Irene Cheng In 2006, I founded an office with my partner, Brett Snyder. Our work is guided by two core principles: first, that design is a form of research and, second, that architecture should be a public practice—an instigator of collective discourses about buildings and cities. We aim to develop architectural and multimedia projects that are smart, socially relevant, occasionally controversial, and that make people pause and think. Our design process is research-based and draws on our combined backgrounds in history, social activism, graphic design, and architecture. The work takes numerous forms: whether it is an iPhone app that reveals a hidden city, a tongue-in-cheek proposal to turn a dead mall into a women’s prison, or an exhibition on the design of citizenship, the projects strive to provoke fresh thinking about aesthetics and politics, form and content.
Transcript
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Irene Cheng
In 2006, I founded an office with my partner, Brett Snyder. Our work is guided by two core principles: first, that design is a form of research and, second, that architecture should be a public practice—an instigator of collective discourses about buildings and cities. We aim to develop architectural and multimedia projects that are smart, socially relevant, occasionally controversial, and that make people pause and think. Our design process is research-based and draws on our combined backgrounds in history, social activism, graphic design, and architecture. The work takes numerous forms: whether it is an iPhone app that reveals a hidden city, a tongue-in-cheek proposal to turn a dead mall into a women’s prison, or an exhibition on the design of citizenship, the projects strive to provoke fresh thinking about aesthetics and politics, form and content.
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DORMIT
ORY
ROOM
115
SF
BUDGET
HOTEL
ROOM
200
SF ONE BEDROOM
APARTMENT
500 SF
SUBURBAN HOUSE 1500 SF
MUSEUM OF THE PHANTOM CITY
MALL-TO-PRISON-INVERSION
CITIZENSHIP BY DESIGN
WHERE DO YOU LIVE?
WRITER’S BLOCK I
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Museum of the Phantom City >>The project explores how mobile devices can be used to transform individuals’ experience of architecture and the city. Cell phones and mobile devices are deployed to create a museum of architecture without walls.
mobile media projectNew York Citysupported by the Van Alen Institute
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1. Members of the public send images of historical, or contemporary utopian projects, designated for specific sites in Manhattan, to an online archive.
2. Images submitted by users become part of a curated database.
3. While travelling throughout the city, pedestrians can download images of utopian schemes for the sites they encounter, allowing them to see ‘present’ and ‘future’ juxtaposed.
City as Museum, Inverted
The city is a repository of objects, architectures, and experiences—a kind of museum turned inside out.
Yet, urban dwellers typically have only limited access to the stories and meanings behind buildings and
streets. Museum of the Phantom City explores how ubiquitous personal telecommunications devices
can be used to make these hidden stories visible. This “museum” takes the form of an iPhone app that
guides users on new itineraries through the city’s spaces.
Mobile Media and Urban Experience
iPhones and mobile devices put an unprecedented amount of information about the city at one’s
fingertips. Applications like Google Maps and Urbanspoon, however, are generally functional in nature:
they seek to clarify the city, to demystify and make it more legible. In contrast, we are interested in how
mobile media can deepen and intensify urban experience, perhaps even introducing new pleasures and
mysteries to the metropolitan condition.
PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIESToday even the most basic cell phone is a powerful multimedia tool, with the capacity to send and receive sounds, images, and texts.
TRADITIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMSMaps, signs, placards, and museum audio tours are conventional means of communicating information about a place or sight.
An ‘Open Source’ Museum Every building or neighborhood has a story to tell. Yet as a genre, architectural information graphics seem arrested in the nineteenth-century forms of the plaque and the guidebook – modes that are didactic and technologically primitive. We wondered how ubiquitous mobile devices might be harnessed to make the city’s hidden stories visible. Such speculations led us to develop the Museum of the Phantom City: Other Futures – an iPhone app that lets users browse visionary designs for the City of New York on their phones.
