The Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design at Tulane University, School of Architecture
Small Center serves as the "community design center" of the Tulane School of Architecture existing at the intersection of design and civic engagement, giving voice to residents. Our partner organizations, non-profits across New Orleans and cities across the Gulf South, bring their ideas to us, and we work closely together to support residents in imagining and pursuing projects that strengthen neighborhoods. Collaborative design offers an opportunity to build capacity and coalitions to address broader inequity that goes beyond simply addressing design needs within the built environment. Our off-campus location and classes are recognizable to students as a unique entity and offering of the larger school.
Small Center course instructors are architects and designers with experience doing collaborative and community-engaged design and design/build projects. At our core is an understanding that shaping our built environment is a collaborative and interdisciplinary endeavor. Our team is composed of people with collective experience spanning the disciplines of architecture, anthropology, planning, political science and public health. We believe this interdisciplinary approach strengthens design and its positive impacts.
Coursework at Small Center mostly serves upper level undergraduate and graduate students. These students, who were admitted to Tulane University through a typical admissions process, self-select by choosing our coursework from amongst other elective and research studio options. For our full-time summer fellowship positions and year long student internships, students apply by writing a letter demonstrating interest in public interest design, and through submission of a short visual portfolio. Many students, especially in our graduate program, cite engaged Small Center projects as the primary reason they chose to attend Tulane.
