d1/
Coordinated
Community
Greenspaces
DEC 2024
8 weeks
Urban Strategy, Experience Design
In collaboration with Enzo Mignano,
Matt Kish, and Odiso Obiora
Role: Research & Strategy, Storyboarding
A coordinated care strategy for maintaining urban greenspaces and activating local communities. Through a set of design interventions, including plant a maintenance dashboard (NEMO) and an integrated AR game experience (Leaf it to Me), we aim to turn urban landscape maintenance into a co-opted community experience.
The proposal is designed for Little Village, an up-and-coming arts neighborhood in East Detroit, and takes into consideration the unique social and environmental challenges faced in its development.
How can we grow an engaged Detroit community?
Similar to other neighborhoods in the area, Little Village faces the challenges of high vacancy and low density, and local developers Library Street Collective hope to reinvigorate the area as a center for the arts and creatives. Trough ethnographic and observational research of the neighborhood, we learned that a challenge facing development is the concern of bringing together existing communities and newcomers.
We saw an opportunity in the urban greenery of the neighborhood, where most vacant lots were overrun with invasive species due to years of non-maintenance and neglect. Greenspace maintenance is an expensive problem, and the lack thereof has helped to fuel the narrative of vacancy and unwelcome in the area. Using this as an entry point, our team reinvisioned greenspace maintenance as a collaborative activity that can engage visitors and residents of the area. Through our design interventions, we hope to create a shared stake in tending the public spaces that they share.
1. Plant Sensors
2. Maintenance Dashboard
From our conversations with those in the landscaping and arborist industries, we learned that they spend most of their time assessing, rather than conducting actual maintenance. With the dashboard, we hope to streamline this process and introduce tech-related skills to the field.
3. On-site Signage
4. AR Game Experience
Starting with beginner gardening tasks, the game teaches urban residents basic skills in gardening and reduces the barrier of entry to maintaining greenspaces. Through a system of level-ups and reward collaborations with local businesses, we encourage visitors and residents alike to gain an active stake in the wellbeing of Little Village-- as well as introduce them to the plants and people around them.
Impacts & Possibilities
Looking at the long-term implicaitons and future applications of this strategy, we see a great potential in building climate resilience, optimizing the field of landscape maintenance, and advocating for collective land use.