SixtynineISeventy Salt Lake City Downtown CONTAINER

Downtown, the heart of the city.
Downtown, the place where culture and business interact to generate urbanity.
Downtown, a heterogeneous functional fabric and a dense pattern of various small and big scale facilities & spaces, which generate an essential component within an intact urbanity: A dynamic pedestrian activity.

So, how does Downtown Salt Lake City look like ? We can see that most of the blocks are perforated and contain quite a few areas of unbuild surfaces inside the blocks and along their edges. Rough and abandoned spaces with no functions but delivery, parking or car park entrances. As mentioned in the video, these space and alleys are the main target of the design task.

The initial movie by Trent Harris, which is imbedded within the 'SixtynineISeventy'-Website impressively displays the absence of pedestrian activity within those Blocks and the functional deserts offside the main streets.

One single phrase in the movie points out the main task: „They wanna make downtown a place where people like to hang out.“

How are we going to make this ambitious intention possible ?

Should we try to ease the rough spaces ? Should we imbed more public green ? Should we drop new, cosy street-furniture? Should we try to transform the existing atmosphere into a neat neighborhood ambience?

Actually not! This is Downtown.We need to reactivate its sleeping potentials and its spaces on hold. We just need to find the key to restart urban processes wherever they are required.

But what would this be? The answer is as obvious as simple. It`s people. People activate space. People attract people. People is the Mastergen within every urban DNA.

But how to attract people to functional deserts? We need to find a sensible reason for people to populate those deserts. We need an attractor.

Therefore we have to analyze the area concerning its existing program, its attractions and its deficits. What function could be added to attract citizen that usually do not go Downtown to frequently or which existing function can be enforced to increase its attraction.

Arts&Culture
One major function in SixtynineISeventy is Arts&Culture.
Like mentioned in the introduction, this function will soon be densified by a “New giant Broadway-Type-Theater”. But what about more small scale cultural facilities, like storefront-studios or galleries as they are mentioned in the “Sustainable Salt Lake–Plan2015” ?

Within this plan, the local government aims to:

- Improve connections between audiences and content creators
- Partner to promote Salt Lake City as a national destination for cultural tourism
- Support storefront-studios, that connect artist with the street life
- Increase City’s local open spaces and expand the open space inventory
Arts&Culture: One attraction that could be densified and enforced in SixtynineISeventy.

Sports
Downtown is a place, where people work. Quite a few companies ask their employees to do some sports during their working day, to support the health condition.

Also the local government aims to:

- Promoting healthy lifestyles through a wide variety of measures.
- Expand availability of sports-areas
- Encourage community design and development that sup- ports physical activity
- Make physical activity facilities available to the local community
- Offer low or non-coast physical activity programs

Sports: One attraction that could be introduced to SixtynineISeventy.

Urban Farming (Food Production & Nutrition)
Farming downtown? Farming within an environment, dominated by sealed surfaces, slightly perforated by Street-Trees and a few green patches, called public-green ?
Farming & Downtown, a contradiction ? Absolutely not ! Generally, Urban Farming can be easily realized anywhere in the city. All it needs is motivated people, some common gardening tools and material, humus and seeds. Within no time, the city scape as we know it, will change its appearance and its status. A food consuming environment will be transformed into a food producing environment, which contains new categories of public green and users.

“Sustainable Salt Lake–Plan2015” aims to:

- Identify city property for community gardens and farming to increase local food production
- Develop 50 community gardens
- Identify and eliminate food deserts
- Enhance local food infrastructure and distribution networks
- Promote local food and it‘s benefits in the community
- Prepare inventory of adult healthy cooking and nutrition classes

Urban Farming: One attraction that could be introduced to SixtynineISeventy.

Arts&Culture, Sports and Urban Farming are the impulses that we need. What we have to find now, is a generator that induces impulses of Arts&Culture, Sports and Urban Farming. A generator that supports the basic environment for these activities.

This generator should be easy drop. It should be able to be withdrawn at any time, once other developments require the space and should be able to be move to other places of need or be able to fade.

But what would this be? The answer is as obvious as simple. It is already there, millions of them. Ready to be reused. Ready to be reduced. Ready to be recycled. They are on the road, on the tracks, in the air, on the rivers and oceans. CONTAINERS!

The concept 'Salt Lake City Downtown CONTAINER', uses regular cargo-containers. According the the functional threefold, we use three different colors mark and identify:

A Pink-Container marks the Arts&Culture content.
A Blue-Container marks the Sports content.
A Green-Container marks the Urban Farming content.

According to their functional content the containers are modified into:

Storages for gear of all kind
Dressing/Shower-Units
Storefront-Ateliers/Studios
Stages
Information-Units,
Dance-Clubs
Cafés
Greenhouses/Aquaponic-Units
Farmers-Marked-Units
Health-Cooking-Classes,
Shops

You name it !

Now, imagine the first container has been set-up. The first impulse. People curiously check it out, use it. More containers will follow and generate a new sub-fabric of small-scale functions. A new functional network linking the inner space of 'SixtynineISeventy'. Imagine the vivid space and imagine: Using those activity generators, is not only limited to functional-deserts on street level. Using those containers as stairs or elevators and sky-bridges make access to the next level of spaces – the Downtown Roofs ...

Now we figured it out !