Nearly forty
years ago civil rights champion and Executive Director of the Urban League
Whitney Young addressed the centennial convention of the American Institute
of Architects. “You are distinguished by your thundering silence” he said of
the design community’s response to urban disintegration nationwide. “You
share responsibility for the mess we are in.” In response to this charge, a
culture of outreach and service was fostered through the creation of “design
centers,” many associated with schools of architecture. As a design center,
part of the College of Architecture and Planning’s Indianapolis Center’s
mission is to live up to Whitney Young’s challenge through service-based
learning and by facilitating effective design and planning strategies using
a community-based approach.
CAP:IC is part of a diverse family of design centers nationwide. Some are
associated with Universities while others are independent non-profit
organizations. Design centers take on a wide array of purposes. Some focus
primarily on advocacy and community-building. Others do actual design and
planning that result in construction documents and plans that are built.
CAP:IC falls somewhere in the middle with a mix of advocacy, community
building, and facilitating conceptual design and planning. Regardless of how
a center operates, all support seven core values as outlined by the
Association for Community Design:
- Equity and Justice
Advocating with those that have a limited voice in public life
- Diversity
Promoting social equality through discourse that reflects a range of
values and social identities
- Participatory Decision-Making
Building structures for inclusion that engage stakeholders and allow
communities to make decisions
- Quality of Life
Advancing the right of every person to live in a socially, economically,
and environmentally healthy community
- Integrative Approach
Creating strategies that reach beyond the design of the built environment
- Place-based Solutions
Generating ideas that grow from place and build local capacity
- Design Excellence
Promoting the highest standards of quality in the design and construction
of the built environment
CAP:IC’s activities can be divided into three categories that, while
often overlapping, provide a good overview of why the Center exists.
Education
At the heart of CAP:IC’s mission is to provide education. For undergraduate
and graduate students, Indianapolis offers a unique urban laboratory in
which service-based learning can be used to provide design education while
providing a needed community service. Education is also important to the
professional community, and CAP:IC strives to offer continuing education
offerings. At a higher level, it is important to provide general public
education about design and planning issues that affect people’s daily lives.
Community
Forty years after Whitney Young’s challenge CAP:IC continues to provide
affordable community-based design and planning assistance to neighborhood
organizations, public agencies and related groups. While CAP:IC does not
typically offer traditional consulting services that many other design
centers provide, CAP:IC is involved at the visioning and conceptual
development stages of a process. The Center is often brought on board a
project team to facilitate community involvement and to integrate student or
public education with the process, a concept known as service-based
learning.
Advocacy
The Center plays a role alongside many professional organizations in
advocating for a better and more participatory community. The Center
sponsors a conference series, Indianapolis By Design, aimed at increasing
the discussion about how to build off the legacy of intent in Indianapolis
by planning and debating the future. Through the Center’s involvement in
community projects, issues can be raised and debated. And through academic
involvement, student projects can raise issues and provide alternatives. |
Related Links
About CAP:IC
Education Programs
Community Projects |
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