2018 Design Grants Final Presentations

Hear from our 2018 Design Grants research teams as they wrap up their residency in the Incubator at Sasaki. Their projects focused on proactive approaches to climate change, innovation in transit and access to mobility choices, new models for housing and creative community building.

Charles River Floating Wetland

In 1995, the EPA launched the Charles River Initiative, which included the objective of a swimmable river. Although significant progress has been made through vast reduction of combined sewer overflows, this goal remains elusive. Our project explores a complementary approach aiming to reduce harmful algal blooms by enhancing zooplankton populations using floating wetlands. The goals are to create a visually impactful wetland installation, document the impact on zooplankton population and water quality, and educate the public about the relationship between river ecology, pollution, and water quality in order to work toward a healthy and swimmable Charles.

Eastie for Eastie

East Boston is a coastal neighborhood faced with rising sea levels and intensifying development pressure. Instead of trying to strictly preserve in place or be pushed out as development pressure increases, this project promotes using land pooling, land readjustment, and community land trusts as an alternative path forward. We will engage with several community partners to identify barriers to climate adaptation faced by residents in Eastie. Through a participatory design process, the team will co-create a series of design and policy proposals that Eastie can use to stay in place, preserve or increase housing availability, and minimize climate-change related risk.

Expanding Choice in Housing Opportunities

Low-income tenants face significant housing barriers when attempting to rent housing in the Boston metropolitan area, deepening segregated housing markets throughout the region. A new digital interface, the ECHOLocator, will provide housing choice voucher holders with customizable information on communities that are both affordable and serve their public transit needs. We will use this opportunity to pilot and refine the tool alongside our clients, as well as expand it across our 15,000+ voucher holders and to housing authorities nationwide.

G{Code} House

G{Code} House is a proposed pilot program that will serve young women of color ages 18 to 25 who have an interest and/or aptitude for computers or technology, but don’t know how to develop their interest or understand the opportunities. Designed as a co-living, -learning, and -working community, these women will attain technology instruction and skills, gain employment experience, and find support in a safe, focused home. The house is designed to improve outcomes of disconnected youth. The program consists of nine months of in-class training, six months of an internship/co-op, and nine months of specialty training.

Please Touch the Art

Please Touch the Art is a tactile art exhibit and companion humanities exhibit accompanied by a curator’s talk and panel discussion at the Mosesian Center for the Arts. The exhibit will provide a multi-sensory art experience that is accessible to all audiences, taking special care to provide an immersive, tactile experience for visually impaired community members. Blind scholar and More than Meets the Eye, What Blindness Brings to Art author Georgina Kleege will guest curate. The exhibit will include a gallery that is dedicated to the history of accessibility in arts programming.