Who Gets to Decide? Architecture Class with Akasha Lawrence Spence

Architect Akasha Lawrence Spence of Fifth Element to asked fourth and fifth grade students her firm’s founding question: Who gets to decide?

As the urban tissue of Portland changes rapidly before our eyes, the stakeholders of tomorrow got a chance to dissect these changes and create a world where they decide what stays, what goes, and what's introduced. With their imaginations fully engaged the students designed a separate museum building for KSMoCA. Could the new museum building become a resource to cure housing inequities and food insecurity? Could it serve as a center for art, craft, and knowledge building, while creating spaces to gather and play?

As the architects of their educational ecosystem, the students contemplated these questions and designed and built models of what their community could be if they had the power to decide.

Check out Design Week Portland’s article on Akasha Lawrence Spence and her work with KSMoCA.