Project Description
Contemporary democracies exhibiting polarized political beliefs require specific assembly spaces for citizens to engage with opposing views, such as one-on-one conversation spaces. However, since the establishment of modern democracies and the associated emergence of the public sphere in the 18th century, political spaces continue to be imagined as august places to assemble multitudes (e.g., houses of representatives or public squares). Today, no political spaces are explicitly designed for face-to-face meetings, and these crucial conversations for American democracy typically occur in ordinary multipurpose rooms. The old spatial imagination deployed at the dawn of modern democracies must be renewed to meet the challenges of contemporary democracies. Citizens of differing political opinions need places to assemble with the same dignity and aura as parliaments or protests. This ongoing design research project documents the everyday spaces where Americans of opposing political views hold transformative face-to-face conversations and redesigns them as new assembly spaces to generate and symbolize trust between strangers.
Tasks and Responsibilites
This design research project has two parts. The first part documents (via photographs, drawings, and interviews) the ordinary spaces where meaningful conversations around essential topics of American democracy (such as race, ecology, or healthcare) have occurred in the last 50 years. For example:
• North Carolina Board of Education, “Desegregation Workshops,” Durham, NC (1971).
• Public Conversations Project, “The Northern Forest Dialogues,” ME, NH, NY, VT (1988-94).
• Public Conversations Project, “Abortion Dialogues in Greater Boston,” Watertown, MA (1995-98).
• AmericaSpeaks, “Citizens’ Health Care Working Group,” US (2006).
The second part imagines alternative spaces for similar ongoing and future conversations. This is an ongoing project, and the selected student will collaborate in both parts as needed but will mostly focus on helping develop the second part. Consequently, the student will:
• Draw orthographic (plans and sections) and axonometric representations of ordinary spaces where meaningful conversations have historically occurred (20% of their time).
• Assist in designing and rendering (by using Enscape, Lumion, or Twin Motion rendering engines) new alternative spaces for face-to-face conversations (80% of their time).
Desired Qualifications
None Listed.