Empowered Environmentalism: CCA's E-School

This seminar explored how cultural narratives about property, equity, environment, and economy shape social and racial justice in cities today. Students created a collective book called Designing a Just City that studies contemporary social justice activists, and then identifies related techniques of architectural and urban design. Our goal is to reveal common tools with which designers, activists, and decision-makers can work together to reimagine the space of the city.

Shown here are selections from the ”Economy” chapter. These four projects study community kitchens, cooperative housing, rural infrastructure and housing retrofits. Some examples forge new connections across the city—from a domestic living room to a creek’s edge—while others sequester resources in autonomous zones. Some adapt to ever-changing contexts while others aim for consistency and durability. Despite their differences, however, all projects demonstrate how designers can play a role in redistributing wealth and reimagining systemic access to resources and livelihoods.

Joshua Bolchover and John Lin’s firm, Rural Urban Framework (RUF), researches the diverse and contested landscape currently under rapid transformation between rural and urban centers of China. RUF encourages the rural residents to participate in the design and construction process, allowing them to express their needs and expectations in a more direct way.

RUF designed a pedestrian bridge in the Lingzidi Vilage, in the Shaanxi Province, as a critical link for the local village economy, rather than rely on resources sent back from younger generations working in factory towns. It offers a wide, direct path for small trucks and motorcycles and a pedestrian path that cuts under the bridge, allowing for access to the river for needs such as washing, cleaning, and fishing.

This 3D pathway system imagines what would happen if we could lift circulation up off the ground to satisfy different, specific use cases. It can provide better connections to public spaces, rivers, and offices, to optimize the living experience and livelihood of its users.

This research explores informal labor and the need for access to healthy nutrition.

La Cocina, a food hall and business incubator in San Francisco, supports business ownership and access to resources for women, immigrants and people of color.

Comedores Comunitarios, a communal kitchen program funded by the Mexico City government, guarantees access to a nutritious meal. This manual provides instructions for converting everyday space into a collective, shared public space.

This manual provides instructions for converting everyday space into a collective, shared public space.

"I started out by looking at crowdfunding as a way to allow people to invest in real estate. At first, I thought that might be a way for people to pool their funds together. I did find this particular company that allows you to invest in buying shares as low as $500 per share. They sometimes find a distressed house and renovate it to sell to the general public, or resell back to investors."

"I’m actually more interested in how companies like this can help communities by building housing that is more affordable. So I researched Lacatan and Vassal, the Pritzker-prize winning French architects whose approach is to renovate, and not to destroy. They are famous for using lightweight structures and simple greenhouse materials that can be built quickly and inexpensively. "

This cartoon shows a discussion about how to renovate at low cost. This shows the renovation of a whole complex while residents are still living there. They were able to expand the space and create a much better mood for people who live there, and help neighbors meet along the balcony.

SELC is an organization whose mission is to “cultivate a new legal landscape that supports community resilience and grass roots economic empowerment.” (SELC) They create access to the necessary legal tools for communities to thrive. By providing education, research, advocacy and advice; they support resilient local economies creating avenues for sustainable food, housing, energy and more.

Co-Op City was built in the Bronx in 1968 as the largest and last projects built by worker union coalition, UHF, as part of the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program. What has made the complex successful over other large development ventures cooperative banned market-rate apartment resale. Today not only is the population majority Black and POC, it is also one of the largest naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) in the country.

Jewelry and food: Using our hands to craft our essential, emotional and physical existence. In this specialty course, students traveled the globe virtually, investigating relationships and environmental impacts of countries’ cultures through jewelry and culinary arts. By researching and comparing ethical metalsmithing practices and culinary traditions, the group used food and jewelry to discuss colonization, indigenous populations, and the environment.

For their final project, students shared family recipes, cultural histories, and environmental/health impact of the foods we consume. Students researched family recipes for history and personal histories, then find the environmental/social/personal impact of one or more of the ingredients. The recipes and findings came together in a publication to share histories, experiences, and help us make better choices. The following are samples of the students' contributions to this publication.

How does nature and the environment shape the ways we understand ourselves and our world? This course explored how the visual arts engage with nature and the environment, emphasizing that social, racial and environmental justice are inextricably linked to each other. Students drew from a wide range of practices and strategies, with an emphasis on indigenous voices and activism, in order to learn from their sustained political efforts.

This piece is a scrolling comic concerning the dangers posed by climate change and its impact on lower income families in the Philippines. The comic is directed primarily at Filipinos living abroad to support families in need and to encourage donations to the Typhoon Relief Fund.

These works are plaster casts made from the hands of wildfire victims in the Northern Bay Area holding remnants of their destroyed homes made of ash and dirt.

This course conducted a creative interdisciplinary investigation into the art, design, history, social conflicts, and aesthetics of Parks and Leisure. The final project of the studio built upon research on parks around the world, wherever each student was located and discussion of inequities around the founding of parks, and the uses of parks through histories, with a mid term of data visualization on the environmental challenges of various parks and a beginning look at the ups and downs of tourism, sport, and leisure time. Some students examined the losses of Indigenous communities during the establishment of both national, and international parks specifically, as well as local parks to the SF Bay Area. Others began to understand erosion, sea level rise, and losses of water sources in parks and the impact on humans and animals. Students culminated in both solutions, and continuing excavation of the causes of pollution, mental health challenges due to the pandemic, and sea level rise specifically. Students began to understand what environmental justice is all about and what next steps might be for artists, designers, and other creatives.

“Sakshi Shah is looking at the Valley of the Flowers Park near Pune, India, and her research indicates that the flowers species have diminished, and many native plants have disappeared and the tourists who used to go to view this magnificent tapestry of medicinal herbs, and flowers are now disappointed because of the pollution and climate impacts on this world renown park in India.”

“This is the floating house cube for the middle class or affordable housing in coastal zones, such as areas in Shanghai. This team researched, designed, and presented this project.”

“Saiessha Adlakha and Pari Gajera, two young women originally from Delhi, with Pari living there currently became very focused on the environmental catastrophe of their city, and its life long lasting implications, and also on the environmental justice aspect with disproportionate impacts on the poor. They created a massive website and these are some photos from the site, they are continuing this work, and reaching out to organizations to become a part of the solution to this epic problem, and it was especially heroic in the midst of the covid catastrophe on their country, city, and families.”

“This team was especially curious about erosion on the west coast of the United States. They understood that the movement of geological phenomena was going to happen despite climate change, but they wanted to see what impacts would be made more difficult with the intersection of these issues, and they wanted to explain their complex ideas with some very simple animated forms. Humor, drawing, data come together in this clever video.”