2024 Rotch Finalist: Trent Frederickson

Trent is pursuing a career that combines teaching and practice, and has recently launched an independent design practice. He is seeking out ways of contributing to the discipline and to society at large that can have a meaningful impact. With his Rotch Scholarship entry, he hopes to develop material that can be fed back into his teaching and design work, enriching the possibilities for addressing issues related to climate, energy, housing, and novel material applications.

Preliminary Competition Entry

Comfort Storefront
Dignifying Public Health and Wellness for All

Though the city is full of an immense diversity of people, cultures, and viewpoints, one thing unites everyone: the need to use the bathroom. This basic need is often at odds with the availability of public bathrooms. In particular, those that are displaced or in economically precarious conditions are most burdened. ... Looking to the 20th-century model of "Comfort Stations," which have largely disappeared, this proposal takes up the problem of public health and well-being through the design of Comfort Storefront, which contains toilets, sinks, and showers for public use.

Final Competition Entry

A Ribbon + A Roof
Diverting, Improving, And Instigating Urban Flows For Public Benefit

The efforts of the Boston Public Works Department, and the very definition of urban infrastructure more generally, can largely be understood as the management of material and social movements. Roads and sidewalks are cleaned, paved, and lit for smooth and safe movement of cars and pedestrians. Trash and recycling are separated for proper processing. Water is diverted to storm sewer systems to mitigate flooding. This proposal considers architecture through the lens of resource flows when considering how to intervene upon and improve the BPW site.