Design Overview and Concept:
Located in the Crow Hill Community Garden, Ground Up Designers’ latest community project focuses on bringing the neighborhood together to build something beautiful in memory of last summer’s Labor Day shootings. During the course of the project a canopy made of disposable color-cuffs will grow in the garden to raise awareness for organizations within Crown Heights that are working to end gun violence and hopefully inspire others to get involved. All money raised through the donations of the individual cuffs will go directly toward these organization.
Each color-cuff donated to the project will stand as a symbol of it’s donor’s support for positive community growth in Crown Heights -- as more and more people donate their personal cuff to the project, a mesh will begin to grow in a lace like pattern. This mesh of cuffs, created of our neighbors’ joint community spirit, will become the canopy of the installation and a place for people of meet and organize throughout the summer. Architecturally, this canopy will be supported by a framework of fanned supporting legs that connect with hinges to a base. Just as the canopy is supported by the legs, the legs are completely dependent upon the canopy. This design was chosen to represent the relationships between the community organizations that support the community, and the individual members that support the organizations -- one would not exist without the other.
Beginning in March of 2012, the color-cuffs will be available for donation at participating businesses throughout Crown Heights. If you make donation to the project, you will be given a color-cuff to personalize with a message and then leave in a collection box for pick up. Once a week, Ground Up Designers will collect the donated ties and add them to the installation. Over the course of spring and summer, the canopy will flourish overhead as the garden’s plants flower and grow underneath. Ground Up Designers hopes that the gathering space beneath the canopy will be used for outdoor community meetings, poetry readings, and other inspiring community events.