aPavilion |
"What is the least we can do to get started, but the most we can do to grow"
- Nabeel Hamdi |
Storyline
The beginning of our project started with an idea that we as students and architects have an ethical obligation and architectural know how to enact social change in our world. Social change is not, however, inherent in architecture. This idea switches our question from the objective “what are we making?” to the subjective “how are we doing so?” Process then becomes more important than product.
We wanted to engage the community order in to define what type of project we were to do. So we designed an art installation/event that would help start a conversation. The event took place during the Lisbon Avenue Art Fair next to Amaranth Café on September 25, 2015. We hung balloons on strings from either side of the alley and we asked the community to write what they would like to do before they died directly on the balloons. The question, though rather ambiguous, helped us to connect with the community. This event demonstrated how activities and social interactions in a place produces place memories. During our interactions with the local residents we began to get to know a network of people who were part of a growing artistic and economic revival in the area. They included David Boucher of the Amaranth Bakery, Muneer Bahauddeen, Express Yourself Milwaukee, volunteers from the Washington Park Partners, Alderman Russell Stamper, local gardeners and artists. We also received help from an organization based out of the Harambee Neighborhood called Beintween. They gave us 24 (15’8”) I-joists. Other construction materials were funded by David Boucher, the Washington Park Partners and a grant from the David and Julia Uihlein Charitable Foundation. Construction of aPavilion took place over the course of three weeks with support from David Boucher and Muneer Bahauddeen. Four PrinciplesTactical Urbanism
In their book Tactical Urbanism, Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia describe an approach to neighborhood building using short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions and policies. aPavilion is a small scale construction project that adapts this concept in Washington Park, Milwaukee. This community has much to capitalize on, but we had little time to work with the residents. How do we design a metaphoric ‘push in the right direction’ while capitalizing on our limited involvement and time? To this end we designed with the intention of achieving two objectives. First, we wanted to start a “physical conversation,” or a conversation that follows building. Such a course of action generates feedback and inspires ideas for further design and creation. And the second goal was a product of the first: to create a sense of shared ownership throughout the community. Place Memory
Place Memory is how one views themselves in a space, both historically and imaginatively. We, however, are less interested by what place memories are or how they are created. Rather we focus on what the existence of place memory does to the value of the space. When a place memory is created, the owner of that memory establishes a relationship with that place. Place Memory is a powerful tool in creating community, group as well as individual identity. Social Template
aPavilion is an example of an architecture that serves as a social template. It suggests a set of activities while yielding to alternate interpretations and diverse uses. Thus a social template can be appropriated and adapted by various individuals and groups to serve their needs and expectations. Or, in other words, this design provides a scaffolding that allows users to reproduce a variety of places, engage in a diversity of activities, and imaginatively and aesthetically repurpose the built form. In this way aPavilion also works as a leveler. With a simplified form, a variety of peoples and cultures can decide how to use the space in a manner in which they deem fit, without obstruction from predetermined cultural programmatic expectations. Network
The general challenge in community design is a lack of funding. However this difficulty taught us the most important and defining quality in any project of this kind; network resourcing. We were helped, financially, morally, and physically by a network of volunteers united by a common cause. This motley group displayed what Mark S. Granovetter calls “the strength of weak ties.” It can be very easy to value a place by its physical attributes. But the true value of public space lies with the people that inhabit it; more specifically, the value that the stakeholders place on the network. Through this process we can start to grow the project, capitalizing on people's talents, thoughts, and connections. Mark S. Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties.”American Journal of Sociology 78: 6 (May 1973), 1360-1380. |
Movie Night Render
Summer Market Render
Two stories about Place Memory.
During the Lisbon Avenue Art Festival we gave some children chalk to write and draw how they feel about the Amaranth Alley. One child wrote "I love this place!" That moment was the highlight of the fair for many of us because we realized that this inscription, no matter how small, made a powerful change. That child’s, and now our, place memories include thoughts and feelings embedded in words on the concrete ground of Amaranth Alley. The alley ceased to be an abstract place on a map. It is a now a site of an enduring memory. During the construction of the pavilion a stack of I-joists was left out overnight on site for construction, during the night time a homeless man (previous resident of the neighborhood) used these I-joists as a shelter from rain, cold and danger. By transforming an empty shed into a shelter, albeit transiently, this event produced place memories for us and those who witnessed this event. These small and personal memories shared by and with community members stimulate and strengthen social relationships and generate a sense of togetherness. Building the pavilion
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