Ideation & Prototyping

More “works-like” than the first prototype done in Sims,

added some artificial sunlight and some “outdoor” effects to counteract the effect living underground has on our circadian rhythms etc.

documentation for less lo-fi prototype:

start of sketch: 

how can we maximise workspace we have in the co-working space, while allowing creative types to maintain their worktop in the same condition and layout when others are using it?

solution, hinged joint that pivots the workspace up when its not in use. allows for two workspaces to be “saved” in the same space.

Finish Lo-Fi prototype

From just a sketch of the layout/blueprints of my own apartment, i extended it to the whole house, and explored how we can use the space freed up by the use of underground sleep pods and by consolidating three families or groups into one.

*dramatic* 

Dear New Yorker, 

Greetings from the future.

Before I begin, do you want to make some predictions for the future? Maybe you want to know how the S&P is doing today? Or perhaps I can help you look up the Powerball numbers for next week? But maybe let’s not go busting any rules of time travel just yet - but that’s what this whole message is about, anyway.

Busting the rules of time travel.

I’m here to show you what NYC in 2108 looks like. Believe me, it isn’t good. Believe me. (Yes, we still remember that guy was President).

Imagine NYC today. Shouldn’t be that hard, given that you’re probably there right now. It’s crowded, noisy, smelly. The L train just broke down this morning.

Imagine NYC in 90 years. What do you see? Maglev subways moving stealthily through the suburbs and offloading their passengers in clean stations in Manhattan? Tall apartment buildings that have finally replaced the 100-year old walkups that are everywhere?

No.

NYC in 2108 is just NYC in 2018, just 90 years worse.

We have an amazing inertia to change. Even the infrastructure in the NYC you know is close to 100 years old. So just imagine the problems with the City today, and compound them by 90 years (yes that’s a hint that you should’ve asked for the S&P performance and not the Powerball numbers).

Our subway system is now running in tunnels built almost 200 years ago, and is still as unreliable as ever. The same hundred-year-old historical brownstones are now 200 years old, yet there is still populist pressure from politicians to keep those buildings around.

The demand for neighborhoods near to Manhattan never abated, as people still want to be close to the center of everything. Areas like Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, and DUMBO bear the brunt of this crush, because they are near to Manhattan, and you could still conceivably walk into the City should the MTA fail us.

Everywhere, we see bottlenecks pile up near these arteries of transport, around our bridges, ferries, trains, etc, leading to a much lower Quality of Life around these areas because of all the unhappiness this crush causes.

One solution to the space crunch was pioneered some years back, where old walkups and brownstones were refurbished to co-living spaces, effectively doubling the number of people you could squeeze into one space. These ubiquitous brownstones are the very symbol of the inertia we collectively have as a City. Why can’t we just tear them down and put a skyscraper there? But you work with what you have.

This solution was founded upon the belief that you simply don’t need that much space when you are sleeping. Beds were placed in pods underground, freeing up the rest of the building for space that could be used in the working hours of the day. 

Pods are 8x4 feet in dimension, all the space one needs while asleep, or so you’d think.

These pods posed their own set of issues, some of which were eventually worked out:

How were dating couples supposed to share a pod? Two pods were broken into one, and a Queen bed fit nicely in that space. Walls were also, naturally, sound- and vibration-proofed.

What about people who casually dated? Well, hate to break it to you, but a wave of STIs in the 70s discouraged most people from promiscuous behavior. That’s the 2070s, in case you were confused.

Sleeping underground also posed some health problems - the term “rise and shine” did not just refer to the movement of the Sun in the morning, but rather, our movements in symphony with the rising Sun. Sunlight helps regulate our bodies’ Circadian rhythms and kept our biological clocks ticking well, which is why artificial and blue light from screens is highly discouraged late at night.

As a solution, these pods incorporated screens to mimic windows and to let “sunlight” in sync with the Sun, and the associated Circadian problems evaporated like a pavement puddle on a sunny Saturday.

Of course, there were other social frictions from having so many people crammed in one space, but to most, that was a small price to pay, having been priced out of other areas, and still demanding to be in the thick of the action.

Some people also lost the impetus to leave the house and get out, as the co-living space also incorporated a co-working space, and the target segment of tenants (young creatives wanting to live in the city and not having much in terms of rent money) also actively endeavored to retain their favored “spots, even with the in-built workspace storage system that allowed them to “save” their worktop layout in an overhead space.

TL;dr (yes, we still use this):

What we chose was not by any means perfect. I’m reaching back into the past from the future, with both a warning and a prayer, that you can somehow make a change. 

Our message: consider other alternatives while you still can. Political expedience mostly leads to bad decisions.

Ask for more transport arteries. Next Spring’s L train shutdown should give you the momentum, and the collective anger to ask for more.

What is history worth? Why is gentrification a bad word? Why shouldn’t we tear some of these buildings down in the the quest for progress?

Most importantly: Consider not thinking of NYC as the Center of the Universe. It really doesn’t have to be. The City has been over-romanticized and marketed for hundreds of years. Maybe it’s time to move on.

