THOUGHTBARN - Urban Trend: Temporary Architecture
THOUGHTBARN
Austin, Texas
Urban Trend: Temporary Architecture
Buoyant City, 2013
2 min., 53 sec.
Learn more about Temporary Architecture on 100urbantrends.org: http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/100ur...
This video was commissioned as part of Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab, on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from October 11, 2013 - Jan 5, 2014. Learn more at http://www.guggenheim.org/100urbantrends.
Bio:
THOUGHTBARN (thoughtbarn.com) is a design studio in Austin, Texas, that champions artful utility through buildings, urban strategies, and public installations. The name THOUGHTBARN playfully alludes to the skillsets the members combine under one roof. Both a think tank and a workshop, the studio values strong conceptual ideas and research alongside material experiments and full-scale prototyping. Since its inception in 2007, THOUGHTBARN has worked with entrepreneurs, local governments, cultural organizations, and private clients to realize ambitious projects with limited resources, in Texas and elsewhere. THOUGHTBARN is co-led by Robert Gay and Lucy Begg.
Gay, originally from Alabama, received his B.Arch. from Auburn University and M.Arch. from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to founding THOUGHTBARN, Gay was with Adjaye Associates in London, and was a lead researcher on the forthcoming book Plastics in Architecture, by Billie Faircloth. Gay teaches architecture studios at the University of Texas at Austin and is also a founding partner of BBIITT, a digital fabrication consultancy in Austin.
Begg, originally from London, England, received her B.Arch. from Cambridge University and M.Arch. from the University of California at Berkeley. Begg has worked in firms in the United States and the United Kingdom. She was an outreach student at the Rural Studio in Alabama in 2003. Begg won the Branner Traveling Fellowship from Berkeley in 2006, enabling her to spend one year working with architects around the globe on innovative participatory design methods influenced by theater and game design.
Statement:
In the last five years, Austin has become a high-profile destination for special events----the festival SXSW, Formula 1, and the X-Games, among others. This has created a festival economy in Austin that is valued at over one-half of a billion dollars and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city annually. This influx, while boosting the local economy, is putting strain on the city's infrastructure. A recent article in the Austin Chronicle titled "Event Horizon" details the pressures of traffic management, permitting, clean-up, and public safety, and poses the question: "is Austin approaching major events overload?"
THOUGHTBARN considers how temporary architecture could help respond to some of the emergent challenges of this situation. Buoyant City (2013) describes a temporary floating infrastructure of event housing to accommodate the particular demographic of festival attendees. The festival campsite, fabricated from off-the-shelf dock systems, could provide a low-cost, low-impact means of ensuring visitors are not priced out of the festival market.
The modular dock systems, together with simple arched tent structures, would be deployed along the banks of Ladybird Lake, which flows through the center of the city. They would provide secure, convenient, scenic camping spots, close to downtown, without further disrupting the infrastructure of the city, or taking up valuable parking space already used for staging events. By using existing kayaks or canoe rental facilities, the festival-goers could use the water as a thoroughfare to reach different parts of the city. The floating campsites would connect to the trail system for use of restrooms and for bicycle access.