Text + Textiles

Facilitating the communal reorganization of Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market and its surrounding block, this project protects the local textile economy while providing spaces for vendor care and collaboration. The market’s current activities are reconfigured into new social and commercial core units that allow for shared storage, tailoring and sewing, and collective studio space. The model creates opportunities for material exchange between vendors and with community members who visit. Infrastructural facilities, such as a kitchen and a central prayer space, are also integrated in the market.

Two vacant storefronts and two empty lots are then occupied for vendor care. Street vendors can access facilities for storing and repairing vending equipment. The vacant storefronts are reimagined as care spaces for vendors. This model can be applied to other blocks; the Market’s urban network will incrementally increase in the future, absorbing any additional foreclosed retail spaces before they are purchased by private developers.