literally...
cleaning out some old files.. and came across several gems documenting growth in the studio [at least i hope so].
Piggyback : collapsable space
competition submission poster
Form:uLA... Ray Varela [Carrier Johnson]... Ben Patik
On August 8, 2027 @ 3:27 PM, Orange County, CA. will achieve a complete saturation of density….maximum gridlock... absolute vehicular stagnation. Every available inch of freeway, on ramp, off ramp, surface street, intersection, driveway, drive through, portico, parking lot, sidewalk, park and plaza will be filled with vehicular stagnation and immobility. People will be forced to abandon their cars where they stand and a new social order will be born on the new, dead-tech surface. There will be no release valve, no escape route, there will simply be no where to go…
These were developed as part of our entry in the Changing Face Of Orange County national competition. We attempted to use the competition as a vehicle for the exploration of new architectural vocabularies responding to specific urban strategy issues; to use it as a discourse on what role architecture can play in future regional development; and to propose that architecture and technology may bring about social change.
“Quality of life” became the project impetus, as it is affected by power and water shortages, longer commutes, greater disconnection between work and home life, alienation, and greater demands on personal attention that result from population increase. “Should we?”, in tandem with “how will we?”.
This project incites debate concerning the role technology will play in the growth of this region. It's not a solution for today employing existing or old techniques, but a look to the future and what may be available [and forced upon us] tomorrow. Radical cultural changes, fragmentation and redefinition of family structures, blurring of private and public domains, and the infusion of technology into our daily lives all demand a rethinking of existing conditions.
If the activities of our complicated lives could be distilled to simple digestible concepts, then a simple precept would be that actions take place. Implicit in this statement is that there exists a vital relationship between place and action. We assume a strong perceptual association where action and location are tightly bound. Although action and place are intimately linked, they do not develop simultaneously. Action creates place. This competition proposal is an effort to uncover the core actions of an idealized conceptual construct of work-live-play and the physical manifestations that would take place as a result.
A new kind of place, Collapsible Space, is needed to accommodate changes in social structures, to accommodate anticipated population growth, and to transform existing building stock to new uses and needs. Collapsible Space explores an idea of place that ceases its user configuration when not inhabited and its spatial arrangement reconfigures for multiple domain users. In conjunction with Collapsible Space, a Piggy Back approach to new development is proposed. Piggy Back development suggests adaptive growth based on the establishment of a parasitic pod instead of restructuring existing planning principles. The characteristics of the parasitic pod is such that it allows for its attachment to a core and feed off existing environment issues.
Project designed in collaboration with Ray Varela and Carrier Johnson Architects, Irvine Ca.
