soft infrastructures and urban migration

Vacant blocks are like a toothless mouth. Exposed party walls frame gaps and open views across further blocks giving an unsettling but exciting new spatial awareness of the city.
The immediate instinct, like any good dentist,is to plug these gaps, to infill the empty lots with new structures of a similar scale and to restore the familiar single point perspective streetscape. But the possibilities framed by the party walls are too strong. New movement, both visual and physical, across and diagonal to the block structure has been opened up. New forms of private, semi-public and public space and landscapes are suggested.

Our project identifies party walls as entry points and markers to create new routes across the city. It proposes the introduction of a new building typology – one that is simple, adjustable and can be erected and maintained by local inhabitants. This kit of parts begins with mesh screens on steel framing that can be fixed to existing walls. From the basic screen many options are possible. This process of adaption and growth is lead by the local communities who can make their own decisions about how to develop. Over time more elaborate and sophisticated structures can be made.

At a city-wide scale, we would propose larger screens to form new connections across the city and to encourage walking, cycling and jogging across the new network of neighbourhoods. These elements can respond to the scale of the highway, railway, deserted car lot, abandoned warehouse and riverside.