Inspired by the Barrio Workshops, students of Bryan Finoki in his “Contemporary Issues” class started brainstorming on ways they could impact the Barrio Logan community positively. So far, Woodbury has kept itself somehow separate from the community for various reasons, but is there a way the students could go out into the neighborhood and implement small changes that would benefit the community? They were not concerned with a grand scheme, nor anything too elaborate, rather we wanted an excuse to reach out to the community in a very subtle and friendly manner. Thus, they started cleaning up the alley behind our school, in an attempt to create a clear canvas that could be filled in with various small programs by the community, according to their needs. It’s not a matter of designing anything necessarily, but to set up a space in a way that it could create opportunities for adaptive uses.
The alley has a long way to go and it is a much bigger project than the span of our semester. However for the time being, Finoki’s students are building some creative benches from scrap wood pieces found in the alley. These are going to be a series of hinged benches that could be moved around, disassembled, re-configured, etc. These students are attempting to start a dialogue here between the Woodbury community and the Barrio residents. This space has the potential of becoming a common ground and will hopefully be an opportunity to create a relationship.
