Graduate Work

Spring 2013
14 weeks
crits: Pier Vittorio Aureli with Aidan Doyle
Yale School of Architecture

 

The following project is a derivative of the research project Terminal Labor.

“Once it had been discovered that labor was the source of wealth, it was the task of reason to mine, drain and exploit that source more efficiently than ever before.”
– Zygmunt Bauman

As the entrepreneur in each person is exposed in the developing class of freelance workers, a physical workspace must be envisioned to exploit their unique qualities. Coworking is a modern attempt to address this situation. Perks of established companies are offered at a daily desk rate by combining the coffee shop with the empty office. Creative class users are enticed to join these communities under the allure of increased interaction as a means to secure future employment. This model is flawed. Its users are too mobile to builds the stable communities it advertise. It attempts to capitalize on the working life of the 24/7 creative workers by functioning as an outdated 9-5 physical environment. The only way for it to succeed is to include the living aspect. Life must take over labor.

Positioned with the increasing importance of labor as a social interaction, is a new form of mobility. The gateway to the modern city is the airport. It is the connection between localized commerce and globalization. The airport has become a common mediator between living spaces and working spaces. They also include the same qualities already associated with the life of the creative worker, placenessness and future hope. Where you are today, is not where you will be tomorrow, but only through labor. I therefor propose the airport as the location for a new place of labor, located as an additional terminal to be attached to the system.

This new terminal, the Labor Terminal, will be attached to global airport hubs in major cities throughout the world. Combined, these new terminals will create a globalized community of creative class workers. Cities such as Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago (ORG), Amsterdam (AMS), and Tokyo (NRT) will each become part of the new network. For this particular investigation, we will be looking Newark Airport (EWR) as a test bed for the system. Newark is the perfect prototype for the system, as the city is a non-destination place and is the most extreme example of a terminal city. While the airport is one of the largest in the world, those using it are typically commuting to New York City or using the airport to transfer to another destination.

The new terminal will be a place of working and living. Housing is supplied as a byproduct of the working condition and to keep privacy as close as possible to the act of labor. Privacy is now reduced to sleeping and bathing in a 12 square meter apartment. Space is limitedly defined to strategically discourage insular loitering. All other aspects of life must be part of the social network to allow and encourage interaction and corruption.

Four of these units are clustered together around a kitchen and eating space to encourage the social within everyday consumption. These Living Clusters continue in a linear fashion through the length of the new terminal on floors above and below the floor of labor production, connected through single circular stairs.

The floor of labor production combines forty living units together in eighty meter working clusters. These laborers come together as collaborators on specific projects in that city for an undetermined period of time. The open plan capitalizes on labor as social relationships. The central axis is used as a walkway between spaces and contains a continuation of breakout spaces. Places to sit and relax are quickly capitalized on as impromptu meeting spaces for production. Partitions divide the sides into smaller zones for work. Work being defined as meeting rooms, a soft lounge, a bar, and a few workstations. It is vital that users do not act alone in their production. Their place of labor must be that of an approachable atmosphere to encourage interaction with others. The end of each working cluster includes a triple-height auditorium space for hosting workshops and lectures both internally and externally.

The translucent facade allows optimal lighting for working conditions while disallowing the distractions or empathy for the external environment.

The Labor Terminal is connected to the airport network via a typical tram network. Users travel directly from the existing airport terminals to their gate in the new one.

Upon exiting the tram, users are instantly immersed into an infinite corridor of duty free kiosks, coffee shops and meeting rooms. The language of space and circulation is the same as the airport itself; continuous and monotonous. Users check in at the gate of their working unit and take an elevator or the stairs one level above to the working unit.

To juxtapose the worker’s condition of external disjunction, a linear park frames the terminal as it cuts through the city. This acts as the mediator and threshold between the users inside and those outside. It provides users of the terminal with direct opportunities for sport and possibilities of the only interaction with users local to the project itself. The park is laid out informally to contrast the rigorous structure above. Its programming is as precarious as the workers attracted to the Terminal.

The new terminals will be directed from the airport to the central business districts of each city in a single linear complex. It will be built in eighty meter increments one working cluster at a time and grow or shrink as demand indicates. As it grows and connects to the central business district, the linear aspect of the complex will give it physical presence and adjacency to as much of the city as possible. Instead of being an insular item, it is as unavoidable an infrastructural element as the freeway.

The Terminal is infrastructure. It is raised 14 meters into the air to bypass infrastructural elements already existing in the city. This allows existing automotive, pedestrian and mass transit networks to permeate without obstructing the complex’s ability to internally operate.

