Storm Hemant Butti

As a labor force, our relationship with our means of production and what we produce has become increasingly estranged. A way of mending that connection can be through a shared identity with other workers formed through organizing, unionizing, and community-building. Can urban spaces like community centers be refamiliarized to facilitate community-building? The project dwells on everyday urbanism and imagines how we can domesticate urban environments so that they are more like the interior: softer places that are more inhabitable. Situated in the Jordan Downs Housing Development in Watts, California, the project borrows the logic of the local domestic typology of garden apartments: long, low-slung bar buildings rarely exceeding two stories in height, reminiscent of longhouses and their domestic, communal organization. Walls, platforms and other perimeters bring interior, domestic activities to the public, making urban spaces familiar and comforting. Makerspaces like the woodshop double as a small-scale Nail Laminated Timber (NLT) manufacturing space, to create independent economic and skill development opportunities for community members. Rather than efficiency, a slower, sustainable, and leisurely way of producing is prioritized– one that revitalizes a spirit of creativity and craftsmanship through everyday acts of gentle resilience.