senior exit

I went on a walk last night with Paige and got the chance to explain to her my senior exit project for interior design. And why I care about it. And I have been wanting to write that here - mostly so I wouldn't forget it, but also because sometimes I need to prove to myself that there is meaning in the way I spend time.

We were told that our senior exit project should solve a social issue. And over Christmas break I got to thinking about Athens and what issues there are that interior design could improve. Homelessness was the first thing that came to mind. But I didn't want to design a shelter for Athens or a half-way house. I wanted to get to the root of the problem and see if I had anything to say about it.

So I researched affordable housing projects. I researched how design affects the way people feel. And how maybe the place where a person lives plays a part in their ambitions, motivations and, later, in the way that person lives his or her life. I considered redesigning the government housing on Baxter and Broad - but that didn't seem like enough of an answer. And then I thought about what it is that really puts people on the streets. And I believe that, in part, it is the loss of community.

Without someone to do life with, whether it be family or friends, people lose motivation. We were intended to live in community. And yeah, community is a big buzzword in Christianity today so I cringe to use it so much here, but I do think that a need for community is real, and biblical. And obvious - just look at middle-to-upper class depression in the suburbs. There has got to be a connection there.

So I found the old cotton mill on Pulaski Street a couple miles from downtown and designed an affordable housing community. More than a quarter of all Athens-area residents are living below the poverty line (which means they are paying more than 30% of their annual income on housing). Affordable housing is a definite need. My redesign of this sweet brick building on Pulaski contains seven private apartments for families - preferably dual-earner families working minimum wage jobs. Along with the private living space, the building now contains a community center with a library, study, workroom, laundry facility, TV/seating area, dining area, and group kitchen. The occupants of The Mill will share evening meals, with a different family cooking each night of the week. This frees up time each night to spend as a family or in community. There is also a garden, outdoor patio and grilling area, playground, and basketball court.

In society today, single parents are now required to do what grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbors all used to do together. Living in community can fix that. Single mothers are no longer raising their kids alone; older couples are no longer cut off from the community they were used to; new married couples are surrounded by families they can learn from an serve.

For the last two years, I have struggled to find meaning in interior design. It is hard to spend thirty hours a week in the studio designing hotels and restaurants that will never exist. And even if they did - I wouldn't believe in them being built. But at some point in the last two years I opened my eyes to the need for design. And now it is hard to think of doing anything else.

When I graduated from high school my brother wrote me a letter encouraging me to ask questions. To seek out answers. To rebel a little. To read a book that's not a classic. To break into Sanford stadium, join a club, take classes that don't have anything to do with my major, and to join a movement. We laughed about that yesterday and my mom asked me what movement I joined. I didn't have an answer. But I know what movement I want to join. Currently one in seven people in the world live in a slum or refugee camp. There are architects and designers around the world joining in the effort to design for this humanitarian crises - to provide shelter where it is most needed.

I want in.

But until then, I'll be putting my BFA to good use working at bar in Athens, or something sweet like that.