Praxis Studio –The Newark Pivot: Social Networks and Urban Design

Study Area

Overview
How can we, studio instructors in Landscape Architecture, expose students to the socio-historic complexity of urban sites and then pivot to design spaces that express the formal rigor of planning and design? It is clear that history, race, gender and economic standing are considerations as is the need to open a space for all affected people to participate and engage. What I have observed in studios as well as in public design projects, is the difficulty for students and designers to reconcile the outcomes from a publicly engaged process and the products required to represent synthesized ideas in space and form.

Studio
The studio is structured for students to work with a planner, an extension specialist, community leader and resident (social network) to propose strategies and develop designs for the improvement of a neighborhood. The studio will engage the group through typical charrettes and workshops to develop a social network needs/analysis plan, a strategic planning program and conceptual design options for public open spaces. There will be four formal presentations during the semester for faculty, the Network team or residents to evaluate and comment on work.

Comments

Recap of the First Month

After the first month of collecting and filtering data from the site visit, the studio is moving forward to focus on analyzing maps, historical timelines, and existing information. This will help us get a better understanding of the origins of what makes the city of Newark as we see it present-day. The studio produced a quick time lapse of the site visit that will further be developed into categories that consist of materials, pedestrian activity, cultural factors, etc... The studio is researching the history of Newark and pin-pointing historical movements that will give a better understanding of how Newark came to be. To further filter the amount of information, a group of students will be categorizing the historic events into education, demographics, innovation and infrastructure, and determine any other categories they think fits best. Holding History in our Hands Students developing maps into different categories of development, income areas, ma

Masterplan Progress

Consolidating Our Ideas Into an Early Master Plan. On March 27th we began to further analyze our master plans and eventually came up with an early stage final plan with cohesive elements from prior explorations. Our goal is to create neighborhood identity through social and physical connectivity. In hopes of connecting Lower Broadway residences with the each other and their surroundings. Click here to check out more of our master plan process

Transitioning into the final phases

Developing a Road Map for Final Design Concepts. On March 29th we cleaned up our studio to make room for the next round of pin-ups. We finalized our Master plan and worked to develop a universal base map for all future reference. We also came up with layouts for both the historical and road history timeline. Click here to check out our explorations

Newark Pivot: Praxis Studio #nwkpvt

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