The Project:
After several year of researching household products that use bio-fuel, we had identified over 50 products that we would like to showcase to the public. Most people believe bio-fuel is only useful in the transportation industry, but there are numerous products that are powered by bio-fuels.
We felt that the best way to demonstrate these products to the public is to build an ecologically friendly structure that would demonstrate the use of these products. We felt the structure should be portable, but not necessarily mobile. If the structure were built with detachable segments that were sized to fix on top a flat bed truck, it would allow us the flexibility that we were looking for.
Location:
In November 2006, the City Council of Pomona California voted on legislation to make a code amendment to allow alternative fuels processing in the M-1 and M-2 zones. This amendment will simplify the process of retrieving an alternative fuel processing permit. After a length wait and a short discussion...the City Council unanimously voted to approve the code amendment making the City of Pomona the first city in Los Angeles County to enact such legislation.
At the same time, Soul Ecology's current location in downtown Los Angeles at 613 Imperial Street is no longer a feasible location because of the gentrification of the warehouse and loft districts. As resident move into the area converting warehouse into lofts, the all day and late night activity of bio-fuel research and demonstrations is less tolerated.
Soul Ecology's management will create a plan to lease land in Pomona's M-1 and M-2 zones and build a portable eco-building out of use Steel Containers that was decommission from rail yards or shipping yards. The container would be bolted together to form a building structure that would be used to show products that either run on bio-fuel or create bio-fuels. We feel we can build this structure with fewer than $30,000 dollars. Currently we working to raise the funds to build this structure.
Design Vision:
After looking at different portable kit structures, we found a structure that would meet our needs after looking at the ideas identified in the Dwell Project. Two architects had ideas that was close to the concept we had designed on paper. There was an internal design with sliding wall illustrated by Turner and Collins and an external design identified by Roccio Romero.
From the beginning, our design structure would be based on used rail yard and ship yard containers. We new that several types of containers had hard wood floors and foam insulation already installed. Most of the Dwell competition designs were based on wood structures; we felt that we could incorporate the two architects designs into our structure.