MUSEUM OF THE PHANTOM CITY
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CITY AS MUSEUM, INVERTED The city is a repository of objects, architectures, and experiences—a kind of museum turned inside out. Typically, however, urban dwellers have limited access to the stories and meanings behind buildings and streets. Museum of the Phantom City explores how ubiquitous personal telecommunications devices such as cell phones and PDAs can be used to make these hidden stories visible—and to enable users themselves to create new narratives and itineraries.
Other Futures Other Futures, the first Museum of the Phantom City exhibition, allows individuals to browse visionary designs for the City of New York on their iPhones. Users can view images and descriptions of speculative projects ranging from Buckminster Fuller’s dome over midtown Manhattan, to Antonio Gaudi’s unbuilt hotel to Archigram’s pop-futurist “Walking City,” all while standing on the projects’ intended sites.
Other Futures
Other Futures, the first Museum of the Phantom City exhibition, allows individuals to browse visionary
designs for the City of New York on their iPhones, all while standing on the projects’ intended sites. The
museum includes well-known projects such as Buckminster Fuller’s Dome over Midtown Manhattan
and Superstudio’s Continuous Monument, as well as less famous proposals like Fuller’s “Mini-Earth”—a
miniature globe that would have been suspended by cables across from the United Nations building,
constantly reminding diplomats of the “bigger picture” of their actions, and Raymond Loewy’s 1941
proposal for a helicopter landing field to be built on steel pylons over Bryant Park, which he claimed could
double as an air raid shelter.
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How it Works
The interface for the app is intentionally mysterious, evoking the sense of a terrain vague—a territory to be
discovered. A darkened map is superimposed with ghostlike bursts indicating the sites of speculative projects
for the city. When a user is in range of a particular proposal, he or she can access the site, see images, and read
text by the architect or designer. In addition, the user has an option to rate the projects according to a sliding
scale of qualities before returning to the map. Because access to the exhibition’s content is restricted by the
user’s location (you can only see the projects if you are standing on or near the site), the app encourages the
physical act of walking through the city.
MAP MODE PROJECT MODE
above: Designed as a companion to the app, a Museum of the Phantom City website allows users to access all of the sites remotely. The website allows users to navigate the archive of speculative projects by architect, year, or location. In addition, users can add new projects to the archive, which will then be accessible via the iPhone.
OCTOBER 3, 2009 PROJECT LAUNCH AND SCAVENGER HUNT (RAIN DATE: OCTOBER 4)1 PM MEET AT THE BASE OF THE AERIAL TRAM STATION ON ROOSEVELT ISLAND. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN IPHONE, YOU WILL BE TEAMED UP WITH SOMEONE WHO DOES. 4 PM RECONVENE AT THE VAN ALEN INSTITUTE FOR REFRESHMENTS AND PRIZES: 30 WEST 22, 6TH FLOOR
MUSEUM OF THE PHANTOM CITY
PRESENTS OTHER FUTURES
AN ARCHITECTURAL IPHONE APP
SEE THE CITY THAT COULD HAVE BEEN
below, from left to right:Poster for the project launch.Exhibition including edible visionary architecture.The museum was launched with a scavenger hunt that began on Roosevelt Island and sent participants around the city.
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Citizenship by Design >>Techniques of “official” or “bureaucratic” design are researched in order to raise critical questions about contemporary citizenship, nation-branding, and security. book + exhibitionin collaboration with Kadambari Baxisupported by the IFG-Ulm
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Citizenship by Design investigates the design of international passports, identification
technologies and travel regulations to raise critical questions about contemporary citizenship
in an era of proliferating global crossings. A book and exhibition highlight the aesthetics of
bureaucratic documents, remixes their elements into imaginative multinational hybrids, and
challenges individuals to question the status quo of international norms around citizenship.
Research was conducted into seven areas related to the design of citizenship:
> Politics of passport colors
> Symbolic values of passport heralds
> The language of allegiance contained within passports
> Security printing techniques
> New technologies of identity
> Unequal access to mobility
> Four types of nonstandard citizens, from the uncounted to the overcounted.
