Our project was called "Reconnecting a Divided Community" and it was a class project completed during the second half of the Fall 2018 semester during the course Experience Design Studio 1, with Prof. Kristian Kloekl - for the MS/MFA in Experience Design.
The project's goal was to investigate and research people’s experiences along Columbia Road in Dorchester, Boston and to identify opportunities to enhance these experiences through design interventions. The project was carried out in partnership with Boston’s Livable Streets Alliance, who's interest is aligned with the priority for the City of Boston and part of the Imagine Boston’s 2030 plan.
Design of the future state of the area.
"The 2.3 mile long Columbia Road connects Franklin Park and Joe Moakley Park as well as the Waterfront in South Boston. It represents the missing link of the Emerald Necklace between these two parks as originally envisioned by Frederick Law Olmsted. Columbia Road is today an integral part of a series of diverse neighborhoods and communities. It fulfills essential urban connections but points in many ways also to a lack in the network of urban spaces, representing opportunities for change." - Experience Design Studio 1, Syllabus Fall 2018-2019, MS/MFA in Experience Design.
During the second half of the semester, we were immersed in researching the site visiting, observing and interviewing with members of the community, in order to investigate and identify existing values and opportunities for enriching the experience on this road. We approached associations such us City Mission, and we discovered that in fact, the community and the community associations were divided, bringing to light disparities, frictions and wicked problems represented as boundaries (physical, emotional and violence) amongst people in the area, where Columbia Road was actually being a barrier enhancing these divisions (North and South Dorchester, Roxbury).
So, my team and I decided to focus on bridging these gaps by activating underutilized space (owned by the City of Boston) where communities converge. Through Placemaking, we hoped to turn boundaries into borders, giving people a reason to cross the street. The other important part of the project was to give agency and ownership to the community associations around the area by giving them the opportunity to run a weekly program which included art, sense of play, social interventions, skills development, and community engagement while working together with community associations from the surrounding neighborhoods. We adopted the vision from the Project for Public Spaces, in which we create a “great public space...where celebrations are held, social and economic exchanges occur, friends run into each other, and cultures mix” resulting in“safer cities through holistic improvements that generate strong local economies and vibrant public spaces.”
Lo-fi sketch of the experience realms and Program ideation
Possible program for developing the project with associations.
You can read more about this project on this article from the university's website
Team: Sylvia Zepeda and Jeremy Brodeur