July - August, 2024
We joined the Marian Cheek Jackson Center Sankofa Freedom School to facilitate workshops for the design of a Gateway to honor the Black builders of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
DAY 1
We started by viewing architecture from around the world and discussing how the built environment affects our lives.
We then did a Design Visioning Activity where the students imagined a place that would have a positive impact on their community. They were prompted to describe the function, location, colors/materials/textures, and time of day it is most active. We brought their community spaces to life by putting descriptions from their prompts into an AI rendering tool and adjusted the descriptions to generate an image of what they imagined.
DAY 2
The students split up into small groups to research public art works from prominent Black artists. The groups had discussions about how public art can tell a story and work for justice.
Each group presented their findings, thoughts, and opinions of their chosen piece. This led to many insightful and meaningful discussions between all participants. The students approached the exercise with enthusiastic engagement, even with some students having personal connections to the public art.
To end the day, we explored the site of the future Builders Gateway via Google Earth to give the students a better idea of what they are working with.
DAY 3
The architect of the Builder's Gateway, Murray Kamara, joined the students and discussed inspiration and how they may create something meaningful.
In the small groups from the day before, they began generating ideas and sketching a concept on the site plan for the Builder's Gateway. Using modeling clay, chipboard, and markers they built a 3D model of their concepts. Each group presented their concept and got constructive critiques from the larger group.
3D Models Made By Students
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