CultureHouse

Aaron Greiner is a graduate of Olin College of Engineering who uses design to tackle the global challenges of sustainability and social well-being. His past projects include redesigning a library, creating a mobile makerspace, and designing exhibits for Design Museum Boston. In 2017, he studied urban design in Copenagen and was inspired by the dedication to public life he saw there. When he got back to the United States, he worked for Better Block, an urban design nonprofit based in Dallas. During his time at Better Block, he saw how using temporary pop-up and tactical urbanism techniques could prove urban design ideas in places that were unfamiliar with them. At the same time, Aaron noticed a significant lack of public spaces in the United States, especially indoor spaces. Inspired by his work in Copenhagen and Dallas, Aaron created CultureHouse to bring indoor community space to Boston.

The United Nations projects that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas by the year 2050, making the cityscape an inevitable and important battleground in the fight for social justice. A lack of public space decreases the mental well-being of local people, especially our most vulnerable residents, and harms the resiliency of the community. Sociologist Eric Kinenberg argues that “building places where all kinds of people can gather is the best way to repair the fractured societies we live in today.” However, according to the Economists’ 2018 Global Liveability Index, cities in the United States consistently rank low on livability. By activating vacant and underused spaces, spaces that decrease community well-being, CultureHouse leverages the prevalence of unused space to tackle the lack of indoor and outdoor public space. Our pop-up community space model can be adapted to cities worldwide to provide equitable access to public space.

Boston residents and communities experience decreased social connectivity and community networks due to a lack of public community spaces. These spaces are viewed as “nice to haves”, but research continues to show that community spaces lead to increased community health, connectivity, resiliency, and economic activity, making them essential to any livable city. In Boston, this decreased livability impacts all residents, but especially transitory populations like students, young people, low-income people, and renters. About 67% of Boston residents are renters, and this constantly-moving population means that many residents struggle to find a sense of belonging as valuable community networks are eroded. These processes are only exacerbated by rising housing costs and subsequent gentrification. Using tactical urbanism, placemaking, and urban design, CultureHouse aims to not only increase the social infrastructure of Boston but of cities across the globe. We see CultureHouse as a model that could lead to an expanded network of public spaces creating economic activity, community development, and joy in all neighborhoods.

CultureHouse uses tactical urbanism and creative placemaking to create pop-up community spaces. Founded in 2017, we opened our first space at Somerville’s Bow Market in the summer of 2018 and have since developed indoor and outdoor projects in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. 

We recently finished a nine-month activation of a vacant storefront in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. CultureHouse Kendall was open for 169 days, welcomed 7,109 visitors, and hosted 134 events. CultureHouse welcomed a diverse cross-section of Cambridge - visitors were more racially diverse than the city as a whole. In December 2019, we began activating the former Out of Town News Kiosk in Harvard Square. We transformed the empty newsstand into a community space that saw over 7,000 visitors in its first three months.

The onset of COVID-19 has made clear the importance of public space for social activities, exercise, and forming and sustaining communities. It has also shown how inflexible our current infrastructure is as we enter this new normal. We are re-thinking the idea of a public space in the face of COVID-19 by creating spaces that allow for safe, physically-distant community interactions using hybrid and adaptable indoor/outdoor spaces.

CultureHouse is for all community members, but it is especially those who don’t have access to spaces in the public realm. Like a public park, everyone is welcome in the space. CultureHouse is especially targeted towards students, new residents, families, and people who lack deep community ties. By creating a space in the public realm that’s accessible regardless of the weather, CultureHouse gives people a place to connect with their neighbors and engage in new activities. 

Space usage is a systemic obstacle for underrepresented communities and minority groups. Current development models do not produce equitable outcomes, leaving many urban residents without accessible social infrastructure. We believe that cities should increase access to social infrastructure and redesign existing infrastructure to promote positive human interactions, however they are often slow to do so. In the meantime, we’re taking matters into our own hands – harnessing the prevalence of unused space to reclaim spaces for people. 

The pandemic has exacerbated the gap in access to social infrastructure in our already-inequitable cities. As everyone adapts to the new normal of COVID-19, safe indoor and outdoor public spaces are vital meeting spaces for community members to engage with one another.

Our project strongly aligns with the third dimension, however it also significantly relates to the first and second dimensions. CultureHouse provides social infrastructure for communities to gather and grow their understanding of and respect for one another. At CultureHouse, we regularly host community events like live music nights featuring local performers, workshops using art to confront climate change, and a popup bookstore that stocks female, queer, and non-binary authors. Through these events, CultureHouse promotes action and awareness of a variety of issues while creating space for those who are traditionally left behind.

