Reverberations | The Roots and Relevance of Community Design

Design for Children aims to address the need for quality early child care centers in DC. Though more than 60% of American families rely on childcare services, many facilities are overcrowded, outdated, or disappearing altogether, as lease rates increase and building owners opt for more glamorous tenants. We’ll share how the Washington, DC, Open Architecture Collaborative (OADC) team undertook a process to identify, survey, and collaborate with daycare service providers. Three child development centers were selected as seed projects for the Design for Children program, which launched early 2017. By providing a schematic design package, OADC hopes to alleviate the costs of providing quality early child care centers.