Did it!

The web site is up! Many thanks to Mike and Zaneta, our newly-wed work horses. It looks really great.

New Website Coming Soon!

We have been working on a new website to accompany our blog . It should be ready in a few days. Just follow the link.

Much thanks to Joel Nolan.

Sudan Project | Kapoeta, Sudan

The owner of a small inn and restaurant in the southern Sudanese town of Kapoeta approached GA|C to design a multi-purpose functional room. The owner hoped to increase their income by this additional amenity so he could build a school for his home town. Our solution – the skeleton scheme – internalized the structure in order to maximize the light and access to the garden.
 

Camera Obscura Project | Syracuse, New York

The Camera Obscura Project was a proposal to create a space where children in an underserved neighborhood could document and change the images of their own community. GA|C worked with a local photographer, Steven Mahan to develop a site adjacent to the future home of  his studio in the Near Westside neighborhood in Syracuse, NY where Steven would be teaching.

Using a small building designed to function as a Camera Obscura, the Near Westside neighborhood would be projected upside-down on a wall inside. Children can interact with the images, and they are in turn recorded by a video camera and sent to the computer in a near-by classroom. Children can then manipulate the images from the Camera Obscura as a part of the visual technology course. The transformed images would then be projected to an exterior wall of the building and become the backdrop of performing art projects.

Near Westside is the 9th poorest census tract in the United States and children in this neighborhood do not enjoy a safe environment to grow in. While writing and drawings may intimidate children, photography is an accessible and effective form of expression. The program is rooted in the community in that the students photograph their environment as subject matter to confront and understand it. Those photographs are shared, discussed and questioned --enlightening the community and building self-esteem in the creators.

Izmir Project | Izmir, Turkey

Gecekondu are informal squatter settlements that occupy the majority of urban peripheries in Turkey. In Izmir, 50% of the population lives in gecekondu. As in many conservative communities, women do not have formal public spaces in gecekondu. Men gather in cafés that dot the main street. Women gather in domestic spaces. The only visible spaces in which they gather outside are informal work spaces attached to infrastructure. It is here that women have a chance to claim their own public space so they may engage in civic discussion on how they want to build their city. The project proposed a network of small public work spaces for women along the steep stairs. The stairs led to a new soccer field located between the old informal settlement and the new government housing in order to bring these communities together. The wastewater from homes was treated by the constructed wetland in the valley, and would be used to irrigate the soccer field and the vegetable gardens.