Experience Design for New Forms of Local Urban Tourism
For every visit to one of the well-established and well-known destinations, countless lesser-known places in the many neighborhoods of Boston go undiscovered and unappreciated.
We partnered with the City of Boston’s Department of Tourism, Sport, and Entertainment and Chillwall AI to explore novel approaches that can facilitate new forms of visitor experiences to the City’s many neighborhoods beyond the well-known tourist attractions.
The book here documents the semester-long design studio (full book pdf). Below here are some of the highlights of the research and design proposals that emerged.
Following the initial project kickoff meeting, Collin Knight led two walking tours that provided an introduction to the two neighborhoods we focused on during the 2024 Fall semester: Nubian Square and Jackson Square. The walking tours introduced local businesses, neighborhood history and landmarks, and the vibrant African and Latin American cultures that characterize the areas today.
Individual observations were then synthesized in the multiple maps including touch- and smellmaps that capture learnings and impressions at different sensory levels.
After several field trips to the two neighborhoods we identified a variety of issues that we felt contributed to a lack of visitation in these areas. Based on our explorations and background research we then identified a numberof opportunities for interventions addressing the issues previously raised. From a plethora of both issues and opportunities emerged five different categories that would then guide the direction of project proposals.
Issues & Opportunities
Project Proposals
Nubian Square Roots
Building Neighborhood Familiarity Through Place-Based Cooking Classes
Nubian Square Roots is a cooking workshop program for groups and organizations, highlighting Nubian Square’s cultural diversity in a three-part series led by local chefs. Each series includes an introductory workshop held at the home of the group/organization – outside the Nubian Square neighborhood, a session at a public kitchen in the neighborhood, and a final experience held at a restaurant in the Nubian Square area. Throughout the program, participants are gradually brought closer to this center of African and Caribbean cuisine, encouraging them to organically explore the area and engage with the local community.
Beyond Attractions
Discovering an Informal Web of Local Gems
We designed a lightweight system of physical and information-based interventions make local knowledge visible and accessible. Inside local businesses, informal displays enable owners to share their favorite business peers and nearby spots, surfacing everyday word-of-mouth.
At major attractions, such as the Arnold Arboretum, street-level totems provide straight forward, map-based recommendations for nearby places to visit—inviting visitors to extend their stay beyond the well known attraction.
Nubian Pathways
Introducing Art Audiences to Neighborhoods along Art Walks
The Nubian Pathway project connects, celebrates, and shares the identity and cultural heritage of the communities of the Nubian Square neighborhood through an art-oriented public experience along the way. The pathway starts at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) during its “Late Nite” events, engaging the existing crowd of visitors. From there, participants are invited along an art walk route with events along the way, leading to Nubian Square and events hosted there.
Nubian Shares
Introducing Cuisine to the People and People to the Neighborhood
Nubian Shares fosters hyperlocal tourism within Nubian Square by showcasing its unique culinary culture beyond the neighborhood’s boundaries. We recognize that food isn’t just nourishment—it’s a shared language, a point of curiosity, and a gateway into deeper cultural appreciation. By bringing this culture beyond the boundaries of the neighborhood and into the city’s most visible public events, we designed a service that both promotes Nubian Square and invites people to return to it.
Neighborhood Detours
Leveraging Tangential Commuting Traffic for Productive Neighborhood Explorations
While Nubian Square may not yet see large numbers of visitors, the neighborhood is bordered by several busy commuting routes such as Melnea Cass Boulevard for motorized traffic, and the Southwest Corridor for bicycle commuters. The project taps into these flows of people by providing information at strategic locations about events and places of interest in the neighborhood and it facilitates drivers and bicyclists to actually get there.
EventQuest
Organizing Events as Catalyst for Neighborhood Connections
It can be difficult to get a comprehensive overview of events happening at Nubian Square. However, there is an existing practice of pinning posters about upcoming events in public areas in the neighborhood. This project builds on that practice to propose a new form of neighborhood stewardship geared towards collecting information about local performances and events of various kinds in ways that connect the physical and the digital and make them discoverable by a wider potential audience.
Team
Kristian Kloeckl (instructor), Cendana Auger, Kate Feder, Stevie Frisch, Urooj Haider, Lina Huang, Tingyu (Bruce) Hsiao, Yitian Jin, Peter Loughlin, Manushi Raj, Kavita Srirangam, Bokai (Nik) Yang
Partners
John Borders IV, Director, Department of Tourism, Sports, and Entertainment, City of Boston
Amy Cowan, Head of Business Development and Co-Founder at Chillwall AI
Collin Knight, Director of Live Like a Local Tours