This website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors' experiences. By continuing to use this website, you consent to Columbia University's usage of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with the Columbia University Website Cookie Notice
The Net-Worked Territories comprise an urban system of logistics and restoration nodes that serve the daily needs of disenfranchised workers in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The project departs from a mapping exercise that visualizes the patterns and tactics of three local labor groups: street vendors, canners, and delivery workers. Subsequently, it generates a flexible, self-sustaining framework that facilitates the evolving application of these tactics. As tactics change, so do the spaces in question. Learning from workers’ creative use of umbrellas and carts, each node operates like so: a semi-enclosed territory, protected by several fire-resistant polycarbonate canopies that hold plant matter, collect rainwater, and capture solar energy. Canopies are funded by NYC’s Department of Parks and Recreation and maintained cooperatively. Mobile architecture-furniture is loosely arranged around the semi-permanent kitchen in the front, storage booths in the nave, and permanent bathrooms and showers in the back – which are constructed from rammed earth. In total, the network includes twenty-seven backstreet and rear-yard territories, immediately adjacent to major traffic arteries, restaurant clusters, and redemption centers. The anti-gentrification nature of these underutilized spaces makes them ideal for co-operative community leasing and acquisition, fostering a cross-labor resistance ecosystem that empowers Sunset Park’s underserved communities.