©Hood Design Stuio

In Philadelphia, alleys are more than access routes for waste-removal and deliveries; they take part in the urban and neighborhood identities. A community feast brought the Asian Arts Initiative together with their neighbors to eat and discuss the potential for interventions to the alley at their back-door. For the event, residents assembled and painted tables and chairs - historic Queen Anne and Chippendale chairs – a nod to the district’s manufacturing history. Based on these conversations, Hood Design Studio proposed a collection of possibilities that highlight the ability of small infrastructural changes to make big improvements in a space and in the lives of individuals.  It then explores how making subtle changes to apparently banal and everyday objects and spaces can create the extraordinary experiences and connections that are required for building a community.