Are You Available This Week is an exercise in investigating and designing in partnership with local systems of repair, improvisation, and material reuse and recirculation within R.I. and southern M.A. Repairing and salvaging is not a new concept, in fact it is quite common. It is often born out of necessity in many parts of the world, but is becoming more mainstream in the US in recent decades.
The title is a nod to the labor of those who work with second hand things, the dirt and dust of consumption, and also the attitude with which I approached sourcing C&D materials and tools. It also jokingly references all the emails, texts, scheduling, canceling, booking, calls, and coordination required to community organize.
The project organizes community workshops through the lens of repair, reuse, play, and sistering, familiarizing individuals with skills, tools, and the tactility of scrap while connecting them with communities doing similar work, and proposing other variations of the workshops for others to adopt. It is in conversation with other design practitioners and educators focused on centering repair pedagogy in architectural education and the larger discipline.
- Recognizes the body, its capacity, labor, and performativity embedded in the design processes
- Revalues architectural and C&D industrial waste based on availability
- Practices cooperation amidst the indeterminacy inherent in non-standardized materials
- Builds alongside and sisters with existing organizations and communities involved with reuse exchange and salvage networks
- Collectivizes on the basis of knowledge sharing and skill building
- Forefronts the workshop as a site of dialogue, resistance, and generative collective creativity
Martha Flanigan
Bill Gucfa
Valerie Weingard
Bryce Hollingsworth
Nancy
Amelyn Ng
Debbie Chen
Markus Berger
German Pallares
Cynthia Deng
Sydney Hsieh
Dylan Ingham
Hannah O’Connor
Vera Keller
Maddie Daly
Sophia Dorsi
Ava Ellette Sousa
Eliza Gojcz
Zara Jean
Mara Machado
Rebecca Miller
Bella Napp-Vega
Rosalina Paulino
| Chelsea DeSantis Sarah Summers |
| Danielle Sturm Nahomy Reyes Naheyla Medina Megan Holzrichter Isabelle Troutman Ben Roland Lola Deng |