“Trade is global, capital is global, and labor too must become global.” – Andy Stern.

When we look at labor in the modern context, globalization has taken over as the new economy. Monotony is the new culture. Nation-state boundaries no longer contain growth, distribution or interaction of economies. Ideas, goods, culture, economy, and politics are integrated with one another at a global scale. Low-wage economies have competed for production possibilities and moved work out of prosperous economies. The assembly line developed by Ford now has workers manufacturing parts in China, assembling them in Mexico, and marketing in America.

In the American context, the language economy transformed the personal workstation from man and machine, to a formal fixed desk, to a new paradigm of the power plug, but only when required. Technology continues to make our required workspace smaller and find new ways to grant us more mobility. Many places have become revolving doors for employees who no longer spend a lifetime with one employer, or even one city.

This workplace described doesn’t include everyone. The lower class has become servants of the upper class via the service industry. For example, the decline of manufacturing jobs and rise in high-tech industries has had vast impacts on the disparity. Each manufacturing job that has been lost in recent years has resulted in 1.6 additional regional service jobs to be lost. On the contrast, each new high-tech position creates an average of 5 new service jobs in the region. While reducing unemployment gives a promising look on the economy, it is merely camouflage of a rising lower class.

Debt as an Apparatus

The stability and predictability of Fordism has been replaced with ceaseless anxiety of Neoliberalism. Everyone is now a debtor, guilty before capital. Deregulation and the new political regime gave promise to economic liberalization and emancipation of labor. It was to give people new freedoms of choice, mobility and self-fulfillment. Instead, rights to housing are replaced with real estate loans, tuition with student loans, and pensions with 401k plans. Mortgages, credit cards, student and personal loans have become easier to obtain more than ever. The society as a whole is fused with a new capacity to consume, and to consume at a loss. Consumption becomes a recursive machine to encourage future consumption, paying no head to the future. Home ownership alone is marketed with the aspiration of increase value over time, thus becoming the collateral on future debt. Suddenly the middle class is now the welfare state.

The biggest problem with taking on debt is that the creditor-debtor relationship requires trust and confidence in oneself, in others and in society. Debt is not only personal. Entire nation-states are now in debt. The future must continue to remain as an optimist promise. Our economy is running on speculation and requires us to continue to believe in hope. If the future is compromised, the level of debts will crush the economy. Debt is in thus the origin of guilt. This forces us to work on the self. We must adapt ourselves to be prosperous in the future. All action becomes a form of labor, of work of the self for the future. In this neoliberal frontier, individuals are now responsible for creating themselves: education, self-improvement, liability, accumulation. This becomes evident in some of the latest growing service industries: psychologists, do-it-yourself experts, life coaches and personal trainers.

If people are continuously working on themselves, this equates to the debt state keeping people working 24/7. Everything has become a form of labor. Work no longer occupies a regulated allotment of hours, but entire lives. Material production can be left at the factory. Information production remains constant within the human capital. Social is work. Networking is the new social. It’s not about where you are from, but whom you know. Time away from work is now work on new time. Technology has mobilized the entrepreneur in everyone. We take care of ourselves without the help of others more frequently every day. Orbitz is the new travel agent. Siri is the new personal assistant. Responsibility of failure now lies upon the shoulders of individuals and the security net is long lost.

Economy of Passionate Interests

“Once it had been discovered that labor was the source of wealth, it was the task of reason to mine, drain and exploit that source more efficiently than ever before.” – Zygmunt Bauman

A new form of labor has emerged in the new precarious environment in what Richard Florida has universally dubbed the “creative class.” The essence of this class is their high level of education coupled with 24-hour connectivity. They are expended as social capital for their entrepreneurial skills and innovative thinking. Philip Drake refers to this class not as the creative class, but as an evolution of the blue-collar/white-collar work force now known as the “electronic-collar.” If Fordism capital was able to capture people’s bodies, neoliberal capital captures their soul. This class acts according to Gabriel Tarde’s ideology of economy as the science of passionate interest. People are conditioned to labor only for what they are passionate about and use this to justify long hours at low wages and devalue entire industries.

Many of these people have turned to freelancing as a means to a wage. The rise of technology and the neoliberal regime has encouraged a freelance society. The same debt state which has trained this class on work of the self has developed into true entrepreneurs. The economic downturn of 2008 created widespread uncertainty. As new work was generated after the apex of the collapse, businesses used freelance contracts to employ new staff as a tool to equip them in the event of a second recession. This has fueled the amount of people in a freelance society. There are now an estimated 42 million freelancers in the United States. They have developed into an entire society without the regulated safety nets of health insurance, retirement plans, or certainty of work.

