Spring 2023 Capstone Projects

Project Directors & Lead Instructors: Dana Cuff, Yang Yang, Gustavo Leclerc, and Maite Zubiaurre

Teaching Assistants: Daniel Rodríguez Mora

Core collaborators: Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), Michelle Vasquez (USC), Brenda Nicholas (UCI), Gaspar Rivera Salgado (UCLA Labor Center), Odilia Romero & Aurora Pedro (CIELO), Sara Z. Mijarez (Mundo Maya Foundation), Michelle Caswell (UCLA Information Studies), Claire Nelischer, Rayne Laborde-Ruiz, Gus Wendel

Students: UHI 2022-23 Cohort

The UHI program concludes with design research-oriented capstone courses in the Spring, where students employ the urban theories and research methods learned during the Fall and Winter quarters. The Capstone courses offered this Spring focus on strategic urban interventions at the scale of the local in two distinct contexts, Shanghai and Los Angeles. The capstone, On-Your Own: Micro-Urbanisms and Young Pedestrians, led by Dana Cuff and Yang Yang, explores the idea of humanistic micro-urbanism in public space concerning the youngest independent pedestrians in Los Angeles and Shanghai. The capstone Indigenous Immigrant Pockets of Resistance and Affirmation: El Corredor Oaxaqueño y El Corredor Maya, led by Gustavo Leclerc and Maite Zubiaurre, focuses on two unique ethnic/cultural enclaves around the MacArthur Park area. Working closely with Mixtec, Zapotec, and Maya Indigenous immigrants, students will conduct research and provide creative ideas to support the two ethnic enclaves.

On-Your-Own: Micro-Urbanisms and Young Pedestrians: Craft the City

Indigenous Immigrant Pockets of Resistance and Affirmation: El Corredor Oaxaqueño & El Corredor Maya