In the spring of 2017, I studied urban design while abroad in Copenhagen. While there, I saw a dedication to public life unlike anything I had experienced before. Access to social infrastructure made the city livable, connected, and welcoming. I quickly became a regular at Studenterhuset, a nonprofit student-focused indoor public space with an environment that was accessible to all. Indoor public spaces like Studenterhuset were common all across the city, each one providing a different community opportunities to connect and form healthy neighborhood networks.

The summer after studying in Copenhagen, I worked for Better Block foundation, an urban design nonprofit based in Dallas, TX.  There, I learned about tactical urbanism: a method of using cheap, quick and temporary pop-ups to show new urban design ideas that are low cost but high impact.

When I came back to Boston, I noticed a distinct lack of indoor public spaces. At the same time, I also noticed a prevalence of vacant retail spaces. These two issues got me thinking – what if I could create a pop-up community space in an empty storefront? I started talking to community members, gathered advisors, and formed a small team. And thus, CultureHouse was born.

I grew up, went to school, and now live in the Boston area. Through working deeply with communities in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston, I have seen the impact that access to social infrastructure can have. At our pop-up in Kendall Square, a group of new mothers with young children started organizing weekly meet-ups in our space. The growing group of mothers shared tips, discussed challenges, and formed new friendships. Countless times, they told me how grateful they were to have CultureHouse and how it allowed for this group to flourish. When the pop-up was set to close, one member of the group even brought us flowers.

Social infrastructure is always important. At a times of crisis like the current pandemic we are facing, it can be the difference between life and death. As we adapt to a new reality and reform our communities in the wake of the pandemic, I believe that public space will need to be at the center of our recovery.

I am driven by the idea that by improving access to social infrastructure, we can create a city that is more livable, vibrant, equitable, and resilient. This belief is at the core of CultureHouse’s mission.

I alone cannot deliver CultureHouse. Over the last two years, I have built, led, and grown a team with a wide array of experiences and perspectives. My background in urban design, community engagement, engineering, and project management make me well suited to lead the CultureHouse team. 

At Olin College of Engineering I studied human interaction and spatial design, software interface design, graphic design, prototyping, mathematical modeling, and urban design, and social justice. This education gave me a strong base in technical skills, design thinking, and problem-solving that makes me uniquely qualified for interdisciplinary work that I do at CultureHouse. In my professional journey, I have learned how to manage projects from idea to implementation. At Better Block in Dallas, Texas, I learned how to use tactical urbanism and urban design principles to redesign downtown streetscapes in places like Barberton, Ohio. Using open-source designs, I employed digital fabrication to prototype street designs that foster connection and vibrancy.

As a lifelong learner, I am ready to use the skills that I have, but also learn new skills needed to solve problems. I think beyond the norms. I believe that nothing is impossible. I have a passion for the intersection of cities, people, and design and a commitment to meaningful work that promotes social justice. With my design education and project management experience from Olin, my knowledge in tactical urbanism from Better Block, and my experience managing installations at Design Museum, I am well-positioned to lead the CultureHouse project.

In the spring of 2018, I received a grant to run a CultureHouse pilot pop-up for one month in July of that year. We soon found a property owner with a vacant storefront in the Allston neighborhood of Boston who would let us use their space. We started connecting with community leaders and groups and even ran a small outdoor pop-up in a nearby plaza to gather ideas for the space.

And then, three weeks before opening, I got a call that we could no longer use the storefront. After a brief moment of panic that the project was completely over, I quickly shifted into action. For the next week, we spent most of the day calling and emailing every vacant property we could find. Eventually, we found a space and, just five days before our scheduled July 1st opening, we signed a 1-month lease.

The space, which was in Somerville’s Bow Market, ended up being a perfect location and the response we got was overwhelming. It prompted us to continue working on the project, which has brought us to where we are today.

During my senior year in undergrad at Olin College, I worked on Shifting Rhythms – a student-led project to bring a mobile makerspace to Coahoma County in rural Mississippi. Over the course of the project I took several leadership roles, but one of the most memorable was managing the build-out of a trailer into a makerspace in December of 2017. 

With a pilot of the project slated to start in January, we had just under a month to convert an empty trailer into a fully-functioning makerspace and get it from Boston to Mississippi. I led the team as we designed the space, purchased the materials, and began buildout. One day, with temperatures below 25˚F, our paint froze on the wall we were painting. With each roadblock, I worked with the team to find a solution and carry on.

After completing the buildout we drove the trailer to Clarksdale, Mississippi and ran our first workshops out of the makerspace. It was overwhelming to see the kids 3D printing, making t-shirts, and CADing in a space I had led the team to design and build. The project (and the trailer) still exist to this day.