TA: Twisha VaghasiaMaking ‘Place’ in a Virtual World
As our screens increasingly filter encounters with things, ideas, people; we engage less and less with the physical world. What meaning can architecture – an entirely material medium that creates physical space – find in societies that are progressively defined by immateriality?
The studio explores this question using the case of the gig economy. While the flexibility, autonomy, and mobility gig jobs offer create unprecedented opportunities, the social and economic stability of traditional jobs has been eroded. This Uberization of work has also changed the fundamental relationship between the worker and workplace. The place of work, as a space of community and constancy, does not exist in this virtual sphere.
Yet, for now, the virtual world reaches its limits when confronted by the needs and desires of the human body. The project will be to design a place that functions as the human interface with the virtual ecosystem, creating a sense of stability and belonging. The process will involve a) mapping the dynamic shifting city which is the canvas for low-skilled gig work b) identifying meaningful site/sites for the intervention in this network c) building a strategic program that bridges socio-economic gaps of gig-work and d) conceptualizing and developing the design.
