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North Philadelphia Peace Parkfrom Design 9 and 10 Architecture Studio with Prof. Max Zahniser
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North Philadelphia Peace Park (NPPP) is a community garden that exists in what the community refers to as Peacetown, otherwise known as Sharswood, Philadelphia. The area started as a vacant lot overloaded with litter but has since been transformed into the home of a community garden that has become an ecocampus for giving back to the community. Since 2018 the park has given over 3,000 pounds of fresh produce to the community. NPPP however does far more than just provide food to the surrounding neighborhood. The park has become a sacred safe place for the community, that teaches communication, self-determination, and how to work for transformation. The community has come together to work with the park to help solve issues like food availability, trash, poverty, and oppression. The community is strengthened through the culture that is created through NPPP, specifically black culture and using that to create resiliency for residents of all backgrounds.
Our intention is to provide a design that allows them to expand that number and provide even more to the community or even sell excess produce for profit. NPPP has been healing, hosting, envisioning, integrating, and redistributing in Peacetown since it started in 2012, the goal of our project is to design and build infrastructure to support them in amplifying their power to heal. |
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NPPP is a community organized group that aims to disrupt capitalism and create equality of food access, education and local economic exchange to invest in their larger community. This project is part of a larger mission to create a network of PeacePark and unify and uplift communities that have endured generational abuse and neglect from the powers that be.
- Julie Pasion |
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The implementation of emergency housing to NPPP’s campus allows them to combat the displacement that community members continue to face due to PHA. It will serve as the first step of many to give the park all the resources they need to be able to meet all of their goals. The Solar Decathlon competition is allowing us to explore how a residential component could give NPPP another avenue for helping the community. Working on this project and with Peace Park, we have become a part of Peacetown. Following their rule of “teaching others what you know, and they will teach you”, we are giving them our skills and support by designing emergency housing along with a block scale phase based design, and showing them the process while they are teaching us about change, healing, and how a community can fight back against destabilization efforts.
-Ivy Bingaman |
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Why is creating change important to you?
Creating change means visualizing a better, more functioning and compassionate reality than the one that exists today. it is both empowering to the communities we serve and to individual agency to stand up to inequality, racism, classism and capitalism to unify and heal our world. - Julie Pasion |
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Julie Pasion
B. Architecture '22 Visual Communication Design Minor Listening to Goodie Bag by Still Woozy |
Ivy Bingaman
B. Architecture '22 Computational Design Minor Listening to Shooting for the Moon by Ok Go |
Victoria Oakes
B. Architecture '22 Sustainable Design Minor Listening to Waiting Room by Fugazi |
Abi Asklar
B. Architecture '22 Real Estate Development Minor Listening to Hoedown Throwdown by Hannah Montanna |
