About Paige
This summer, we hired another helping hand at Lehner Designs. We are pleased to introduce you to Paige Seger, our 2019 summer intern. Attending Indiana University, Paige is a soon-to-be junior interior design student at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, and Design. With her positive attitude and strong Southern Indiana work ethic, we believe that Paige will be a great addition to our team this summer!
Paige’s Recent Experience
Before starting her position, Paige took three weeks after her classes at IU to travel to Barcelona, Spain, with a small group of fellow design students. During this time, she completed a studio project, studied the rich architectural history of the city, and immersed herself into the diverse culture. Although we can try, we do not think we can give you the full details of her experience, so we are going to let her tell you herself. Enjoy!
While in Barcelona, I
was required to complete a studio course as well as a history course that consisted of tours and lectures. For our studio project, my classmates and I were each assigned a neighborhood of Barcelona; my partner and I received an assignment to El Raval, known as the current immigration hub of Barcelona. El Raval, allocated as one of Barcelona’s low-income areas, used to be an area ridden with crime and received a small amount of attention from the city. However, because this neighborhood was left untouched, the architecture and structures from the medieval ages still remain allowing visitors to take a stroll through Barcelona’s history. With our newfound knowledge of this neighborhood, my partner and I were tasked to find and study three public areas in this community: two that were operating well and one that was not. After observing our chosen spaces, we used our analysis of the successful spaces in order to revamp the design of the ineffective one.
Public Space
The spot that we discovered and deemed unsuccessful, Placa de la Gardunya, is located near one of the most popular markets in Barcelona, La Boqueria. (If you ever have a chance to visit this city, I highly recommend this market or any other market in the city! They all have such a unique atmosphere!) While observing the plaza behind the market, three issues were noticed: lack of community, food waste, and the presence of homeless. I don’t want to bore you with all of the details, so I will attempt to keep it short and sweet, while still explaining our resolution thoroughly!
Plaza de la Gardunya located behind La Boqueria
Solution
In order to address these things, my group member and I designed an open space that incorporated a public garden, shelter for the less-fortunate, and a compost area. The idea behind these solutions was to develop a central community in the area that connected the occupants of El Raval. In the plaza, we built shelter under seating and provided lockers to store belongings while the shelters were used. But in order to have access to these services, the occupants of the shelters would be employed by the community in the public garden and compost areas with the hopes to supply them with the tools to get back on their feet. Also in the plaza, we provided the needy with access to a fridge that residents and visitors of La Boqueria could use to place food in as they wish. In conclusion, our project attempted to create a welcoming and interactive space that included everyone in the city rather than just a select few.
I know what you must be thinking, is that really all she did while she was in Spain?! Well, it would be wrong to travel to a new country and not hit all of the tourist attractions and try new foods! I promise we will get to that part of my trip in the next blog post. I have to leave you hanging, right? Have a great week!
We hope you enjoyed getting to know a little about our intern and her summer through this blog post. Oh, and don’t worry…you will get to hear more from Paige periodically throughout the summer. So, keep an eye out for our next post! In the meantime, you can head to our website to check out our past blog posts and projects at our website https://www.lehnerdesigns.com/ or our LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/company/lehner-designs/about/.
Until next time,
The Lehner Design Team
