Urban Prototyping Research Lab: Market Street Prototyping Incubation

The Market Street Prototyping Festival of 2014 was a natural progression of the innovation displayed by San Francisco nonprofits Gray Area Foundation for the Arts and Intersection for the Arts. The two-day event spanned Fifth Street from Market to Howard Streets, and included 23 commissioned projects that addressed specific conditions of the UP focus area while meeting the scalable, replicable and affordable requirements. In 2015, the Market Street Prototyping Festival returned with an open call for prototype ideas which yielded hundreds of submissions. From April 9th – 11th 2015, Market Street came alive with these ideas. Its wide sidewalks were filled with temporary installations ranging from performance spaces, relaxation zones, dynamic art pieces. Ten of these prototypes were selected for incubation at Gray Area.

From April-October 2016, Gray Area and Autodesk provided hands on workshops, critiques, tools, and space to work, iterate, and cross-pollinate to these 10 design teams. The goals of incubation were to produce successful projects that could be in the public space for up to two years, engage the community in the design process, and document the experience. Projects were deployed in October at the 2016 Market Street Prototyping Festival.