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The Sun-Bedazzler

The Sun-Bedazzler

September 21 is PARK(ing) Day LA, a day in which Angelenos will be able to rebel against driving and build shrines to not-driving. The movement is an internationally practiced celebration of reclaiming space and getting on your feet, the urbanite dissolving urban fixtures to make them human again. Lots of what people do on this day are things like camping out in parking spaces, putting things that don’t belong in parking spaces in parking spaces (like a pool, pop-up café, lots and lots of bikes). Duc Le is an architecture student at Woodbury University who has a project for Parking Day that will make reclaiming a parking spot a little sleeker: The Sun-Bedazzler.

The Sun-Bedazzler is an installation that is a “critique of conventional surface parking” to be exhibited on PARK(ing) Day LA. In his parking space–which will be in front of the Neil Denari designed cultural institution l.a.Eyeworks on Beverly–Le is erecting an “urban tanning salon,” a large metallic coil that is for lounging, hanging out, waiting for buses, and tanning. The project will tie a lot of Los Angeles cultures and will provide an interesting arena for you to work on your tan and hang out for a Friday in September.

The project is being funded on Kickstarter now, in which Le is trying to raise $4500 to help complete the project. What is interesting about the Sun-Bedazzler is that it’s a portable and visually interesting adult playground. You can sit, lay out, hang out, and do whatever you want on it. Ideally it would be great if he could get a few of these installed around populated parts of town, enabling it with Wi-Fi and near coffee shops and other hang out points to foster community. The installations would be very similar to Rebar in San Francisco’s PARK(ing) work, one of their more famous installations being an incredibly reclaimed parking space outside of Four Barrel. It’s likely that Le’s work will be a one time occurrence for the modern holiday but, hopefully, its success will bring about similar permanent installations in Los Angeles.

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