ECOMMODATE: AN URBAN VILLAGE: February 2009

2.25.2009

logos

2.17.2009

CAD and Sketchup Preliminary Models

Here's a screenshot of my progress for the market configuration for the village. This is the basic plan for the container configuration. The market is 19 containers across. The first two floors will be used for storage and delivery. The third floor, shown up-close, is where the most manipulation of the containers happen, using 20' and 40' containers together. These are where the entrances for each shop are found. The fourth floor will again be made of 40' containers again and will contain additional retail space as well as office spaces for each business.

Here's a screenshot of the first three floors of the markets in Sketchup mode. You get a better idea of how these containers relate to each other and how the entrances will feel. In a previous post, I was debating if I should keep each business individual or link them together into one giant market. But as my professor suggested, why make it out of containers if you don't emphasize the contained aspect of each business as an individual entity? So, they will be individual business kept together.

Site Plans, Ariel Views

2.12.2009

Logo Research

I thought I had settled on a logo, but I keep revisiting what I had created, which were different variations of the banner at the top of this page. I think it might be too "cutesy" for what I'm trying to achieve. While it does in a way show what exactly "ecommodate" is as a component, a shipping container building, it doesn't really capture the spirit of the project.

ECOMMODATE= Economical: Accomodate: Ecological.

I reseached a little more today, and found these really interesting "barcode art" pieces. There are several movies out there that play with the idea that we will become "numbers" or "barcoded" in the future and become anonymous. This kind of makes a barcode whimsical and a lighter subject, reducing the stigma it might have. I like this connection because I'm trying to lift two stigmas in my project: shipping containers as mere containers/confinement/boxes and also my location, an overpass, which is commonly connected to homelessness.

So to wrap it up, I think a barcode-type logo will be interesting and catchy. Economical factors are an obvious relation to a barcode as it is, but after some manipulating of it I think I can also tie it to accomodating and ecological factors. More to come!