Help Winterize Occupy Boston!

[Fenna Krienen]

Really exciting things going on at MIT in terms of design/planning and they need help! Contact Jody.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jody T Pollock <jo...@mit.edu>
Date: Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 2:26 PM
Subject: Help Winterize Occupy Boston!
To: mitoccupyboston <mitoccu...@mit.edu>

Hi all, 

After the weatherization team at Occupy Boston reached out to us to help them prep for winter, a group of architects, urban planners and engineers have been working on a plan for the next few months for the site. We could definitely use some extra help since it's an urgent issue. What's really exciting about this is that since Occupy Boston will be one of the first cities that has to winterize, we stand to set some precedents and potentially build a system that could be replicated across multiple cities and scales. We've done a few site visits and held multiple meetings with key organizers at Occupy Boston, and we're hoping to move forward as fast as possible. Architecture Professor Jan Wampler has been heading this group, and he has a lot of prior experience with other social movements so he's been an amazing resource. If anyone is interested in helping out with this very concrete and necessary design and planning work, please let us know! It would be a great way to contribute to Occupy Boston and hopefully to other Occupy movements around the country. They are really excited about having MIT contributors and partners on this. 

To fill you in on some of the background, below is the work we've done so far. It's a lot of information, but it's certainly very interesting whether you want to help on this project or not. Let me know if you're interested in joining us! 

Jan recommended we divide up into 5 teams, as follows:

1. Get people off the ground:  Devise a comprehensive system for creating space above the ground under tents to allow for water and air flow.
   
2. Heat
   
3. Power and Lighting:  Perhaps build a 12V system to be run with bicycle generators and solar panels and marine batteries? Could also look into small individual solar-powered garden lights to light the pathways at night?
   
4. Tent cover: Need to consider design constraints, including snowload and creating dead air space. Brian came in today with a prototype of a teepee-style structure that could potentially work wth existing tents. Also need to consider aesthetics. 
   
5. Overall site plan: Assuming there are around 100 tents, map out a new plan that can include individual, communal and working tents, as well as walkways and other open space. 

OB would like us to present multiple possible plans (both incremental and holistic) along with visualizations for ease of both decision-making and fundraising. It would be helpful to provide both a menu of smaller, easily achieved fixes along with a more comprehensive long-term strategy. Anything we show this working group will have to be approved by consensus in the General Assembly. Time is of the utmost importance since they would ideally like to start voting and moving ahead within the next week.  Current Conditions: 140 tents or so, most with double occupancy. Sage predicts 100 people will stay through the winter. Most tents are only three-season tents. The library tent, which is an old army tent, is one of the few 4-season tents on site.  Most tents have some sort of makeshift tarp or ground cover (cardboard, pallet, ground tarp, etc.) but it's still pretty patchwork.  Major drainage concerns since the tents sit on about 2 feet of soil that is being compressed so the water simply cannot drain. Most of the ground is very muddy and wet. There is some straw on the ground, but OB has been told to remove it due to fire concerns since many OBers smoke.  The wooden plank walkways are pretty solidly defined in most places but a few spots could require some more permanent structure. This will especially be difficult with snow and ice. There is an understanding in place about keeping these walkways and access areas open due to fire and safety concerns.  Current Efforts:  Tent winterization workshops run on site by John and Sage Sharing donated materials like tarps and a few pallets between tents The purchase of 4 army tents (16 x 32 feet) for the main common areas (including the kitchen and the medical tents). $5,000 has been put aside by the GA for this purchase and people are in the process of finding and buying these tents from army surplus and secondhand stores to replace the current makeshift structures. Each of these tents costs between $500 to $1000.  Heating water in coffee box mylar packets by placing them on manhole covers at the front of the camp. There is a plan to purchase 3 arctic tents that can sleep 10 people each. Coordination with fire and police departments Have considered communal sleeping arrangements but there are still concerns about safety and security There is some collaboration (mostly through email and internet) with other Occupy movements on winterization efforts, but it seems Boston may be the first in really moving ahead on this.  Sage has built himself a mini-house that took one day and only $100 in materials to construct. It attaches to his bike so it is very mobile. It has insulation on the inside and is big enough to comfortably sleep one or two at the most. There was some talk of scaling this up, at least for a few other units? Constraints: The police have fenced off the manhole covers because they argue the heat is dangerous for dogs in the area. This happened about two days ago, after the police noticed OB was using the steam to heat water.  The police are no longer allowing building materials to be brought into the camp. Some people have managed to sneak in supplies (for example, using PVC pipes as flagpoles and then disassembling them once in the camp) and there is a car drop-off site on one side that, while sometimes monitored, has served well in the past for fast drop-off and pick-up. No fire!  Want to avoid giving the impression that OB is building a "fort" or any similarly aggressive structures.  There is very little access to electricity. Right now, there is one outlet powering the library, a handful of bike-powered generators, one solar panel (that was out of commission when we visited) and they are supposed to receive a diesel-powered electric generator of 150KW on Thursday (but OB is unsure if the police will allow them to keep it). Several people expressed the need for access to electricity for computers, refrigeration units in the medical tent for insulin and other appliances like a coffeemaker.  Structures need to be mobile in some way to make for ease of transport, assembly, and if necessary, disassembly. Perhaps something modular or easy to build from several smaller parts (which would also be easier to physically move into the camp).  Needs: Raise tent floors off the ground.  A comprehensive and effective drainage system Tents are currently too closely packed and the ground cannot drain between them. Rearrangement of the entire tent area has already been called for. Foot lockers or other secure ways of storing personal belongings (especially if OB goes ahead with communal sleeping) Warm common areas -- especially in the winter, OB doesn't want people isolated in their individual tents Access to sunlight -- potentially building a "greenhouse"-style common area. Several OBers mentioned the possibility of building windows or some kind of translucency into structures with either polycarbonate or marine shrink wrap. Perhaps retrofit the army tent windows with these materials? If the window areas are coated to keep the tents/structures insulated, it can also provide heat.  Sage expressed some interest in the concept of banking snow in walls on the sides of the site to prevent salt spray and to help block wind in the winter.  Aerial photographs of the current site and accurate maps of the site now and of what we propose.  Light for pathways at night. Perhaps powered by the new generator? Or perhaps solar-powered?  Concern for aesthetics of the site -- could be a powerful visual medium for storytelling or expressing greater symbolic meaning in place.  An emphasis on green technology and green building in keeping with the movement. Sage and Lydia (from Occupy Boston) offered the following list of considerations for our plans: Survival Aesthetics Non-confrontation with authorities Constrained building materials and access to site Uplifting the spirit of the Occupy-ers Warmth (in terms of both heat and comfort) Balance between communal and individual Balance between planned and organic Sleeping quarters of various types Security (both personal and of possessions) Mobility and ability to re-use materials, structures, etc.

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Jody Pollock 

jo...@mit.edu • 240-461-3417

Master in City Planning Candidate 2013 • International Development Group

MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning

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fenna krienen
center for brain science
harvard university
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