Garage Remix

Overview

The Garage Remix was a two day design workshop created by a group of upperclass, design students. The goal was to improve the mental health experiences in the Ohio State parking garages. It began with breaking into small groups led by the students who have been researching mental health within the university. Each group discussed and presented an idea of how to improve the parking garage by the Ohio Union.

Garage Remix
Created by the Garage Remix team

Process

I worked in a small group of about 11 people ranging from first year students to middle age adults from the mental health field. Together we determined the space is very depressing, ominous, and simply overlooked. Parking garages did not evoke any positive or joyful memories for anyone in the group. Our plan was to create a sense of community and connection within the space. Originally, we thought to create a theme for each floor- possibly different color per floor, nature-based, or Ohio themed. However, when we thought about our goal of community it was decided to create an increasing scale of connection. Each floor was to be a community one can relate to. The first floor is Ohio State University, the second is Columbus, the third is Ohio, the fourth is the United States, and lastly, open to the sky is the World floor. On every level there are facts and some type of interactive component about the theme; for example, the Columbus floor has a chalkboard with the question, “what is your favorite restaurant in Columbus?”. To support the idea of an experience every level has a jukebox that plays music relating to the floor. Music is a language for all people and often a huge comfort. The concept behind it being a jukebox gives the music selection power to those actually using the parking garage

I do not have the full photo of the final outcome; however, this is a mock-up I made of our final product based on my memory. Each floor increases in people included in that group, and at the top is where everyone can relate. Through the country flags it is customized to the people coming to Ohio State and sharing their culture.
This is the actual Ohio floor we made. It includes chalkboards inquiring about people’s favorite components of Ohio. This would be super helpful for visitors who do not know that much about the state and are looking for something to do after their visit.
This is the Columbus floor. Using small figurines help give a perspective of our model.

Reflection

This was an amazing experience for me. I appreciated the opportunity of collaborating with the more seasoned students. It taught me a lot of the design process, and I am upset that I lost the documented photos I took. It demonstrated how to ideate, discuss, modify, and construct a whole model in less than two days. Despite our final project being a tad overwhelming, it was shared that the music component brought together all our goals in a simple fashion. Overall, the main takeaway for me is to create a goal and don’t overcomplicate the solution: keep it simple.