neighborhood jacket

Columbia GSAPP Adv VI | Spring 2021
Studio Critic: Hilary Sample

Project in collaboration with Joel McCullough

In the spirit of doing “as little as possible”, the intervention questions the traditional framework of care, by redefining the role of the “maintenance worker” and rethinking modes of community engagement. The aim is to design the fabrication and construction of a community-made Maintenance Worker’s Jacket directly in the park. As such, care becomes a conversation for the neighborhood through Mckenna Square.

The jacket design considers reversibility. Therefore, the assembly itself is already a single pocket wrapping the body, becoming accessible through a simple incision into a layer of fabric, for tools and objects of maintenance and care. Personalization became material customization, recycled patchwork, patterning and dying as the primary registration. The jacket is unfinished in it’s character yet intends to serve as a blank canvas for conversation and customization. The park is further integrated into each step of the jacket construction through engaging the high school, local bodegas, word up, and redesigning the pavilion.

In conclusion, this project of designing a jacket and designing how the jacket is made on site, serves as a study in how we can rethink community engagement in design, and in the process of care and maintenance -- where the process of intervening as little as possible actually becomes a springboard for agency, care, teaching, and learning.