Design Projects


Beyond traditional volunteering, we use design to create spaces and tools where people can grow, gather, learn, and work together.

Our projects take place both on and off campus. Some respond to the immediate needs of our partner farms; others explore how underused spaces at MIT might become places for growing food and building community. Each project is an opportunity to test how architecture and design can contribute to a more connected, participatory food system.




Farm Cart

The Farm Cart is a modular, mobile growing system that explores how a small piece of infrastructure can help bring agriculture into everyday campus life.

Designed as a highly visible and participatory extension of MIT Farm, the cart can adapt to different settings, seasons, and uses. It can function as a greenhouse-like enclosure during the winter, provide storage and preservation space, and become an open planter during warmer months.

Two detachable towers and a series of smaller planters allow growing to extend beyond the cart itself. These elements can be placed on windowsills, in classrooms, or in other community spaces, creating opportunities for distributed growing across campus.

The cart is also designed to invite participation. Its mobility allows student groups, labs, and campus partners to adopt and adapt components for their own spaces, creating shared responsibility for the care and evolution of the system.

Design Team:
Zachary Rapaport, Courage Dzidula Kpodo, Aleksandra Banaś 
Build Team:
Zachary Rapaport, Courage Dzidula Kpodo 
Advisors:
Christopher Dewart, Miho Mazereeuw, Lisbeth Shepherd, Susy Jones

Materials: Reclaimed pine wood, polycarbonate panels, stainless steel sheet
Size: 2.5 × 6 × 6.5 ft.
Design-Build: July-August 2025
Farm Cart at Killian Court  | Photo Credit: Jacob Payne






UA Sustain Garden

The UA Sustain Garden is an ongoing effort to create a productive growing space on campus while building a place for the MIT community to learn, work, and gather together.

The project explores how an existing campus landscape can become more productive and participatory through relatively simple interventions. The garden brings together growing infrastructure, student stewardship, and opportunities for hands-on learning.

Design Team:
Nayeon Kim,  Aleks Banaś, Zachary Rapaport
Build Team:
Nayeon Kim,  Aleks Banaś, Zachary Rapaport, Farm Club volunteers
Advisors:
John Oschendorf, Christopher Dewart
Arranging Pathways in the UA Sustain Garden with Reclaimed Bricks from N51
After First Planting Session
Pathways in Progress
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