Studio Courses

The Anti-displacement studio is a Boston-based community-engaged research and design studio offered at Northeastern University that activates the role and responsibility of the designer as creative accomplice to place-based activists and frontline communities. 

Each semester, the studio collaborates with community-based partners. These include the Sweet Water Foundation (Chicago) and ACT-LA (Los Angeles) for Fall 2021, Boston District 7 City Councilor and community leaders from Roxbury and the South End for Fall 2022 and Spring 2023, and Chinatown-based organizations for Fall 2023.

Studio exercises combine conceptual learning, historical/archival research, and participatory planning and design to understand, unpack and wrestle with challenging urban-scale topics such as housing, commercial, cultural, and climate displacement while immersing in applied practices. For instance, past studio projects have focused on social housing advocacy (Fall 2021), creative placemaking (Fall 2022 and Spring 2023), and open space improvement (Fall 2023).