Washing Thayer
Ed. note: Some of the work presented here was done in conjunction with Sergeant Prow.
As a quick exercise to get the semester started, we were asked to consider a site in Providence and make a map of the behaviors that play out in the site. We analyzed a busy block-long section of the central cultural artery of Brown (Thayer street) filled with falafel joints, Urban Outfitters, bars, &c.
After observing the first twenty minutes of the hour at 3am, 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, and 11pm we created graphs of the northbound and southbound pedestrian activity. These became core samples in a larger surface which represents our map. Although defined by the specific core samples (black lines) the surface that resulted from our investigation started to have spatial implications.
Next we were asked to consider how this abstract graph or map could be worked back into the site as a step towards something architectural. The graph itself forms a canopy and begins to respond to the actual site by flowing around the corner and across the street.
As a final phase of this one week project we were asked to consider how the map could become an intervention into the site. To work towards this we chose to define a problematic of the site which acted as an important foothold for moving forward. During our initial observations we were struck by the sheer nastiness of the sidewalk's surface. The entire site is coated in a layer of gum, human spittle, dropped food...
Our proposal is both a means of observing the activity of the site by making it more legible and responding to it by literally cleaning away the physical traces of occupation. A system of trusses is deployed to act as a datum for our structure. These trusses are derived from one specific period of observation. Between the trusses exists a flexible skin that acts as a water container. As water fills the skin it begins to expand and bloat beyond and between the initial form that the trusses define. Eventually this water will be used to clean the street; thus the site's level of amnesia is tied directly to its level of activity. The more active the occupation, the more thorough the cleaning will be. With the sidewalk divided into eleven segments, this cleaning is further localized: activity detected in one segment modulates the flow of water into the canopy above it. Every morning at 4:00am (the least busy time of day) the 11 segments of the canopy briefly separate and the water spills down onto the sidewalk washing away the previous day's accumulated detritus.
As the canopy droops towards the sidewalk it begins to create a feedback loop. The more activity, the more water, the lower the canopy, the less likely more activity will occur. This final realization is the true starting point of the project. To continue thinking about how this feedback loop is controlled or when it's stopped takes the project in a new direction. As does thinking about the act of cleaning. After spilling from the canopy the water eventually washes down a drain, but what does it take with it? More importantly, what do these physical remnants say about the population using the street? These questions point to a new range of considerations about legibility of activity and flows, the nature of trash, the nature of cleaning, &c.
Quick projects are both the bane of one's existence at design school and the most enjoyable. Ending a project with more questions that you began can be very invigorating.
--Posted 10/29/03 01:30AM