YDA 1- 2019] San Francisco — Week 4 — Spatial Design

This past Saturday, we started the morning with a quick review of Digital Design. As students were coming in to class and getting settled, we asked them to sketch out various digital design examples that they thought were helpful to people. Once everyone was seated, some students shared out their examples and mentioned why they were helpful to people.

To get everyone’s energy up, we did an improv-inspired ice breaker activity called “I’m a Tree.” We started by forming a circle. The improv began when the first player goes to the middle, strikes a pose, and says who or what they represent (ex: “I’m a tree”). The second player will enter the picture by adding to the setting that the first player has created (ex: “I’m an apple that is hanging off the tree”). The third player will also enter the scene, announce what or who they represent, then relieve one of the players in the middle back out to the circle. It was incredibly fun to see what students came up with. Some of our favorites: a traffic light, a police car, and an old man feeding crumbs to birds.

Isabel and Chris started the seminar with a recap of Digital Design before jumping into Spatial Design. Students gained knowledge about urban design, landscape architecture, architecture, and interior design. Students were particularly engaged when we talked about the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. We did a live demo on how to draw an architectural plan. Afterwards, students were able to practice this new skill by drawing a plan of their own dream dwelling. We saw a creative tree house, bathroom with a fish pond, and a few multi-story homes!

Some students’ dream dwelling floor plans:

Isabel and Chris holding students’ drawings so they can focus on sharing out their ideas to the rest of the class:

After their lunch break, we kicked things off with a game called “the Web of Trust.” The game starts with a student sharing when they are the happiest, what they wanted to learn the most, and what they are good at, then they will throw the yarn ball to another student. The goal of this game is to demonstrate that we can always find common grounds despite all of our differences.

The last segment of the class was focused on solving the community challenge: “How might we improve the commute to school so that students start their day off right” This week, we tackled this through the spatial design lens by designing a space for students to wait for the school bus. For this challenge, students learned how to communicate their ideas through a physical model! Students were able to use papers, pipe cleaners, and popsicle sticks to create models of safe spaces for students while they wait for the school bus.

In the next class, students will go on a field trip to the SF MOMA, learn about physical design, and further dive into solving their Community Challenge through a new lens.