Experiments in Exchange-Based Urbanism: The Creative Repair of Nolan Park
Susana Chinchilla Ardila
2026 Summer Residency
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Experiments in an Exchange-Based Urbanism began with a simple question: how can architecture encourage new forms of exchange beyond conventional economic value systems? While architectural affordability is often framed through conventional financial and functional access, this project asks how architecture might instead cultivate relationships of reciprocity through shared labor, knowledge, materials, and acts of care.
Within New York City, Governors Island operates as an unusually interdependent urban ecosystem. Seasonal organizations, artist residencies, cultural institutions, and public programs routinely exchange materials, labor, equipment, and expertise in ways that are rarely visible elsewhere in the city. This culture of informal reciprocity positions the island as a living laboratory for investigating how architecture might support and amplify existing networks of exchange rather than creating entirely new ones.
The experiments involved in this project focus on small, but meaningful, repairs delivered through new infrastructures that aim to facilitate the sharing of tools, time, and knowledge. The infrastructure itself is explored in two ways: a Community Punchlist and a Toolbox Treasure Chest. The Community Punchlist, elaborated as a public website, functions as an active page to report repairs and highlight the common needs of the Nolan Park community. The Toolbox Treasure Chest is a deployable toolkit and work surface that attaches to the exterior balustrades of the house front porches. Simultaneously a shared furniture archive, workspace, and lending library, the TTC is a measure of the tools, time, and knowledge that are used to create those repairs.
The experiments themselves play with the production and installation of Creative Repairs, which prioritize creativity and resourcefulness over functionality and regulation. These Creative Repairs are modular installations that focus on shared issues such as broken window frames and missing cobble stones. Rather than treating repair as the restoration of buildings, The Creative Repair reimagines it as a social and architectural practice capable of producing new relationships, shared stewardship, and collective responsibility. The experiments aim to act as discrete interventions that question functionality, regulation, shared inhabitation, and communication. In this sense, repair is less about restoring buildings and more about strengthening the social fabric that sustains them.
Ultimately, Experiments in an Exchange-Based Urbanism: The Creative Repair of Nolan Park posits the idea that urban space and architecture, down to the scale of a small repair, can create the conditions for reciprocity, collective stewardship, and shared responsibility.
Within New York City, Governors Island operates as an unusually interdependent urban ecosystem. Seasonal organizations, artist residencies, cultural institutions, and public programs routinely exchange materials, labor, equipment, and expertise in ways that are rarely visible elsewhere in the city. This culture of informal reciprocity positions the island as a living laboratory for investigating how architecture might support and amplify existing networks of exchange rather than creating entirely new ones.
The experiments involved in this project focus on small, but meaningful, repairs delivered through new infrastructures that aim to facilitate the sharing of tools, time, and knowledge. The infrastructure itself is explored in two ways: a Community Punchlist and a Toolbox Treasure Chest. The Community Punchlist, elaborated as a public website, functions as an active page to report repairs and highlight the common needs of the Nolan Park community. The Toolbox Treasure Chest is a deployable toolkit and work surface that attaches to the exterior balustrades of the house front porches. Simultaneously a shared furniture archive, workspace, and lending library, the TTC is a measure of the tools, time, and knowledge that are used to create those repairs.
The experiments themselves play with the production and installation of Creative Repairs, which prioritize creativity and resourcefulness over functionality and regulation. These Creative Repairs are modular installations that focus on shared issues such as broken window frames and missing cobble stones. Rather than treating repair as the restoration of buildings, The Creative Repair reimagines it as a social and architectural practice capable of producing new relationships, shared stewardship, and collective responsibility. The experiments aim to act as discrete interventions that question functionality, regulation, shared inhabitation, and communication. In this sense, repair is less about restoring buildings and more about strengthening the social fabric that sustains them.
Ultimately, Experiments in an Exchange-Based Urbanism: The Creative Repair of Nolan Park posits the idea that urban space and architecture, down to the scale of a small repair, can create the conditions for reciprocity, collective stewardship, and shared responsibility.
COLLABORATORS/SUPPORT
Thank you to the American Indian Community House and Harvest Works for lending their time and homes to install Creative Repairs.
Thank you to Earth Matter and Play:ground NYC/The Yard for providing valuable knowledge and insight into the systems of exchange on Governors Island.
Thank you to Beam Center for sharing the tools and space necessary to facilitate the fabrication of this project.
Thank you to the organizations, artists, and people of Nolan Park.
Thank you to Earth Matter and Play:ground NYC/The Yard for providing valuable knowledge and insight into the systems of exchange on Governors Island.
Thank you to Beam Center for sharing the tools and space necessary to facilitate the fabrication of this project.
Thank you to the organizations, artists, and people of Nolan Park.
People
