LA 4020

Capstone Community Design Studio

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

A Service-Learning studio working with community partner(s) located in one of New York State's Rust Belt Cities currently partnering with Cornell's Rust to Green NY Action Research Project. Service-learning projects undertaken in this studio may include design of parks, community gardens, green streets and infrastructure, neighborhood revitalization, school gardens, greenways, etc. Students will apply their professional design knowledge while learning theories and practices of placemaking, urban resilience, sustainability and engaged participatory community design. This studio aims to produce actionable design proposals and projects that advance and enable community revitalization and urban resilience. In addition, it aims to bring local and academic knowledge together in the belief that by working together we also learn together and increase our potential to creatively address the increasingly complex problems communities face.

When Offered Spring.

Fees Course fee: supplies and fees: approx. $250; field trip: approx. $250.
Permission Note Open to landscape architecture seniors, graduate students and students in other fields with permission of instructor.

Course Attribute (CU-CEL, CU-SBY)

• Students will participate in an engaged service-learning project with community partner(s) located in one of New York State's Rust Belt Cities currently partnering with Rust to Green NY. Service-learning projects, (design of parks, streets, neighborhoods, greenways, etc.) undertaken in this studio aim to enable and empower actions that assist distressed urban neighborhoods in revitalizing, reimaging and renewing themselves.
• Through the service-project and readings, workshops, exercises and activities, students will gain an introductory understanding of specific theories, practices and research methods that are guiding the larger Rust to Green Action Research Project (resilience, placemaking, ecological infrastructure, sustainability, action research, smart growth, etc.) of which this service-learning studio is a part.
• Through this service-learning studio and project students will have an opportunity to practice their professional design knowledge while learning how to undertake an engaged participatory community design process that addresses an identified community need. Over the course of the semester, students will work in teams and in concert with community partners, to manage, facilitate, develop and produce a comprehensive design and planning proposal that meets a community need and is represented and communicated in written, visual and digital formats.
• Students will be able to learn and practice specific methods and approaches that can be used to facilitate a collaborative design dialogue with community partners including participatory design, surveys, narrative interviews, interactive meetings, place-based design representation, collaborative activities and events, etc.
• Through the service project, readings, lectures, field trips and discussions, students will dialogue and debate such questions as: What are the root causes of the challenges facing distressed contemporary urban neighborhoods? What role–both positive and negative- do the design professions play in distressed communities? What knowledge are we as designers lacking? What ethics and values should guide our practice?
• Through reflection exercises, journal entries, assignments and discussions, students will reflect on their learning throughout the course of the service-learning project and studio.
• Students will learn to proactively work with diverse others– peers, community members, disciplines- in a "learning community" where co-learning, mutual reciprocity and respect are practiced, honored and cultivated.

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