{
  "schema": "https://pointcast.xyz/schemas/field-study/v1",
  "id": "PC-FIELD-STUDY-001",
  "title": "Dockweiler Beach Commons",
  "subtitle": "Hardpoint + Softkit",
  "dek": "A storm-tough mineral center and a kit of rooms that ten people can carry, repair, rearrange, and share.",
  "url": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons",
  "jsonUrl": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons.json",
  "blockUrl": "https://pointcast.xyz/b/0506",
  "blockId": "0506",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-26",
  "location": {
    "name": "Dockweiler State Beach / El Segundo coast",
    "region": "Los Angeles County, California",
    "status": "site inspiration only; no installation or municipal affiliation"
  },
  "creators": [
    {
      "name": "Michael Hoydich",
      "role": "direction and originating field observation"
    },
    {
      "name": "Codex / OpenAI",
      "role": "concept development, image generation, and PointCast edition"
    }
  ],
  "thesis": {
    "hardpoint": "A compact mineral core holds water, washing, cooking, first aid, storage, thermal mass, and the social hearth.",
    "softkit": "Human-carryable floor cassettes, wind panels, canvas roofs, aluminum frames, rope, clips, curtains, sleeping pods, and art tools make the outer rooms.",
    "edge": "The parts facing salt, sand, wind, and changing social needs are replaceable, reversible, and designed to be repaired."
  },
  "rules": [
    "The first room built is shared, not private.",
    "Every wall performs at least two jobs.",
    "The ocean side stays open and public passage stays clear.",
    "Everyone gets a quiet sleeping threshold; no one gets an isolated cabin.",
    "Going upward requires engineered structure, guardrails, egress, and an accessible room at grade.",
    "Solar power is reserved for light, water, radio, and tools; communication stays mostly analog.",
    "Anything near wet sand is seasonal, ecologically reviewed, and removable before extreme weather.",
    "The best wave machine makes culture before it makes electricity."
  ],
  "realityLevels": [
    {
      "id": "one-day",
      "title": "One-day exploration",
      "description": "No masonry. Use a mineral-looking brought-in ballast table, wind screens, mats, rope, and small art instruments."
    },
    {
      "id": "seasonal",
      "title": "Seasonal public pilot",
      "description": "An engineered removable frame, accessible deck, supervised program, ecological review, and total removal."
    },
    {
      "id": "civic",
      "title": "Permanent civic version",
      "description": "A genuinely engineered service core outside sensitive habitat, with replaceable rooms that change by season."
    }
  ],
  "boundary": "Speculative architecture only. Not a construction document, active beach camp, permitted installation, coastal-development approval, habitat review, emergency structure, or invitation to build on the public beach.",
  "prototypes": [
    {
      "id": "01",
      "title": "The Hardpoint + Softkit",
      "shortTitle": "The kit",
      "image": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons/assets/01-hardpoint-softkit.png",
      "alt": "Exploded architectural view of a brick-and-stone beach service core surrounded by removable decks, aluminum frames, canvas rooms, tools, and people assembling the parts on sand.",
      "mode": "Exploded axonometric",
      "description": "A few durable heavy pieces protect water, heat, storage, and shared services. Everything around them is light enough to carry, inspect, repair, and reconfigure."
    },
    {
      "id": "02",
      "title": "Ten People, One Courtyard",
      "shortTitle": "The courtyard",
      "image": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons/assets/02-ten-people-one-courtyard.png",
      "alt": "Ten people cooking, repairing, resting, making art, and talking in a wind-sheltered modular courtyard around a large brick-and-stone hearth beside the ocean.",
      "mode": "Occupied ground study",
      "description": "A C-shaped windbreak makes one common room before it makes ten private ones. Cooking, repair, art, rest, and conversation remain visible to one another."
    },
    {
      "id": "03",
      "title": "The Vertical Nest",
      "shortTitle": "The nest",
      "image": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons/assets/03-vertical-nest.png",
      "alt": "Night cutaway through a two-level beach habitat with a braced aluminum frame, warm brick hearth, ground-level accessible berth, upper sleeping nets, stairs, and a small lookout.",
      "mode": "Sectional perspective",
      "description": "A compact engineered exoskeleton adds lofts, a lookout, and a wind scoop without turning the commons into a tower. One generous sleep room stays accessible at grade."
    },
    {
      "id": "04",
      "title": "The Tide Room",
      "shortTitle": "The tide room",
      "image": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons/assets/04-tide-room.png",
      "alt": "Oblique dawn view from the ocean toward a brick beach commons on dry sand and a narrow removable boardwalk leading to a tiny open tide-observation room at the wet-sand edge.",
      "mode": "Shoreline relationship",
      "description": "The heavy commons stays back. A tiny removable listening room approaches the water without walling it off, leaving a clear lateral path along the shore."
    },
    {
      "id": "05",
      "title": "Wave Foundry",
      "shortTitle": "The foundry",
      "image": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons/assets/05-wave-foundry.png",
      "alt": "Cutaway of a removable beach workshop where gentle wave motion travels through lines and pulleys to operate a loom, ceramic chimes, a sand-drawing arm, and a small light.",
      "mode": "Art and engineering study",
      "description": "Small paddles and a protected water chamber send slow mechanical motion to a loom, chimes, a sand-drawing arm, and one light. The output is shared culture, not an energy claim."
    },
    {
      "id": "06",
      "title": "The Long Night Commons",
      "shortTitle": "The long night",
      "image": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons/assets/06-long-night-commons.png",
      "alt": "Wide nighttime beach commons with a shared meal, fire ring, acoustic music, shadow theater, paper messages, colored lanterns, sleeping rooms, the ocean, and distant aircraft lights.",
      "mode": "Celebration scenario",
      "description": "A shared meal, bells, acoustic music, shadow theater, lantern language, paper messages, and quiet sleeping pods make a night that is connected without demanding screens."
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    {
      "title": "Beach Commons V2 — Superstructures + Living Games",
      "url": "https://pointcast.xyz/beach-commons/v2",
      "relation": "next field-study edition"
    },
    {
      "title": "Dockweiler State Beach",
      "url": "https://beaches.lacounty.gov/dockweiler-beach/",
      "relation": "place context and public facilities"
    },
    {
      "title": "LA County Living Shorelines",
      "url": "https://beaches.lacounty.gov/coastal-resilience/living-shorelines/",
      "relation": "current dune and coastal-resilience context"
    },
    {
      "title": "California Coastal Commission",
      "url": "https://coastal.ca.gov/whoweare.html",
      "relation": "coastal development and public-access context"
    }
  ]
}