MAX Reuse Design Challenge & AfroVillage Homebase

In January 2020, Trimet, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, and the Center for Public Interest Design, launched the MAX Reuse Design Challenge, an initiative that invited designers to explore visions for the repurposing and reuse of retiring MAX cars to benefit communities in the Metro region.  The AfroVillage team submitted the AfroVillage Movement design for three AfroVillage Trains to fulfill the demand of more equitable, just, and accessible basic services while providing safe and healing spaces for Portland’s most vulnerable community. The proposal suggests that the trains continue to move around the city on tracks, providing 24/7 service, free wifi, power, restrooms, and six beds at night. While all the trains include a Welcome Car, each train has a specific Service Car that focuses on a specific community need: food and fresh produce, hygiene and sanitation, and mental and physical therapy. With 211 votes out of 400 total, the project won the People’s Choice Award sparking new conversations with the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and Home Forward. The nonprofit offered a unique site at the core of Portland’s Black community, in East Portland, to make the AfroVillage Movement designa reality. The team has applied for a Metro Placemaking grant of $25,000 to support the one-year process of transformation that will lead to the realization of this vision: the AfroVillage Homebase.