Project Description
In Fall 2022, Mania and Negin co-taught a design studio at SARUP, focusing on the new immigrant spaces in the Midwest cities of Chicago and Milwaukee. The design and research objective focused on highlighting the social justice of immigrants in the United States and how it is impacting the current urban built landscapes. Afterward, Mania executed a SURF Research grant on Spring 2023 with three senior undergraduate students from that studio on the same research topic, focusing on Chicago’s Devon Avenue as an immigrant landscape. This collaborative research is now being showcased as part of the Time-Space-Existence Exhibition in Venice, organized by ECC-Italy and Venice Biennial (https://ecc-italy.eu/exhibitions/2023archbiennial). This SURF proposal plans to extend this ongoing research to promote more equitable and inclusive architectural practices within the academic and professional realm in Milwaukee by bringing this exhibit in the SARUP Gallery by the end of 2023. This project is for undergraduate students with a mindset toward shifting community and professional norms. This SURF Grant funding will allow these students to conduct and outreach the goal of making architectural education more equitable. students will work on representing the built patterns through analytic drawings and physical installations in a 500-700 SFT exhibit.
Tasks and Responsibilites
New Immigrant Place-making SURF research will begin by conducting three primary forms of research: 1) They will document the physical characteristics and the common patterns of these immigrant spaces by making drawings, diagrams, and physical installations. 2) They will compile their understandings of everyday immigrant spaces and documentation of spaces into an exhibit at SARUP. This exhibit has the possibility to become a travelling exhibit to other institutional spaces and to these communities as well. Each of the three student researchers will be responsible for dividing and leading these tasks listed above. Students will meet weekly with research mentors to discuss progress and next steps. The general workplan is: 2023 September: Working on the second primary form of research by documenting through drawings, diagrams. 2023 October: Work on the physical installations. 2023 November: Working on the exhibit together, which is a collection of works of curating design ideas, editing and printing the presentation panels, and organizing everything as a physical exhibit.
Desired Qualifications
None Listed.