On Family: Design Brigade Week 3
Moving forward, how can we synthesize our research and translate it into design?
Student Team: Ivy Li, Janelle Schmidt, Huy Truong, Vicky Wu, Sasha Zweibel
A project co-sponsored by the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media and Atelier Cho Thompson.
Moving From Research to Design
Entering Week 3 with gathered research and an additional site visit, the On Family team set off to start the first round of design ideation in preparation for a midpoint review with the client at the end of the week. Given the nature of this work is both remote and a team enterprise, our initial task was to figure out how collaboration and design iteration might happen. We started with two rounds of brainstorming individually and then regrouping to synthesize our ideas. In this process, our precedent research and graphic representations of The Towers and its residents were immensely helpful in driving our design.
Mid-week, the On Family team was able to meet with Caitlin Taylor, Design Director at MASS Design Group, to discuss design thoughts and the broader project brief. From this conversation, among other feedback, one key takeaway was to spatialize COVID-19 protocols to better influence our design decisions. Reflecting on how COVID-19 inherently includes spatial parameters for design, our team revisited our research to find similar anchors for other elements of our design. Thus, for the second iteration, we drafted the following problem statements:
We also established design parameters from online research, discussions with the client, and information from the site visits:
With a clear problem statement and design parameters, we returned to our ideas — connecting observations and quotes to both design goals and challenges to ensure that our design implementations would address the issues at hand. What we presented to the client at the end of the week consisted of COVID-19 diagrams visualizing current and proposed health protocols, as well as design interventions at three scales: the personal, furniture, and organizational scale.
Interior Proposal A
For the lobby, the central idea was to structure safety in providing ways beyond masks to promote personal protection. At the personal scale, we looked at DIY handling tools and shields. At the furniture scale, we proposed a range of partitions varying in materiality and multifunctionality. Our client, Jesse Wescott, had the idea that visitors could write messages to their loved ones on the proposed dry-erase board partitions while they weren’t allowed to make physical contact. Lovely! Additionally, we considered some tech-options, including temperature screening kiosks and air purification systems. At the organizational scale, we presented signage and graphic marker options to denote movement through the room.
Interior Proposal B
For the courtyard, we considered the current use of the space and its potential. Personal scale interventions mimicked what we covered with the lobby, e.g. DIY handling tools, and expanded the interactivity component: for an empty wall in the courtyard, we proposed a community mural as a potential way to collect and share the residents’ stories. The Towers’s usual programming is full of art classes and community interaction, so we wanted to honor that as much as possible. At the furniture and organizational scales, we proposed new gardening benches — ergonomic, simple assembly, antimicrobial, and multi-use with social distancing guidelines built into the design. We also considered color palettes, lights, and other signage to indicate a timeshare schedule, as well as the appropriate circulation pattern within the courtyard as per COVID-19 regulations.
Exterior Proposals A and B
For The Towers’s exterior grounds, we drafted larger scale interventions. Though this space was not initially part of the client’s design request, we noted the popularity of this space in our site visits. In particular, the space outside the entrance was a particularly active space. In Proposal A, the first of our two exterior proposals, the idea was to give the residents some things to do while they were socializing in their perceived “favorite spot”. Rollable tables built with 2x4’s and bisected with tabletop partitions proposed to bring back the social and learning activities that the residents seem to miss.
For Proposal B, we imagined a Towers Trail — a path winding around parts of the Towers consisting of a variety of placemaking pods. The Towers Trail would choreograph circulation around The Towers for the residents to take safely distanced walks on. The pods would provide an assortment of outdoor activities, giving residents more opportunities for distanced social interaction and time outdoors. These pods would act like a kit of parts — allowing clients the autonomy to customize the pods’ furniture and placement according to their own schedule
Critiqued, Caught-up on Sleep, and Moving Forward
Post-review, our plans have not changed dramatically. The midpoint meeting supplied very positive feedback to our design proposals, with specific emphasis on the use of humble, easily constructed, and flexible interventions. As such, we’ve now shifted our site to encompass the exterior of The Towers buildings and the greater parking lot area. We’ve also learned about upcoming construction plans at The Towers, limiting our design both in the courtyard — where a new pergola has been proposed to shade in the Summer and serve as a Sukkah in the Fall— and in the parking lot near the basketball courts where future developments may take place. Overall, the On Family team is excited and invigorated by what the future of our project may look like.
Updates on Community Engagement
Alongside design ideation, we’ve also worked on further community engagement. After an additional site visit and discussions with the residents, we’ve edited and distributed a survey to The Towers residents with the help of Towers administrators and staff. Over 300 copies were safely printed and delivered. Responses are currently being recorded and we are hoping to conduct several in-person interviews with the residents, as well.
Roadblocks
This week was incredibly constructive and affirmative. At the start, we were uncertain about the feasibility of distributing and collecting our survey. We were also concerned about the expansion of the site going into the client meeting. However, the survey has been a success and the The Towers administration was very receptive to the site change and the new ideas we proposed. Now, we are left with a problem that we had not anticipated and are lucky to have: with a green light on all presented ideas, our team is now grappling with prioritizing which projects we are most passionate about pursuing.
Next steps
For the upcoming week, we hope to synthesize the survey data and, given the opportunity, we’d also like to conduct in-person interviews with the residents. Ideally, we would be able to combine these two sets of information to help us prioritize our designs. Additionally, we are looking into a participatory survey event with The Towers residents, following the model set by other Design Brigade teams and their teach-in in New Haven this past week. We will be continuing with the next iteration of designs — revisiting the problem statement as needed, parsing through our client’s mid review comments, identifying how we can execute a wide-ranging project, refining the strategies for implementing COVID-19 protocols in our design, and developing a coherent design language for our various interventions.
