The Mobile Urban Research Lab(MURL) is a proposal to help communities anticipate the constant transformation of the urban condition. MURL will travel from city to city, establishing itself in contested sites and forming alliances with local organizations, city governments, and communities. A schedule of workshops, performances, and debates is determined with respect to local conditions. Rather than a display of predetermined information, the interventions will be shaped by the public in conjunction with invited participants.
MURL arrives on site as a series of shipping containers carrying scaffolding, canopies, construction materials, computers, and facililties for video recording and display. Using prefabricated materials, the projects mold themselves to the existing fabric of the city, utilizing local knowledge and history to define contested areas to work with. The containers offer a modular method of transporting the organization and subsequently creating quick structures when the components are unloaded and configured to create public space.
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