Parkolation is a Boston-based Kickstarter campaign that took to the crowdfunding platform to try and make parklets more than just a fad in Boston by empowering students to engage in urban design. After smashing its initial goal of $12,000, Parkolation Founder and Director Wilhelmina Peragine is hoping to raise another $50,000 to create an online curriculum dedicated to civic renewal and engagement.
The stretch goal of Parkolation is $50,000 for an edX-style course of study called “PARK here: Kids Build the City.” The idea is to afford students multiple avenues for which they can engage in urban design outside of the traditional classroom setting. Though the course is being initially designed for the K-12 range, Peragine told BostInno in an email that it’ll spread to all ages in all communities.
“Two central beliefs that guide this project are that learners should be creating more than consuming and that skills should not be taught in silos,” said Peragine.
It’s unclear how well Boston will take to parklets. These miniature public spaces have been attempted before but gained gained little traction, despite seeing success in other cities like San Francisco and New York. But what’s more important is that it gives students an entryway to re-imagining the city as well as a new way of thinking.
For example, Peragine told BostInno about a young student unattached from the conventional way of learning. Through Parkolation, he realized his strengths lie in aesthetics, symmetry and symbolism – aspects more than beneficial to urban design.
“Through this project he learned that he has something to say and that his ideas can change the world,” added Peragine “Design thinking fit him like a glove and before he knew it he was enjoying the learning process.”
Boston’s civic innovation scene is booming. Projects are already being created and implemented through City of Boston initiatives like the Public Space Invitational, as well as sustainable public art like Sistine Solar – which is actually partnering up with Parkolation to display its solar-powered art in the prospective parklets.
Armed with an arsenal of public art projects, open space innovations and citywide redesigns, one of the few things missing from Boston’s streetscape are parklets. In San Francisco in particular, parklets have proven to not only be popular with the populous, but have also given some communities an economic boost.
In the end, though, a monetary increase is just a positive consequence of a next-generation way of learning. What’s most important is that students will have the opportunity to leave lasting impacts on their neighborhoods in a way they never thought possible.
“Building a greener community should be a project for any organization or company, perhaps in the form of a team building activity among colleagues, a design challenge for groups of seniors, university students, sports associations and so on,” said Peragine.”The potential is endless!”
Image via Parkolation
