story).” New Yorker 93, no. 10 (April 24, 2017): 40–46. O'Bannon, Isaac M. “Covid-Normal: Worker Stress, Work/Life Balance and Productivity Start to Stabilize.” CPA Practice Advisor 30, no. 5 (June 2020): 32–33. Petach, Luke. “Income Stagnation and Housing Affordability in the United States.” Review of Social Economy, May 14, 2020, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/00346764.2020.1762914. Pink, Daniel H. Free Agent Nation. Boston, MA: Grand Central Publishing, 2001. Powell, Farran, and Emma Kerr. “See the Average College Tuition in 2020-2021.” Usnews.com, September 14, 2020. https://www. usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/paying-for-college-infographic. Robinson, Caleb, Bistra Dilkina, and Juan Moreno-Cruz. “Modeling Migration Patterns in the USA under Sea Level Rise.” Plos One 15, no. 1 (January 22, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227436. Saboohi, Razieh, Hossein Barani, Morteza Khodagholi, Ahmad Abedi Sarvestani, and Asghar Tahmasebi. “Nomads’ Indigenous Knowledge and Their Adaptation to Climate Changes in Semirom City in Central Iran.” Theoretical and Applied Climatology 137, no. 1-2 (2018): 1377–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-018-2665-4. Smercina, Rachele. “Living on the Move: The Digital Nomad Mobile Phenomenon.” Thesis, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019. Sutherland, Will, and Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi. “The Gig Economy and Information Infrastructure.” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 1, no. CSCW (2017): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3134732. Torres, Jacqueline M., and Joan A. Casey. “The Centrality of Social Ties to Climate Migration and Mental Health.” BMC Public Health 17, no. 1 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4508-0.

BEST PLANET FASHION 2017

BY Brata Pawiro

“But for them—as for anyone—survival isn’t enough. So what began as a last-ditch effort has become a battle cry for something greater. Being human means yearning for more than subsistence. As much as food or shelter, we require hope.” -Jessica Bruder, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

C O N O M A D : A N E W A RC H I T EC T U R E

RACHEL MARIE FRAIL Master of Architecture, Arizona State University Co-Chairs Prof Olivier Vallerand & Prof Max Underwood Spring 2021

CONOMAD: A New Architecture

Articles inside

A PROPOSED SOLUTION

USER ANALYSIS

REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

CONCLUDING STATEMENT

ABRIDGED LITERATURE REVIEW