Diverse Peer Review
The midterm review was particularly unique in my Architecture 381 course this Fall. Typically, we have a panel of professional architects and faculty from the school of Architects give us feedback on our designs. These reviews focus on the design qualities of the architectures we've created and are very specific to the field of architecture. The review for this course had a very diverse panel of individuals; It was a mixture of recent graduates, Indigenous Studies Professors, Women's Studies Professors, and some Architectural Professionals as well. I felt that our feedback and conversations about our work were much richer and more impactful to me as a pupil. This is the reflection of that review and how I carried the feedback forward in my project:
Lesson
Recognize the power of a name
Soften the brutalist structure by using materiality, texture, or light.
Fostering learning by creating experiences. Indigenous Sciences are based on present, physical connection with the Earth.
Examine the Scientific Method as a means to organize the conceptual elements in your projects.
Hierarchy can be used as a form of oppression or it can be leveraged as a means to create wellness.
Play with permeability and acknowledge the climate of Portland. Celebrate rain.
Action
Retitling the Decolonizing Library to the Indigenous Wisdom Library.
Using textiles, wood panels, and varying lighting conditions.
Creating interactive exhibits that adults and children can learn from in a tactile way.
Examine what is helpful in the scientific method and leave behind what is not.
Understand what wellness in each space requires—in terms of lighting, materiality, and organization.
Find ways to collect, store, and purify rainwater for use elsewhere in the building.
The feedback I received catalyzed a series of conversations between my project partner and me about how we dream of a more inclusive and diverse culture within STEAM education. Resulting of this series of conversations, I began to research precedents and various ideas of how we could solidify these conceptual ideas into a solid architecture.
A screen cap of the digital collaboration space with comments between the reviewers, my project cohort and myself cataloguing the feedback mentioned in this post.
