Students from the University of Kentucky College of Design and the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment in the United Kingdom recently transformed an ordinary parking lot into an extraordinary gathering place during Park(ing) Day, an annual international event that reimagines the use of public spaces.
The British student chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), and the Interior Design Student Association (IDSA) have teamed up with Lexington's parking authority, LexPark, to transform a public parking lot on Scott Street into a small, green gathering space with chairs, games, snacks and transform plants.
Throughout the day, students and visitors stopped by to relax, sketch and socialize, including the UK Design in Your World class, which was using the space as an outdoor classroom that day, as well as visiting members of Ball State University's AIAS department who were in town for the AIA Kentucky Conference.
While Park(ing) Day is part of a global movement focused on sustainability and public space, for these students it also represented a milestone in interdisciplinary collaboration.
“Before moving to Gray, we had never really had the opportunity to work so intensively with interiors or architecture [Design Building]said Matthew McBee, a fourth-year landscape architecture student. “The fact that our programs are right next to each other opens up so many opportunities to network and create together.”
Preparations for the event began in early summer, with student leaders meeting regularly to design the space and coordinate logistics with campus partners.
“When the landscape architecture students approached IDSA about this, we immediately thought it was cool, so why not?” said Olivia Tharp, third-year interior designer and president of UK IDSA. “We also haven’t had the opportunity to collaborate yet, so this was a way for us to open that door and start building a partnership.”
Organizers repurposed chairs and tables from the building and added plants borrowed from Wilson Plant Co. to bring the small space to life. They also worked with UK Facilities Management, who supplied the pallets that acted as a safety barrier around the site. The centerpiece of the room was an oversized Jenga game that the group purchased at a thrift store. Organizers invited participants to decorate their own Jenga block, which then assembled into a full Jenga tower at the end of the event, becoming a built object that symbolized the event's communal theme.
“We wanted this event to be about the way different students build [this space] together, and the Jenga Tower is a smaller representation of that collective effort,” said Anna Melchers, a fourth-year landscape architecture student and president of UK ASLA. “We ended up having blockades from students from all majors in Gray and students from outside the building, even people outside the university.”
The students look forward to future collaborations and hope to make Park(ing) Day an annual tradition.
“If we can do more together, get to know each other and learn from each other, who knows where those connections will take us,” Tharp said.
To learn more about the Landscape Architecture Department at Martin-Gatton CAFE, visit https://ukla.mgcafe.uky.edu.
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