RootED Canarsie

Summer 2022 | Urban Design Studio I

Teammates: Anagha Arunkumar, Deepa Gopalakrishnan, Jiani Dai, Rubian Lian Brooklyn, New York

With a population of over 100,00 people in Canarsie, Brooklyn, there are only two sources where residents can buy fresh cultural produce. A low-income neighborhood, Canarsie residents have a high rate of health issues such as obesity and diabetes. We look at this issue through schools, as they are an important node in communities and shape our children and future.

Canarsie park is a large waterfront park where we would like to allocate a small portion of this government-owned land into a community-owned garden. Another intervention is to transform the K-8 schools, their menus, and their curriculum into one that allows food education and cultural enrichment. These school kitchens will be refurbished into improved facilities that act as community kitchens that are rented out to local entrepreneurs to generate revenue. This process of farm to table or farm to school, increases the overall health benefits of the children of Canarsie as well as the community. Farmers markets will also occur on weekends as a means of providing the produce and meals prepped by food entrepreneurs to the community.

Residences on 4th

*project design award

Spring 2022 | Landscape Architecture Studio IV Phoenix, Arizona

By designing workforce housing for emerging urban designers, it creates an attainable, creative, and collaborative space for designers with under five years of experience to live and work. I reached out to twelve emerging designers with a survey to collect information regarding their preferences, interests, and financial situations.

This community of six compact, modular, container dwellings include three 1b1b, two 2b1b, and one accessible studio. It also includes common areas and a landscaped courtyard for shared recreations of interest.