The freelance society is fighting for many of the rights that full-time employees had to fight for decades prior. These workers fall through the cracks of legislation and opportunity. The Freelancers Union is one organization trying to expand the rights of this class primarily through legislation and providing affordable health insurance. They have gained momentum with over 200,000 members nationwide to use as a collective bargaining chip. They are gaining momentum through the collectivism which has grown substantially in the previous few years as the workplace of the freelance worker has developed from coffee shops to co-work offices.

Labor Geography

The new co-work environments are creating opportunities for the freelance class to collect and grow. It is giving relevant workspace to a class that once worked in seclusion. This empowers a workers feeling of legitimacy and creates new social networks. These environments allow for the potential of knowledge spillover, provide an economic and support business structure, and proliferates the social multiplier effect. The latter being the theory that people tend to absorb the lifestyles of those they surround themselves with. Huddling the creative class together will increase the innovation of individuals as they interact and feed off one another.

These work spaces are generally made up of open desks for laptops, stationary, kitchenettes and meeting rooms. These spaces can be reserved and rented out on a monthly, daily or ad-hoc basis. There are currently over 80 co-work environments in New York City and more popping up all over the world. Each one is finding its own identity and providing an identity to the workplace of a generation. They are becoming places of working, collaborating and learning. Many of the co-work environments include a lecture series, workshops and drink nights. All the perks of established companies are now being offered at a daily desk rate.

Large creative companies are using new ways to attract lucrative workers. Companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple are creating work environments to encourage collaboration, fun, relaxation and leisure. This lifestyle package entices in new talent, and at the same time further blurs the boundary between what is work, and what is freedom. In many ways, they are extorting the idea of a 24/7 worker. Not only is collaboration counted as work, but life is now work.

Labor Modernity

The ramifications of the American flight to suburbia in the decades past are beginning to be reversed as members of the creative class lead the return to inner-city districts throughout the country. This renewed interest in central business districts have aided in the urban renewal of many metropolitan cities as the creative class is thus exploited as leverage towards gentrification. As the centers of cities capture people’s attentions and wallets, outlying areas are beginning to see a new trend of decline. As an illustration, the last new enclosed shopping mall to open in the United States was in 2006, and there are no current plans for any to be built.

Manufacturing is returning to the United States, but labor is not returning with it. We must accept the idea that jobs will be lost to technology. Our efforts to increase efficiency through manufacturing methods and technology have seen a rise in manufacturing while job positions continue to decline. Enrico Moretti calls this the productivity paradox. In 2011, the American steel industry employed 95,000 steelworkers who produced 10% more steel than the 400,000 workers in 1980 were able to. The manufacturing industry and related possible jobs continue to play a role in the media and political stage. It must be accepted that jobs now being created by manufacturers are for a handful of educated workers, and not the lower class.

The future of labor in the United States cannot be projected far. If we continue on the path we are currently on, our generation may see the end of companies as we know it. Risk will transferred from employers to employees. Commitments and obligations will be kept light and superficial to foster future opportunities. People will learn to live and travel light. ‘Now’ is the new life strategy. Social bonds are transitioning from ‘till death do us part’ to ‘until gratification lasts.’ Employees of a company will be a collection of workers on short term contracts, working for a period and then moving on. This will have vast effects on our building industry. Corporate building stock constitutes a vast quantity and capital of our built landscape. As we begin to question the role of labor, we must begin to postulate on the role of the workspace.

Bibliography
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2000. Liquid modernity. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Dray, Philip. 2010. There is power in a union: the epic story of labor in America. New York: Doubleday.

Latour, Bruno, and Vincent Antonin Lépinay. 2009. The science of passionate interests: an introduction to Gabriel Tarde’s economic anthropology. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.

Lazzarato, Maurizio. 2012. The making of the indebted man: An essay on the neoliberal condition. Cambridge, Mass: Semiotext(e).

Moretti, Enrico. 2012. The new geography of jobs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Boston’s Fort Point Channel, along with the USPS sorting facility and tracks for South Station, is creating a problem for the growth of the city. These three elements combined are the central node of pedestrian, vehicular and district disconnection. It is a socio-political and economical problem, which needs to be addressed for future development to succeed. This property is the boundary of both the central business district and acres of parking and derelict buildings. Easier accessibility between these two districts could potential create value in future development.

