FUTURE OF CITIES

2 THEME | FUTURE CITIES

LAUNCHPAD | CITYLAB “Reclaiming Spaces” ThinkTanks focus on future scenarios, while the CityLab, which follows the same methodology, takes concrete challenges from our neighborhoods and enlists community leaders and stakeholders as co-creators to solve those challenges.

In the Spring 2019 we collaborated with the then Boston City Council President/District 4 Councillor, Andrea Campbell, the Consulate for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, CITXL/NL [founded by WIT Arch Alum living in Amsterdam], Gemeente Amsterdam with a focus on “Reclaiming Spaces”.

Learning from the Dutch experience of reclaiming land throughout history, students, faculty, community, members, and industry representatives worked together to generate ideas relevant for Boston. The co-creation with community leaders was essential to address community needs, understand impact and develop meaningful ideas and strategies for underutilized or vacant properties/lots.

LAUNCHPAD | BOSTON DESIGN WEEK WORKSHOP “Accessible Transportation”

As part of the Boston Design Week, we partnered with the Insitute for Human Centered Design to run a workshop investigating the accessibility of the Green line from Brigham Circle to the MFA. Participants from design, healthcare, and technology industries participated along with advocates for accessibility and non-profit organizations. The workshop followed the ThinkTank model and included field studies and interviews on location.

BENCHMARKS FUTURE CITIES

112 Total engaged

51 Students representing 8 disciplines 15 Faculty Members representing 6 disciplines 16 Community Leaders 18 Industry Representatives

SPILL OVER INTO ACADEMICS

Summer 2019 | Business Management Capstone | Ella Howard, David Mareira, Michael Mozill, Joe Schnackertz Two of the eight project ideas from CityLab were placed into the capstone class and two teams, eight students, worked towards feasibility studies for a community kitchen and youth development/e-sport gaming center. Each project received mentoring, met with CityLab participants, and had access to the original CityLab project teams. Students presented their final recommendations at City Hall to Andrea Campbell’s office.

Fall 2019 | MArch Studio Spring 2020 | John Ellis, Ella Howard At the end of 2019 the new Director for the innovation lab for housing in the Mayor’s Office reached out based on the 2019 work to explore collaborations. The iLab was interested to investigate the triple decker as an opportunity to develop new housing models, the “Future Decker”. John Ellis dedicated his MArch studio to this investigation, which is still ongoing, and closely collaborates with Ella Howard around history and storytelling.

VISIBILITY FOR WENTWORTH

- CityLab Fieldbook + Video - Covered in Dorchester Reporter https://bit.ly/38UdLIr - Testified at Boston City Council as university representative and collaborator for housing - Placemaking | SummerFab bamboo installation from 2017 placed on DCR land in Mattapan and covered in Dorchester Reporter https://bit.ly/391bL0S - Continous outreach for new projects and ideas for collaboration, e.g. D4 artist showcase, community gardens, etc. - Other City Councilllors, State Representatives, Chief of Housing interested to collaborate with Wentworth - Boston Design Week booklet/web representation

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

Through these various projects we increased our visibility and credbility with the community and the City of Boston. We are well positioned to respond to the Mayor’s $500 Mio plan to solve housing issues in Boston and have been tapped as potential partners to create an urban studio or other Wentworth presence in District 4.