Mission

Our idea is to integrate Steemit and Steem with creative education and community built projects.

Problem

Good design is becoming more and more exclusive. Top-down agendas have left many healthy neighborhoods without sustainable decision-making power. This exclusivity has led to a loss of cultural value, neglect of community landmarks and the blight of historic neighborhoods.

Design has traditionally been a trickle down resource, reserved for the wealthiest tier of society. There is a pattern of un-real (and unaffordable) architecture that has pushed itself into design-education as well. There are very few honest opportunities for both design students and professionals to integrate their work into real communities, real social situations, and provide solutions for real problems.

Our current model of professional practice is almost completely reliant on a narrow investor-client ecosystem: someone outlines a market-driven project and bankrolls the work; a simple capitalistic relationship. Unfortunately, this framework compels architects to only do work that their narrow client-base likes and what the market warrants. This centralized relationship dissuades us from pursuing projects of cultural value and stewardship - public parks and gardens, community centers, public education and recreation facilities, refugee and low-income shelters, and a long list of other built amenities that fosters healthy and vibrant community life.

Looking forward... Can we work off a different model of growth? Can we create value not from a private checkbook but from ongoing social engagement and sharing? Can we incentivize the production of communal amenities for and by a broader, decentralized public?

Solution

Steemit has inspired a global network of passionate thinkers and doers. “The internet’s first small town” is the tagline that we remembered while first exploring Steemit in July 2016. That Steemian term resonated with us. It showed us that while this community may be global, there is a strong and contagious empathy for local issues. Our team @hitheryon, made up of architects, artists, urban planners and educators who wish to reinvent the traditional client model, has been amazed and inspired by the energy here and hope to harness just a fraction of that enthusiasm in developing two Steemit-Powered IDEA’s;

• Social x Design (Education)
• Sandbox (Public Art)

With the aid of your engagement we hope to integrate the expanding Steemit community into both educational and public design-build pilot initiatives in New York City.

Social x Design

Our first proposal is to connect the Steemit platform with education. We will teach a university-level architectural design course (in New York City) where students will use Steemit as their primary interface. These young designers will use posts to engage the Steemit community, catalogue their assignments, research, overall design-process and class presentations. Towards the end of the semester, students will power down and pool their awarded Steem tokens for the purpose of funding the construction of a full-scale design prototype. For the final assignment of the course, students will install and test their projects in a real park, garden or plaza in New York City. Students will then be graded on how their design work impacted the global community (Steemit) alongside a local community (in NYC.)

Sandbox

Alongside our educational proposal (above) we would like to design and build a physical Steem-powered project. Sandbox is an interactive public art project that serves as a resource for community engagement. The sculptural prototype takes physical form as colorful block-like seats, benches, platforms and planters. All of which will be accommodating towards formal or spontaneous events; such as artist talks, outdoor classrooms, and gardening workshops among many more programmable activities.

Imagine if every upvote went towards a new tree in a park or new bench by bus stop, each element designed collaboratively between neighbors and Steemians. We would be able to fill the numerous gaps of the architectural profession and focus on work that the general public needs.

Measuring Success - A Built Future on the Blockchain

These ideas will be “successful” when we can initiate and support a new precedent of crowd-sourced cultural programs that benefit the public space and the surrounding community. In working with real neighborhoods in the five boroughs of New York City, we hope to mobilize residents to become Steemit users themselves and commit to sharing the project’s impact and ongoing life.

The implications of a successful Steem-powered idea would be monumental for the architectural profession as it would establish a new social and financial foundation for designers to produce meaningful and impactful work.

NOTE : All rewards from this post go towards our Steem-powered ideas. All support, in every form, aids in our continued research and pursuit of socially-responsible design projects.

Thank you

Thank you so much for your time, enthusiasm and support. We are very excited for the potential of these ideas and hope that our mission resonates with you and your vision of the platform. Thank you and Steem on!

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Follow us @hitheryon

@voronoi / @hansikhouse