AF FIXES explores the notion of adaptability through the practical ways we tweak our surrounding environment. These often frugal, yet clever acts provide a platform to examine how our buildings, streets and neighbourhoods evolve over time in relationship to our dynamic human needs. What lessons can be drawn from these quotidian adaptations – what material patterns, functional classifications and connection types arise?
Uses: all
Access Advertising Aesthetic Animal Enclosure Cleaning Up Communication Commuting Decoration Display Drying Feeding Gardening Hobby Laundry Lighting Parking Parking Prevention Pleasure Privacy Protection Recycling Relief Safety Seating Security Signage Speed Stability Storage Support
Objects: all
Archway Ashtray Astroturf Basket Bath Mat Books Breeze Block Cabbages Cactus Cardboard Boxes Chain Chain Link Fence Chair Citrus Coffee Cans Concrete Corrugated Plastic Dirt Door Stopper Duct Tape Dustpan Flowers Gardening Support Rod Gate Gloves Hand-Made Sign Hose Light Log Marker Pen Metal Fence Post Metal Rod Metal Staple Metal Storage Rack Packing Strap Paper Pegs Plastic Grill Plastic Grill Tray Plastic Line Plastic Twine PVC Pipe Railing Railway Sleeper Reinforcing Rods Rock Roof Tile Rubbish Bag Rubbish Net S-Hook Shoes Shopping Basket Shrubbery Signage Boards Signboard Soil Solar Light Stool Street Light String Tape Traffic Cones Tree Trellis Trolley TV Unit Twist Ties Tyres Vegetables Wire Wire Rack Wood Wooden Block
Connections: all
Bolt Buried Direct Chemical Connection Direct Connection with Overlap Draw Flexible Connection Hang Hooked Indirect Connection via Dependent Third Component Indirect Connection via Third Independent Component Indirect Connection via Third Material Indirect Connection with Additional Fixing Devices Insert Lean-to Mortar Nailed Overlay Pegged Planted Scratched Out Stacked Taped Tie Tied Twist-Tied
Concepts: all
Aging Balance Beautification Bricoleur Care for Others Care for Possessions City Eating Cleanliness Clothing Collaborative Business Commerce Commitment to Place Community Construction Continuity Customisation Declining House Prices Depreciation Devotion (Religious) Dilapidation Disposability Enthusiasm Experimentation Failure Frugality Gardening Growth Homeless Improvement Improvisation Independence Inter-Species Interaction Joy Just-Enough Limited Timeframes Long Timeframes Making-Do Mass Made Housing Mobility Modularity Mutual Dependence Park Permanence Pets Piecemeal Building Problem Solving Public Amenities Relationships Reuse Sharing Shopping Skill Slow Growth Stacking Starting Small Stories Support Temporary but Regular Transport Urban Green
Locations: all
Nagoya Tokyo
Roof tile repurposed for apartment complex planter. I wonder if the tiles were saved from the houses that were …
When combined with citrus, ashtrays, wire and gardening support rods form a system that fosters inter-species conviviality, and adds …
Tracks through the shrubbery that borders a newly constructed bus/taxi rotary in front of a suburban Tokyo train station …
Astroturf wired to trellis forms the start of a simple and functional green wall.
The mix of fake grass, …
Storage of gloves, dustpan and pegs, secured to string. For use at garbage collection and recycling point of low-rise …
A packing strap tied to the railing and looped around the doorknob helps a tired and irritated mother with …
A gigantic cactus in suburban Tokyo is supported-as-it-grows by block-by-block additions of plastic grills that are supported by metal …
Ragged and potentially dangerous remains of public park boundary fencing are made safe for passers-by (especially wobbly cyclists and …
Hanging wire hook for putting out the rubbish for collection. Attached to the wall with bent wire hooked over …
Reinforcing rods for the concrete block wall of a new house are made safe for passing eyes with the …
A plastic grill tray halved and then fastened together with plastic twist ties (presumably) acts as a guard against …
A hint from Claude Levi-Strauss: ‘The “bricoleur”…universe of instruments is closed and the rules of his game are always …
Wire twisted into pot plant holders to decorate roadside residential fencing.
Crumbling entrance archway held together with duct tape.
A railway sleeper positioned on top of two smaller pieces of wood forms an elegant and function bench in …
A railway sleeper attached to two circular pieces of wood by a large building staple creates a simple, elegant …
Metal window ledge/safety railing provides ample space for both storing cabbages (they are much sweeter when stored outside) and …
All apartments are fitted with built-in washing lines which are below the line of the railing. Unfortunately, these are …
Quick, timely, inexpensive, disposable, plentiful, distinct, minimal, ambiguous, hopeful – these ‘fixes’ are ways of thinking and doing amongst …
Row of cheap solar lamps form driveway lighting when placed in drainpipe holders fastened to chainlink fence with wire.
The boundary of a driveway modified as a pot plant display area and seat for outdoor BBQs.
Cut-off tyres guard against parking mishaps.
Streetside storage for net used to hold community rubbish sacks on rubbish day.
Hand made map showing shops and attractions in the center of Nagoya’s shopping district, Sakae.
Various fonts, paper, and hand …
Functional adaption of park tree for maintenance equipment storage in a run-down apartment complex just off the high-fashion avenue …
Trolley underbelly provides space for instructions on its own use – in this case, for use only within the …
Cardboard box recycling tower constructed from salvaged metal rack and wood block for stabilization. Stool for reaching upper levels.
Repurposed tv unit houses library of rescued reading material, and acts as storage space for cleaning tools and items …
Signs advertising local restaurants lined up and stabilized over pedestrial railing. A system which also keeps them off the …
Chair used to signal location of store, and display products…as well as discouraging parking.
The dog has the run of the yard – kept in check with wire racks attached to the gate …
Ground floor apartment balcony given privacy (for hanging out washing) through the arrangement of corrugated plastic scraps.
From
Easy-access step created with breeze block and concrete. Aging societies need to think about and experiment with ways to …
No grass to stick a yard light in? Always wanted more of textured, opaque look for that front gate? This creative …