ProtoHouse is one of many innovative projects popping up on the sidewalks of Market Street during April's three-day Market Street Prototyping Festival. Organized by SF Planning and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the fest will bring 50 temporary installations to Market between Van Ness and the Embarcadero. One of those will be ProtoHouse, designed by mobile micro-unit enthusiast Tim McCormick as a a life-size micro-dwelling occupying a 12-by-12-by-12-foot area. The idea is to spur discussion about sustainable solutions to the city's housing crunch, and also provide a tangible illustration of what micro-living entails.
McCormick says the unit, which is still in development, could feature partial cutaways or transparent sides to allow passersby to peer into the living space within. If ProtoHouse turns out to be walk-in space, it will be open during the day to allow pedestrians to get a look around.
As with all of the projects at the prototyping festival, the installation will only stick around if it's chosen to be part of Market Street's overhaul, set to begin in 2018. Should the piece become permanent, a new dwelling display, chosen by the community, would be featured every few months. For McCormick, community input is a key piece of figuring out where to go from here. "In fact, public prototyping may be particularly crucial for broad envisioning, experiencing, and dissemination of new approaches," he writes, "since housing design is often a particularly conservative and convention-bound field."
· A Sneak Peek at the Urban Interventions Popping Up on Market Street in 2015 [Curbed SF]
· Cool Pulsing Data Lanterns Will Relay Transit Info at a Glance [Curbed SF]
· Lost San Francisco Creeks to Resurface As Street Art [Curbed SF]
· Tim McCormick [Official Site]
· ProtoHouse [Neighborland]
· A Sneak Peek at the Panoramic's Partially Finished Micro-Units [Curbed SF]
· Video: Let's Have an Honest Conversation About the Housing Shortage, Shall We? [Curbed SF]
· Previous Coverage of Micro-Units [Curbed SF]
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