BODEGA retrack
abstract
The Bodega retrack is a housing project that aims to combine independent entrepreneurship, customized inhabitation and cooperative principles. This project borrows from transcendental American values that thrive in innovation through a free market economy and the desire of self improvement.
The project originates in the typology of the Bodega: a micro-scale trading entity regularly owned by an individual, a family or a small partnership in close relationship with its locality. The Bodega is reinterpreted in a dual residential function that is enhanced by the prefabrication and customization of shipping containers as its built form.
The project’s context resides in an empty lot adjacent to the heavily transited NJ Transit Broad St. train station. The Bodega retrack seeks to attract the commuter element in order to sustain itself. The integration of both a residential and a commuter program is allowed by separating their program in a central market which is bisected by the retrack crane platform. The retrack platform envelopes the entire site and allows the usage of a crane to replace and customize different Bodega configurations. In addition, the platform is the main structural framework for the complex’s building systems and also serves as a pedestrian/bike path.
The Bodega retrack housing requirements such as recreation and safety are implemented through the residence’s direct visual relationship to its public circulation ensuring the supervision of all neighbors and their domain of recreational areas for children and adults alike. The project’s built form is tied to the impetus of ambitious individuals seeking to improve themselves through innovation and commerce.. |
