Community

Relating to an area with strong emotional ties among residents or pride of an area’s cultural history. Communities and designers interface often, with communities being the client of the designer or the beneficiary of their design products. Design contributions to communities can range from public art, to the restoration of a public plaza, or even a redevelopment plan.

Nexus Podcast

Amir Hall and Marisa Parham

Season 2, Episode 1: Amir Hall and Marisa Parham engage in a conversation on how technology forms and mediates identity.

In The News

The African American Design Nexus’ Harlem StoryMap traces the neighborhood’s Black-designed places

Sala Elise Patterson interviews the AADN’s Thandi Nyambose on the meaning behind the Harlem StoryMap.

StoryMaps

Walter Hood StoryMap

This AADN StoryMap investigates Places through the lens of the work of Walter Hood and social art and design practice Hood Design Studio, Inc.

StoryMaps

Harlem, NYC StoryMap

By tracing Black-designed places in Harlem, this StoryMap highlights the importance of Black urbanists in shaping Harlem’s historical and contemporary identities.

Nexus Podcast

Michelle Joan Wilkinson

Season 1, Episode 4: Dr. Michelle Joan Wilkinson discusses the systems of power embedded in architectural design and her work as a curator documenting diasporic architectural heritage.

Nexus Podcast

Bryan Lee, Jr.

Season 1, Episode 3: Bryan Lee Jr. joins us to continue our conversation with De Nichols about the #DesignAsProtest collective and Dark Matter University.

Nexus Podcast

De Nichols

Season 1, Episode 2: Activist and social practice artist De Nichols discusses the origins of the #DesignAsProtest movement and how design can be a tool to dismantle white supremacist logics.

Nexus Podcast

Aisha Densmore-Bey

Season 1, Episode 1: For our inaugural episode, we talk to Boston-based architect, designer, filmmaker, artist, and GSD Doctor of Design candidate Aisha Densmore-Bey.

Feature

Hayden Plaza

Interfacing with public space and communities is more of a personal design ethos and agenda as opposed to an industry norm.  Considering how contentious public space can be, a designer who steps up to the task of designing with the...

Feature

Kimberly Dowdell

Kimberly Dowdell, AIA, NOMA is an architect and real estate developer born and raised in Detroit.  She is the president of the National Association of Minority Architects, the Director of Business Development for HOK’s Chicago Office, and a partner of...