Featured Projects

Mobile Makers

Tom Harris

The Chicago Mobile Makerspace

The Chicago Mobile Makerspace is a converted United States Postal Service delivery van that has been repurposed as a classroom, tool shop, design studio, gallery, and community gathering space. The design of the Mobile Makerspace allows participants to spill outside and activate underutilized space.

Alternative Practice

Every day, there’s a new reminder that climate change and growing inequities are catastrophically changing how we live. The world desperately needs radical design solutions, and innovative alternative practices will be at the forefront. An alternative practice operates outside traditional modes, both in its structure and approach to design problems. It consciously stands at the periphery and strives to challenge the status quo.

This project, led by Maya Bird-Murphy, Verda Alexander, Kaleb Germinaro, and Megan Simmons, documents and builds accessible, place-specific monographs of design practices.

alternativepractice.org

The Design Summit for
Friends of Friends

The Design Summit for Friends of Friends is an interdisciplinary and intergenerational event that brings together like-minded creatives for meaningful conversations about leveraging design to create positive change. The summit aims to unify the design community, foster genuine conversations about equity in the built environment, amplify the work of underrecognized designers, and create opportunities for connection among established creatives, emerging creatives, and teenagers interested in design as a career.

friends.design