Elementz Installation: Supporting Cincinnati Youth through Hip-hop & Acoustics Design

Intro

During college I participated in MetroLAB, an architecture studio that engages students with local community partners that would not otherwise have access to design. Our team of ten collaborated with Elementz, a nonprofit urban arts center in the heart of downtown Cincinnati.

Elementz was founded by community members who believe in the power of music, poetry, dance, and art to change lives. The organization teaches and champions Cincinnati’s hip-hop culture through after-school programming and classes.

Our team spent most studio hours at Elementz facilitating creative sessions, hanging out with students, attending graffiti & DJing classes, observing everyday operations, and working with the organization's directors to understand how they wanted to prioritize improvements.

We then tackled 6 projects: a redefined entryway with signage and specialty lockers, new & improved flexible seating, a mobile dance floor for competitions, a sliding privacy door to breakout spaces, and acoustic panels to improve sound quality.

My role primarily focused on understanding and defining Elementz’ needs, and coworking with my teammate Sarah Altene to design, build, and implement the acoustic installation.

I experimented with the design, materials, and how the panels would fit into our space, while Sarah built the rhino model and created technical drawings.

Ideation & Modeling

Prototypes

Building

For 3 weeks we were in production: including laser cutting, folding, gluing, and grommeting the panels; breaking things, & bribing friends with pizza to help us out.

Installing

There aren’t often opportunities as an architecture student to turn your idea into physical reality. Throughout the install process we continually messed up - we got our measurements wrong, forgot critical steps, and ended up spending way more time correcting those mistakes...but the only way to figure out how to actually create a product is through trial & error.

The install process was no different - we experimented with different methods of hanging the panels,  miscalculated their weight, used the wrong fishing line, & watched as the panels came crashing down - ultimately getting everything wrong before finally getting it right.