Communication takes place at that point of convergence between people and place. Communication is the conceptualizing and articulation of coalesced spatial relationships - physical & ephemeral, technological & psychological. Communication occurs in an experiential space, a space that facilitates the potential opportunities available from the existence of invisible forces captured in the tangible.
The City of Oakland is a conundrum. In the heart of the technology center of California, yet the DotCom boom passed it by in favor of almost every other city around it.
How was this possible? What is it in the currents of Oakland's citizens, city leaders and investors which throttles this city's vibrancy?
Urban conditions do re-enforce and prevent behaviour but it also can be a means of accelerating social change. Physical space and all non-verbal communication affect a client's self-image, public perception and ultimately, the public's willingness to interact. Success hinges on a strategy.
BLINK!-lab is committed to the idea that archtects can make this world a better place. Independent research and experimentation is our means to understand Humanity and the potential opportunities present in life..............we are THINKing..............we are QUESTIONing..............we are EXPLORing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZONING - Is it the requirement itself or our attitude to constraints?
There is a tendency to look to Europe for solutions to American cities. But it is a mistake to assume solutions are transferable without exception. First there is the obvious
- we have land. Land is a physicality which is bound to the american dream; and the right to use as we wish was the enduring struggle between federalists and the confederates. This dispute to the personal right to self-determination is unequivocally tied to LAND.
It is with easy access to financing that many individuals are building their own home. Yet, despite this new individual freedom, single family houses are exhibiting the same level of un-inventive building practices as typical real estate developments.
Is it possible that the boredom of single family houses and real estate designs in the US is a result of the method of prescription? Rather than setback requirements, what happens if incentives to preserve open communal spaces is proposed instead? And in return for a smaller footprint, greater tax incentives for great access to natural sunlight?
In taking away 'land', we have to understand the psychological associations which are very strong in this culture. The right to one's domain is core to the U.S. experience - the right to protect and use property as one sees fit as defined by the property line. This notion must be returned. Most Multi-unit designs do not address 'mental privacy'.
Thicker walls address only physical sound. But more can be achieved by understanding the many varieties of family units, movement, as well as means of separation together can re-introduce that sense of 'domain' to the multi-unit building.
The option of 'choice' over prescription could lead to variety.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VACANT LOT - A strategy for a return communal ownership to the ignored
Richmond is a city geographically close to Oakland with some similar characteristics - a dis-spirited and vague city. In 2004, BLINK! was commissioned to undertake a study and propose strategies for the City of Richmond's over 500 vacant lots. Our client was an African-American developer who had partnered with one of the largest Church congregations in that city.
The church was becoming more politically active and realized that in order to enact change in its high-crime districts, it had to be more creative. What this team of developer and church lacked was an ability to grasp that simply filling lots with typically 'styled' single-familly houses would not change the econo-cultural context of these neighborhoods. While their end-goal was a better neighborhood, the client believed the answer was 'plugging the hole'.
BLINK!Lab understood change required a researched approach to discover the forces at play in the home, the street and the city. Study revealed that the majority of lots were contiguous. This was key to our proposal, for it allowed the creation of group housing. Initially seen as a question of density, we expanded study to question, 'what else could be introduced to create the desired outcome? Was it possible to implement specific strategies which would radically shift the landscape?' What if zoning and financial institutions were married? When paired with family investment, what impact can we expect?
Multi-lot family zoning would allow ready care-giving by removing the need for distance travel, thereby increasing savings which can be used towards investment in self. Multi-unit family zoning would introduce a neighborhood matriach/elder. This is a very crucial concept, as it directly addresses the continued existence of matriarchal family structures in the African-American community. That voice typically extends the sense of ownership and authority beyond the walls of the house
to include street-life. However, this fact did not negate the need for individual privacy.
Status - revisited 2006, continued independent research
BELOW THE POVERTY LINE - Donated House
The confessions and aspirations of the ignored are just as foreceful as the accounted.
As a society we have the capacity to do more and give more.
Status - in progress
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GREENSCAPE URBAN STUDY
A simple line in zoning plans is typically utilized to separate uses and mark boundaries.
However, the physical reality of that line is an area of dimensional ambiguity.
Neither in 'flux' nor an 'edge', per popular theses. These lines are actually zones of transfer.
An osmotic zone, translucent and accepting. Yet, functioning like a pericardium membrane
restricting motion and expansion.
The lab became interested in preparing the site. Tilling the soil, so to speak, in preparation for a
self-determined future - rather than prescribe uses, events and experiences. In this way we hope
to prevent creation of an urban plan with a singular focal point, but instead prepare for a healthily
diverse place of communication with many voices, cultures and color.
Status - in progress
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OAKLAND - Can Entropy be Reversed? / Isaac Asimov
Entropy change has often been defined as a change to a more disordered state at a molecular level. In recent years, entropy has been interpreted in terms of the 'dispersal' of energy. When a system's energy is defined as the sum of its "useful" energy, (e.g. that used to push a piston), and its "useless energy", i.e. that energy which cannot be used for external work, then entropy may be (most concretely) visualized as the "scrap" or "useless" energy whose energetic prevalence over the total energy of a system is directly proportional to the absolute temperature of the considered system.
Ongoing Research - Urban Strategy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLINK!LABarchitecture, inc
4228 martin luther king, jr. way
oakland, ca
94609
t 510.326.2176
