Frame Your Place

This student project is a proposed participatory system embedded in the community to create a shared identity through a series of interventions installed throughout Beechview and Brookline - two neighborhoods in the south hills of Pittsburgh, PA.

The interventions consist of a simple set of material and a simple set of rules for construction that community members themselves can easily assemble and implement around their neighborhood. The flexibility of the system allows for the project to embed itself in a variety of different kinds of locations - the site conditions are adapted into the autonomous design process.

Currently, both neighborhoods are doing well for themselves and their commercial cores are beginning to attract the attention of other Pittsburgh-dwellers. However, there are a few areas that could use some improvement - some vacancies, some maintenance issues - and other areas that, though in good condition, aren't very good at calling attention to themselves - unlike the commercial cores, the greenway, for instance, is tucked away on the hillsides, easily passed by speeding cars.

As a network, the interventions act together to bring attention to, to provoke community involvement in, and to ultimately solve some of these social and environmental issues. Grouped in smaller clusters to provide visual connections and local identity, the interventions center around a hub construction center and community space.

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Frame Your Place from TAPERRY on Vimeo.