Trash to Treasure :: map-lab seedlings
In our never ending quest to turn our trash into treasure, we have created these new seedling containers, to be shared with our friends. Our addiction to office snacks had left us with a stockpile of plastic containers. With the addition of potting soil and seeds, we have a new use for these empty snack containers. Let us know what you think and we can send you one for your office or home.
SHIFTperception: An Urban Revisioning of Washington Street
With the recent news of Boston's Downtown Crossing seeking to become a new Business Improvement District, as well as the ongoing problems of the stalled development at the old Filene's Building and a growing number of empty storefronts in the area, map-lab decided to take a more in depth look at possible solutions.
To understand where Boston's future should be, obviously we must first examine its past. As with many cities in the post-WWII era, Boston adopted the super block mentality for spurring development. In the case of Downtown Crossing, it destroyed a viable & beautiful building fabric and streets themselves to make way for large-scale suburban-esque retail approaches. With them came more knockdowns to make way for the parking structures thought to be needed to draw suburbanites to the urban centers for their shopping. We learned that it fails over time due to the eradication of smaller businesses and the “turning of the back” to the residents themselves.
To revitalize the once vibrant core of Boston, we proposed to remove the cars and return Washington Street (within the borders of the Downtown Crossing district) back to the pedestrians.
