Roosevelt Island, New York
RI: PLAN - “Design at the Core”
RI:PLAN, was a roll out of 4 initiatives bringing affordable apartment renovation design options, in an innovative inclusive design process, to residents in the Roosevelt Island, NY housing core.
RI:PLAN includes RI:POP, RI:BOX, RI:WORK AND RI:DESIGN
Roosevelt Island, an affordable, experimental, residential community in New York City, has always been a special place with a unique history of innovation, inclusion and community. Planned in the 1970’s, the core of the island was populated with apartment buildings, whose pioneering residents could enjoy quiet, beauty, and proximity to the city. In the last decade, this popular island has attracted new residential properties, the new Four Freedoms Park and the siting and planning of the new Cornell Tech Campus. This has left the core of the island as a design vacuum while the periphery is developed. This project, RI:PLAN, begins to bring design back the core.
RI:POP
An innovative installation pop-up, designed to be located in the center of Roosevelt Island to host short, free design consultations with residents. The design of the installation incorporates real apartment floor plans of the core buildings, that are hinged together ‘in community.’ The pop up includes the launch exhibition of the RI-BOX design tool kits that will be used in the consultations and in future workshops.
RI:BOX - Sample Apartment Models to be Used as Design Tools for Adults and Children
Sample apartment models are design kits in order to imagine personalized space. The designs come as a box and include the existing perimeter walls, openings, structure, shafts and partitions. All non-structure and shafts can be removed from the model and relocated. Additional pieces can be added to reconfigure the spaces. This tool easily brings the residents into the process of design and can be used as a family game. RI-BOX was featured as a gallery exhibition.