A hip hop-inspired camp at Columbus State Community College will introduce West Side-area middle schoolers to architecture and urban planning. The free program, which takes place from Friday, March 22 to Sunday, March 24, will teach students 3D printing and modeling while making music and solving architectural issues in their community.
The camp will bring college students in to work with two Columbus City schools, Westmoor and Starling Middle Schools.
Representatives from architecture firms Moody Nolan and Triad Architects, Ohio State Knowlton School of Architecture director Michael Cadwell, and Columbus State program manager Joel Nelson were involved in bringing the national program to Columbus.
Part of Nelson’s role at Columbus State is working with area schools and partners on programs like the Hip Hop Architecture Camp. He says the West Side-area schools were chosen because of their academic pathways to West High School, which has a civil engineering and architecture program. Focusing on the West Side will also give students the opportunity to look at Franklinton as an example of new development and understanding how it impacts them.
“I’m not sure how much students — or residents, but in particular students — in that area have been a part of that conversation and understand all of the things that are happening around them,” he says.
Through West High School’s architecture program, students are able to take college-level courses through Columbus State — but by senior year, attendance has dropped. Programs like the Hip Hop Architecture Camp could lead to ongoing partnerships with Ohio State and others, says Nelson, so that students are given the opportunity earlier.
“A lot of the times it was because students were not aware of all the opportunities that could be afforded them in that area,” he says. “Middle school is ideal, so that they can have an idea of what they want to do or at least what they want to try when they get into their high school careers — and so they can have opportunity to test, try, and so on and so forth before it becomes too late and expensive.”
The application deadline for the Hip Hop Architecture Camp is Friday, March 1. Free transportation will be provided to Columbus State from Starling and Westmoor Middle Schools.
For more information and to register, visit hiphoparchitecture.com/2019-columbus.