Design Thinking

Design Thinking (DT) is the class that you take before starting your final semester and studio. In DT, you do all of you research and development on program and site for your final project, which is like a thesis so this semester is basically thesis prep. At the end of the semester we make a book that encapsulates all of our research. Also, part of the requirement is that our site is within the St Louis region. What I'm beginning to research is how we work with and around each other.

For the first time in history more than half of our population is living in urban centers. In the last century we've restructured our economy from manufacturing to services to technology. Historically, populations have followed jobs and while that is still true it isn't the guarantee that it once was. Cities are still trying to attract economic developments but research is showing that cities are working to attract people as much as companies. This is being called the Creative Shift because the population that is being courted is primarily in the creative sector; arts, design, technology, education, etc. These are the sectors that are transforming cities, revitalizing urban cores. Workers are more mobile now, able to work from anywhere for a company headquartered anywhere.

I am interested in finding a way to attract this population to St Louis and build the resources that already exist here. Between Washington University and St Louis University, St Louis is home to two premiere educational institutions, the people graduating from these institutions are not always staying in St Louis and building on the community here. I want to know what will keep them here, assuming that they have the choice to stay. What if we create a hub or a incubator that provides them with resources to allow them to live and work in St Louis. Also focusing on creative industries, providing desk space, internet access, workshops, conference rooms, etc.

Anyway, this is still the beginnings of my research. Right now, I'm working on finding an appropriate site and exploring the idea of adaptive reuse. These images are collages that I've been working on that illustrate my research.