CASA TAOS

 I think that the specialized research and exploration of Margaret Crawford and Phoebe Wilson were most interesting to me this week. Crawford, with her study of street vendors, uncovered ways in which humans occupy architect/ urban planner designed spaces in totally unplanned ways. Wilson took an 'acupuncture approach' to activating abandoned places to reignite neighborhood community. I think that these are both approaches that European architects and designers take, probably unknowingly, to devise and revise their famed public spaces. An approach that American designers ought to study and immediately implement. Maybe this is why I so admire adaptive reuse. No place is unworthy of reactivation for the community. I got to experience a gorgeous example of this in the Poblenou neighborhood of Barcelona where a block was revitalized with a ecological club at the courtyard with a restaurant and coffee shop and 'We Work' space - it became a hub of community.