How could a piece of infrastructure/architecture celebrate the movement of physical material by celebrating the labor that moves it? Third party food delivery service has become an integral yet problematic part of big cities such as New York. Its hidden environmental costs and socially marginalized gig workers present an urgency for intervention. This project proposes that USPS will replace current private companies to provide food delivery services with a reusable food container program. The current gig workers will form a new fleet of E-bike drivers for USPS and deliver food as well as small packages. The existing Murray Hill USPS Annex is chosen to demonstrate the potential of USPS to become a social hub for delivery drivers, postal office staff, and the local community.
The project was designed from the inside out. Ramps became tools for connecting, bridging, transitioning, dividing, and observing. A series of models were developed to ensure the circulation of the delivery workers and the public are intertwined, and “a mixing chamber” where delivery drivers engage with visitors to the post office by passing in front, dropping off food containers, or playing basketball.
