Architecture is about solving problems for people through the composition of light, space, and material. It is about embracing the way space can be sculpted to improve how we live.
Many standards of normalcy have changed considerably over the last five years, especially with regard to how we gather for learning, dining, and performing. While outdoor gathering spaces are not a wholly new idea, they have become essential in our current situation. With this design competition we are seeking your solutions for making dynamic, thoughtful, and functional outdoor spaces for gathering. We ask you to carve out public space in your town or city to accommodate public activity in fresh air. This space could be a parklet for restaurant outdoor dining, an outdoor internet lounge, or an outdoor Tik Tok performance space.
A successful Pocket Place, or outdoor gathering space, should be an effective place to foster community, learning, thinking, sharing, and experimentation. By moving a gathering space outdoors, consider that you are doing more than shifting activity from indoors to outdoors. A major change in the shell and surroundings creates new opportunities for interacting with a space. How many ways does gathering outdoors change how you interact? What is easier? What may be more challenging? The community may use the Pocket Place as a public library, an outdoor café, a performance space, an internet hub….