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Security printing techniques like intaglio, ultraviolet inks,
and holograms do more than prevent counterfeiting. They
can convey subtle aesthetic effects and political messages.
While some countries use abstract designs, others see the
passport as a canvas for patriotic inculcation. In 2007, the
United States redesigned its passports according to the
theme “American icon.” Visual emblems printed onto the
pages include a bald eagle, sheaves of wheat, the flag,
Mount Rushmore, and a long-horn cattle drive, accompanied
by patriotic texts such as the national anthem, the opening
lines of the Constitution, and a Mohawk Thanksgiving
speech.
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The project has been exhibited in a number of forums, including the Van Alen Institute, Barnard
College, New York’s Chinatown, and Cornell University. At each venue, surveys were taken
asking visitors to consider several critical questions related to the design of citizenship—for
example, “What information should a state be able to collect about individuals passing through
its borders?” and “What should the holder of a passport be called—citizen, subject, national,
taxpayer, dependent, protected person, or other?”
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Mall-to-Prison Inversion >>This theoretical design project is a tongue-in-cheek critique of exurban planning and the prison-industrial complex, while also exploring techniques for green adaptive reuse.
radical reuse proposalFishkill, New Yorkfinalist, Dead Malls Competition, LA Forum, 2003
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The Mall Reconfigured
We propose that the mass of the mall be punctured with light wells, “interior exteriors” that provide light, air,
and inhabitable courtyards adjacent to the prison cells. Similarly, the inner security perimeter is peeled away
from the outer wall at key points on the facade, creating layered, indeterminate spaces between inside and out.
The parking lot is transformed into a grass-crete “yard,” significantly reducing run-off problems created by the
existing lot.
Developing a Programmatic Strategy: A Mall to Prison Inversion
Can an introverted architecture be turned inside out? Can an architecture of incarceration be
transformed to produce collisions of privacy and publicity, freedom and confinement? As the mall
historically has been a domain (some might argue, of liberation) for women, we propose, in the spirit of
inversion, to transform the Dutchess Mall into a women’s correctional facility for 800 medium-, minimum-
security, and work release inmates.
MALL-TO-PRISON INVERSION
VIEW VIEW
STORES
EXISTING MALL INVERTED “PRISON” MALL
PRISON INMATES
INVERTING THE DOUGHNUT
PANOPTICON TYPICAL MALL VIEW TYPICAL PRISON VIEW
Why do dead malls so often resemble prisons? Hulking, anonymous, and closed to the outside, these
two building types are some of the most reviled edifices in the contemporary American landscape.
Rather than attempt a cosmetic renovation of the mall, we propose a far more radical transformation: an
inversion of this closed typology.
MALL-TO-PRISON INVERSION
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Screening Techniques
The question of what is seen and
unseen is crucial in a prison—
just as it is in the mall. Two types
of screens are typically present
in the mall: transparent partitions
that allow customers to see
goods for sale, and opaque
barriers that prevent them from
spying unsightly backrooms.
We propose the addition of a
third partition type, the louvered
screen, creating an intermediate
level of visual access. Because
security requires the prison to be
enclosed by a double perimeter,
the new programs are slipped
inside the existing walls of the
mall, which are punctured where
needed.
NEW ROOF LANDSCAPE
INTERIOR LANDSCAPE
EXTERIOR “SELECTIVE” SCREENING
INTERIOR SCREENING
INTERIOR SCREENING
CELL BLOCKS LEVEL 2
CELL BLOCKS LEVEL 1
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Investigating Surveillance >> Both shopping and imprisonment rely on spatial configurations that provide clear visual lines between consumer and object, inmate and guard. A shopping mall resembles a Panopticon, or machine for highly controlled viewing, where the central eye of the consumer moves as it surveys the illuminated goods before it. The new prison cells were designed using techniques of spatial surveillance gleaned from typical retail window display design practices.
