Designed by SAIC alum Kai Lin Catherine Cao
In the youth class Lawndale Civic Design, Lawndale youth conducted research that examined barriers to walkability at the Harrison-Homan intersection by conducting interviews and collecting oral histories. The data collected in this course then informs the visual and physical design solutions that SAIC degree students produced in several Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects (AIADO) degree classes. Youth in Lawndale Civic Design developed and nurtured their observational skills, gathered oral histories, and collaborated with college-age and graduate-level students at SAIC. This collaboration provides a reciprocal benefit to both Lawndale youth and SAIC students: It gives youth an opportunity to visually communicate the impact of neighborhood gas stations on their community while offering SAIC students experience in developing resident-led, community design solutions.
Data visualization by North Lawndale Civic Design Student Intern Ravin, November 2020.
Lawndale Civic Design
Instructor: Carrie Wright
Fall 2020 - Mondays 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Lawndale Civic Design engages neighborhood youth through design and urban infrastructure and coordinates projects with SAIC Design @ Homan Square degree class. This class dives into aesthetics, ways to use visual language to represent ideas, and connections between social and physical environments. The students’ work culminates in an end-of-year exhibition in which a portfolio piece is displayed. One of the course’s outcomes is to learn how to visualize data through the use of mood boards to describe North Lawndale’s neighborhood aesthetic. These were then shared with AIADO degree students.
To watch the student presentations from our Fall 2020 youth course, visit our YouTube Channel.
Image provided by AIADO
AIADO 4101 001 (2424) - SAIC Design @ Homan Square
Instructor: Eric Hotchkiss
Fall 2020 - Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The SAIC Design @ Homan Square class operates as a "pro bono” design consultancy for residents of the North Lawndale neighborhood, offering solutions for a broad range of matters that residents bring, matters, both simple and complex. The objective of the class is not to produce "objects," but actionable solutions. While these solutions may take the form of built objects, they may also take the form of social programming or campaigning. In the fall 2020 WA|K-H collaboration, SAIC Degree Students engaged with youth living near and using the Homan-Harrison gas station to develop designs that address issues of safety and walkability in the area. Together they created a comprehensive plan for the intersection, which will be executed in the spring 2021 semester.
AIADO 4115 001/ HPRES 4115 001 - Design Action: North Lawndale
Instructors: Odile Compagnon and Lynette Stuhlmacher
Fall 2020 - Fridays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This interdisciplinary course will address and highlight North Lawndale’s current initiatives and build upon the analysis of previous SAIC actions in North Lawndale to propose, collaboratively with community organizations and youth groups, a method for sustained development and trust. The studio will aim at answering the following question: how can designers and artists work with local agents, social activists, artisans, business owners, and contractors to develop interactive and creative programs?
From a multidisciplinary and participatory perspective, Design Action: Crossing Island, the 2020 iteration of SAIC’s Design Action Studio, imagined constructs — real or fictional, systems or rooms — to define the future of urban navigation, allowing for the definition of one’s personal identity in the city, separate from others, yet acknowledging and respecting the comfort of others.
Revisit us in May 2021 to see our comprehensive project report of the resident led solution addressing the barriers to walking for Homan/Harrison intersection transforming it into a Gateway to the neighborhood and making the Homan corridor walkable compiled by architect Craig Stevenson.
