Live Long Well

Graduate Design Studio

Christina Bollo, Spring 2020

This Health and Wellbeing studio focuses on the development of a complex housing program for older adults through design iteration and research. The program takes many forms: active adult, independent living, assisted living, memory care, long-term nursing. Students designed a new building inn the near-South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville in Chicago. They volunteered with older adults in this community to develop empathy to design with instead of for. They utilized scholarly research and the WELL Building system to guide design decisions. They paid particular attention to facades and elevations. The studio pedagogy encouraged a balance between technical drawings and representational imagery and rely on each to enhance the other.