Inspiration: #

My desire to build a street brick is informed by many things. One source of inspiration is that I often find myself frustrated by the quality of the surfaces for those who are living life outside of a car. As a cyclist or pedestrians, I’m sensitive to minor changes that a truck wouldnt even notice, and without the distraction of a heated seat, the noise of surround sound speakers, or the thrill of spead, and I’m sensitive to the quality of the environment itself. All too often, I find myself noticing just how ugly things are. Asphalt is smeared everywhere and concrete is loose and broken. Why is this the case? Not to mention, these impervious surfaces are bad for the environment because it prevents infiltration, increases surface runoff that mostly likely ends up in a CSO and heats up water.

In contrast to the questionable streets of Cambridge, I was absolutely dazzled by the brick-laden streets of the Netherlands this summer. Most of the streets I biked on were paved with street bricks and often times these bricks had noticable vegetation growing through them. When work occured, such as changing utilities or putting in a new intersection, these bricks were lifted up, stacked, and ultimately laid back down. No smelly asphalt and loud paving trucks. This process to me was mind blowing. Prior to living in the Netherlands, I had also learned of a [Dutch practice called ’tile whipping’](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/04 we-need-to-accept-the-weeds-dutch-towns-compete-to-remove-the-most-garden-paving). This is essentially when tile or bricks are lifted up on the street and replaced with plants. I can attest to the fact that the outcome of these actions are quite beautiful. You end up with greener sidewalks that are at times wild and unkempt, and other times well-manicured.

Another source of inspiration for this project is Tactical Urbanism Guide. This is processes by which low cost, temporary interventions are implemented to reshape urban spaces. These changes help to create new parks, spaces for play, and pedestrians zones, and ulimately add beauty, character, utility to the urban realm.

A final source of inspiration is something I stumbled across while in Paris this summer. While walking through the streets, I noticed a small corned of conrete that had been beautifully repaired with tiles and on the repaired section read “FLACKING.” Curious, I took a photo and eventually looked it up. It turns out an artist named Ememem has created a practice known as flacking, in which they “heal the streets” by creating gorgeous tile mosaics. This beautiful way to heal and repair the streets is something I’ve never encountered before and provided a wonderful precendent for how to relate to our surroundings.

As I continue to pondering my final project, ive bumped into a few ideas. One potential idea came in the form of ‘story stones’ or ‘guide stones.’ These stones, or really the modified street bricks i intend to build, would contain stories or resources relevant to the built environment. The story stones could be one off bricks that are a way for people to share stories or for stories to be conveyed. The guide stones could be clustered together and provide resources to those who live in the area. They could serve as physical embodiments of digital resources and in doing so create a more interactive environment. However, Im not entirely sure why someone would go to the street brick instead of a website?

Story stones might serve as more of a way to personalize the built environment, store memories, and provide ways to deepen connect to a place. As I write this, it reminds me of the asynchronous walking tour I did in Utrecht that provided new information as you walked around by tracking your location on your phone. Why would I go to this location to share a story? What would I want shared and what about the act of sharing is important to that specific location?

Ive been working on research on people sense of belonging for the research assistant position at DUSP and wonder how these ideas could inform my HTMAA final project. Coukd they become belonging bricks? Could they be aspects of the physical environment that prompt you to reflect on your experiences or belonging?

I also cant help but think about the role of the physical brick itself and how it can share information about the implications of impervious surfaces. Ive been learning more about consequences of impervious surfaces in one of my classes, and cant help but think about this device as a way to draw attention to our relationship to water.

Ive also been wondering how this device could be a source of play? Could it have a screen on it that allows you to play Tetris by tapping your foot on the brick? Could it simply light up when touched?

Components:

• E-ink display
  • Resoures: Waveshare
• Analog accelerometer –>
  • Seismometer integrated circuit
• Microcontroller:
  • estore.st.com
  • MDBT50Q-1MV2
  • ESP32 Cp/Sp
    • wifi and bluetooth built in
  • PicoW
    • 40 pins + wifi/bluetooth
  • Xiao ESP32 S3

Energy:

• Solar panel
• Deep sleep
• Look for prefab board with an MPPT + BMS (battery management system)

Battery:

• LiFEPo

Molding and Casting:

• hydrostone

Screen:

• polycarbonate –> can cut with bandsaw

Pin out for this week:

• e-ink (i2c or SPi)

  • Miso and Mosi
  • 4 pins to OLED

• button (LED)

• send extra pins to headers

• accelerometer (analog would be easier to reduce energy consumption)

  • ADXL343
  • LSM

Other options:

• use NFC power e-ink screen: https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/2.7inch-nfc-powered-e-paper-module.htm

Storystone/guidestone:

• Using what3words to attach to the location of the brick
• having the brick be a natural history of a very specific location
  • what is the history of this location? what soils are here? what trees are around the area? what buildings are nearby? what constellations can you see on a given night? whats the temperature? what about the air quality?
• how to make a place? it is by describing it? by turning it into a landmark?
• how can i make these bricks beautiful or have some reflective surface?