The Lab

Ocean Plant was founded to be a better place by serving the need for tactile, physical, shared, real, active, and passive interactions. 

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The OP founders envisioned a counterweight to the social isolation of the pandemic and the passive experience of digital realities. Intended as an experiential experiment where people could collectively participate and test the value of shared real environments, we could investigate and discover fresh pathways to make better places. 

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At OP, we test the logic and methods of providing physical places that support successful in-person interaction. Passive, casual, or active interaction are all welcome. We study what works and doesn’t work – continuously testing Better Place ideas and strategies across a spectrum of considerations from safety, through health with the ambition of joy. 

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We measure, evaluate, report, learn, and respond to the interactions among people, environment, and architecture. This includes measuring the quality of the air, social interaction patterns among people, people and products, and people within specific OP places. We provide and evaluate the success of a range of programming to engage communities in conversations. Beyond the community space celebrating the coast and coffee that the public shares, we have a design lab upstairs and an engineering shop prototype and product test lab below. There is even an ocean water testing lab provided in collaboration with Surfrider’s Blue Water Task Force. We welcome ideas and participation from our local and global community participants. 

Our goal is Better Places.
Hopefully, Ocean Plant is one of those better places.

Thank you for sharing with us.