It is no secret we are materially disconnected from our world. Modernity is marked by an increasing separation between our infinite access to information, and the deterioration of our ability to make things with our hands. The formalization of workshop access in academic and commercial settings often prohibits participation of people without institutional affiliation. This leads to a self-fulfilling problem where tools are locked away because we don’t know how to use them because they are usually locked away. In the research portion of this project, I identify the social and architectural mechanisms that limit the application of craft in public space, such as access to tools, rigid design guidelines, onerous training, and lack of community knowledge sharing. I also identify individual makers and spaces that are defying the societal grip of passivity to make things at an impressive range of scales. This is all in service of answering the question: How can all people gain the skills to participate in shaping public life through collective craft? In the design portion of this project — which I all-encompassingly refer to as Make Good Studio — I undertake a literal, world-building exercise to craft material connections for myself and others through a process I call Collage Architecture. The specific manifestation of this idea in the time frame of this project, is a playful, portable, and unfolding sewing studio made of salvaged materials. Once complete, I take this sewing studio out in the public realm to demonstrate that we can reclaim public space for skill development, material agency and community connection. To conclude, I elucidate how this material process is deeply relational, broadly applicable to architecture and design, and can help us to grapple with the abundant waste of capitalism. I show that building for and with craft can catalyze a culture where people have the space, skills, tools, and community to intervene in the material world for more joy, delight, purpose, and circularity.
Emma Lindquist (Thu,) studied this question.