STUDIOBABBLE: BABBLEBOX, BABBLEBOOK

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we took an opportunity to connect our bubble of six architecture students bunked together in a make-shift living-room studio with other isolated households within our neighbourhood of Downtown Toronto’s Seaton Village. We took what we missed: the walks to school, picnics in the neighbourhood park, and casual community encounters; with what we newly valued: the next door family checking in on the house full of young adults as we desperately tried to find space on our stoop; our neighbours baking cookies and dropping them off to pass the time, and the genuine offers of aid to and from each other -- and created the BabbleBox.

The BabbleBox was a way to get to know our community better, and facilitate connection and curiosity within routines that had gotten all too familiar. Once a week in August, we delivered short surveys to homes in the neighbourhood, asking for them to tell us about the changes they noticed at three scales: the home, the neighbourhood, and the city at-large. We then asked them to drop off answers and doodles in the BabbleBox, centrally located at the neighbourhood park. We spoke to neighbours asking what we were doing, noticed dog-walkers discussing the questions, and children adding their own illustrations to the lemonade-stand-like box.

We then compiled all the answers into a short Zine, the babblebook, and shared it amongst the neighbourhood, so everyone could see what one another had been up to - and hopefully learn something new about their community, just as we had.

IN COLLABORATION WITH AISLING BEERS, SAVANNA BLADE, JAY POTTS, GEMMA ROBINSON, AND DECLAN ROBERTS.

RECEIPIENT OF UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO COVID-19 STUDENT STUDENGAGEMENT AWARD.