The sidewalks of cities have become contested zones, where pedestrians usually lose out to cars and other vehicular traffic. The “parklet” model initiated by Rebar represents a simple, “user-generated” strategy to expand the public realm where existing sidewalk width is insufficient to support a vibrant street life. U-TT’s Public Spectacle parklet, commissioned in 2014 by Swissnex San Fransisco, and developed in partnership with Jan Gehl Architects, builds on the idea of encouraging new forms of civic agency by providing an adaptable space for public exchange.

The design uses the full volumetric potential of a single parking space and is able to take on multiple configurations, through a set of moving elements attached to a steel frame. These transformations allow for different uses, such as performances, lectures, screenings, public seating, meetings, and inventive appropriation by users. The parklet is located at the new Swissnex headquarters on Montgomery Street, where it serves as a dynamic bridge linking the programs and activities housed within the building to public life outside.

In the hillside barrios of Caracas, many residents lack clean water and sanitation, with communities often waiting years for the state to install these systems. Developed during the Caracas Case program, the Dry Toilet is a synthesis of infrastructure and design. Built as a prototype in the barrio of La Vega, the non-flushing toilet conserves water and establishes an off-grid sewage and sanitation system that residents can maintain themselves. Diverting liquid and solid waste, the design prevents groundwater contamination and soil erosion, and contributes fertilizer for small-scale agriculture. The Dry Toilet addresses real needs quickly, affordably, and with an approach that can be replicated on a massive scale.

Dry Toilet

Buildings

The “Yonkers Sports and Event Center” project envisions the transformation of derelict urban space into a multi-purpose sports and recreation facility. Working in partnership with The Armory Foundation’s President, Norbert Sander (winner of the 1974 NYC Marathon), the facility would be situated above the Kawasaki NYC Subway Factory in Yonkers New York and would be designed to reprogram 13’000 square meters.

The center would include a 5,000-to-6,000-seat track and field complex and flexible spaces. Its 200-meter hydraulic indoor track could be used as either a banked track or flat track. An additional removable court would host high school basketball and volleyball games, high school wrestling competitions, collegiate tournaments, as well as concerts, exhibitions and conventions along its flexible spaces.

With an expectation to attract approximately 100,000 visitors annually, the center holds the potential to simultaneously function as a community hub, fostering inter-cultural interaction for an already diverse neighborhood through sport.

Yonkers Sports and Event Centre

From its beginnings in Caracas, Venezuela, Urban-Think Tank has always been interested in operating at the peripheries, including where art, architecture, and other socially engaged disciplines meet. As a diverse team of architects, designers, writers, researchers, and artists now based within ETH Zürich, but pursuing projects throughout Latin America, Africa, and Europe, we seek to draw attention and resources to places and thinking that support a more diverse and equitable city.

Having worked for four years within Cape Town’s informal settlements, our theatrical production ‘Holy Contract’, a 2016 collaboration with the non-profit group Theatre4Change staged as part of the Cape Town Fringe Festival, was the result of real stories that emerged through interactions with residents in the township of Khayelitsha. We approach theater as an alternative means of making and activating city spaces, and ‘Holy Contract’ was conceived as a form of artistic activism, intended as the first step towards building a new theater for the community.

Residents are currently rehearsing and performing in a small, self-built ‘shack theater’—the Makukhanye Art Room. Though modest, the venue is an increasingly important gathering space for dramatic productions, dance recitals, educational workshops, mentorship programs and community meetings. Despite its obvious deficiencies, it provides for an ever-growing audience and network of actors, musicians, dancers, writers, directors, and artists based in Khayelitsha, who find it difficult to access the cultural infrastructure that otherwise exists in Cape Town’s city center.

Initiated via a series of workshops run at the Makukhanye Art Room with Theatre4Change, and rehearsed in the same space, the production of ‘Holy Contract’ provided us with a behind-the-scenes perspective on the physical requirements for a new theater, in particular the need for a larger, safer, and more controllable space. A better-equipped and flexible facility has the potential to greatly expand the impact of the programs already underway, as well as improve access to the arts for all the residents of Khayelitsha, Cape Town’s largest informal settlement.

Our vision for a new theater and arts complex includes a 250-seat multipurpose theater space, a 100-seat performance pavilion, as well as integrated market stalls, offices, and rehearsal rooms. The lightweight, low-cost design seeks to remain sensitive to the surrounding area, while at the same time offering a visible symbol of hope and ambition for the community. With our fundraising campaign launched at the Schauspielhaus Zürich at the end of March, we aim to reach our total goal of 350,000 CHF within one year.

Location	San Francisco, USA
Client	Swissnex San Fransisco
Leads	Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner
Concept and Design	Katerina Kourkoula, Hannes Gutberlet, Danny Wills, Max Harden
Collaborators	Swissnex San Fransisco, Gehl Architects, Professor Krisina Hill at UC Berkeley College of Envrionmental Design
Construction	Paul Trautman, Billy from Treasure Island
Status	Completed

Swissnex Parklet