Hospitality Design - July 2022 - 75

perspectives hdac spotlight
By Alissa Ponchione
This is the fi rst in an ongoing interview series curated by the
Hospitality Diversity Action Council (HDAC)
Mobile Makers pop-ups are
held in a retrofitted UPS truck
BIG THINKER
Maya Bird-Murphy makes design accessible to young people
Maya Bird-Murphy grew up in Chicago's Oak Park neighborhood,
surrounded by the city's infl uential architectural history. Aſt er att ending
a high school architecture camp, she knew she wanted to work in the
fi eld. She went to Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana to pursue
her degree, but a few years in the working world opened her eyes to
the discipline's lack of diversity. " I was having trouble feeling like I
belonged, " she recalls. That's when she came up with the idea to off er
low-cost workshops for school-aged children to learn about design and
skill building in a mobile sett ing. Centering her Boston Architectural
College grad school thesis around the concept, Bird-Murphy launched
Mobile Makers Chicago in September 2017 in a retrofi tt ed UPS truck.
Recently, she partnered with her alma mater to bring Mobile Makers
to Boston, while also opening a brick-and-mortar space in Chicago that
Bird-Murphy hopes will be become a stabilizing force in the community.
Here, she shares the challenges of launching Mobile Makers, retrofi tt ing
an old UPS truck, and what's next for the nonprofi t.
What is Mobile Makers?
I wanted to talk to young people about how design aff ects us, and I
thought, why not put that in a truck and drive around? We want to
make it easier for kids on the South and West Sides of Chicago to have
opportunities. We're not necessarily trying to bring people into the
architecture fi eld. It's more about kids caring about their communities
and developing some of the skills that will positively impact their
environments by going through our design-thinking and problem-solving
workshops.
What were the challenges of launching Mobile Makers?
I launched the business in September 2017 right before I graduated. I was
doing my master's online while working fulltime. Aſt er I graduated and
started doing workshops, people started to understand what the point was.
We booked most of our workshops via word of mouth, and 90 percent of
our programming before the pandemic was doing workshops in schools.
Children learn design and skill
building during workshops
How did the pandemic change your business model?
The buzzword is pivot. We sent design kits to peoples' homes so kids had
something to do. We started doing community engagement work, which
helped us stay afl oat. 2020 was the best and worst year. Our programming
came to a halt with the pandemic, but at the same time, we grew a ton. We
received more donations than ever that year.
Tell us about the Mobile Makers van, a retrofi tted UPS truck.
The truck is special. Kids light up when they see it. There's something
magical about it. You can tell they're having a lot of fun and that's what the
truck is about. We got a bunch of press for it. The goal is to have all three
things: aſt er school programs in our space, pop-ups with the truck, and
workshops in schools.
You also opened a brick-and-mortar Mobile Makers space in
Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood.
We're learning every day about the mental health struggles of young people,
and this was a good time to double down on doing something in person.
We needed a space where kids feel safe, where they don't have to think
about their worries for a few hours. Over the next fi ve years, I would love to
become a consistent presence in the neighborhood.
How do you defi ne social architecture via your workshops?
It's human-centered design. We don't oſt en talk about the end user. There's
rarely authentic community engagement. Our workshops are all about
giving young people the agency and the power to think that they can make
a diff erence in their built environment. We can make more change in
communities without necessarily going down the traditional path or having
to go through the normal gatekeepers. It's also about showing people that
small changes make big diff erences.
How have you changed kids' perspectives on what good design
can do?
The workshops are longer engagements that are week by week. In the
summer, it will be every day. We go deep with kids talking about history and
gentrifi cation. It's cool to see what kind of interventions they come up with.
We've done workshops all over the city in diff erent places. Teens understand
the issues that are happening in their communities, and they all have
answers to solve the problem. It's very rewarding. hd
hospitalitydesign.com July 2022
075
Photos courtesy of MOBILE MAKERS
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Hospitality Design - July 2022

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