Hands On: Building a Maker Space from the Ground Up

Abstract

I began this thesis over a year before its ultimate completion, as I initiated an investigative journey into materials-making with six chosen materials: paper, clay, charcoal, graphite, ink, and watercolor, in the spring of 2024. My only goal at the time was to create materials I could use to present my thesis (an as-yet undecided topic) on. I spent the summer researching, harvesting, refining, and making the materials I set out to make. My work that summer emphasized the power of a tactile connection in creativity and Making, the alchemy in creating Something Useful from something existing, and the human drive to put our hands on what we build and make as opposed to engaging passively as a viewer or consumer. My research also highlighted a clear need for "maker" facilities in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area--colloquially known as the DMV--[D]C, [M]aryland, [V]irginia ("May 2023 OEWS Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Definitions," n.d.). While there are plenty of fantastic ways to enjoy art and creativity, the DMV is comparatively sparse on resources for making art and being creative. In combining those two halves, both the drive to create and make useful materials with our hands, as well as the pressing need for a place and space to do so, I found an area of architecture in which to investigate. What is the ability of architecture to remain "hands on" in today's virtual and digital landscape? Is there still value and possibility in a building constructed from materials made by human hands, from direct resources? In answering these questions, I developed a campus made by artists, artisans, and craftsmen utilizing site materials to create a Maker space that embodies and nurtures creativity and Making. The goal of this thesis is to create a place for Makers to collaborate, communicate, and connect while using tactile creativity as a means of joy and magic. Instead of using heavy machinery to complete towering buildings, the mark on the landscape is relatively minimal and incorporates resources from the land itself to provide materials for the building structure and components. The organizing and financial source of construction is an artisan's co-op, who could not only participate in making the materials from resources on site, but could also benefit from the campus itself once complete. Built with human touch and invested workmanship from artisans, the campus will be a dedicated place of creativity and making to fill a much-needed dearth of artist resources in the DMV.