Collectively Strange

Strangers Become Acquaintance

Strangers are not usually welcome, and there is a ubiquitous paranoia about “the other.” But what is a stranger and why are they not welcome? Isn’t everyone a stranger in some way?

On this site in Lawndale everyone is equally strange, and as you move onto this vacant lot you too become a stranger, but then slowly become an acquaintance with other strangers. In the process strangers  are no longer that strange anymore.

This is all because of the strange structures that have collected on a vacant lot in Lawndale. Consisting of minimal storefront-like elevations with little balconies on the front, each stranger enters through a structure, climbs the stairs, and finds them self on a balcony face-to-face with another balcony and another stranger. What happens at this moment? What was once an avoided and undesirable situation—confronting a stranger­—is now accidentally intentional as a result of these lean-to balconies.

Form becomes Difference within Indifference

The balcony structures are also strangers and are differentiated from themselves by different architectural “hats” they wear. Each of these “hats” is a different elevational figure sourced from prominent buildings in the surrounding area such as storefronts, churches, etc.

New Collectives in the City are Formed

The balcony structures can be arranged in different configurations across the site and therefore create a variety of stranger interactions.