Archinect - Design and Agency

Adventures on Public Space - #whOWNSpace #GRNPNT

2012-01-31T09:14:00-05:00

Since launching the #whOWNSpace collaboration we have been busy putting a lens to the confusing and often conflicting rules governing public space.

I wanted to highlight our latest effort - a closer look at a network of open spaces in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We are forming a larger group of designers, lawyers and politicians, journalists, and other concerned citizens to argue for a BLACKBELT - a network of open and public spaces for COMMUNITY engagement, organizing, and action. BLACKBELTS are for the active use of the city.

Make sure to check out the time-lapse video below and Join Us in this effort - we will need more collaborators as we plan and execute BLACKBELT actions (add #GRNPNT to your name)

#whOWNSpace -JOIN

2011-10-31T12:41:14-04:00

Thanks to Javier for announcing #whOWNSpace here in the 'nect on Friday.

I wanted to reiterate the call for people to join and participate. We hope that #whOWNSpace will serve as a way for like-minded art, design, architecture, activist, etc... groups to talk about and take action on the open and "public" spaces in our cities.

The three groups that started this collaboration will also put out specific calls to action, beginning very soon.

JOIN HERE

#whOWNSpace arises from the the questions that the #occupywallstreet movement has brought up about ownership and use of open space in New York City, North America, and cities all over the world.

This project will be used to:
1- REVEAL conflicting rules and ownerships in the increasingly privatized and commercialized spaces that make up the contemporary neoliberal urban condition
2- QUESTION those rules and the current state of our "public" space; discussing the intentions and conditions surrounding our open spaces
3- ADV...

A Call to Action for the Rights of the Neighborhoods

2011-10-11T20:03:21-04:00

The following statements were read at the Friends Center and at Occupy Philly in Philadelphia's City Hall grounds on Monday, October 10, 2011, in conjunction with the 2011 Design in Action conference.

Also on DSGN AGNC

Download as PDF

A Call to Action for the Rights of the Neighborhoods

"It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for rethinking the American Dream. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure. Communities in need are not free communities. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."

This new social contract is based off of the historical model of the Second Bill of Rights that was delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 11, 1944, which this a quote from.

The right to a useful and remunerative job;
The right to ear...

Back Home

2011-09-26T17:54:23-04:00

archinect: I missed you.

It has been about 2 years since my last school blog post and I have so much to talk to you about. Since we last chatted I have been working with a variety of people and places, but have mostly been focused on:

-Leading a special project for Architecture 2030, more coming soon...

-Guiding DSGN AGNC design, art and media projects in Colombia, NYC, and many other places

-Teaching urban strategies, and tactics at Parsons The New School for Design in the School of Design Strategies

I will now use this space to talk about all these things and the issues that tie them: ecologies, communities and case studies, design, agency, tactics and strategies, activism, art, theory, media, etc...

Talk to you more soon. q