52. Hypothetical Development Organization
New Orleans / Rob Walker and Ellen Susan
The Hypothetical Development Organization is dedicated to a new form of built-environment storytelling. Founders—design writer Rob Walker, photographer Ellen Susan, and publisher G. K. Darby—commissioned architects, designers, and artists to take existing sites, often run-down, vacant buildings, and reimagine them as fantastic pieces of architecture. These fictions were rendered on 3-by-5-foot posters (modeled on conventional developer advertisements) and posted on 10 locations in New Orleans, transforming each into a site of engagement, provocation, and imagination. Examples include the Museum of the Self, featuring a thumbs-up “like” icon as a marquee; a boutique maker of artisanal velvet ropes (because “boutiques and artisanal products signal exclusivity, and thus economic vitality”), and the Loitering Centre, a perfectly reasonable use for unused spaces.
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