Designing Activism

Published by AIAS Crit 73 Article by Stephen Klimek To address this issue we must start by asking some fundamental questions. What is the role of architecture? What do we need architecture to be? Architecture needs to inspire, to envision alternative futures that could have otherwise not been conceived. And what does the world need [...]

Today I am (re)launching Designing Activism. In an effort to establish another hub in the growing Public Interest Design movement I will be publishing content in conjunction with my MArchII research and my work as a Syracuse University Engagement Fellow. ‘Public Interest Design’ is still young and has many interpretations. Here, I will be growing [...]

“Reclaiming Architecture” Published in Crit70 Overproduction – The Journal of the AIAS

Almost nothing influences the quality of our lives more than the design of our cities. The Front was approached by a real estate owner to help design and build a temporary construction wall on the 300 block of South Warren Street while the parking garage and storefronts were renovated. The site stretched almost the entire [...]

Syracuse Works is an unprecedented exhibition of student work in downtown Syracuse, to be held at the student-run Storefront:Syracuse this September. The exhibition is titled Syracuse Works: Student Visions for the City, and is intended to open a dialogue between student-architects and the citizens of the City for which they are frequented designing. Syracuse Works: [...]

One of the most important forms of public space in a city is the park. Working in collaboration with the Near Westside Initiative and students from architecture schools across the northeastern United States, The Front transformed an empty parking lot into a temporary ‘Flash Park’ on Wyoming Street. Located across from PEACE Inc. Family Resource [...]

For its inaugural project The Front partnered with the Public Arts Task Force to turn a vacant storefront on South Warren Street into a Pop-Up Art Gallery. Materials were reused and upcycled to create the infrastructure for a gallery. Over forty local artists were given the opportunity to display and sell their work for eleven [...]