Off The GRID
Project Type: Educational (ARCH301)
Project Timeline: August 21, 2017 - December 15, 2017
Project Brief: “In Summer of 2015, a group of Ames kids told by their parents to get off their phones got together and constructed a fort out of found material in Munn Woods. Eventually, the city found out about the fort, and moved to evict them. The kids resisted. This caused some debate in the community. Some felt the city had a point, especially as the kids had not considered the site and the environmental impact of the structure very well, but others felt the kids had an equally valid claim to their construction. The fort-kids later went to a Parks & Recreation hearing, where they argued for “Fort-Zones”, where kids would be allowed to build such structures, to be established in parks around the city. Our project followed up on the idea of these Fort-Zones as a speculative history looking back from 2040 to 2015, of the history and architecture of Fort-Zones, over the 25 years.”
Project Location:
My goal for the fort zone was to design a landscape that would foster creativity and creation of kid built forts. A big reason the original fort kids were forced to take their fort down was its structural integrity was failing, so I chose to address this safety. I designed a large three-dimensional grid composed of thousands of 2.5 foot cedar rods which could act as structural framework. To blur the line between landscape and adult-built environment, I removed large areas of the structure and situated it in feather reed-grass which grows in excess of five feet. Doing this also made it an inclusive design since kids who weren't old enough or able to use tools or carry heavy materials could form the tall grass around the structure.
Over the course of several years the fort began to fall apart in some places due to weather and/or heavy usage. Kids began to take notice and furthered this erosion process by removing pieces of the structure and putting them elsewhere. Over time the grid completely transformed.
One of the deliverables we were asked to create for our final project was a "documentary" about our project. Keeping with the theme of the project it was to be made from the as if it was the future, looking back at the last 25 years. My documentary highlights events that led to the final form of my fort zone.
Images from project
(Above images in addition to other graphics and photos with descriptions)
Click an image to open the viewer.
