Houston Currents proposes an art incubator at the historic Coca-Cola Bottling Plant in Houston, Texas. The project began with a forensic analysis of the site with a particular intrigue in its intersecting structural grids. This reading of the site took us to Houston at large: grids created by a system of overlapping and intersecting lines defined by vehicular traffic. In particular to Houston, however, bayous, slow-moving bodies of water, intersect the grids, serve as a natural force and bisect this copious system of lines. This understanding of Houston’s urban composition informed the intervention onto the site where the art incubator presents a new language in the form of a “ribbon.” Defined by two walls, the ribbon channels through the existing structure and foundation and holds all necessary MEP systems to create a self-sustaining system. As the curved walls dodge and pass the existing structure, quality and exchange is created between the new and the existing where each enhances the other. The ribbon weaves through the many grids to create a unified space to encourage circulation, embrace creative production and inspiration, as well as create different qualities of spaces within the old Coca-Cola Bottling Plant.
