ARH 498 faculty and students co-authored a paper presented at ACSA’s 112th Annual Meeting: Disrupters on the Edge.

Micro-Intervention and Co-Creation at a Family Shelter: Co-creation is not new, but it should be more widely embraced as one approach to tackle systemic problems. Paired with micro-interventions, it can reach those who are furthest away from the design process. Humility is needed to develop a co-creation method that fully benefits from widely different lived experiences.

View the paper at this link

Author(s): Karen Seong, Sameena Sitabkhan, Lowai Ghaly, Mazen Ghaly, Andrew Hart, Mohamed Meawad, Kim Ebueng Estacio, Ebueng Estacio, Kendryx Soriano, Edgar Castillo, Peter Peritos & Shadi Vakilian

Abstract: Micro-intervention can powerfully disrupt the systems that preclude an empowering experience in family shelters. Through co-creation, families can actively participate in the design research process. Valuing lived experiences of unhoused families removes the power imbalance between those with and without design training. Co-creation at the micro-scale prepares architecture students with skills to usher in change in the design practice. Undergraduate students in a collaborative studio fabricated 66 folding beds incorporating the suggestions of the families at an emergency shelter. Extensive prototyping was the primary method of co-creation. Students held themselves accountable to the families and developed a shared purpose to guide the process.