Dr. Mona El Khafif, associate professor of Architecture and coordinator of URBANlab, together with adjunct professor Kory Bieg, have spent the past spring and summer working with 11 undergraduate and graduate Architecture students on what they call City/Space/Share (2010). This URBANlab project-based initiative aims to reallocate and transform vacant city spaces—from storefronts to outdoor areas to metered parking spots—via a temporary, moveable, interactive architectural installation. The aim is to increase public interface, boost urban regeneration, and create a more unified urban community. The project will be exhibited/tested at the 2010 01SJ Biennial, a multidisciplinary event of visual, performing, and public art and interactive digital media, to be held September 16–19 in San Jose, California. The participating students will be on-site during the biennial events as artists in residence.

"The goal of the course was to design an installation that conforms to, and is based on, the needs of the community," says El Khafif. "The design needed to demonstrate how flexible architecture combined with a Zipcar-style, short-term rental model could contribute to the cultural and economic development of a neighborhood. The apparatus had to be a small-scale, transportable, and customizable, and it had to encourage interest, awareness, and traffic.

"This project re-envisions empty storefronts as assets rather than liabilities and breaks the cycle of vacancy and decline that cannot be addressed by larger, necessarily risk-averse commercial interests and occupants. Once a permanent tenant for a storefront is attracted, the installation is easily dismantled and moved to another storefront. The definitive features of the design are its flexibility and performance as well its ability to operate as a generic urban strategy. We think of it as an architectural catalyst for social sustainability. I emphasized this last factor as essential when I proposed the project to the biennial committee, and it was a key reason why they to selected to work with us on it."

Students collaborated with ZER01, the art and technology network that organizes the biennial, to research the area's demographics, and they discussed ideas with local community members. The first half of the semester was dedicated to the development of individual proposals. After spring break, a jury of CCA faculty, visiting architects, and ZER01 curators selected one design to be created and exhibited. The remainder of the studio course was dedicated to working as a team on strategies for fabrication and material development; further development of the San Jose "hardware" (architectural objective), "software" (programmatic concept and proposal), "orgware" (organizational strategy), and "brandware" (communication marketing strategy); and generating ideas for how the concept could be applied to other Bay Area neighborhoods. The current summer continuation of the course is devoted to the actual fabrication and execution of the design.

The authors of the selected design are Alexa Getting (MArch 2012) and Lauren Tichy (MArch 2011). The design consists of hinged hexagonal sections that move like the leaves of an expandable table to easily conform to users' needs and the available space; it can be transformed into a workspace, a bar, a stage, a small retail store, or a home theater. It is called (OP)space, which stands for OPportunities, OPen, and OPerable. (OP)space further stands for (OP)lab, (OP)scene, (OP)taste, (OP)shop, and (OP)exhibit, five overarching themes the project targeted as community needs. Since Getting and Tichy first proposed their concept it has been further developed by the class as a "brandscape," or type of architecture that will support a brand.

(OP)space is on view through August 27 at SPUR in San Jose as part of the exhibition Here and Now. During the 3rd SJ01 Biennial, (OP)space will be installed at WORKS Gallery. Other exhibited/tested works on view there will include a "bike kitchen," a fashion show, and a DJ lounge. On September 17, (OP)space will be in the AbsoluteZER0 street festival in a structure built specifically to facilitate programming inside the confines of a metered parking space—demonstrating just one of the many ways unused city space can be reclaimed and utilized through sustainable architecture and structures.

The participating students from the spring semester and summer are: Matt Adams, Josh Campos, Alexa Getting, Brittany Glover, Richard Lyttle, Pia Manalis, Carlos Martinez, Jeronimo Roldan, Lauren Tichy, Fabiola Vargas, Mike Vargas, Rachael Yu, and Maryam Zahedi. The fabrication is supported by Justin Mason, cofounder of the Overlay Group and alumnus of the CCA MArch program and Very Public Arts. Very Public Arts is a project of Community Initiatives of SF.

Also participating in the Biennial are two Fine Arts graduate students, who will be presenting their own major, commissioned projects. Nancy Nowacek is a current student and Imen Yeh graduated in spring 2010. Read more about Nancy Nowacek's project and Imen Yeh's project at the Biennial website.