Public Workshop
Project Location: Chicago, IL
Number of Participants: 8
Age of Participants: 16-26
Team Members: Catherine Bake, Alex Gilliam, Charlene Andreas, Brenda Gamboa

Shadelab is a unique, community design leadership program in which talented young Chicago adults gather data and stories to document the ‘wellness’ of the neighborhood, and communicate this information back to the community leaders, designers, and city officials to initiate positive change and improve the health, well-being and efficiency of the neighborhood through design.

Using high tech sensors as well as self-made measuring devices, the interns extensively record such things as temperature, air quality, energy efficiency and noise throughout the neighborhood and its buildings over the course of the summer. By overlaying this data with the mapping of the physical assets, nature, social life and stories that surrounds these spaces, interns work to create a holistic ‘snapshot’ of the neighborhood as it relates to design. With this information, the interns begin to identify improvements to the design of the communities’ structures and public space for improving energy efficiency, comfort and sociability.

Unlike traditional community asset mapping projects, teen neighborhood design investigation programs or green design education classes, where data is often gathered purely for the edification of the participants, Shadelab places the young adults in the midst of community organizations and designers who will ultimately use the information. The program is rooted in the philosophy that youth excel when they are integrated into the work of professionals, and are given a high degree of responsibility and the opportunity for their work to add real value to the world around them. For Shadelab, we start not with a list of things we would like the interns to learn, but a celebration of their existing skills, ideas, and energy and an understanding of how their work might positively contribute to the design process of the firm, it’s community partners and the neighborhood. In this way, an intern such as Neli, who grew up in the neighborhood and has a deep interest in environmental science and a personal connection to the area, is able to contribute a unique body of knowledge about the ecology of her neighborhood to a design process while at the same time meaningfully learn about architecture, urban planning and policy directly from the experts. A further example is Brenda, another talented intern who is also from the area and knows it better than most. Thus when empowered and trained to do so, Brenda can point out complex design-related social patterns that many overlook. Her exemplary photography skills, incredible gift for gab and fluency in Spanish also mean that she can gather stories and post-occupancy evaluations that others simply can’t do. Simultaneously, Brenda hears directly from residents the impact of design decisions made by architects and planners on their lives. In these ways, the interns not only bring unique skills to the table but also serve as important cultural translators and bridges to the community, while gaining real skills to be better designers but perhaps more importantly, design-fluent citizens. The program is further strengthened and these connections are reinforced by weekly ‘Smartlucks’--potluck design charettes--with designers, local experts and community leaders.

Outcomes and Evaluation of the Project
“I didn’t think a group of teenagers could make change in a community and I was convinced there wouldn’t be change because I did not see change. I was wrong from the beginning because we can make a change and we are.” -a Shadelab intern

Intern and program evaluation occurs in five ways: 1.) A unique daily time, self and programmatic evaluation form created in Google Docs that automatically compiles Intern feedback into a database; 2.) self-evaluation and group reflection are an institutionalized part of the end of each day; 3.) each apprentice contributes to and posts two reflective entries to the group blog; 4.) interns give ongoing presentations to visitors, experts and public officials such as Chicago Alderman throughout the process, explaining their experiences and what they’ve learned; and 5.) each Intern gives a video interview at the end of their internship, sharing their reflections on their work, and the program. An essential method for stimulating tremendous achievement on the part of the students towards creating a ‘culture of greatness’ is to instill an attitude of relentless evaluation and self-improvement from the outset of the program. Continually reinforced by direct modeling by program facilitators, this creates a ‘safe’ environment for taking the necessary risks that are part of doing great things and seeing tremendous leaps in achievement. This ongoing evaluation process means that we are able to constantly evolve the program in ‘real time’ to best meet the needs of the interns, the program goals and the community.

Additional Information
Created out of a partnership between a local architecture firm, Landon Bone Baker Associates (LBBA); Public Workshop, an organization that develops curriculum for community-based design projects; and Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA), an affordable housing developer and property manager; Shadelab was launched in the summer of 2010, locating readily available job-to-work funds to assemble a team of six young adults age 16 through 26. The team focused on a few blocks in the Humboldt Park neighborhood where a majority of LUCHA’s rental buildings are concentrated. LBBA sponsored and hosted the program, using their office as headquarters.

Well known as longtime designers and builders of affordable housing in Chicago, this project grew out of LBBA and LUCHA’s desire to have a greater impact than they have been able to affect through buildings alone. Of particular interest to the firm and their community partners were questions such as:

How efficiently are their buildings functioning and where could improvements be made? How are the clients using them relative to their design? Are the ‘green’ materials they chose positively impacting their clients’ well-being? Are there heat islands in the neighborhood? Is code negatively impacting the energy efficiency of their buildings? How can we grow green jobs and skilled leaders in the neighborhood?

Having created innovative design programs for communities and institutions across the country, Public Workshop was brought on to help design Shadelab and form additional organizational partnerships, such as the Metro Chicago Information Center and the Chicago Public School System, to grow and sustain the efforts.