This week, architecture students presented their Dunbar site findings and initial massing studies, while industrial design students dedicated their workday to advancing big idea research. In the evening, our seminar featured the first round of project case study presentations. 

On Wednesday, the industrial design students pitched their big ideas in small groups, presenting concepts ranging from information kiosks to food systems and modular privacy screens. As they wrap up their research this week, they’ll hit the ground running with ideation next week. In the seminar, we met with Ann Holliday, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for the Downtown Council. Ann spoke about the future Roy Blunt Luminary Park. She also presented about the issues shaping the future of Downtown, such as the arts, housing, improving the urban environment, supporting new businesses, and attracting talented young people to Kansas City.

To wrap up the week, both disciplines took advantage of Friday as a work day to move forward their designs as well as heard from Dirk McClure from Enterprise Precast Concrete. Dirk visited the studio and gave an educational look into the realm of precast concrete and its manufacturing. He left students feeling inspired for the opportunity of implementing precast concrete within their own designs. 

This week in studio was a full one! We kicked things off with a visit from MARC (Mid-America Regional Council) to talk about climate resilience. Instead of just giving us a presentation, they actually sat in on ours and gave us feedback. They asked questions, added context, and helped us better understand the topics we were presenting on. MARC engaged in conversation with us that pushed us to think deeper about how climate challenges connect back to design.

On Monday in seminar, we took a field trip to the historic Aladdin Hotel to meet with Zach Molzer of Molzer Development. The building itself was such a cool backdrop for the discussion; it has gone through many changes and developments over the years but the history was preserved behind drop ceilings, plastered walls, and dirty carpets. Hearing about how it’s been reimagined and adapted over time was a great reminder that architecture isn’t always about starting from scratch. Sometimes the best design choice is to breathe new life into what’s already there.

Graphic by Josh Gaddy

Back in studio, we’ve all been deep into our projects. The Industrial Design students are developing their concept proposals, products that can help serve and aid the community of Dunbar and beyond. Meanwhile, the Architecture group has been bouncing around concept ideas, building out massing models, and starting to figure out program distribution. At the heart of both groups’ work is Dunbar; its history, its people, and its resilience. Each idea we test and tweak comes back to how design can support the community and help it grow in a sustainable, self-sufficient way.

Building on our visit to the Dunbar neighborhood last week, our task was to accumulate research for a topic relating back to community resilience and compile our findings into a booklet. The goal was to show off how climate action planning, environmental health, critical infrastructure, and social resilience can strengthen and develop community resilience on a national, local, and neighborhood level.

This week, we met at Central Christian Church to speak with Jay Jones from More2 about resilience hubs. More2 is an Environmental Action Agency, which helps to produce resilience hubs and action centers here in Kansas City, such as Central Christian Church. During our visit we talked about environmental inequities and opportunities within KCMO.

Graphic by Josh Gaddy

Our groups came together and presented our research from the first two weeks of studio. Alongside our research paper, we were tasked with making four personas for the users of our projects. These personas represent the neighborhood residents, allowing us to zero in on user needs and pain points to create design decisions to fill the needs of the community! The key challenges we identified include addressing extreme weather and drought, strengthening connections between the community and social programs, improving access to emergency services, and building the infrastructure needed for the community to thrive independently. These focus areas will serve as the foundation for exploring opportunities to enhance resilience and strengthen the Dunbar neighborhood.