Porch takes form

We gave another community presentation the other night. We had a great turnout with at least 15 community members present. The amount of people was great because it is difficult to get people to come out for these kinds of meetings sometimes. We had prepared a powerpoint presentation with our first pass at a ‘real’ shelter design. The community really responded to our porch concept and they gave us some really great stories about their porches. One lady said that porches have become a signal for people moving back into the neighborhood. If porches are occupied the neighborhood is alive. They seemed to really like the first pass at the design as well, everyone had really good things to say. Although adjustable seating finally got the ax thanks to a practical woman in the crowd who was very adamant about the fact that it will get broken which is probably true.

In the design we emulated a porch with a design that has a balance of opposites in the expression of materials. The heavy wood wall anchors the back and dissolves giving way to a system of pipes. The porch works in the same way with a house anchoring the back and the porch acting as a transition point from closed to open. We incorporated a variety of seating similar to a porch – stoop seats, benches, leaning areas, and standing areas. We are working out construction details this week and start construction next week hopefully. I am working on the stacked wood wall which is really being driven by what kind of wood we can find at salvage yards. Lauren and I are going searching tomorrow to see what we can find and lay claim to them.