HOC / AOA
HOUSE ON THE CLOUD / ARCHITECTURE OPERATIVE AGENCY
New York, USA / Buenos Aires, Argentina / Santo Domingo, República Dominicana.

Project Name: ECO-ENVIRO-SYSTEM “DRIVE CHANGE”
Status: Concept Design.
Program: Trans-spatial Environment Ecosystem
Client: Drive Change

Beyond “HYBRID TYPOLOGIES”:  Towards a “TRANS-SPATIAL ENVIRONMENTS” for social commitment.

CONCEPTUALIZATION.

Understanding the cultural and temporal spirit of hybrid building, developed in the works of Koolhaas, Holl, among others.  The aims of its hybrid existence are a response to the crisis of hegemonic typologies throughout the proposal of a multi-programs organization. In a Sort of layering strata of half-blood spatial juxtaposition.  Morphologic Collisions and programmatic intelligent Frankenstein’s are laying out the post-capitalism materialization of the contemporary culture.  

From our approach, we are trying to push the boundaries of the hybrid practice beyond the traditional understanding of its materialization, making use of multiple mechanisms. Materials, spatial, morphologic and programmatic- in a similar way of a hybrid practice, but understanding the role of its parts as a intertwined symbiotic ecosystem in regards of not only as an architectural answer, but as also exploring new contingencies of political and economic sustainable opportunities. Holistic practice can be a well description of our intentions.

To understand the logic behind a Trans-Spatial Environments as a new approach of the space.

We need to pay close attention to the differences between the concepts of inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary.  The first tries to use a combination of two or more ethos in a philosophical understanding transposed to academics, economics, cultural, social or another field with a clear understanding of its parts. While the second one its approach tries to cross transversally in a holistic approach the ethos involved blending the boundaries and creating a new identity.  

A Trans-Spatial Environment as an on-going exploration arise as a detection of the connected points of interchange in an holistic approach of the embodiment of the space as a sustainable environment blending in terms of quality and characteristics the material space its role of the economic, political and environmental. All the intertwined relationship between these organisms produce a multiplicity of gray nuances. Where new spatial relationship are possible in terms of architecture.

CONCEPT SPACE PROJECT PROPOSAL.

 ECO-ENVIRO-SYSTEM “DRIVE CHANGE” is a project conceptualization as a formal response as a requirement of our client Drive Change.

Drive Change is a community impact organization started in 2013 by its founder Jordyn Lexton a former English Teacher at Rikers Island High School. Where they realized the grim future for bright, talented young individuals leaving the system and reentering into society.  Involving the use of food and business to create a space for conversation around social justice. Drive Change has developed a food truck and service company that employs returning citizens, training them for bright futures in the culinary arts industry.

The Capacity of the project trying to work as a Training hub for former felons and training them in the business of culinary, food trucks with a social commitment at the beginning was an apparently task of bring together business school program with a spatial response.

The challenge of this project was to create a conceptual proposal for the vision of Drive Change.

The main task was to propose how their needs blend in terms of spatial solution and how would works in terms of political, social, spatial quality, mood, and specific features that would defined the space.

Drive Change’s space ecosystem is a trans-spatial multifunction response with a quad‐party-intertwined core defined by:

• FULL COMMISSARY KITCHEN.
• FOOD TRUCKS DEDICATED SPACE.
• DRIVE CHANGE HEADQUARTERS.
• CO‐WORKING + LEARNING SPACE.

Each of these main spaces has a more complex subdivision of microsystems of adjacent spaces, which work interconnected or interlinked. They sometimes work isolated as stand‐alone spaces without affection from the other spaces, and sometimes they are a part of a more complex network, inter‐dependent of one another.

A fifth main space can be defined by an Urban Farm (rooftop, greenhouse, indoors), and a point of sales associated with it. 

HOC+AOA

Is a transdisciplinary think-tank practice, driven by research, which operates, in the intersections of Architecture, Industrial Design, Media, Technology, Theoretical Thinking, Arts and Crafts. Founded in 2017 by the Argentinean Architect and Industrial Designer Aldana Ferrer Garcia, and The Dominican Architect Toussaint Jimenez Rojas.

Aldana Ferrer Garcia holds a GED Master Industrial Design by Pratt Institute, NYC and  BA-ARCH by Facultad de Arquitectura Diseño y Urbanismo; Universidad de Buenos Aires.
www.aldanaferrergarcia.com

Toussaint Jimenez Rojas holds a MDAA by Facultad de Arquitectura Diseño y Urbanismo; Universidad de Buenos Aires, and a BA-ARCH holds by Facultad de Ingeniería y Arquitectura; Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, República Dominicana.