In this video, we hear two 2024 grant recipients of The Architectural League and NYSCA’s Independent Projects program present their work.
Spotlight Projects
Atlas of Public Power: Mapping the evolving shape (and social struggles) of New York State’s energy grid
Andrea Johnson
New York, NY and Upstate Regions
Andrea Johnson explores the role of design in distributive energy systems as a catalyst for social and environmental justice through the publication of an Atlas of Public Power. The project will also develop a public, interactive website that conveys the history of public power in New York State and the tensions and possibilities for a more just and equitable energy system with the Build Public Renewables Act. The Atlas project seeks to generate awareness of energy as a set of social and cultural values, spark citizen curiosity, and energize a movement for a public power system that benefits everyone.
Hard Labor, Soft Space: The Making of Radical Farms
Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee
Hudson River Valley communities
Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee explores the impact of race, capital, and property in the building of agrarian settlements in the US. Through drawings, interviews, and a short film, Lee’s work forms a comparative genealogy of utopian agrarian projects, starting with 19th- and 20th-century Abolitionist movements and extending to the current wave of more than 30 radical farms in upstate New York. Focusing on rural approaches to social, racial, and economic liberation in the Hudson Valley, the project links Abolitionist communities to land justice projects located throughout New York State.
About the presenters
Andrea Johnson is a researcher, designer, and educator whose work explores the intersection of urban landscape infrastructure, socio-environmental flux, and climate uncertainty. Her work includes numerous publications as well as proposals and strategies to re-envision New York City’s infrastructure, from food systems to land use on Rikers Island. Johnson teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and Barnard College.
Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee is a spatial practitioner and researcher who currently teaches at Bard College as the 2022-2024 Architecture Fellow. She is the founder of the Office of Human Resources (OHR), a critical design studio that explores the intersection of spatial, racial, and material politics as systems of liberation, especially in rural settings.
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