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University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA) Proposal to UC Santa Barbara Small Project Committee Over a period of two months in 2006, the UCIRA demonstration project Open Container took place as part of a class taught jointly by Professors Kim Yasuda and Dick Hebdige of UC Santa Barbara. With a modest budget for supplies and donated materials from local shipping company J. Staal Storage Solutions, two shipping containers were transformed into a modular research studio unit over the course of the 2006-7 academic year (see attached images). The course served as an interdisciplinary studio research exploration of the transportable and residential mobility of container culture, with a focus on reuse and sustainability. UCIRA would like to facilitate equally active research and design experiments by others in our community by hosting a design competition. Engaging affordability and sustainability as themes, participants will be asked to use two 20-foot shipping containers as the raw material to create attractive, functional and eco-friendly designs as possible solutions to our central coast affordable housing question. Foremost, designs will need to prove both cost and energy efficiency as well as conform to current local zoning and building codes. UCIRA is seeking to place two temporary structures on a location on West Campus – either near Cameron Hall or the faculty studios. One of these is the ‘studio unit’ described above and a second modified unit, which will be the resulting design of the competition. Spaces would be utilized as day studios by UCSB honors students to replace 4 of the 8 recently closed Cameron Hall studios (the Arts classroom space was shut down in 2006 due to mold and asbestos), adjacent to the proposed site. Units will be installed during the Summer 2008 and will be relocated by the end of 2010. Placement near Cameron Hall, the former studio space for art students, appears to be an appropriate site. The land surrounding the existing building is relatively flat and accessible by the road and parking lot. Moreover, existing plumbing and electrical remains available and accessible for hook-up to the proposed temporary units. Proposed design RFQ states that the units must be self-leveling so no grading of the area should be necessary before the units are placed. Landscaping of decomposed gravel will surround the units to provide a safe walkway. The exterior of Cameron Hall is already rigged with active security lighting that can be adapted for use of the new mobile units. The containers will be designed so that they function effectively off the grid, but will allow for the possibility of future hook-up to the grid if necessary/desired. Electricity will be self-generating but there will also be the option to 'plug in' to the grid if and when available. A detached bathroom with a composting or incinerating toilet will be included in the design as well. In discussions with campus architect, Marc Fisher, we anticipate the possibility of utilizing an existing bathroom/sink facility in Cameron Hall as an auxiliary sanitation unit.
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