This project proposes to address this problem. The USPS sorting facility will soon be vacated by the tenants, allowing for the demolition of its oversized structure. I propose to eliminate the remaining two barriers by combining them. By damming up the Fort Point Channel and redistributing the train lines of South Station into the channel, the city’s largest disjunction is eradicated. The tracks can be laid below the street level allowing multiple pedestrian crossings and connecting Broadway and Congress as well as allowing Kneeland Street to continue to the convention center. The existing station and USPS facility can be redeveloped as an extension of Downtown and the new Fort Point Channel can investigate ideas of combining economic development with rail infrastructure.

This project proposes a sectional approach to creating a new urban fabric within the city. Considering its direct connection to mass transit and position within the city, this district is pedestrian only. The building structures are based on the rhythm of the tracks and platforms below. Every other space between the buildings are either a path for pedestrian access to the buildings, or a light well illuminating the station below.

Access to the station is achieved though various points throughout the new fabric, as well as from the edges of the channel at various intervals. These direct paths into the city become part of the procession between the destination and the platform. They contain supporting businesses and shops to the users.

Visitors to the city are greeted with the sky directly above them, leading them to the paths, which take them into the city. The placement of the station now at the head of the bay gives an opportunity for high-rise development.

By creating a high-rise, the station itself is given an iconic place-maker, giving orientation to users of the city. It also takes the first steps at expanding the boundary of the central business district eastward.

The new fabric creates a pedestrian zone of retail at the reclaimed ground level and living/working above. The 8-meter wide buildings are adjoined at specific points, especially at the ends of pedestrian paths, to create the potential for larger spaces within. Part of the original channel is left intact to create a promenade for both the new urban fabric and existing the Boston Harborwalk.

The paths leading users between the platforms and the city are elongated and exaggerated to blur the boundary between when one gets out of a train station and enters the city.

This new network of crossing paths creates a new paradigm for connecting a terminal station within the city. As opposed to one primary exist where only businesses adjacent to the head house station benefit from users traveling, the entries to the station are spread throughout the entire site area. This creates the possibilities for a new economy and stabilizes the property value of the land around the station.

Understanding that a head-house station still plays an important and iconic entry role, the station will have its primary entry point at the end of the channel overlooking the bay. This is placed directly next to the tower to assist in wayfinding for visitors to the city.

The guys over at Hint have created an incredibly beautiful and useful map showing live wind patterns across the United States. This is also really interesting during hurricane season. The map above is from the landing of hurricane Sandy this past year. Go over to Hint to see the map live in action!

Also be sure to check out their other works. Great stuff.

While searching through the University of Houston image library, I came across this 1920s artist vision of what Houston of 1980 was envisioned to be like. I find this image absolutely incredible. You have to keep in mind this is 20 years before the first freeway in Houston. I love the ominous architecture and integration with infrastructure. The streets of multiple levels. That massive star of texas. Its great! As a point of reference, below is a postcard of what Houston of the time looked like.

Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. UH Digital Library.

The New York Times has put together some fantastic graphics post the recent Olympic games in London. Kevin Quealy and Graham Roberts have created a series of videos from a few of the more famous sports that takes place, which graphically show how the gold medalists from each year of the modern Olympic Games would fair against one another. The graphics are quite convincing and the overall presentation is well done.

I think this helps support a major argument of the time which is that as time is progressing, athletes continue to get faster and faster due to new technologies and methods of training. While I can agree with this argument, I still maintain that the primary reason that Bolt is so much faster than the Olympic runners of 100 years ago is because the runners of 100 years ago were not the best runners of the time. There are surely people on this planet that have yet to be discovered who can outrun Usain Bolt, and I am sure that there have been many many people over the centuries who could do it as well. These people went undiscovered or were never in situations where becoming a professional athlete was an option. One of the Olympic medalists for Great Britain’s rowing team just started rowing 2 years ago. Prior to that, she had no idea of her abilities. The earth has many people who have no idea what they are capable of. But as the media has exploded over the past 60 years, it has become easier and easier to discover athletes and many more people have the ability to politically and economically pursue the life as an athlete. These situations greatly skew these graphs so that people today seem faster than those of the past. Its an argumetn which I think doesn’t get enough credit.

Either way… enjoy some beautiful graphics.

New York Times Video on Olympic Long-Distance Jumping

New York Times Video on Olympic 100m Sprint

New York Times Video on Olympic Swimming

I have a lot of love for someone who has love for what they do with their life. Sharon Montrose is a photographer who shoots animal photography both commercially as well as her own personal use. She shoots some amazing photos… and some damn cute animals. This is a great video watching her in action and hearing some of her thoughts. The quote above got me.