The workshop is central to my research process; it is recursive and is always in a state of development, pushing the thesis forward and informing its next steps. Workshops are moments that make my work tangible, test how ideas hold up, and offer a low-stakes opportunity to get some really interesting people who share similar interests and a variety of skills all in one room to play and dialogue. My role in this is as a facilitator, prompter, and demonstrator, not a traditional educator. 
 
These workshops are not a conventional public workshops. The location, the brief, the demonstrations, and the exercises are tailored, and aim to provide certain benefits to each community I engage. How do I acknowledge the different skills you all bring to the table? By asking you to leverage what you do know- whether it is craft, writing, drawing, working with your hands, photography, organizing, or teaching… any of it. It can all come into play here, and is valid. The exercises are acts of playful production, craft, pseudo construction, taking delight in the tactility of materials and the aesthetics of improvisation. It’s not product driven. No one will be walking away today with a bird house, this time. The open-ended exercises as structured tinkering meant to be explorative, generative, and sometimes silly.




St. Mary Academy Bay View
3070 Pawtucket Ave, Riverside, RI



The Repair Atelier
16 Church St, Providence, RI





LILY GUCFA, RISD ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, SPRING 2024