RE / EVOLUTION - Life, Work, and Leisure in endemic Seattle

Throughout history, times of crisis forced humanity to adapt, whether it be natural, political, or financial. Post-war European countries gave birth to rebellious movements in the sixties, translating into prolific art and architecture movements that investigated society and its issues. Today, after more than a year of battling with the CoVid-19 pandemic, mankind has adapted once again to a critical situation that has affected the whole world. Nature’s revenge on humankind made us create new spaces and new ways of experiencing these spaces. Thanks to technological advancements, many have been able to readjust to life in lockdown; in the context of Seattle, tech has impacted everyday life for its citizens in the past eight years. The Re-Evolution studies the shift in daily life tasks, divided into three categories: Life, Work, and Leisure. Before the pandemic, the three were distinctly divided in time and space throughout the city, but after being forced to live confined in one space - whether a house or room - people slowly managed to accomplish regular life duties in the same place; hence, the spaces and times Life, Work, and Leisure happen changed. Today, slowly evolving towards an endemic, some aspects from pandemic life have been kept, optimizing people’s schedules. In the case of SoDo, a gradual regeneration of the area is necessary to welcome the evolving lifestyle. To do so, production areas have to be implemented with elements that do not affect or clash with the industrial zoning. Taking advantage of the investments made on 5th Ave S, the public transit line and its future evolution is associated with a fast track for pedestrians and human-powered vehicles. The new path acts as a catalyst for evolution towards a combined behavior; public-related spaces and offices are arranged to connect with the elevated trail. Hence, activities from the three categories are distributed accordingly along the new axis to support the hybrid lifestyle, generating a new influx towards a high-production area.