And P.S., 

Perhaps all of these are interconnected. What if the transport system isn’t being expanded because of political maneuvering, which leads to an unwillingness to tear down and rebuild the short brownstones precisely because the transport system cannot deal with another influx of people as a result of the new skyscrapers. And what if the “low” numbers of population growth mean transport upgrades can be shelved by politicians in favor of more populist, and immediate, wins?

Just a thought. I sure hope the result of this is not that I start de-materializing after breaking all the rules of time travel, once I press this “Send” button.

Love, 

Who is your potential audience, and what message would you transmit to them(either from the future, or from the present)?

Here are the conditions we live in:

- twice as many people in the same city that you know

- subway is now close to 200 years old, and unreliable

- increased demand for neighborhoods near to manhattan thanks to the unreliability of public transport. especially in neighborhoods like williamsburg, brooklyn heights, dumbo.

- bottlenecks in these arteries during rush hours (bridges, trains, ferries)

- lowered QOL/SOL because of the unhappiness that this causes.

- one solution that has been pioneered is a co-living space that has been refashioned from old 3/4 story walkup apartments that are ubiquitous throughout NYC history.

- 24 people squeeze in a space meant for 12. 

- based on the idea that you don’t need that much space when you are asleep, so more space can be freed up for living areas.

- people sleep in pods, 8x4 feet in dimension.

- but this poses its own set of issues:

- hard for dating couples

- underground sleep pods, messed up circadian rhythms, leading to unhappiness and poor health.

- other frictions caused by so many people living in one area.

- No impetus to leave the house, whole host of other problems.

Our message to you:

- consider the other alternatives while you have the chance.

- lobby for more transport arteries, the L train shutdown should give you enough momentum for more

- Consider other places than NYC. its the centre of the universe, but doesn’t have to be for everything.

- How much is history worth? why are you fighting gentrification so hard? why are we keeping all these short buildings around.

What does your imagined future look, feel, sound like?

Same as now, just worse.

Look around at current problems

crowded and overstressed transport systems

high rents in several chokepoints around the city

Manhattan as the centre of the universe, doubling in population during the day, and emptying out at night.

Population rates suggest that NYC’s population will double by 2108.

This means that current problems will be compounded, ceteris paribus.

Is there another way to solve the problem?

building more transport arteries (solves transport crunch)

builiding high rise buildings in popular neighborhoods (but strong resistance to tearing down old walkups/apartment buildings)

What does your imagined future look, feel, sound like?

New York City in 2108 will be like how any of us is like when we are drunk - a loud person gets louder, a rude person might become ruder, and a belligerent person is ever more inclined to pick a fight.

Gotham in 90 years will very much be like what it is now, with its worst traits just amplified.

Known worldwide as the smelly, crowded, rude city that never sleeps, it never ceases to amaze by drawing huge crowds and being seen as the general Centre of the Universe.

If the historical rate of population growth in the past 8 years continues, NYC will see its population double by the time 2108 rolls around.

Given current population density visualizations, certain neighborhoods will continue to bear the brunt of this increase: places like Williamsburg, DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights and other similar neighborhoods will see rent continue to climb as people move in, hoping to be as close to the heart of the action as possible.

Treating this post as a live tweet of sorts, posting my reflections per paragraph as I read this.

First off - this is so true. I’ve always imagined design to be only for the upper echelons of humanity on a spectrum of who could draw best with crayons and freehand (spoiler alert: I’m on the low end of that spectrum). Hence, I’ve always approached design with apprehension, surely someone who couldn’t draw well, couldn’t create with their hands as well? Surely design wasn’t just sticking Letraset over the breasts of 50s pinup girls in magazines?

Turns out, that’s kinda what design is. Just take your medium and go with it. Or so I thought.

Plot twist: the next two paragraphs regress somewhat into the age old “here’s how we do it” method of coming up with a creative statement, deciding on what emotions to share, etc. Which at first glance, was pretty disappointing.

Perhaps we should take a step back and just learn from the essence of the piece - taking a macro view of the learnings rather than following the individual steps the author took in rebranding CBS et al. with a microscope.

What techniques are you thinking of using?

Thinking of sketching, and using the game Sims 4 to create the model of the house in 2.5D.

What might you need to learn to use these techniques?

Need to learn to draw and produce blueprints, need to learn how to use the Design Mode in Sims4

What are some of the execution challenges you might encounter with these techniques?

imagine nyc in 90-100 years. given the current rate of population growth, the city’s population would have increased anywhere from 50-100%, from 8 million to almost 12 million.

How can we fit that amount of people, in this same amount of space? There seems to be an unwillingness to tear down and build again - the walkup apartments that are ubiquitous in NYC are close to 100 years old, yet show no signs of giving way for new residential towers or high rise buildings.

The message we need to send back from the future is: here’s one solution to dealing with the impending space constraints. But have we also considered not making NYC the center of the Universe?

Kinda a bit too late, but:

Working alone, producing a video showing a rendition in sims 4 of the re-designed walkup building meant to fit 24 people in a co-living situation.

Apr 6: Lo-Fi - sketches, coloured sketches, plans for the layout of a three story walkup apartment building, Also Less Lo-fi: Lego prototyping for workspace sharing mechanism.

Apr 13: Med-Fi: Start building in Sims, but without the embellishments or other fancy things.