DEANNA BARIS
This single-story warehouse building is home to Ace Wheelworks, a bike shop in Somerville, Massachusetts. The walls are made of red brick and concrete, with teal and white paneling along the front windows and door. It is located on a busy street intersection with active car, bus, bike, and pedestrian traffic.
The interior space is an open floor plan. There are three distinct floor sections: blue tile for the bike workshop, tan tile for bike sales, and black carpet for clothes and accessories. Counters separate employee and shopper spaces. Wooden beams supported by columns run along the ceiling. There are two types of electric lighting, and the front facade is lined with large windows.
This kit-of-parts knoll diagram includes glass window panes, rubber window linings, ceiling light frames, metal bars, LED rods, white window frames, wooden beams, concrete blocks, bricks, lightbulbs, a ceiling fan, blue tiles, carpet, and metal ventilation boxes.
The clothing ANT map traces the life cycle of clothes along the phases of production, consumption, and disposal. Production includes pattern creation, material sourcing, and item assembly. Artistic and physical labor are key components to the production process. Consumption occurs through both in-person and online retail, with significant and growing trends towards the latter. Disposal can lead either to reuse through thrifting or textile recycling, or to decomposition in landfills.
The used goods ANT map considers three possible outcomes for a used item: trash, recycling, or selling/donation. Sold or donated items can be resold in stores, given away by charities, or repurposed through informal networks like freecycle and Facebook marketplace. Recycling is managed at a city scale by the local government, though the physical process is performed by companies such as Waste Management and Terracycle. Used items that end up in the trash are either burned or left to decompose in landfills, both with significant environmental consequences.
This design includes clothing and used items assembled through knolling with a saturated plan organization. The space is filled with vertical and horizontal knoll diagrams at varying and overlapping scales. Vertical knoll diagrams are delineated in orange and horizontal ones in lavender. The area is saturated both in object quantity and in color intensity.
The building is segmented into two sections: a shopping area and a workshop space. The shopping section has six semicircular tables, five long clothes racks, and a large cubby with storage bins. Shop inventory includes handmade clothes, thrifted clothes, and used craft supplies. The two sections are separated by a wall of fabric cubbies. The workshop is designed to support classes and individual work space, enabling participation in localized clothing production. Two large tables hold sewing supplies, separated by a long row of fabric bolts. Along the walls are additional storage space and four floor looms set up for textile weaving.
Moving lengthwise through the building, the shopping section contains tables, clothes racks, and cubbies to hold inventory. LED rods and track lights run through the space at perpendicular orientations. Quilts created in the workshop are hung as decorations along the back wall. Within the workshop space, there is a large storage cubby containing irons, pincushions, scissors, and button boxes. Additionally, the back wall contains a thread rack and a tiered ironing board. Weaving looms line the farside wall.
The space is designed to be saturated spatially, texturally, and in color intensity. Visibility is maintained through the length of the room with objects of varying heights and the transparency of the cubby wall. Even with open sight lines, the cubby wall between the workshop and the shopping areas functions as a separation device, allowing the workshop to function as a space for work and creativity. The vertical and horizontal knoll diagrams throughout the room establish order and organization amidst the saturated layers.