SELECTED WORKS 2020-2022
RAJI
SUMAYYAH
Quilted Ecology
A New Sebeta for Interspecies Care
Option Studio: Quo Vadis Addis
Team Mate: Pa Ramyarupa
Studio Critic: Marc Angelil
Location: Sebeta, Ethiopia
‘Quilted Ecology- a new sebeta for interspecies care’ is a way to preserve and uplift local culture, the environment and enhance the symbiotic ecosystem of people, flora, and fauna in Sebeta.
Ayka Addis Textile Factory a once active 140,000sqm garment facility unable to recover after defaulting, left the workers unemployed and the local communities divided by rapid industrialization.
Threads connecting community nodes
Co-farming Plots on the Central Thread
Provocation Diagram
A B D E C
A. The neighborhood beyond the railroad track is full of activity B. Railroad acts as physical and visual barrier C. Wide streets leading to the site are devoid of human activity Religious Sites Factories/ Plants Public and Cultural Industrial Residential
Aerial photo of existing factory buildings D. Large avenues between facilities and unprogrammed patches of green E. Few existing farming plots owned by locals
The site was read as a spatial quilt to interweave Sebeta’s domestic, cultural, public and natural realms by connecting existing neigborhood anchors via 5 threads for harvest, shelter, mobility, learning and community welllbeing
Existing site + Factory fence
STAGES OF SITE INTERVENTION
Addition of new roads and deconstruction of factory buildings and fence
New community threads transform site and community
Bus Stop Market Stall
Chicken Coop Amphitheater +Animal Drinking Pool
Catalogue of Small-Scale Interventions
Water Storage Shed
Materials
Storage ShedObservatory Tower + Bird Feeder
Animal Pen
Neighborhood Site
Market + Animal Pen
Experimental Construction Lab
Honey Extraction Center + Farming Plots
Soccer Field + Running Track
Incremental Housing
Site Plan showing community threads with small and large scale interventions
Honey Extraction Center
Animal Grazing Area
Cotton Preparation and Spinning (existing)
Co-farming Pilot Area for Surround ing Community
Cutting, Sewing, Finishing and Packaging (existing)
Dyeing (existing)
Experimental
Knitting (existing)
Outdoor Weaving Collective
Sports Hall (renovated)
Multi-purpose Plaza
Experimental Seed Garden for Visiting Entrepreneurs and Factory Workers
Playground Plaza
Open-air Amphitheater
Community Center (renovated)
Events Hall (renovated)
Soccer Field and Running Track
Ayka Textile Factory Site Plan Showing Building and Community Interventions
Events Hall during the day for coffee ceremonies
Events Hall at night for art/cultural shows Section Showing Co-farming Plots and Storm-water
Storage
Slope House
A Living Playscape for All Ages
Core 4 Housing Studio: The Kids are Alright
Team Mate: Leonard Palmer
Studio Critic: Jenny French
Slope House takes on child-centered housing and childcare by investigating how play can be integrated into everyday life with a dynamic roof as a place for free play. By sharing a roof, the residents share childcare as a collective responsibility, evoking Jane Jacobs’ “Eyes on the Street.”
The “Eyes on the Roof” renegotiate childcare and play into families’ everyday lives, creating a safe haven in the city for kids to explore freely and discover play within the context of domestic living.
Site Axon Mega roof Sketches
Can organic play and encounters lead to deeper learning and cognitive development?
Cities are increasingly less safe for kids to wander around, often requiring individualized adult supervision. Hence, children’s time and place of play is becoming more prescribed. However, studies have shown that autonomous play instead of prescribed play leads to more advanced cognitive development.
A micro-community eye is formed for families with younger kids who need more attention. Sloped surfaces and shared collective spaces create unintentional glances onto children’s activities. This integrates play and childcare into the fabric of communal housing and living rather than being an individual responsibility.
Exploded Axon
Ground Floor 0 8’ 16’ 32’ 64’
Studio
Occupied by retired couples or young profession als who don’t have kids of their own but still are a part of the community eye.
1
Bedroom
A smaller one-bedroom unit designed for growing families and children in mind.
