community park + cultural identity F / S 2014-15
PROFESSORS: MARLEEN DAVIS, JOHN MCRAE, GREGOR KALAS CLIENT: UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, BOSNIAN ISLAMIC COMMUNITY LOCATION: BOSNIAN ISLAMIC CENTER BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY
NEED: Initially approached by the Bosnian Islamic Center, the scope of the project asked for the placement of activity spaces at the Islamic Center. The community leaders needed to reactivate the space to give younger generations a desire to visit the area besides prayer times.
RESOLVE: The project evolved, through the surprise of the client, into a large scale park that branched the journey between the Mosque( God) and Mezari( death). The lifeline between were the activities and experiences created by the members of the community, ranging from children playgrounds all the way to senior gardening. The Community Park’ s perspective was to bridge generational assimilation by placing members each generation in the same place in hope of preserving and transplanting cultural values. All activities were strategically placed on map to correspond to noise, age, terrain, and axial relationships toward the mosque to create an undeniable connection towards Allah( God).
ABSTRACT: This project was part of a greater thesis study between Community + Design. The research was directed toward the preservation and transplantation of cultural identity for future generations within a new cultural system.