Hi there!
I’m a graduate architecture student at CU Denver and currently leading efforts to establish a chapter of Freedom By Design. In case you may not know what FBD is: it is a student run organization that operates as a community service program which uses the talents of architecture students to impact the lives of people in their community through modest design and construction solutions.
In the search for our first project, I came across a sort of quirky possibility. I had doubts about whether it was worth participating because of a lack of time. Tasks, especially writing, takes a lot of time. But some time ago, I came across some
Helpful hints that helped me write the last paper on sportsmanship, and I thought it's worth trying to combine studies and projects because there are many useful sources. My roommate who is an industrial design graduate has a mini school bus that she purchased quite some time ago and had the original intentions of it being her traveling/camping van to go cross-country with. However, post grad life has been a little difficult for her to find fruition to her original dream and now she is on the fence about either selling it or finding a unique way to turn a profit to fund her dream for the future and justify her ownership of it now. Her most recent idea was to create a "photo booth" van to bring to events, venues, and weddings. Quick cash and not a super permanent alteration to the van.
I had an idea that maybe if she could think of something that was instead community-serving, that it would be a small enough and unique enough project to justify FBD's involvement, design, dedication, and construction over the semester.
I have ruled out "portable soup kitchen" or "portable laundromat", as those are relatively major/permanent modifications or installations.
This is where I could use your brilliant minds: Is there anything you can think of that a bus could be converted into in order to service our community here in Denver that is a modest project that fits the bill of the aforementioned parameters?
Looking forward to any ideas you may have