In the heart of Columbus, Indiana, a parking garage became a space for celebration, memory, and connection.
Studio Barnes, led by Germane Barnes, director of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Miami School of Architecture and recipient of the J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize, unveiled Joy Riding at Exhibit Columbus, a biennial celebration of architecture, art, and community. But this was not just an installation. It was a living, breathing experience of civic joy.
Joy Riding reimagines the Jackson Street Parking Garage as a monument to Black car culture, exploring identity and culture through an ethnographic lens by highlighting the stories and rituals of built space. The installation consists of a candy-painted, “Transformer-like” sound system mimicking the proportions and materials of midcentury modern furniture. In its fully transformed state, it evokes the deep basslines central to Black car culture, underscoring how sound, ritual, and assembly have long served as catalysts for celebration.
But the magic of Joy Riding lies not just in its design. It is in the way people engage with it.
During its opening activation, the garage came alive. Attendees danced, some with lifelong friends, others with strangers they had just met, drawn together by the rhythm and resonance of the sound system. The installation invited people to connect their phones via Bluetooth, allowing for private listening sessions that turned into shared moments of discovery. Music became a bridge, a language of joy that transcended age and background.
Children twirled in circles. Elders nodded to familiar beats. Couples swayed. And in the middle of it all, laughter echoed off concrete walls, transforming a utilitarian space into a sanctuary of celebration.
The Community, Housing & Identity Lab at the University of Miami School of Architecture, an initiative dedicated to investigating architecture’s social and political resiliency and highlighting the narratives of marginalized communities, designed and printed custom 3D-printed Joy Riding keychains. Fabricated at the lab and handed out by Studio Barnes intern and University of Miami alumna Josefina Caceres, the keychains became tokens of memory. The project’s team, including Professor Gabriel Jean-Paul Soomar, creative director of Studio Barnes, Francesca Picard, Sara Griffin, Malloy James, and the Matchless Builds fabrication crew, worked closely with Barnes to bring this vision to life.
Over the course of its presentation, Joy Riding will host a series of free public events designed to evoke the experience of riding with friends, listening to music, and finding enjoyment in unconventional spaces such as a parking lot. Complementary programming, including a car show, film screening, and live performances, will extend this engagement beyond the opening, exemplifying CHIL’s commitment to leveraging the built environment as a medium for storytelling, social interaction, and community.
In a world often defined by speed and separation, Joy Riding reminds us that joy is communal, music is memory, and architecture can be a vessel for both.
