Project: Landscape Prosthetics
Location: Chicago
Project Director: Alex Gilliam
Year: Summer 2010
Honestly, this super short project (one afternoon) was simply intended to be a device for quickly engaging my brand new crop of teen apprentices, forcing them to collaborate, bond and quickly feel empowered to change the world around them. Given that I have been doing this exercise for awhile now, it wasn’t surprising that it worked. What was incredibly pleasing though was that it totally and visibly defied the expectations of the school (where we are in guests-residence this summer) staff. After building our landscape-improving prosthetics in the under-loved space behind the school, the public school’s staff was quite convinced that the creations wouldn’t survive the night- that the school’s students and the neighborhood would destroy them. They shook their heads in decisive dismay at our apparent waste of time.
Well they were wrong.
Not only did they survive the night but they lasted a week before the 4th of July came to pass- relatively fragile, delicate wooden structures mind you. The staff was pleasantly dumbfounded by these events. This continues to raise the questions that I ask everyday but are worth repeating again and again:
Why do we expect so little from our young adults?
Why don’t we give them control over the world around them, especially the physical condition of their often decrepit school campuses?
Can seemingly delicate, beautiful things defy expectations as well as disarm and change attitudes in places where everything else is designed to be defensive?
If four hours worth of work could have this simple but powerful impact on the school, my apprentices (and the neighborhood?), what would eight hours or a year do?
Better yet, I was really pleased to see this new batch of apprentices innovate and be the first one’s I have ever worked with to pull off the rolling landscape version that you see here. Believe it or not, this can comfortably support a gaggle of people and is quite pleasing to sit on.
Imagine what they could do if I gave them triple the materials, triple the time and they were working in optimally sized groups!
(These groups were a bit on the big size given constraints of time and materials)
-Alex Gilliam
Note:
Below you will find a few more images from their four hours worth of work.
If you would like to see some images of similar work we’ve done, click on the following: here and here
Lauren
13 years ago
Fantastic!
I am heading into the last 4 months of Grad School in Landscape Architecture-and into my thesis exploration. I am investigating ways in which children can become empowered through physical interaction with their environment. Physicality, tactility, choice and control are such powerful educational tools-it is vital that they be recognized as such through creating opportunities for children to discover their inherent intelligence and creativity via active participation and problem solving.
I have primarily been investigating adventure playgrounds, community gardens, schoolyard garden programs, learning styles, cognitive development and playgrounds in hopes to synthesize my desires with precedented successes. I stumbled upon you work while researching for another class, are there any sites, projects (either your own or others), books or subjects that you would recommend to aid in this journey?
I should mention that I am also a mother of a 9 year old, so I do understand a bit about the deficits within our educational models – in relation to these interests.
admin
13 years ago
Lauren.
It sounds like you are working on and thinking about some great things. Send me an email. I would be more than happy to hear more about what you’re working on and provide suggestions for books, etc..
alex@publicworkshop.us
My best,
Alex