In July of 2009, Sustainable South Bronx invited the Pratt Design Incubator to partner with the community members to create a series of street furniture for the South Bronx Lafayette Avenue Greenway project. I was asked to come down to the Design Incubator headquarters in Brooklyn, NY to be a part of the 9 person multi-disciplinary design team.

Throughout the process, we organized and participated in a number of events with the South Bronx community and made a point to build a collaborative design process from the beginning. We would eventually arrive at a series of working prototypes that we presented to various members of the community to get final feedback and comments around which design direction to explore further and eventually take into final production. We came to a final solution that allowed for each piece of furniture to be fabricated on site using molds made of materials found at any local hardware store. Each piece of furniture was also designed to be decorated and customized using a variety of ceramic tiles, inspired in part by the amazing tile-work found throughout the New York City subway system.

Currently, the final designs are being implemented into the Lafayette Greenway Project and will potentially be rolled out into other surrounding neighbourhoods in the near future. A short documentary was also shot throughout the initial design phase, which will provide a more thorough glimpse into the process.



*Work performed as part of a collaboration with the Pratt Design Incubator.