A Day in the Classroom with Youth Design Academy 1 (Spatial Design)

SF Week 4: Spatial Design

During our fourth session of YDA 1 2018, we focused on the world of Spatial and Architectural Design. With a jam-packed day ahead of us — architectural history, Google Cardboard, 2D and 3D modeling, and a guest speaker — we decided to start class off with a bit of silliness. The result? Several rounds of the ever-popular game “Heads, Bodies, and Legs.”

To start, each student folded a sheet into 3 sections, labeling the top “Head,” middle “Body,” and bottom “Legs.” After, they folded so only one part was visible at a time, and drew any kind of that thing they could imagine, ranging from animal to human, plant to alien. The next piece was passed so each person added their own twist to the creature’s form. After three students drew, the last unfolded the paper to see what their group created. By the end, we had some pretty unique creations hanging up on our classroom walls!

See what we mean by silly?

After this icebreaker, we shifted gears and began learning about the history of architecture.

Before the lecture portion of the day began, students in groups of 2–3 were tasked with the challenge of ordering seven famous architectural structures —such as the Pyramids of Giza and the Guggenheim Museum—in order from oldest to newest. Without being given any historical context, each group utilized their design problem-solving skills to find patterns and trends across the structures they were given. For instance, many students paid attention to attributes such as structural materials (e.g. ones made of rock were probably older than ones made of glass or metal), style (e.g. ornate ones were probably older than ones influenced by minimalism), height, and geographic location.

How would you order them?

Following this exercise, everyone learned about a number of architectural movements, dating all the way back to ancient buildings that were built in the name of gods and deities, to Postmodern & Contemporary buildings that were built with rebellion against uniformity and superficiality. Afterwards, we briefly touched on Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Defensible Design, and Green Design.

In order to help students gain a more realistic view of these structures and buildings, Ioana Matei of Women in Immersive Tech generously donated a Google Cardboard Kit to every student in our YDA1 classroom.

After ripping off some plastic and setting up their phones, each student used a mobile application called Sites in VR to get a better look at the landmarks they’d learned about earlier in the day.

After spending some time immersed in the VR world, we decided to break for lunch, catered by the delicious restaurant Asian Box.

Once our stomachs were full, Jesse Ayala, an Interior Designer at Boulder Associates came in and gave a presentation on various spaces that she’s helped design, such as the Kapor Center for Social Impact in Oakland. She told us that the interior of the Kapor Center, specifically, was designed to facilitate informal interaction and community between both staff and visitors who use the space — it was, without a doubt, inspiring to learn how much thought and intentionality Ms. Ayala puts into designing the spaces around us.

A slide from Ms. Ayala’s presentation.

After Ms. Ayala’s presentation, we pulled inspiration from our learnings of the day to solve a complex design problem:

How might we create safe community parks for homeless community members?

To start thinking about how to solve this problem, students came up with a list of peoples’ basic needs, such as food, water, and shelter. Then, they considered the needs specific to homeless people, and subsequently, how to create public spaces that could help fulfill these needs.

Next, using 11" x 17" poster boards and spatial planning, students drafted 2D park maps, keeping in mind who they were designing for and why.

For the last 30 minutes of class, we asked each group to to bring their park map to life. Using poster paper, construction paper, string, tape, and other resources, each group elevated their park map into a 3D model.

Overall, each student did a fantastic job with their 2D and 3D models, and it was a real treat to watch them present their work at the end of class.

Although we’re incredibly excited to see our cohort this upcoming weekend, we’re also kind of bummed that it’ll be our last class. We’ve really seen each student grow throughout the course of YDA1, and are very proud of each and every one of them — we’re confident that this last class will be our best one yet!

A huge thank you to Dominique A. Moore, a Youth Design Academy teaching team member and the author of this article.