Designing for Life: Fragile Ecologies

2023

Researcher:

Ignacio Cardona, PI

Research Team and Production:

Joseph Scheuermann, James Anderson, Salvatore Gentile, Andres Jimenez, Logan Middleton, Rylee Rehders, Chris Hudson, Riley Sagan, Patrick Gould, Joseph Tran, Jordan Ann Sperounis, Jeremy Donovan, Ciara Welch, Jason McDonald, Jona Sulaj, Catriel Ziggy Kurz Ribetto

Institution:

Wentworth Institute of Technology

Exhibition:

Boston Design Week 2023,

CEIS Commons, Boston, Massachusetts

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Designing for Life: Fragile Ecologies explored how community-based urban ecological design can advance Spatial Democracy in historically underserved communities confronting overlapping social and environmental challenges.

At its center, a six-meter-long model at 1:1000 scale assembled urban design and ecological restoration proposals for the Tocome Ravine, a Spatial Opportunity proposal for Petare—one of the Western Hemisphere’s densest self-produced urban environments—and the Kintsugi Models addressing urban fragmentation.

Together, these projects investigated how urban design can address fragile social and physical ecologies through public space, connectivity, environmental systems, and community-based transformation.