teaching — Anita Bakshi

I’ll be teaching a Praxis studio in the Spring 2025 semester

This studio will think through the possibilities of “transition design” to address significant intertwined contemporary problems that include climate change; growing wealth inequality; social and political polarization; and access to work, housing, healthcare and education. Through extended community engagement opportunities with three organizations that focus on social, cultural, and economic issues faced by local communities, students will gain practical and theoretical understandings of how to consider complex stakeholder relationships and reflect those in their designs. We will consider how recent proposals for “Transition Design,” “Design After Capitalism,” and “Design for Social Innovation,” can be incorporated into landscape architecture practice(s) for the world(s) on the near horizon. Our Social Innovation Community Partners include CoLab Arts, Interfaith Rise (Refugee and Immigrant Services), and the New Brunswick Free Public Library.

The semester begins with an orientation to community engagement practices, including the importance of considering positionality, identity, and power relations in community work. Students then begin extended Civic Engagement Education placements with local organizations. Each week students will record their engagement hours, write a weekly reflection, and create “Weekly Visuals” that alternate each week between the practical register of “Pragmatic Reality” and the futurist register of “Radical Imagination.” They will further document and interrogate their own experiences and community experiences in the field through relevant SOCIOARC exercises which may include: Express Ethnographic Sample, Semi-Structured Site Visit, Integrated Social Cartographies, Socio-Spatial Interview, and Social Camera. Collective work in our design studio will focus on readings and discussions of important recent texts that present new approaches for community-engaged design and that take a critical stance on contemporary design practices and their entanglement with systems that reproduce power inequalities and practices of resource and labor extraction. Studio exercises will include mixed-media collages and diagrams for imagining new futures and alternative forms of land tenure and housing, as well as mapping flows of people, materials, and labor. SOCIARC exercises in this phase will include: Collaboration Questions, Community Program Plan, Emplacing and Socializing Architectural Designs, and Translating Concept into Form. At the end of the semester the studio will create a curated exhibit of the weekly visuals and SOCIOARC ethnographic and spatial documentation of student and community experiences. This work will then inform and define the design program brief and concepts for designed spaces or events that respond to the work with our Social Innovation Community Partners.

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The 2023 Advanced Landscape Architecture studio partnered with CoLAB Arts (based in New Brunswick) and the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, NJ

to develop ideas for enhancing the design of public spaces in the city. The studio considered transportation, pedestrian safety, shoreline resilience, and public art interventions. Sites included the proposed Sunset Park site in west Red Bank as well as the Basie Center’s public arts plaza, the Two River Theater plaza, Johnny Jazz Park, as well as other sites. These design interventions were informed by the history of arts and music and Red Bank alongside current community histories. See the full booklet of projects here.

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The Fall 2021 Housing and Open Space Studio will worked with the Western Queens Community Land Trust (WQCLT) and the Long Island City Coalition

to develop open space and planning ideas for the current Department of Education building located in Long Island City, on Vernon Blvd. near the East River. WQCLT is conducting a feasibility study to see how this massive, 750,000 sq. ft. building could be used as a community hub for immigrant businesses, artists, street cart vendors, a rooftop farm, a school, and more. This studio developed site plans that consider the coast from Hunters Point Park to Rainey Park, and developed designs that specifically connect the DoE site to the Queensbridge Homes, which is NYCHA public housing located just north of the Queensboro Bridge. This is especially important due to the long-standing racial divide (symbolized by the Queensboro Bridge) that keeps Queensbridge residents from venturing south; the DoE building is just 2 blocks south of the bridge, but in some sense it might as well be miles away.

Queensbridge is the largest public housing community in the nation, and the Long Island City waterfront is the fastest growing neighborhood in the nation, due to an influx of luxury development over the past decade. The DoE building sits right in between these two extremes, and offers a rare opportunity for changing the geographical and cultural paradigm of the region. Designs focus on open space around the DoE building, coastal connections, and an exploration of alternative housing models. See the full booklet of projects here.

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For the Fall 2020 Senior Studio we worked with Tobias Fox and Newark Science and Sustainability.

The students explored design strategies for implementing a new Land Bank program in Newark. Newark has over 2,000 vacant lots and much work remains to develop a better system to manage them and ensure equity under the land bank program. This program will affect many local growers in the Newark Community Food System (NCFS) who utilize the Adopt-a-Lot program. The designs focused on building housing security, food security, and a sustainable future into designs for Newark. In addition to urban design master plans, the students created site scale designs for the future ASHE Urban Farm development and a Renewable Energy Demonstration Site. Then in the summer of 2021 I co-hosted the RENEW NEWARK conference with Tobias, and some of the students presented their work along with some of the folks from NCFS. Great to be able to continue to collaborate !!! See the full booklet of projects here.

