The Yes! House
2017
The Yes! House
Collaborative work as Homeboat Collective
PARTNERS
Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership
Partnership Art
Department of Public Transformation
Granite Falls, Minnesota
Collaborative work as Homeboat Collective
PARTNERS
Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership
Partnership Art
Department of Public Transformation
Description
Working as the design collective Homeboat, we led an open, inclusive, collaborative exploration of what a community-oriented building could be in downtown Granite Falls, Minnesota, a town settled on Dakota land now bordering the Upper Sioux community. This creative community design/build process spans from discovery to implementation and centers on community-created solutions and culturally inclusive futures.
During a six month period, we spent 200 hours on-site doing neighbor-to-neighbor outreach and hosting intergenerational engagement events. Interviews with community members, national research on strategies for community spaces, architectural and historical case studies, and a series of community engagements were used to develop a dynamic 70-page document for the Yes! House. The report outlines opportunity, outreach, next steps, visual development and includes an appendix of related readings, research summaries, and insights for the local organizers and partners.
As part of the Creative Community Design-Build process, Homeboat hosted a community ice cream social followed by an afternoon of discussion and game-based idea generation at the Yes! House site in Granite Falls, Minnesota.
After spending time sitting in the sun building ice cream sundaes, residents and artists worked together drafting different strategies for re-activating the building as a community space, ideas ranged from women-led tool libraries to multi-lingual bingo nights. These ideas became part of the programming piloted during phase two of the CCDB process.
Working as the design collective Homeboat, we led an open, inclusive, collaborative exploration of what a community-oriented building could be in downtown Granite Falls, Minnesota, a town settled on Dakota land now bordering the Upper Sioux community. This creative community design/build process spans from discovery to implementation and centers on community-created solutions and culturally inclusive futures.
During a six month period, we spent 200 hours on-site doing neighbor-to-neighbor outreach and hosting intergenerational engagement events. Interviews with community members, national research on strategies for community spaces, architectural and historical case studies, and a series of community engagements were used to develop a dynamic 70-page document for the Yes! House. The report outlines opportunity, outreach, next steps, visual development and includes an appendix of related readings, research summaries, and insights for the local organizers and partners.
As part of the Creative Community Design-Build process, Homeboat hosted a community ice cream social followed by an afternoon of discussion and game-based idea generation at the Yes! House site in Granite Falls, Minnesota.
After spending time sitting in the sun building ice cream sundaes, residents and artists worked together drafting different strategies for re-activating the building as a community space, ideas ranged from women-led tool libraries to multi-lingual bingo nights. These ideas became part of the programming piloted during phase two of the CCDB process.