Inhabitation.the People

This is an advertisment which main purpose is to give an idea of the type of people who already live in the area as well as an idea of the type of people who they, meaning developers, are trying to attract to the area.
The quotes are directly from developers websites and from the East Cesar Chavez neighbourhood plan.


This give you the basic idea of the Cesar Chavez population. This is a relatively dense area of Austin with a predominantly hispanic population. There is a high density of only spanish speaking households which can be seen here statistically as well as being physically expressed in the many signs in the area.

Just by walking down East Cesar Chavez, you get a sense of its past history. Many houses that were once residential are now used for business purposes. Our Group found it interesting that other than the businesses, not much had changed on East Cesar Chavez since the early 1900s.

East Cesar Chavez

When our group visited the site, we observed how different activities on the street acted together to form a community. We then envisioned the whole street as a body system with organs that each had a role in maintaining the life of East Cesar Chavez.

We focused mainly on circulation, movement, and history. Grouping these categories and relating them to the body system helped us reveal their importance.

Trapped Outside Fences

What is a fence? Does it make one safe? Does it appear unfriendly or uninviting to those who live next to you?

There are many kinds of fences, those meant to keep people out, those meant to box you in, and those meant to mark space boundaries, just to name some of the possible uses for a fence. For many they stand as an unfriendly symbol, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The east side of Austin has a lot of problems. After being dumped on for many years it stands as the last bastion for affordable property in town. with many that migrate through the area, criminals, transients and workers, some parts haven’t always been the safest parts of town.

While walking around I set out to find what the fences around people’s yards meant to an outsider who wasn’t used to seeing them.



What I found was that to these people, the fences were simply a way of life, they weren’t uninviting, they just marked what was one person’s from what wasn’t. They gave children a place to play and while providing some feeling of safety, most didn’t need them for that purpose.

I even met a few people who rarely locked their doors.

SOCIETAL (Dianne, Trent, and Olga)

Cesar Chavez

Societal

Signage, Development, Light, Wireless


Signage:











The clothesline is our represantion of the many signs and colors one encounters on Cesar Chavez. On the top line hang pictures of signs that are bigger and directed more toward the car traffic. The bottom line has signs which are at the pedestrian level. The clothesline installation gives an impression of the relaxed, colorful, multi-lingual feel of the site.

One side of the clothesline shows the signs during the day, bright and colorful. The other side shows the scene at night (image to the left). Almost all of the signs which are so prominent during the day are in darkness at night, with the exception of some which are lit up from within or with a spotlight.

Development:



















With this installation, we wanted to represent the mixed programs and new development of the site. In the pods (the containers), one can see images of homes, businesses, and live-work places. The bright colors and collage style of the installation mimic the look of the Cesar Chavez. This is also our beginning study of lighting in the corridor. The static strips of Christmas lights represent the streetlights, while the blinking lights represent the other businesses and homes. The only containers that does not fit into the colorful theme are the white, blank flower pots, which stand for the new condos being built on the site.

Lighting:

The previous study installation led us to explore the lighting of Cesar Chavez in more depth. By driving through the site and observing firsthand and using a detailed electrical grid, we were able to accurately place all of the streetlights on the corridor. From the mapping we learned that West Cesar Chavez and the neighborhoods north of it receive more light.

Wireless:

Each circle on this map represents a wireless internet connection found on Cesar Chavez. We assumed that the wireless connections reach about one-hundred yards from the connection point. The green circles represent the one-hundred yard radius of public or non-restricted wireless internet, while the black circles represent the private or restricted wireless internet.

The red and green points on the map on the left represent the wireless internet connections available in all of Austin. The map on the right expresses the same information; however, this map is zoomed in more on Cesar Chavez and the surrounding neighborhood.

Site Concepts.CNL

our dear friend leslie