Design Village 2024 welcomes Cal Poly art students

Midway through spring quarter every year, Cal Poly architecture freshmen and guests hike Poly Canyon Road with the materials necessary to create livable structures that they can inhabit for 48 hours out in Architecture Graveyard. This is part of the annual design competition called Design Village and is the biggest project of the year for many students. 

Along with the tiny, temporary city that students construct, there is food, music, games and more. But this year brings one substantial change compared to past years: not only architecture students are participating. 

For the first time, Cal Poly’s Design Village will feature two groups of students from the art department. 

Elise Coatney is an art and design senior concentrating in graphic design who will be participating in Design Village this year. She played a big role in guiding the creative direction behind her group’s project, which is inspired by the seed pods of a Carrotwood tree.

“I thought it was the perfect design for the structure because a lot of the Design Village structures are a dome shape,” Coatney said. “This is a little bit of a more complex, flowery and natural version of that.”

Not only did Coatney choose the Carrotwood pod as inspiration for aesthetic reasons, but she also thinks it highlights the group as being art students. 

“I liked the idea of using a seed pod because then us being inside of it, we are like the seeds and that’s like being in a womb or a kind of generative, creative space,” Coatney said. “The fact that we’ll be sleeping in there and dreaming and being like the little seed in your pod, germinating and growing. We took it from there and then made it more architectural but based off of that Carrotwood tree.”

Along with the idea of creating pods to sleep in, the group is decorating and creating mattresses from recycled fabrics and materials. 

Evelyn Sen is a psychology sophomore minoring in art and design. Sen said that as soon as she heard professor Elizabeth Folk was teaching advanced sculpture and textile work and would be preparing students to participate in Design Village, she immediately wanted to enroll. 

Sen’s group has already scoped out the land that they want to set up their design on in preparation.

“We were really strategic about getting a specific plot of land that overlooks the concert,” Sen said.

Alongside the competition, KCPR’s Superbloom Concert takes place during the weekend of Design Village and features local performers in the Geodesic Dome in Poly Canyon. It’s a scene that draws not only spectators of the event but those participating as well.

Sen said it’s the experience of community in Design Village that made her enthusiastic to join. 

“I’m really looking forward to the reactions of my friends when they see that our idea has materialized,” Sen said. “I’m excited to see everyone else’s, especially the architecture students.”

To facilitate the success of students, professors are present at the event. 

“Our professor, Elizabeth, has been super helpful through the whole process,” Coatney said. “So that’s an important part of our little project.”

If you visit Design Village in Poly Canyon this year, keep your eye out for the two structures made by Cal Poly’s art students, including the “Carrotwood pods.”