ENVD Students Explore Time, Change, Storytelling

by Stacy Daniel

Art installation with green and white flooring, cowhide patterns, floral mural, abstract sculptures, and framed pictures on walls in a brightly lit, modern gallery space.

Environmental Design (ENVD) students transformed interests into capstone projects this summer, exploring storytelling, fabrication, public space and emerging technology at Auburn University’s Urban Studio in Birmingham.

The twelve students completed the 10-week “Temporal Trajectories” Capstone, part of the Environmental Design program in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA).

Taught by Assistant Professor Eilís Finnegan, the course asked each student to identify a question and develop an original response through research, experimentation and storytelling.

A person with dark hair in a brown top sits and looks at a magazine featuring a close-up photo of a person in a pink hood holding a circular object to their eye.
Some students created booklets and portfolios to showcase their capstone project.
Design project display with 3D printed objects, architectural sketches, and concept images pinned to a wall, illuminated by sunlight. A desk holds more 3D prints, papers, and a remote control.
The students combined physical and digital drawings, as well as fabrication, to represent their ideas.

Students worked with physical and digital media as they developed projects rooted in their individual interests. Some explored how design could activate public space or make small-space living more adaptable, while others examined disaster relief, game design, wearable objects and family history. They brought those ideas to life through hands-on fabrication, animation, extended reality and projection mapping.

Projects by ENVD students Kim Ha and Canaan Rager illustrate that range.

Drawing on her love of live music and festivals, Ha proposed flexible infrastructure for performances and community events at Birmingham’s Rainbow Viaduct in “Over/Under: Choreographing Birmingham’s Rainbow Viaduct.”

Digital collage of people walking under a high, purple-framed structure with colorful fabric panels and geometric designs hanging above.
ENVD student Kim Ha drew on her love of live music and festivals to create a flexible infrastructure for performances and community events.
Three people discuss an architectural model and design plans displayed on a wall in a well-lit room with a brick wall and sketches.
Kim Ha presented her Rainbow Viaduct model to jurors.

“My project challenges the idea that architecture is only a setting for events and reframes it as an instrument that actually produces them,” Ha said.

Rager turned his experience living in a small apartment into “Assembly Required,” a reconfigurable furniture kit designed to adapt to changing needs.

“I wanted to offer something that could fit all of your needs with one simple kit of pieces,” he said.

A white truck with a cutaway display shows furniture pieces inside. Wooden chairs, tables, beanbags, and art materials are set up on the pavement in front of the truck.
Rager developed a kit of parts that could be deployed and assembled to create a mobile pop-up.

The capstone concluded with a final review and showcase on July 31 at Urban Studio. Finnegan said the students’ work had become deeply personal, reflecting their interests, career plans and goals for research and creative work.

“By the reviews, they had crossed a threshold from simply completing a project to being able to stand behind a body of work and confidently share it with others,” she said.

A person sets up a tabletop diorama with cut-out figures depicting a stage scene, framed by a decorated border, near a lamp on a white surface.
ENVD student Mali Sok layered different elements to create an diorama-like model for her project.
Two women sit indoors, smiling and holding a colorful patchwork quilt. A desk with books and a lamp is in the background against a brick wall.
The students explored themes of fabrication and family history in their projects.

Finnegan hopes students remember that a capstone can become more than a final assignment or portfolio piece.

“A strong capstone can open up new questions, spark future research, shape professional interests and even reveal directions that students did not know they wanted to pursue when they began,” she said.

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Student Experience, Student Work, Urban Studio

Related people:
Eilís Finnegan