Peel

As an exercise for a larger adaptive reuse project for abandoned Streamline Moderne wood frame and concrete Substations throughout the Seattle area, we were assigned to work in pairs on small sections of the substation, that would eventually come together to create an ‘Exquisite Corpse.’ We were also given the stipulation that our design concept must be one or two words, and a verb.  My partner and I chose peel, as we were both eating oranges at the time of the assignment, and the thought of ‘peeling’ concrete is fascinating.  As we worked, we found that we needed to make our moves smaller than in usual architectural design projects.  We started iterating furniture and fixtures instead of walls and windows.  As we honed our designs through observing how materials responded to different versions of ‘peeling,’ we coordinated with other groups to make sure our exquisite corpse would connect as intended.