Student-Driven Campus Design
Project Reflection:
This project was a real, down to mars effort that we conquered over the past few months. We used design thinking, empathy interviews, and personal experience to make multiple prototypes for the making of a new school. We worked in groups and each group made a physical representation of their ideas. We used sketchup and our drawing skills to make scale renderings. Finally, we presented our ideas to community members, parents, teachers, and other students in multiple exhibitions.
I learned the values and importance of human centered design. The process really intrigued me because it included a lot of observation of people and spaces and how they interacted inside of the spaces. I was able to really focus on what the users of our new space would want. As an example, most students and teachers asked for more natural light, for their health and for their focus. So we implemented that into our design. We had much more windows than our current campus. This is just one of the ways we took the wants and needs of our fellow peers and users into consideration.
In my group I would say our dynamic was fairly productive and well balanced. If I could change anything about the way I helped my group I would say I could have been more of an analytical thinker, because my expressive nature almost got in the way of getting a lot of work done. I would focus more on group dynamic than work. But I definitely grew as a collaborator through the span of this project, I was able to adjust my personal thoughts and desires to make the best final product possible. In the past I felt as though I was very bossy, but for this project I really wanted to almost step back and follow because our entire group was made of drivers, and expressives.
I think it’s really important for the main users of the space to have a large say in what they want. I always here kids complaining that they feel like they are in prison, the way the school system is set up. This project was important, and necessary for growth in the system particular to even just our school. I appreciated getting the chance to really get to show what I dreamed a new place for us to spend 7 hours of our day would look like. I really wanted more outdoor space, and the tools to create what I could imagine, and our design includes the things i'm really passionate about.
I learned the values and importance of human centered design. The process really intrigued me because it included a lot of observation of people and spaces and how they interacted inside of the spaces. I was able to really focus on what the users of our new space would want. As an example, most students and teachers asked for more natural light, for their health and for their focus. So we implemented that into our design. We had much more windows than our current campus. This is just one of the ways we took the wants and needs of our fellow peers and users into consideration.
In my group I would say our dynamic was fairly productive and well balanced. If I could change anything about the way I helped my group I would say I could have been more of an analytical thinker, because my expressive nature almost got in the way of getting a lot of work done. I would focus more on group dynamic than work. But I definitely grew as a collaborator through the span of this project, I was able to adjust my personal thoughts and desires to make the best final product possible. In the past I felt as though I was very bossy, but for this project I really wanted to almost step back and follow because our entire group was made of drivers, and expressives.
I think it’s really important for the main users of the space to have a large say in what they want. I always here kids complaining that they feel like they are in prison, the way the school system is set up. This project was important, and necessary for growth in the system particular to even just our school. I appreciated getting the chance to really get to show what I dreamed a new place for us to spend 7 hours of our day would look like. I really wanted more outdoor space, and the tools to create what I could imagine, and our design includes the things i'm really passionate about.