Aaron Jones Architect

YouTube Theater

A user controlled, smartphone powered public space which concerns itself with “wireless-ness” as municipal infrastructure in lieu of stagnant Detroit city services. This project asserts that wireless internet and mobile technologies offer new methods of engaging building programs disconnected or confused by contemporary techno-progress. You participate / script / curate experience by docking an iPhone. The structure itself is comprised of post-processed chain link fence components, selected for their low cost and inherent ability to form interlocking systems. This post-process was met through clever marriage of multiple worlds; HOME DEPOT, PIPE BENDER, iPHONE, URBAN ISSUES (Detroit) - allowing for something, in our opinion, uniquely American. Guerrilla project management evolved industry documents such as CD’s and shop drawings into something with both humor and clarity - now completely open source. With access to one tool and a HOME DEPOT, the project can be easily replicated. The project now re-purposes an East Side Detroit conference room, long since forgotten, into a vibrant event-amenity for the public at large.

PUMP DIAGRAM

“ Designers working with wireless technologies are usually catering to affluent, already-wired urban areas and early adopters. Jones’ project suggests that wireless internet and mobile technologies offer a method of engaging discounted or forgotten geographies. The Theater posits that technological infrastructure can reengage the people and neighborhoods left behind by the de-industrialization, the housing crisis, and urban shrinkage that have drastically altered the average American city. While formally and functionally experimental, the project seems to ultimately address Detroit, and the challenges surrounding its future. Plug your phone in, and you’ve got a space connected to the rest of the world. Introducing a dynamic user-controlled event-space made possible by WiFi, a failing neighborhood, an overlooked space, can be engaged by “the event.” Indeed, the Theater will eventually will find its home in a decrepit wooden garage, but for now, sits on the Saarinen-designed campus at Cranbrook. “ - ARCHITIZER --- May 6, 2011