Seeking Shelter/Slot Shelters continued brainstorming

Engage shelter would have some pinwheel pieces spin in the wind or by hand. Refresh shelter would collect water and it would musically collect down rain catch chains.

Seeking Shelter/Slot Shelters Installation: I have been thinking more about the connecting unit shapes for structure installation of Slot Shelters. This structure will be an exclamation point and question mark inserted into the public landscape to excite people about the possibilities for what a bus shelter can be.

A design challenge for youth will launch at the same time.  
The challenge will invite youth to envision the bus shelter as more than a waiting space.
How can the bus shelter function in replenishing/refreshing, engaging and enriching the community? How can the space be designed to invite community connection, gathering and sharing? How can it be a node in environmental and community needs such as solar collecting, water collecting, digital device recharging, food growing? This challenge will be hosted on the Slot Shelters website.

The installation will playfully introduce the general themes: refresh, engage, and enrich. I will design and install a shelter in which each wall represents one of the three themes.
The Engage Wall will have units which spin by touch and wind.
The Refresh Wall will collect water from the slanted roof and the water will descend musically through rain catches (made of the building units cut from metal and folded into cones).

The Enrich Wall will have the building units printed with elementary student pattern art (from this academic year's Slot Shelter participants) along with their statements describing how their patterns reflect their neighborhood. Perhaps people could add to the art – so that it is an ever changing piece.  They could draw or leave notes & messages. Perhaps it is poetry they are writing down. It is a way to connect to people you may never meet.

very rough concept sketch of what a basic shelter might look like using the new slot units.

Two alternative shapes for the basic unit shape. One of these will be selected to work from.

The unit pieces I am creating (and still refining) will fold and connect to build the structure. The main basic unit shape will integrate both angular forms and organic shapes.
The organic shapes within it reflects on identity and place... cells and aerial view of Bay (together referencing a large span in scale).
The angular shape in the pattern unit is the standard pinwheel. It references green design and the  ingredient of playful experimentation necessary for innovation design in Silicon Valley. As a basic quilting pattern, this angular shape also references the quilt work of cultures pieced together to form our unique community.

The basic shape design will have several variations or slight "mutational" forms that will be laser cut so that resulting pattern has a dynamic texture of variation within the repeating pattern. Two examples below:

These new pattern shapes will be used in conjunction with the original patterns created for the classrooms. There will be a free issuu book for students to download and print the card pieces.