Harlem Butterfly | East Harlem, NY

‘Historians trace NYC’s first community garden back to the 1730s… In the 1960s and 70s when arson and disinvestment in housing stock led to the proliferation of vacant lots. The lots attracted rats, became dumping grounds for garbage and venues for illegal activities. As a way of improving their blighted neighborhoods, community groups began advocating for permission to build gardens in the lots.’- NYC Department of Records

Hidden within the rising apartment buildings of East Harlem, lies a garden that is used year-round as an innovative program where children (ages 7 -11) learn skills to become proactive members of their community while participating in the urban health movement.

Concrete Safaris empowers children to be healthy responsible leaders through outdoor exercise and education programs that enrich the mind, body, community & environment. It’s a bottom up approach to education on healthy living. They teach the children, and they teach their families. Concrete Safaris wanted to re-build the Mad Fun Farm garden, and provide a place for the children to meet, learn, and play safely.

As a volunteer with Architecture for Humanity -New York, our tented team worked with the children in the design process to better understand who the Pavilion is being built for as well as help them understand the importance of sustainable and healthy living. How can a Pavilion bring children closer to nature while being educational and playful?

The Mad Fun Farm Harlem Butterfly concept aimed to improve the urban garden by building a temporary structure functioning as a stage with the capacity for rainwater collection. We saw the Pavilion as a butterfly sitting in a garden whose wings not only filter light, or provide shelter, but become a rain harvesting element. It is through the ritual of harvesting water which we intended to create an educational and physical connectivity between children and nature.