City of Retextured Coexistence
Fall 2019 | Grad Design IProject Brief
Your city will be a re-imagined Los Angeles where certain conditions or situations you have identified are amplified, mutated, extended. These situations could be social, technological, cultural, environmental, material, or (hopefully) a mix – basically anything that is part of the urban fabric. Your city will exist as a multimedia drawing or installation.
It will be a city that doesn't look like a generic city. It will be a radical abstraction, inspired by your direct experiences and critical concepts. Your city will be created from a custom 'kit' of design elements which you will formulate, based on your field trip investigations in the first half of the project. As you create your cities, we’ll contemplate ourselves, as hedonistic extremophiles, as inhabitants of these newly envisioned spaces.
It will be a city that doesn't look like a generic city. It will be a radical abstraction, inspired by your direct experiences and critical concepts. Your city will be created from a custom 'kit' of design elements which you will formulate, based on your field trip investigations in the first half of the project. As you create your cities, we’ll contemplate ourselves, as hedonistic extremophiles, as inhabitants of these newly envisioned spaces.
Site Visits, Research, & Synthesis
I had a prior interest in investigating urban infrastructures, and began this work by visiting sites around civic utilities and resource providers. I visited three sites – the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, the Chevron Refinery in El Segundo, and the Inglewood Oil Field.
Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant
El Segundo Chevron Refinery
Inglewood Oil Field
A diagram showcasing several of the aspects of these spaces I observed.
The blue areas highlight the areas I was interested in exploring further in my design outputs.
We were encouraged to use different tools and methods in both collecting materials and processing our data. I primarily relied on photographs and free-form writing post-visit.
I found it really challenging to process my writing, observations, and photos, and was encouraged to experiment with digital collage. While I found this was a helpful way to move forward, I felt that my materials were lacking because of how inaccessible these places were (both scale-wise and security-wise). To address this I realized I needed a different vantage point.
I first started by generating maps that would let me have a better sense of scale.
I found it really challenging to process my writing, observations, and photos, and was encouraged to experiment with digital collage. While I found this was a helpful way to move forward, I felt that my materials were lacking because of how inaccessible these places were (both scale-wise and security-wise). To address this I realized I needed a different vantage point.
I first started by generating maps that would let me have a better sense of scale.
Example map generated by Cadmapper.
I also experimented with using Google Maps satellite imagery with photogrammetry. By using screen-recordings of myself ‘navigating’ around the Chevron refinery (the most inaccessible of the sites I visited), I was able to generate a rough 3D model of part of the site.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to get out of doing this, and found myself hesistating to try things out (because of course, it’s uncomfortable). But by trying it out I became interested in the texture that was generated, and how it maintained its industrial, inaccessible aesthetic even without being applied to the model. This observation ended up guiding my design process.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to get out of doing this, and found myself hesistating to try things out (because of course, it’s uncomfortable). But by trying it out I became interested in the texture that was generated, and how it maintained its industrial, inaccessible aesthetic even without being applied to the model. This observation ended up guiding my design process.
Design Process & Outputs
As I kept working with the 3D model, the maps I generated, and my research materials, I decided to focus on how these infrastructures often had facades put in place to limit access - either directly/outrightly via gates and security personnel or more as a means of camoflage/blending in (for example, cell phone towers disguised as church steeples or palm trees).
Italo Calvino, “Invisible Cities.”
Using the oil refinery as the main context for my work, I decided to reimagine a city where these inaccessible infrastructures are more integrated with society – my question was, how might the people who rely on these resources in their daily lives coexist with these infrastructures?
In substituting the industrial texture with other materials, like brick, concrete, wood, other natural materials, I imagined how the oil tanks might lend themselves to other uses.
I constructed the following scenarios, where oil tanks would be used/repurposed in different ways. I intentionally chose these activities for the oil refinery specifically, as a means of also questioning/challenging/taking into consideration our relationship with resources (oil).
In substituting the industrial texture with other materials, like brick, concrete, wood, other natural materials, I imagined how the oil tanks might lend themselves to other uses.
I constructed the following scenarios, where oil tanks would be used/repurposed in different ways. I intentionally chose these activities for the oil refinery specifically, as a means of also questioning/challenging/taking into consideration our relationship with resources (oil).
Oil tanks as a place of worship.
(Site 01: Oil Shrines)
Oil tanks as a place to be buried.(Site 02: Crematorium & Burial Grounds)
3) Oil tanks as a center for physical activities such as yoga and rehabilitation.
(Site 03: Rehab & Meditation Tanks)