We’re thrilled to kick off the Fall 2025 semester here at the Kansas City Design Center! Our studio is gearing up for an exciting and impactful few months of design work, with 7 architecture students and 11 industrial design students coming together to shape meaningful projects.

This semester, both our architecture and industrial design studios are diving into a crucial new endeavor: Community Resilience. On the architecture side, we’ll be working on the design of Community Resilience Hubs (CRHs), which are unique buildings that combine a community center with a shelter for climate-related emergencies. These CRHs are meant to be the first of many, creating a network of hubs across the urban core of Kansas City. During climate-related disasters, these hubs will be neighborhood-based epicenters that provide power, water, shelter, connectivity, health services, and food. During times of extreme heat or cold, they’ll serve as climate relief centers offering cooling/warming stations, water, and food. And when the weather is “normal,” they’ll be lively spaces for events, community services, and resources that support social, emotional, and physical well-being.

Meanwhile, our industrial design studio will focus on Community Resilience Infrastructure- a system of tools, objects, and spatial interventions to support neighborhood-level preparedness and recovery. Together, our two studios are fostering an interdisciplinary environment where architecture and industrial design students collaborate toward a shared project goal.

We’ll be working closely with the Heart of the City Neighborhood Association, Care on the Boulevard, and other community partners in Kansas City. We’ll be designing deployable products, material systems, public furnishings, and information devices that not only meet everyday needs, but also help communities during disaster response.

During our first week, we visited our project site in the Dunbar community and attended a Q&A session with residents Kathryn Persley and Damon Patterson. We were joined by another K-State Studio that is also studying Dunbar led by Gabrielle Coleman. This visit gave us the chance to learn directly from community members about the history of the neighborhood and the residents' lived experiences. We ended the day exploring nearby landmarks and places surrounding the site!

We hope you’ll follow along as we explore the possibilities for enhancing community resilience in Kansas City! We’ll be sharing weekly updates here on the blog, and you can also keep up with us on Instagram @kcdesigncenter. We’re so excited to see where this semester takes us and to work toward making a meaningful impact on our community!

Welcome Fall 2025 Studio!