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CONCEPTS

Machinations is a full-stack development company.  Licensed in architecture and construction we use our skill and capital to develop user-centric solutions for social infrastructure problems especially focused on community driven housing

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WHY: THE WORLD IS GETTING SMALLER

More people and less land will inevitably lead to a great need for new, quality housing that creates community rather than conflict.

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WHY: WE SHAPE OUR BUILDINGS; THEREAFTER THEY SHAPE US - WINSTON CHURCHILL

IF ALL THE WORLD IS A STAGE THEN ARCHITECTS ARE THE SET DESIGNERS - JOSH WRIGHT

These are sayings that we take seriously.  We modify the natural environment to accommodate human needs. Those builds set the stage for our lives and create invisible and sometimes literally concrete rules and boundaries that influence the way we can create communities.

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WHY:  FOR DECADES WE HAVE BUILT OUR SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE SO IT ONLY SERVES THE ONE GENERATION THAT BUILDS IT.  AS DEVELOPERS WE BELIEVE OUR BUILDING'S SHOULD SERVE THE GREATER COMMUNITY, NOT JUST OUR INVESTORS.

This suburban, strip-mall development is the same a strip mining.  We pave paradise to put up a parking lot.

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WHY: WE KNOW WHAT GOOD SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE LOOKS LIKE.  IT IS THE SAME PLACE WE TAKE VACATIONS.

Let's build our cities to be great places to live.  Let's build buildings that last centuries and are relevant to future generations.

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WHY: THERE IS SOME GOOD IN SUBURBIA

Properly done, the suburban neiborhoods offer better access to nature and layers of privacy the provides opportunities for neighborly interactions.  But, we can't continue to sprawl out into nature.  We will destroy exactly what we moved out there to experience.

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WHAT: THE VERTICAL NEIGHBORHOOD

For over a decade we have worked on trying to marry what is great about traditional neighborhoods with what is great about cities.  Our solution is the vertical neighborhood.  Our goal is to create high density 3-dimensional layers of public and private space with access to light, air, and nature. Witihin a multi-story building you can experience the different levels of neighborly interaction that can occur at the street, sidewalk, front porch and living room rather than the current, ubiquitous, anonymous hallway.  This concept should of course be integrated into the fabric of a multi-use cityscape.

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HOW: WE LEVERAGE NEW TECHNOLOGY

Advanced construction technology is in its infancy, but the acquistion and implementation of these systems is integral to our future success as a company and as a community.  This image is a vision for the year 2000 from the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. We are working toward it.

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HOW: WE STAY SMALL AND INVOLVED

To maintain proper control and full involvement our team only develops, designs, and builds one or two projects at a time so it can remain intimately involved with every detail of the project from its inception all the way to final inspection.
As Chef Toyo-son says: "Be the head of a rooster not the tail of a bull.

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