From the “Feel Good” City to the Just City

Keynote presentation by Margaret Crawford – Professor of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley as part of the conference: Contesting the Streets II: Vending and Public Space in Global Cities. Watch it here.  

Hacking Urban Furniture

The project “Hacking Urban Furniture” explores the history, present and future of urban furniture in collaboration with artists, urban explorers, administrators, politicians, activists and researchers. Together they explore the potential of spatial public service design in the city. The international open single-phase idea contest “Hacking Urban Furniture – Urban furniture in Communal-Collective-Cooperation (CCC)” searched for […]

John Chavis Memorial Park

Built in 1937 in Raleigh, NC, the park underwent degradation and gentrification in the neighborhood in recent years. To better understand the needs of and place-based memories of African American residents, the city convened an 18-month community conversation in collaboration with Skeo Solution. A Public Leadership Group of different stakeholders with training in Collaborative Problem […]

The EVC Public Space Network

The Eastern Coachella Valley Productive Public Space Network is an extension of the tools used in the Kibera Public Space Project by Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI). California’s Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV) is home to a large immigrant population that faces many challenges in terms of transportation, housing, health, and housing. Youth community members led participatory […]

Green Up: The Greenest Block in Brooklyn – Gardens as Community Activism

This podcast, “Cultivating Place,” explores how a community in Brooklyn, New York, are responding to activism through green urbanism. The Brooklyn Botanical Garden hopes to serve and connect with the community through the garden contest, which promotes street view gardening, tree management and community development. This not only ensures community development, but also a green […]

Storytelling in design for social innovation and politics: a reading through the lenses of Hannah Arendt

This article is about the use of innovative storytelling in participatory design processes. It highlights two techniques designed to engage community members in imagining futures and collectively constructing the public realm. The first involves the use of traditional puppets. The second involves a social television program. Authors Virginia Tassinari, Francesca Piredda & Elisa Bertolotti [button […]

Claiming Open Space

Claiming Open Spaces is a documentary film by Austin Allen exploring how parks that hold the history of minority groups, specifically Black communities, have been left put of planning and neglected by the city. Many cultural shaping events have had roots in parks and open spaces within the city. However, historically these sites have been […]

TEDxHunterCCS: Winston Dong – Design Is Activism

Winston Dong is the founding principal of a planning and design firm, Benchmark38. In this Tedx talk, Winston focused on how design in landscape architecture shapes our society and the way we interact with the public realm. A well designed public space allows for a place where people can work, play, and learn effectively. [youtube_advanced […]

The Kibera Public Space Project

Kounkuey Design Initative (KDI) works at the intersection of design and social justice. They view design as a process and a means to a solution rather than a product. Their method of design is ‘ask, listen, collaborate, and repeat’ and working with multidisciplinary stakeholders. The Kibera Public Space Project is the ongoing transformation of the […]