Trevor Boyle | Fall 2014
The majority of gathering samples that were found were occurring along roadways which have been placed under the "improved" or "to-be improved" sidewalk locations through the community. What is still more apparent is the number of vacant lots and their relation to the neglected streetscapes. This shows a large area for improvement, and a chance for some of the successful practices within Parramore to be tested out in these neglected areas in order to improve them.
Distilled from this exploration are a few common threads within the community. The most successfully activated areas are not spaces which are pre-planned and pre-determined. The two common areas are the public entry space around local businesses and underneath shaded areas. The local business as a driver for gathering and socialization makes sense in terms of becoming a destination. These are typically businesses catering towards other locals, and so as familiar faces come by there are opportunities for conversations to arise, these events either acting spontaneously, occurring regularly, or being pre-agreed upon meetings.
Even more intriguing then the businesses are the common thread of shad as a generator. Uncaring of the actual particular location of the gathering, the two requirements for this gathering and activity are shade and seating. As shade in this context is a fixed constant, the variable is seating. Where there are large enough shadows to encompass a group, seating becomes any object that is portable enough to be brought within the temporal boundaries.
What is sought to be accomplished within this installation is a more structured provider of shading, for the purposes of recreating this activity and bringing it into areas of Parramore which are currently underutilized spaces. Since the local business as a generator is a costly and difficult condition to replicate and test across the community, the focus within this project is the idea of shading + seating = gathering.
The idea within this project is the reversal of the current process. In this installation, it is not shade which provides the foundation for seats to be placed, but seats placed which become the generation of shade. These are semi-temporary structures, easily dismantled and transported, that can be erected and left in an area for a finite length of time. Used individually or as a node within a modular system tessellating in any direction, these constructs are activated by the users and become displays of activity levels. The seats contain a large air bladder, and under the act of sitting this bladder is compressed to a specific point. The displaced air is forced through a series of tubes to the canopy system. Smaller balloons act as the activators for the kinetic canopies, carrying this motion up above the occupant and activating the canvas which creates a desirable shade boundary around the seating device.
As a singular object, this becomes an exterior meditative space; a conditioned environment for individual comfort. While arrayed in multiples in a tessellated chain, they can create different conditions based on their arrangements. No matter which way they are aligned, the end goal is a public gathering space, where previously underutilized spaces can be infused with new spirit and activity.
The kit of parts required for these modular parts would be three lightweight poles for structure, foam linear elements to provide for a semi-rigid structure in the canopy, a large air bladder within the compressed seating, and a series of tubes and smaller balloons to act as actuators for the canopy. The construction of these objects are to be simple enough that it does not require special training or complex tools to be built. The canopy material itself is to be sourced by the user. This creates a unique materiality across the community, and sense of personal elements so that way the residents can see their own choices and designs spaced within their neighborhoods and commercial areas. As of the current moment, very little of the resident's own handiwork is displayed thorough their own area, and instead the new developments being made are from outside sources with no input from the people who actually live there. As a sense of ownership and pride is established in the community, so then can a desire to improve it be generated.
