Take Shape

Take Shape no. 2 8 x 10 in. / Perfect-bound / 104 pages Risograph duotone Retail price: $18 / £14 / €15

Take Shape is a publication driving the streets of architectural, legal, and political thinking. Its second issue looks at the subjective and daily experience of transportation—the commute. At a time when most cities’ public transportation systems are barely scraping by, billionaires are whimsically proposing hyperloops and space travel. Our issue looks at this disconnect, and the ways in which transportation can be improved, outside of the model of entrepreneurial investment, through community-driven planning and increased state funding.

This issue includes a collaborative community redesign of a Los Angeles train station by LA-Más, a dialogue between Kafka and airport security by : (colon), a proposal to reinvest in a national rail system by Danya Sherman, and a photographic archive of entrances to New York subway stations by Robert Prochaska.

It features a golf cart ride through Kraków’s tourism industry by Eliza Levinson, a reconsideration of Gunnar Birkerts’ 1970s research in Detroit by Michael Abrahamson, a history of Poland’s state-funded hitchhiking system by Vanessa Kowalski, a criticism of the WeWork and WeLive empires by Patrick McAndrews, a reading list of independent publications on power and movement by Corinne Butta for Wendy’s Subway, and a reflection on Shipped Ships, a temporary ferry service and artwork by Turkish artist Ayşe Erkmen by Carlos Kong.

Three short essays look at how design serves the interests of the wealthy on the move. Luiza Dale reflects on the fetish of design manual reprints, especially the New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual. Kyle Chayka revisits his concept of “Airspace” and how it relies on globalized systems of travel. Jesse Barron challenges the whims of Jeff Bezos and his fool’s errand in outer space.

Finally, the publication highlights conversations with Chicago-based bicycle and anti-gentrification activist Lynda Lopez and with researcher Alex Karner on the economic and racial history of Atlanta’s public transportation systems.

The first issue of Take Shape takes up the topic of industrial reuse, with a focus on lofts. Lofts—residential spaces created from former commercial and manufacturing space—provide affordable housing and often serve as a respite from the profit-driven real estate market. Simultaneously, they can be co-opted by property developers and local officials to justify rising rents and increased policing in newly “safe,” “artistic,” and desirable neighborhoods. In this issue, we present all of these factors side by side, seeing them not as contradictions, but as essential components of how such spaces function.

This issue features a satirical proposal on converting vacant mansions into artist studios by Palacit; an upcoming artist’s housing complex in DC by MOS Architects; and a reexamination of The Yellow Building, a drawing by William Powhida that promotes the formation of tenant organizations for artists.

It includes illustrated safety tips for DIY living spaces, a watercolor series by Jimmy Mezei on his late father-in-law’s loft, an ode to the general contractor by Simone Kaplan-Senchak, a longform consideration of NYC’s Loft Law by Julia Goodman, a polemic against Oakland’s reaction to the Ghost Ship fire and artist gentrification by Jaime Omar Yassin, a response to Antikraak policies in the Netherlands by Bernd Upmeyer, a DIY housing reading list by Sam Winks, and a reflection on the South Street Seaport in Chris Kraus’s short film How to Shoot a Crime by Nolan Boomer.