!Update to Part 2: It seems like the “Shelter Screen” was carried on into the final rounds for ICFF. See below.

As SCAD students of the Designed Conversation course created different bedding solutions for the clients of Growing Hope of Union Mission, one of the most challenging problems was a structure that actually provided shelter for the homeless living on the street.

This was the prototype presented at the end of April during critique. The canvas slip cover fits over a standard bi-folding lawn chair. Inside the flap was a layer of tulle to represent mosquito netting. There were conversations about how to secure the flap while preventing liquid from dripping inside, how to make the netting functional and convenient, and how to transport the entire structure on one’s back.

Above, a student demonstrates the room within the structure and possible issues with not being able to sit up.

It seems that a more dome-like silhouette was the group’s solution. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see this prototype, but it looks like the project really came together for ICFF.

At the end of the critique, I sat down with each groups “documentarians.” Rubi McGrory, a Graduate Fibers student, Alice Meiss and Kathleen Imig, both undergraduates in Fibers, were responsible for documenting the process of their groups, collaborating on the mission statement, and putting together the site for Designed Conversation.

I asked how this particular collective of students came together, and the students told me they had each applied to be in the class when they heard of the project from Fibers faculty. The teams were designated by the professors based on each student’s professed strengths and weaknesses. Each team also had one Furniture student. Having to deal with so many schedules, the meeting time for the class were Wednesday night and Friday mornings. (FYI There are no courses at SCAD on Fridays. It’s a much beloved three-day weekend.)

When asked where it was they started with approaching the design problem, they each told me that research was paramount. They spent many hours looking into community versus consumer based design.

I also asked to what extent aesthetic was a focus. For the purposes of ICFF, the teams wanted the products to belong to a designed family, and began exploring print and pattern based on the functionality of camouflage. Below are some early tests of digitally printed patterns for the project. As for the prototypes in actual use, that is up to whoever creates the product. The focus was that each item could be easily constructed of common materials. The students reported that the Growing Mission clients were very opinionated and picky about color, each one expressing their individual preferences.

The final question I asked was, “How has this project affected you as a designer and as a person?”

Ruby answered “As a designer, making these things and getting critique from actual homeless men and women was a great experience. They addressed problems and needs I never would have thought of.” And before the critique, Ruby had shared a personal experience she had with a local homeless man. The man, whom Ruby had paid and fed a few times in exchange for light garden work, had arrived late at night, knocking on her door asking for money for the shelter. Ruby expressed a sense of being torn between sympathy and compassion for him and his situation, yet concern for herself and establishing personal boundaries. How does one draw the line when you really want to help?

Cori told me that growing up, she had never seen homelessness, and that moving to Savannah was somewhat shocking. “Once your eyes are open to a problem, it’s impossible to close them again. I think it’s really important not to become desensitized to things like this, to stay aware, and do what you can to help.”

Alice had lots of previous experience, as she had worked in a homeless shelter. She really wanted a universal solution, and said the hardest part was figuring out what you actually can do with limited resources. “It hurts to throw out the bigger ideas.” Ruby agreed and added, “We’ve all had to throw out some of our favorite ideas for a viable solution.”

That wraps up my coverage of Designed Conversation. Good luck to the team at ICFF which starts THIS WEEKEND! And if you’re there, be sure to check out these other schools who are also participating in this competition.

The other 2008 honorees are the California College of Arts which will be presenting sustainable products for the domestic landscape, the School of Visual Arts whose MFA students will explore The Designer as Entrepreneur, and Yale University’s School of Architecture which will exhibit designs for a scholar’s center for the funerary complex of King Djoser at Saqqara, Egypt.