Relevance

While the contributions of day laborers typically go unseen, most cities’ inability to accommodate them within the urban infrastructure is highly visible. Day laborers’ role in the informal economy has forced them to occupy spaces meant for other uses, such as street corners, gas stations, and home improvement store parking lots. A relatively small number of officially sanctioned day labor centers have appeared in recent years, but the informal gathering sites remain the norm. These sites are far from being ideal; their presence in spaces designated for other uses means that they often lack even the most basic of amenities (shelter, water, toilet facilities, etc). The Day Labor Station is a design campaign that we are developing to address the needs of a community that traditionally has not had access to quality design environments.

Prototypical Design

The Station itself is a simple, flexible structure that can be deployed at these informal day labor locations. It is a self-sustaining project that will utilize green materials and strategies and will exist primarily--if not completely--off the grid. Our design is based on the realities of the ways in which the day labor system operates, and responds to the needs and desires of the day laborers themselves, as our clients. As such, the structure will be flexible enough to serve various uses, including as an employment center, meeting space, and classroom.

Proving that "just" design and "quality" design need not be mutually exclusive, the Day Labor Station has received recognition from the design community for its innovative design including a Spark! Award and a Citation in the Unbuilt Category from the AIASF (American Institute of Architects, San Francisco chapter).

Comprehensive Advocacy

A full scale section of the first prototype of the Day Labor Station was be on display at the “Design for the Other 90%” exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, which was on view from May through September 2007. Accompanying the exhibition was a book, displaying--among other things--compelling portraits of day laborers. The book is still available from the museum, and the exhibition is slated to travel shortly.

Additionally, Public Architecture initiated a targeted media and public relations effort, including a dedicated website, to coincide with the exhibition launch. All these initiatives represent part of our effort to humanize the laborers and elevate the debate about them, the spaces they inhabit, and the ways in which they exist in the fabric of the community.

As part of our goal is to make a concrete impact on the day labor environment, we also intend for this project to be more than just a museum piece. We are currently in conversations with several municipalities and commuity groups about identifying sites that can serves as homes for the first full Station prototypes. Ultimately, Day Labor Stations will be deployed across the country.

Visit www.daylaborstation.org for more information.