Lexi Tsien
Co-founder, Soft-Firm
Power Tools Chinatown
This multi-day workshop leverages collective and DIY knowledge-building as a representational technique and a tool of power. We will explore, document, and map everyday life in Chinatown. As one of New York City’s most resilient and distinctive cultural districts, Chinatown is facing rapid gentrification and displacement. We’ll begin with the premise that a site, street, or storefront is an
aesthetic, sociopolitical, and programmatic provocation. The majority of the built environment is not celebrated in architectural culture. This course asks how we might invent and adapt our own tools of representation to operate critically from a different center. We will explore and document programmatic misfits, marginal aesthetics, and the in-betweens of architecture while valorizing urban form, ad-hoc tools, informality, and everyday spatial practices. During this workshop, we’ll visit and sample various sites – including Columbus Park, Wing on Wo & Co., Citygroup and Wu’s Wonton King – culminating in an informal review and shareout.