The Fall 2019 studio focused on storytelling and co-housing in Mott Haven in the South Bronx

Instead of following standard market-rate or affordable housing models, the studio looked at the co-housing model. This is being implemented in New York City through a Shared Housing Pilot Program (ShareNYC), sponsored by HPD. There is a need for other models that can address some of the challenges to adequate housing provision in cities todays as the number of extremely low income renters (ELI) is increasing, Section 8 housing covers only 22% of the need, LIHTC lapses after 15 to 30 years, and there has been a net loss in the stock of public housing units. We worked with South Bronx Unite (SBU), a coalition of South Bronx residents, organizations, and allies working together to improve and protect the social, environmental and economic future of the South Bronx. In order to get to understand the people who live in the Mott Haven neighborhood better, students met with neighborhood residents and created comic strip style depictions of their lives in the neighborhood. A booklet of student work can be found here

Fall 2018’s Senior Studio focused on Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Students worked on a series of proposals to translate recommendations from the June 2018 Draft Framework, Gowanus: A Framework for a Sustainable, Inclusive, Mixed-Use Neighborhood into concrete design options. In order to understand the neighborhood we canoed with the Gowanus Dredgers, met with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy to discuss their Waterfront Access Plan, and spoke with designers from SCAPE working on the Gowanus Lowlands Plan. Translations of the framework began with urban design proposals that considered how to design within zoning ordinances to address public transportation and parking needs, mitigate contamination and flooding risk, and meet residents’ needs. A booklet of student work can be found here

In fall 2017 taught the Senior Studio on Housing and Open Space. Our site was the North Shore of Staten Island. A booklet showing the studio work can be found at this link: http://landarch.rutgers.edu/documents/StatenIslandStudio_F2017.pdf

I had the pleasure to work with a group of international interior architecture students for the 2016 IMIAD workshop in Nicosia, Cyprus. Tasked with thinking about memory & memorials in the city, the students decided to interview residents, make a film, and then project it in several locations throughout the city. In their own words: "As small groups we went out in the streets of Nicosia. Prepared with a professional camera, a microphone and questions to ask we started to interview people. Therefore we didn‘t focused on specific kinds of people. We tried to capture a variety of personalities and memories as great as possible. FEELING THE PRESENT: The city I live in ... & IMAGINE THE FUTURE: The city I live in ..."

“Memory of the future“ - a project by Nele Kiss, Wiebke Mennerich, Gowtham Nandakumar, Dilara Yildirim, Selkan Solmaz, Maria Rousis, Ediz Orac, Zeynep Gunay and Anita Bakshi.

This video describes the process of the 2014 St Croix Memorial Design Studio at Rutger University, Department of Landscape Architecture, in collaboration with the National Park Service.

In fall 2016 taught the Senior Studio on Housing and Open Space. Our site was the SW EcoDistrict in Washington DC. A booklet showing the studio work can be found at this link: http://landarch.rutgers.edu/documents/EcoDistrictStudioF2016.pdf — In fall 2016 taught the Senior Studio on Housing and Open Space. Our site was the SW EcoDistrict in Washington DC. A booklet showing the studio work can be found at this link: http://landarch.rutgers.edu/documents/EcoDistrictStudioF2016.pdf

Senior Studio 2015 Student Work - Models

Senior Studio 2015 Student Work - Models

Senior Studio 2015 Student Work - planting plan

Senior Studio 2015 Student Work - planting plan

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Spring 2014

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Spring 2014

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

Visualization Course Student Work - Rhino w/Flamingo renderer

Visualization Course Student Work - Rhino w/Flamingo renderer

Visualization Course Student Work - Rhino w/Flamingo renderer

Visualization Course Student Work - Rhino w/Flamingo renderer

Visualization Course Student Work - AutoCAD 3D

Visualization Course Student Work - AutoCAD 3D

Visualization Course Student Work - AutoCAD Sheet Set using XREFs

Visualization Course Student Work - AutoCAD Sheet Set using XREFs

Visualization Course Student Work - Adobe Illustratror & Photoshop & AutoCAD

Visualization Course Student Work - Adobe Illustratror & Photoshop & AutoCAD

Senior Studio 2015 Student Work - Models

Senior Studio 2015 Student Work - Models

Senior Studio 2015 Student Work - planting plan

Senior Studio 2015 Student Work - planting plan

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Spring 2014

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Spring 2014

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

St Croix Memorial Design Studio - Student Work

Visualization Course Student Work - Rhino w/Flamingo renderer

Visualization Course Student Work - Rhino w/Flamingo renderer

Visualization Course Student Work - Rhino w/Flamingo renderer

Visualization Course Student Work - Rhino w/Flamingo renderer

Visualization Course Student Work - AutoCAD 3D

Visualization Course Student Work - AutoCAD 3D

Visualization Course Student Work - AutoCAD Sheet Set using XREFs

Visualization Course Student Work - AutoCAD Sheet Set using XREFs

Visualization Course Student Work - Adobe Illustratror & Photoshop & AutoCAD

Visualization Course Student Work - Adobe Illustratror & Photoshop & AutoCAD

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