An Architecture of Productive Failures

The multi-purpose recreation and disaster command center represents the environmentally responsible future of Miami; it is an attempt to create a resolution of all the different--and sometimes opposing--forces of the area of the Miami River and its surrounding downtown area. Based on the logic of wood mechanics, the architecture develops from the pressures present in the site as well as from the building’s program. The building regularly functions as a public recreation center, fostering ideas of community and place
in the event of disaster, such as a hurricane or flood, the building adapts, and functions as a post-event shelter, disaster command center, and medical supply distribution point. The design is a collection of both structural and non structural elements, which apply force on each other; moments of “kinking” create spaces of enclosure, while apertures are created at points at which elements peel away from each other. Failure from wood bending forces: “kinking,” “breaking,” “snapping,” are viewed as productive failures within the context of the site and building program; formally, these qualities of failure act as a lens through which to view the site.