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After COVID-19, the distribution of spontaneous activity in New York changed,
mainly because of the increased demand for outdoor activities, principally
dining. Space for some spontaneous activities, such as food vendors and
street performances, was replaced by new, static infrastructures like
restaurant extensions, causing nomadic actors to be displaced.
Our design strategy improves the coexistence of activities by systematizing
the street infrastructures. We aim to keep spontaneity within the system by
providing enough infrastructure to allow not only spontaneous but all street
activities and city elements can harmonious and orderly coexistence. We
chose K-town, 32nd Street, as our site, where the problem was most acute
because of the density of restaurant extensions, vendors, and street
performances. We analyzed the existing buildings in the vicinity and divided
them into zones by type, such as offices, hotels, and restaurants. New
restaurant extensions feature an electric transfer system that allows the
restaurant to deploy its outdoor dining room when needed and to contract
when not in use to free up sidewalk space for others. A second type is
provided primarily for vendors, street performances, and other
extemporaneous street activities. Coexistence also includes landscape and all
other urban street elements, as mediators that anyone can use. They can
change in scale to support different activities, and people can utilize the public
space the infrastructures release when the elements are condensed.