“Inflato Dumpster”: Turning a Dumpster into an Inflatable Classroom in NYC

In August, we hung out with artist Greg Kloehn in his dumpster house which was set up outside Pioneer Works Center for Art and Innovation in Brooklyn at the time. It now appears that the frontier of dumpster conversions has been breached by the “Inflato Dumpster,” a conceptual concept now crowdfunding on Kickstarter. The dumpster, if installed, will serve as a pop-up public classroom and learning center. It’s the brainchild of architect John Locke, whose “Department of Urban Betterment” was also responsible the phone-booth libraries in New York City. It’s aim is to counter the privatization of public space and offer learning space “open to all.”

Our team of architects and urban planners who write for Untapped Cities love architecture speak and it is delightfully present in the mission statement for Inflato Dumpster:

We believe that the architecture of the Inflato Dumpster can act as a networked node of neighborhood information – using screens and sensors to produce constantly updating streams of demographic and subjective information regarding the local site – and then in turn produces a smaller constellation of satellite interventions created by locals and visitors alike. We envision the site as a hub for all, to create a gathering space where programs can be curated to the needs of the community.

Most interestingly, Locke envisions the space as a kind of makerspace/hackerspace, a movement we recently covered in Detroit.

Support the project on Kickstarter here and here are some additional renderings of Inflato Dumpster:

Get in touch with the author @untappedmich.

h/t CurbedNY and Atlantic Cities for the discovery!