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Scaffoldia

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Location:

Oakland, CA, USA

Year:

2016

Client:
Our City Oakland

Project Team:
Neeraj Bhatia & Cesar Lopez
Fabrication Team: Kurt Stubbins & David Ornvold
Installation Team: Neeraj Bhatia, Cesar Lopez, Jeremy Jacinth, Kurt Stubbins, David Ornvold, Carlos Antequera

Type:
Installation

Status:
Built

Awards:
First Prize, Ourcity Oakland Competition

Scaffolding is typically a temporary element in service of constructing a more permanent structure. What if scaffolding itself was the primary structure that, instead of supporting the construction of permanent artifacts, incited temporal occupation? How can residents take control of structures and re-appropriate them to play on-top of, within, and inside? Scaffoldia is a play-structure that originates from two monumental architectural forms that embody ‘outward’ and ‘inward’ space — the pyramid and dome. Hybridizing these forms, the project transforms the poché space into an occupiable lattice. Moving between interior and exterior, these shapes allow for different forms of engagement with the human body—sitting, repose, climbing, hanging, hiding, leaning, or jumping—without prescribing a singular way to interact with the project. Play is about curiosity, vulnerability, and openness. Located within an area of Oakland that is deprived of play structures, this small monument uses the politics of play to frame the public life of the city.