Amanda Ugorji and Sophie Weston Chien of the just practice collaborative use an interdisciplinary approach weaving together design, architecture, and urban planning. The stories in these tapestries can inform the planning of ecologically resilient communities, which in turn has the potential to alter societal relationships of power through our built environment.

The insights hidden – and revealed – in this work include data on historically discriminatory practices and ecological vulnerabilities of these neighborhoods. The effects of "redlining," a practice used to classify neighborhoods (including majority Black neighborhoods) as "hazardous" to investment, are still felt to this day. Hard (impenetrable) and soft (penetrable) land uses are codified onto the tapestries using color, with overlays of Black neighborhoods and flood zones showing the susceptibility or resiliency of these areas to the changing climate.

Please touch these tapestries. Feel the different levels of the tufted fabric and imagine the density of residents in the higher tufts. Squint and you can almost see that the darker colors look wet. With each color and tuft height representing a different facet of social or ecological data, the tapestries become the tangible storytellers of these neighborhoods.