Designing Shade Assemblies with Public Housing Residents

In November 2022, the Fund for Public Housing, the Design Trust for Public Space, and the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI) launched the Green Space Connections (GSC) program. This fully-funded program seeks to empower New York City public housing residents to activate and transform public spaces in their community. With GSC’s allocated funding for public space construction and transformation, the residents of Roosevelt Houses kicked off the design process in 2023 in partnership with CJI and Pratt Institute’s Senior Level Interior Design (INT401) Option Studio. Over the course of the Fall 2023 semester, Pratt students collected data, conducted design workshops with residents, and ultimately presented a series of proposals for expansive public space transformations to the community. CJI and the residents have since continued to develop the project through the design phase. Planned public space transformations now include play structures, shaded gathering spaces, a performance space, a dog park, and a basketball court located at various corners of the community.

Included within two of these spaces are a pair of roughly 10’x10’ shade structures that will serve as the primary design challenge for a follow-up INT401 Option Studio in the Fall of 2024. To realize these components, this next generation of Pratt students will build upon the work of the previous studio and be tasked with four key deliverables over the course of the semester: design consultations with residents, design approvals from NYCHA, fabrication of the primary components of the structures, and detailed assembly instructions for the general contractor. Funding from the Taconic Fellowship will go directly toward material and construction costs for these shade structures.