Design Weeks 2013
During the month of October 2013, Design was in the air in Columbus and planning NEXT was proud to have it’s staff engaged in the second annual Design Weeks 2013. Design Weeks organized by the Center for Architecture and Design, is a month long series of events connecting the public to Columbus’ design ecosystem, promoting local design, and raising the expectation of good design in Columbus. During Design Week[s] the aspiration is to create collaborative opportunities where the allied design professionals come together as one design force within the city. The goal is to blur boundaries between disciplines through the cross-pollination of ideas and talents, to raise awareness of the power of design, and to leverage our creative economy.
cbusFOTO Project
Sarah Bongiorno of planning NEXT and her husband Michael Bongiorno, principal at Design Group, are Design Week’s Co-Founders and Directors. Design Weeks 2013 centered around the theme of “the overlooked” and through the cbusFOTO (Friends of the Overlooked) project the citizens of Columbus were asked to explore the urban environment looking for overlooked, abandoned or under utilized urban spaces. Using Instagram, over 400 photos were collected and exhibited at the Design Weeks launch party, bringing awareness to these overlooked spaces, even raising them to the level of art through the medium of photography. Throughout the month of October interactive workshops called FOTOshops took place with youth, artists, the elderly, architects, students and the general public to brainstorm and re-imagine new uses for these overlooked spaces thus turning them into contributing pieces of the urban fabric. The month of brainstorming and re-visualization culminated at Design Weeks’ closing party where over 100 images showing new ideas and uses for the overlooked spaces were showcased at the cbusFOTO exhibition.
