Think Tanks
+Spring 2023
Bulk Fuel Storage Facilities are an object of historical oil capitalism in Los Angeles. The storage facilities have remained within the city providing residents with toxic and volatile environments. Many of these facilities reside near the Port of LA in a significantly underserved region. Bulk fuel storage facilities are built in a highly mechanical and functional manner. These facilities are slowly diminishing as oil and other non-renewable energy sources are being replaced by renewable energy.
Each unit provides an encasement that could be used for living and other facilities. Each unit is contained within a larger industrial farm containing 10-100 units. The large facilities provide an opportunity to create new communities and neighborhoods within these industrial districts.
The new living environment amongst the bulk fuel storage facilities will create a complete environmental dichotomy from what existed before. The units will retain their integrity as objects, yet used for other purposes, while the landscape around will recognize the functional industrial landscape while reinterpreting it into a completely sustainable, carbon-zero community. The community will provide an oasis for humans and non-humans to gather together away from the surrounding urban context.
The project will explore ways of reintegrating bulk fuel storage facilities into the changing urban landscape while retaining their industrial heritage. Designed in concentric rings of living and parks, completely sustainable, megastructural, or plug-in-able, the Los Angeles bulk fuel storage facilities will rejuvenate the surrounding context.
