Sound Pavilion

As part of a Design Advocates (D/A) team, we have been working closely with Concourse House, a nonprofit transitional shelter for mothers with young children coming out of homelessness. Concourse House gives women the space, support, and tools they need to transition into permanent housing.

During the peak of the COVID pandemic when most activities were held outdoors, D/A worked with Concourse House to make their garden better suit their needs. Through a series of workshops and community engagement activities we designed three sensorial pavilions that would help them continue existing programming outside.

During the D/A led workshops, residents created unique pieces of art as a means to explore how they experience space through their senses. The handmade art gives a sense of life and ownership to their personal space as well as Concourse House at large - something new to many of these families.

The workshops inspired the idea of creating outdoor educational and experiential pavilions that not only provide shelter for more garden activities but the process also has become a model for how we believe community engagement and design processes should be modeled for all projects.