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Nanogram Competition Entry: Activate! 2013
Team: L. Michael Lu
Now introducing elementPARK, an urban injection of sculptural PVC. elementPARK is iconic and ironic. A triangular park is made linear, a rectilinear pavillion is formed of extruded circles. element|PARK rests as an anchor between two extant bustops. While families anticipate the arrival of public transportation they are met with a playground for all. Sit-Lay-Play, Eat-Sleep-Unwind. Sustainability is at the core of element|PARK. Its roughly 5600 extruded plastic elements sculpt an openspace based on human form and activity. For the community it stands as an educational piece reminding passersby of the limitless possibilities of re-purposed materials salvaged from landfills. Its construction is basic, from the PVC pipes retrieved from construction sites and city dumps to the synthetic grass donated by sports arenas. Held in place with a combination of screws and bonding agent donated by local hardware stores and the sweat of community participation, element|PARK will remain a symbol for Jackson + Homan. A defunct park is once again activated by the discarded remains of human occupation and the ingenuity of its inhabitants. .
Nanogram Competition Entry: Flatlot 2013
Team: L. Michael Lu, Jeff Yarnall, Orlando Muro
Welcome to Park|Park, an undulating landscape of mounds forged from construction debris and re-purposed materials. Day and night, weekdays and weekends, Park|Park is host to a series of events from the quotidian to the spectacle. The parking lot is not displaced but enhanced, offering the amenity infrastructure and outdoor open-space for the community to value. Sustainability is at the core of Park|Park, from the wood pallet structures to their synthetic grass skins discarded from sports arenas. During the day visitors run, climb, and lay upon the mounds shaded by inset box trees. At night, lights from the tire formed portals self-illuminate the transient parkscape. The parking lot maintains its function for the temporary storage of vehicles, but pockets of park are inserted upon its bays. Dimensionally, each mound is inextricably driven by the size of a parking space at 9’-0” x 18’-0“. The gridded park of alternating 18’-0” and 36’-0” mounds re-inserts the human element to a cold and mundane flat-lot. Wedged between machines, the public park themselves between parked cars. Park|Park stands as Flint’s face to the world, a reminder of a past born from the automobile industry and of a future rooted in sustainability and its human drivers.
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