Author(s): Timothy Griffin, Savannah L. Steele, Kayla Ignatowicz, Anukriti Misra & Julia W. Robinson
Empowering the community voice is a role that the university architectural design studio can play in urban design, especially for underserved communities. Complementary to the work of urban planners and architectural designers, and prior to engagement with the city, the university studio can be leveraged in co-design with the neighborhood, to envision projects that benefit the neighborhood and derive from community expertise. The goal was to collaborate with the community rather than design for the community. (van Kampen, S., & Giraudy, C. (2021). *Building “Working with, not for” into Design Studio Curriculum* (1st ed., Vol. 7). Athens Journal of Architecture, and for note 18—now 19 or 20 as op.cit.) Successful work with disinvested communities can be challenging because it involves developing trusting relationships with individuals and organizations. The project presented here began with a joint concern of two community members and a design studio instructor about the isolation and poor condition of the neighborhood, and an opportunity to develop land along the Mississippi River to revitalize the North Minneapolis neighborhood. The project was a combined research and teaching effort in which the scholarly question was how to amplify the voices of the community employing the design studio. From the beginning it was determined that the project would be experimental, developing pedagogical practices and knowledge that could be advanced in future studios. The approach included working with university students to understand how to collaborate with community members (and, in this case, youth interns), including research on the existing situation and exploration of possible new opportunities and directions. The three-year evolution saw changes in the participants, the instructors, and the teaching and design methodology that increasingly engaged the work of the studio with community members to create project proposals that represented community ideas and values.
Volume Editors
Reed Kroloff & Francisco J. Rodríguez-Suárez
ISBN
978-1-944214-52-4