ABSTRACT
Initial research into global labor migration reveals typical relationships between wealthy, industrialized host countries, and the countries of workers' origins, often "third-world" or developing nations. However, upon closer scrutiny, hidden relationships between these two categories of country emerge which blur exploitative hierarchies. Tensions of a different kind are present at the site, the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Longstanding residents must contend with an incoming population that ushers in change to the urban fabric. Introduction of the Olympic proposal further agitates these tensions between the neighborhood's old and new populations: long-time residents want to preserve the character of the neighborhood surrounding the Olympic site, while newer residents seem open to its complete transformation. These two dynamics inform the method for constructing each unit of the topological membrane and diagrammatically become a set of material commands governed by binary tension. The architectural intervention, then, is a game board upon which opposing sides battle for the right to control the site.
