Eight student teams and three professional design teams competed for cash and prizes on September 16, 2016 during PARK Day Miami; one team winning ‘the best parklet in all of Miami.’ The competition challenges teams to design and build amazing mini-public spaces for one day all over Miami.
Fourth and fifth-year undergraduate students participated by designing and building three ‘urban-agricultural’ themed projects, led by Professor James Brazil, who recently joined U-SoA as the first recipient of The Emerging Practitioner Teaching Fellowship. The projects were curated in collaboration with local businesses to offer a temporal perspective on how to reclaim ‘in-between’ public spaces, such as parking spaces, in the Wynwood Art District. U-SoA students, Dorianne Marie Paris Dutari, Donnie Garcia-Navarro, Chloe Pereira, Davin Micah Stencil and Yuanxun Xia won the ‘Emerging Designer’ category with their project, Hexat Garden.
The competition was made possible through the generous support of the Parks Foundation, Urban Impact Lab, the Miami Center for Architecture & Design, AIA Miami, Miami Dade County Parks, Neat Streets Miami and Miami Parking Authority.
The student team projects included:
Hexat Garden
Student Team Members – Dorianne Marie Paris Dutari, Donnie Garcia-Navarro, Chloe Pereira, Davin Micah Stancil, Yuanxun Xia
“The concept for the ‘Hexat Garden’ parklet design was to create an interactive space characterized by a hexagonal topographic garden. We made a modular design which can adapt and evolve in the site and have the potential to morph into a different structure. Our aim was to bring people together through this interactive herb garden as well as bringing awareness to urban agriculture in the city.”
Box of Eden
Student Team Members: Shaikha Al-Duwaisan, Gabe Fischler, Randa Hadi, Corey Weiss
“The ‘Box of Eden’ parklet is an inverted perspective on Wynwood’s relationship with the theme of urban agriculture. The exterior of the boxed garden installation is framed by sharp white gallery walls, the dominant interior typology of the art district. The arrangement of the installation in relation to the parking space is determined by the placement of mirrors, forcing the perspective of the visitor. Only by sitting on the movable bench or walking along the sidewalk edge of the parklet can you view the secret garden. The garden installation was curated in collaboration with the adjacent business Plant the Future, a business dedicated to making vegetable art, who sponsored the plants along with the “Flowering Tree Society“http://www.freundfloweringtrees.com.
Plant Your Gr(ASS)
Student Team Members: Avleigh Du, Andrew Schneider, Samantha Schneider, Zachary Silver
“Our interactive parklet, ‘Plant Your Gr(ASS)’ is an urban collaborative unit that can be transported to different urban locations and become easily interactive and relevant at any place in a neighborhood. Consisting of nine lounge units with removable and adjustable seating, this installation also houses small plants and trees for shade and opportunities for public green space and DIY crafting elements that can be affixed on the backs of the lounge units. Due to the construction of these lounge units, which consists of a repetition of wooden planks held by a single rod at each intersection, they can be produced relatively quickly. While the focal point of the installation is the student-designed adjustable seating that can be easily arranged in multiple configurations to cater to a space, the project is not complete without the contributions of local businesses in the endeavor to promote urban agriculture and green design. From the trees and plants provided by local nurseries, to compost from cafes for the plants (Panther Coffee), to refreshments and recyclable crafting supplies from local restaurants and businesses, involvement from local businesses is what completes and brings a sense of community to our parklet.
