OP Space

San Francisco, CA : 2010

Design: Kory Bieg, Alexa Getting, Mona El Khafif, Lauren Tichy

Fabrication: Kory Bieg, Mona El Khafif, CCA OP Studio

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OP Space was a pilot project conducted by students and faculty at the CCA URBANlab, an advanced research and design studio supporting project-based initiatives in architecture at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. The goal of the project is to demonstrate how flexible architecture and a “Zipcar” style short-term rental model can contribute to the cultural and economic development of a neighborhood by giving communities the tools to reclaim unoccupied storefront spaces on a temporary basis.

Downtown San Jose’s SoFA District was selected as a testing ground for this project because the neighborhood currently suffers from a 40% vacancy rate of street-level storefronts in its commercial core. Working with ZER01, students researched demographics, met with local community members, and proposed a series of flexible architectural prototypes. The installation is defined by hinging hexagonal sections that operate similarly to the leaves of an expandable table. By shifting the orientation of the sections a wall becomes a table, or a chair becomes a shelf.

(OP)space was installed inside the storefront space of WORKS/San José where the architectural design was tested through a series of programs created with the local community ranging from bike kitchen to fashion show to DJ lounge.

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