1 Bedroom
The play space another
Bedroom Mezzanine
play circuit continues as the kids’ mezzanine space connects to a communal play area on top of another unit.
2 Bedroom
Circulation within the unit creates a mini play circuit, with storage boxes becoming adventurous play opportunities extended by a ladder connecting to the lofted space. It has access to a shared courtyard which connects to the larger roofscape.
Section Perspective 0 4’ 8’ 16’ 32’
Family Dining Room
Catalogue of roof openings, creating playful spaces
3P’s: people + performance + protest
Option Studio: Seeking Abundance: Designing Engagement and Experience for All Studio Critics: Sierra Bainbridge + Jeffrey Mansfield
Partner Organization: Illuminate Theatre Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Pulling inspiration from traditional Yoruba masquerade festivals and the works of Hubert Ogunde (one of the fathers of Nigerian theatre), a space for performance is reimagined to make theatre accessible to common people. It is a mobile structure that can be moved and reconfigured, with a stage that is non-prescribed as the spectators are also part-spectacle and local craft and materials become the generator of form, structure, and skin.
Performance in this composition is not just about the destination but also about the journey.
Performance Arena
Dancing Yoruba Egungun Masquerade
[ah-looh]
Community Engagement Game
Alo, a Yoruba word meaning riddle Which is a spin on traditional folktale methods of storytelling. Using 4 cards types with different themes, the group members took turns rolling the dice and picking cards. With each card linked to a prompt.
From the object cards I discovered they were inspired by people and community.
Character highlighted challenges faced by community members
Environment touched on scale, audience and concerns about security
Transport exposed issues with movement and commute
Partner Info: Illuminate Theatre (performance arts non-profit)
Increased Access Through Public Performance
“Theatre is Taboo,” it is inaccessible to the common people.
Exploded Axon
Ground Floor Plan
Audience as spectacle
Offices + Rehearsal studio
Exterior entry ramp showing bus depot
Living Workscape
Core 3 Studio: Community Center
Studio Critic: Grace La Site: Washington Square Park, NYC
Our “new normal” has challenged how we think about working today and the future of workplaces. The concept of the traditional office prototype is confronted in this project by weaving private office space and urban public space to create a new living workscape.
Corten Steel Fin (facade) Studies Elevated Lawn
THE OFFICE: SPACE FOR THE PUBLIC/PRIVATE COLLECTIVE
In line with the Municipal Art Society’s (MAS) drive for public agency, Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) are reimagined as catalysts for productivity, transparency and community engagement. The proposed office building for MAS is located in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood, across from the historic Washington Square Park and close to the New York University campus. This desire to activate public-private space reflects in the building’s character, programmatic organization and design.
Level 3 Level 4
Level 5
What if the office functioned as a living ecosystem and not a container for only work and no play?
Level 6/7 Level 8
Unrolled Elevation
GALLERY CRATE
A ramped plant animated path extends the public realm further into the building by creating relief zones for individual and collective reflection, therefore providing alternative co-working conditions.
MUNICIPAL ARTS SOCIETY (MAS) OFFICE
This serves as the primary structure which the floors hang from columns at the building perimeter. With light wells driving light into the office floor, skylights also define breakout areas that interact with the rest of the office configuration.
Cross Section
Stories We Should Tell
Type: Event and Exhibition Design Site: Gund Hall, HarvardGSD Team: Lead Curator/ Creative Direction: Sumayyah Raji Co-curator: Dora Mugerwa Design Contributor: Tobi Fagbule AfricaGSD Planning Team: Rania Karamallah, Miguel Lantigua Inoa, Olufemi Olamijulo
Year: April 2022
“Stories We Should Tell” highlights the work and voices of designers, storytellers, educators, and creators who shed light on issues affecting the African continent and emphasize the beauty often overlooked.
The selected pieces in this exhibition explore the themes of space, body, and spirituality across mediums in the work of 11 artists representing 7 African countries.
*This exhibition and related events were inspired by the lack of African representation in the student body, design discourse in my classes and pedagogy at the GSD.
https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/exhibition/ stories-we-should-tell/
All Concept and Graphic Design by Sumayyah Raji