MALL-TO-PRISON INVERSION
0 5 20 FT
TYPICAL CELL UNIT
INTERIOR ATRIUMPERIMETER ATRIUMFORMER PARKING LOT A CELL BLOCK “DISPLAY” AREA
0 5 20 FT
TYPICAL CELL UNIT
INTERIOR ATRIUMPERIMETER ATRIUMFORMER PARKING LOT A CELL BLOCK “DISPLAY” AREA
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Retail window display techniques from Architectural Timesaver Standards are repurposed to facilitate “sight lines” in the prison.
0 5 20 FT
TYPICAL CELL UNIT
INTERIOR ATRIUMPERIMETER ATRIUMFORMER PARKING LOT A CELL BLOCK “DISPLAY” AREA
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Where Do You Live? >>An exhibition of designs for low-cost housing compels visitors to pause and think about their own living conditions as well as others’. A tiny budget provides an opportunity to partner with a local technical school on fabrication. Further economies are achieved by making the exhibition contents double as a building material.
exhibition designNew York City
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Visitors weave through the exhibition, experiencing with their bodies the parameters of each
kind of living unit. Carefully placed openings in the walls allow the spectator to look from
one space through the others, affording dense, layered views. Information about the scale
and contexts of these living spaces, the exhibition sponsors, the competition entries, as
well as the history of the Bowery and low-income housing development, are woven into the
display through a clear and simple graphic strategy.
By allowing users to tangibly compare the physical dimensions of a variety of living
spaces—a New York City studio, a monk’s cell in France, a budget hotel room, and a
suburban house—the exhibition asks visitors to consider: how much space does it take to
make a home? In reducing spaces to numbers and volumes, the exhibition also confronts
visitors with a question of value: is it quantity or quality that makes a home?
CUR-RENT UNIT33 SF
NEW FIRST STEP UNIT66 SF
MONKS CELL 70 SF
DORMITORY ROOM115 SF BUDGET
HOTEL ROOM200 SF
ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT500 SF
SUBURBAN HOUSE1500 SF
WHERE DO YOU LIVE?
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Comparison of the current and new housing unit sizes
Exhibition information panel + ‘view’
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COMPETITION BOARD30”
40” ALL OF THE STRUCTURE IS DESIGNED TO BE CNC MILLED IN A SHOP AND ASSEMBLED ON SITE
THE HORIZONTAL SUPPORTS ARE CONCEALED BEHIND THE BOARDS,WITH ONLY THE VERTICAL ELEMENTS EXPOSED
ALL PLYWOOD ELEMENTS ARE NOTCHED SO THE PIECES CAN EASILY SNAP TOGETHER
THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE FOLDS OUT TO FORM INFORMATION TABLES AND TO PROVIDE BRACING
Construction in four days by a team of volunteers
We developed a structural system that was lightweight, cheap, and easily erected and dismantled.
WHERE DO YOU LIVE?
Fabrications: Unconventional Collaboration
In order to meet the low exhibition budget (approximately $1/sf), we turned to
some unconventional partners: a local technical high school provided CNC
milling services at a fraction of what commercial fabrication would have cost.
The faculty and students were happy to use their equipment and skills for a
worthy cause.
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Writer’s Block I >>This project asks how much architecture one can pack into a 190-sf writing-studio-cum-storage-shed-cum-guest-house. The structure maximizes a sense of spaciousness and expansion into nature while having a minimum footprint and environmental impact.
writing studio + boat houseWestport Island, Maine
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Writer’s Block I: Transformable Architecture
From the outside Writer’s Block I looks like a monolithic volume, but several hidden doors open to
reveal an entrance, ventilation openings, and an unexpected boat storage compartment. In order to
pack as much utility as possible in a tiny space, everything serves multiple functions: the surface over
the boat can be used as desk or sleeping surface while structural studs become bookshelves and
storage niches. Boat shed and writer’s retreat coexist in one volume, without either being aware of the
other.
WRITER’S BLOCK I
We studied several options for solving the problem of how to partition a volume efficiently to serve multiple functions while maintaining maximum openness and ventilation.
