Community / Embodiment

Masters Thesis Project

Framework for examining spaces and placesBy focusing on boundary spaces and the appealing aspects of existing community spaces I will design an artifact which increases feelings of community at CMU. Beyond collaborative work, I am examining spontaneous interaction and exploration within the CMU student community.

Based on interviews with students and observations of the campus community I have identified the CMU Fence as an example of a physical location building a greater sense of a CMU-wide community. From this I have identified four major themes:

Location, Openness, Ownership, Ritual

  1. Location
  2. Openness
  3. Ownership
  4. Ritual

I developed concepts around these themes to answer the question: What can be learned from the Fence and applied in a manner that allows a greater number of participants and addresses the changing nature of CMU?

Download Research Synthesis Poster(PDF 900KB)

Advisor: Jodi Forlizzi