Coming Soon? 

Coming Soon? is a socially engaged art project that uses techniques in speculative design and science fiction to creatively democratize visions for the future. Underrepresented communities in Downtown Greensboro, NC, are invited to collaboratively imagine how vacant properties can better serve their constituents in ways that are practical, conceptual, poetic, or futuristic. Coming soon signs for these fictional spaces are then placed in front of the empty properties, positing a potential future that is written by communities whose voices are often left out of the conversation.

Freedom Plan
by formerly incarcerated people, their loved ones, and their community

Freedom Plan is a space that offers a variety of resources to individuals and families who are navigating and interacting with the criminal justice system. Through conversations with these constituents, a future institution emerged that focused on providing a comfortable space for the reunification of formerly incarcerated individuals and their children and a host of other services and features that provide guests with dignity and support. On-going issues incarcerated individuals face, such as the difficulty of temperature regulation and the inflexibility of physical space, were addressed through speculative fiction and design. Design by Trey Vanterpool.

Coalesce Cooperative
by Every Campus A Refugee

When given the Coming Soon? prompt, service providers from ECAR reflected on the many ways in which they can provide support to refugees and some of the ways that they cannot. One of the most frequent requests they receive, which they are unable to easily fulfill, is to help the refugees connect, find, and be reunited with their friends and families abroad. Thus, the idea for a community-owned portal arose. Through Coalesce Cooperation, refugees can have a space to connect with their loved ones from around the world while in Downtown Greensboro, NC. Design by Irvin Maldonado.

Speculative Design
UNCG Interior Architecture

Students in Derek Toomes’ Interior Architecture Environmental Design IV course at UNC Greensboro learned about speculative design and created renderings of Coalesce Cooperative’s interior space, a pseudo institution designed by service providers from Every Campus A Refugee. Over two days, students worked to create a rendering of a speculative space intended to meet the needs of this organization and to bring attention to potential utopic modes of representation and municipal support within an urban setting.