CONSCIOUS CLOTHING…. ……. CONSCIOUS LOOPING
M.Arch URBAN DESIGN STUDIO (parsons school of design) mentors : BRIAN MC.GRATH, CLAIRE WEISz, graci mills project type : individual designing & group presentation work
Understanding the abandoned freight system in New York City to design for achieving urban equity, inclusion and equal opportunity
Studying the existing abandoned Freight Rail and the implications of its impact on the surrounding community
(Collaborative Map)
Urban Consumption refers to goods and commercially oriented experiences that intermingle with space, place and social identity in ways made possible by metropolitan life and are thereby specific to it. It is not about just the purchases that occur within the confinements of the city, rather has a character peculiar to the context of consumption, both derived from and is definitive of urban culture
Alternate Commons
(collaborative map)
What does it mean to import goods? Where are they coming from? How much does it cost? Who bears this cost? Is the process sustainable? Who benefits of this? How much time does it take?
Alternative commons is a different approach to this consumer society based in New York City. What if we eliminated import? What if we manufactured in house? What if we use our own labor? What characters come into play? What is the role of each of these characters?
Sunset Park Site Model : Representing the Urban Systems
(collaborative model)
New York City is where the American garment industry was first established and thrived, in turn becoming a major economic portal to the recently arrived immigrants. Fueled by immigrant labor, the tendency was to use smaller workshops for small scale contracting, while still importing raw materials from across the globe.
Decades later, New York City was declared to be the fashion center in the world, with barely any fashion produced in house. The city, and the country solely depends on the imports from southeast asian countries only to glorify its looks and sell it as fashion in the west. This gave rise to fast fashion, that only today has become one of the biggest consumer problems on the west coast.
The city has started to implement campaigns and protocols that aim at preserving the original essence of the garment district by proposing a new ‘Made in NY’ campus at Bush terminal, to minimize the dependency.
Conscious clothing is an initiative to rethink the economy of fast fashion in they city. A design that aims at creating consciousness about the clothing one wears and the life cycle of the particular piece of cloth. This design fosters a change in the existing linear economy to making it circular, and providing for the policies proposed by the EDC to restore the abandoned freight within.
Timeline of fast fashion : from what is to what can be
Design Characteristics
Manufacturing Unit within the Made in NY campus in Sunset Park
Recycling Unit for donated/trashed clothing
Collection Unit for clothing donations
Museum for showcasing re-cycled clothing
Provision for hosting Small Scale Fashion shows, highlighting the use of re-cycled clothing products
Making public aware of the processes within
Located by the newly proposed ferry terminal, which brings in a larger influx of visitors
Uses the abandoned freight rail to transport goods collected from various donation hubs in the city into this consciously designed facility
Provides opportunities to neighborhood women to practice sewing techniques and be involved in the recycling, re-fabricating process
Re-instilling the lost soul of the neighborhood
