Future Ours in Collaboration with the United Nations
Year Completed: 2024 | Project Type: Design Project

Mobile Makers was invited by Art 2030 and Kunsthal Charlottenborg to contribute to Future Ours, a public art exhibition that was presented at the United Nations and across New York City on JC Decaux bus shelters in response to the United Nations ‘Summit of the Future.’ We were asked to respond to the UN’s call to address current and future global challenges and explore how art can serve as a unique method of critical world-building in the form of a billboard. Our response, “Who Says?” positions youth as pivotal architects of the future, highlighting their power to reshape the built environment. By empowering young people with the agency to act, we enable them to shape their futures and the world around them. This project showcases young people’s potential to envision and create a more sustainable and equitable world through empathy and design.

Museum of Science and Industry Spark Project
Year Completed: 2022 | Project Type: Community Engagement

Mobile Makers, alongside Civic Projects Architecture and Ralph Appelbaum Associates, was engaged by the Museum of Science and Industry to lead the first phase of The Spark Initiative, which aspires to expand access to science, play, and technology for various Chicago audiences. Our team had the opportunity to help MSI redefine the role of museum education programming as a tool to connect with communities. Our team spoke with hundreds of individuals to capture community input and perspectives. Mobile Makers designed custom “cards” that slot together to make capturing community input more creative and fun.

The Inaugural Design Summit for Friends of Friends
Year Completed: 2023 | Project Type: Special Event

Over two days, over 200 people from around the country joined Mobile Makers to engage in conversations about equity in our built world. The event featured more than 20 speakers from various design backgrounds, including Theaster Gates and Amanda Williams. The Emerging Creatives Exhibition, an open call for projects that celebrate justice and joy, was featured near the main stage. The event culminated in an outdoor “Avenue Party” where attendees enjoyed live music and had the opportunity to further connect. The summit brought together like-minded designers of all backgrounds, ages, and experiences to have meaningful conversations about how design can be used to make positive change. The summit will return in 2025.

Shape Makers at the Arts Club of Chicago
Year Completed: 2021 | Project Type: Design Project

In this time of tentative gatherings, Mobile Makers designed configurable furniture for The Arts Club of Chicago Garden. Employing modular, geometric forms in bright color, they transformed the tranquil setting into a playful, interactive space. Each practical, moveable shape is designed to be used independently or in combination with others to make individual seating, playforms, or benches. Throughout the exhibition's run, The Arts Club hosted outdoor sound and performance, as well as open hours for meditation or social gathering.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago Rusu-McCartin Club
Year Completed: 2021 | Project Type: Community Engagement

Mobile Makers led the community engagement effort on this development in collaboration with Latent Design and Valerio Dewalt Train Associates. For years, the site was a large, barren area in need of environmental remediation and investment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mobile Makers created the engagement strategy and led ten virtual engagement meetings with various stakeholders, including local youth and adults. Including the community early in the design phases led to more local buy-in, better relationships with the consultants, and design solutions that met community needs. The West Side Boys and Girls Club is the first new construction Boys and Girls Club in nearly 50 years. The three-story building provides facilities for local youth to engage in a broad offering of programs that promote leadership development, academic success, and healthy lifestyles.

Public Access Exhibition at NYCxDesign
Year Completed: 2023 | Project Type: Design Project

Mobile Makers designed Forms of Play, a new pop-up activity, for the ‘Public Access’ exhibition, which features works by 37 international designers from 19 cities and 12 countries exploring ways in which design can inspire communal acts of sharing. Forms of Play is inspired by the Froebel Block Gift 3. In the 1840s, Friedrich Fröbel created a set of “Gifts” to support children's learning and development. Many architects and designers, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Buckminster Fuller, gained inspiration from them. Forms of Play brings Gift 3 to the human scale and invites people of all ages and backgrounds to engage in form-making, spatial exploration, and collaboration. It features eight blocks that can be stacked and shifted around a grid.

Let’s Fold Paper! in Collaboration with the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Year Completed: 2021 | Project Type: Education Consulting

Mobile Makers created a series of three videos that encourage participants to be critical about the spaces they occupy. These videos will be split up into 3 scales: home, block, and community. Each project will involve the creation of a small paper book that unfolds into its own mini world. This series will guide children through a playful approach to understanding the built environment while giving them agency in making change.