Cultural Infrastructure

After two consecutive reviews on my thesis I wasn't sure where to go. Luckily Roger Sherman was there to help with his essay "Counting (on) Change: Property." This essay breaks down several complex property rights scenarios to reveal an entrepreneurial method of design. This method does not enforce control by planning out specific strategies. Instead it sets up a system for adaptation and allows for "more self-regulating design strategies." Suddenly John's comment, "if you build a slanted wall with bricks as hand-holds, children will play on it and graffiti will inevitably show up," makes perfect sense. The space needs to be a place for users to invest their cultural capitol and mold the space into what they need.

The site, the intersection between San Fernando Road, Hubbard Street, the Metrolink Antelope Valley Line, Metro Shuttle line 634, Metro Rapid Bus lines 734 & 794, and Metro Local Bus line 224, is one of two connections between the North and South sides of San Fernando City. Since this spot collects all the transportation from private home to private work, it becomes the perfect spot for a new public infrastructure. This piece of infrastructure would collect cultural capitol in a public space(something not very common in the San Fernando Valley).

The next step is to figure out what sorts of programs are currently happening in improvised locations and catalog them. This will establish a language of necessary equipment for the infrastructure and hopefully provide some sort of pattern to help project future needs. After the catalog is complete, the new space can be a prototype for other such traffic collectors in the city.