For the past several weeks, we have explored many subjects within the realm of biodesign. Now, it’s time to narrow down our areas of interest into a central project.
At today’s meeting, each of us brought one or more project proposals or ideas to discuss. Each idea included a “How might we?” statement, which is a helpful way of framing the core question of a topic. These are some of the questions we proposed:
- How might we grow our own food throughout the year despite the changing seasonal conditions?
- How might we tailor a green space to best fit a community’s needs?
- How might we reduce the amount of road salt that enters groundwater, lakes, and streams in urban areas?
- How might we use public green space to engage local residents in learning about their city’s ecosystems?
After discussing these ideas, we recognized three general topics that ran through each of our proposed ideas: community gardens, urban green spaces, the negative effects of road salt. The subject of participatory design—a genre of design where community members are actively involved in the design process—also came up in several places. We agreed that our final project should combine at least two of these ideas. With this in mind, we are excited to continue brainstorming project ideas and choose a primary focus.
Illustration by Alvina Salim