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.  

Detroit Collaborative Design Center at University of Detroit Mercy

The Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) at the University of Detroit Mercy was originally founded to rebuild the city with community and philanthropic organizations. It creates sustainable spaces and communities in a multi-disciplinary, nonprofit architecture and urban design firm. The team is made up of seven professionals and a few student interns. The team uses […]

the UMass Amherst Design Center

The UMass Amherst Design Center, located at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, focuses on the challenges of communities in Massachusetts. They use research, and a wide range of planning and urban design work to address needs of various communities. Efforts include projects to support revitalization and sustainable design. The Design Center is a collaboration between […]

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 […]

Detroit City of Design Podcast

Design impacts everyone, for better or for worse. Every week (for 10 weeks), the Detroit City of Design Podcast invites designers, innovators and the curious to participate in a dialogue on how Design can be used to create conditions to improve quality of life and economic opportunity. View Detroit as a global model for sustainable […]

The Intersection of Activism and Architecture

In this episode of WNYC podcast, Nandini Bagchee discusses her book Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side. The book intersects architecture, urban design practice, geography and cartography with history, politics and sociology, subtly depicting the history of activism in New York City and how the city has inspired and encouraged political participation. […]

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 […]

Social Justice and Activism in Design

With the help of ArchDaily in Santiago, Chile, assistant professor Shawhin Roudbari explores how architects and designers engage in a community and introduce political engagement in design on a global scale. The trip highlights the importance of cultural exchanges in the design and planning process, as well as in between design groups. [button url=”https://www.colorado.edu/envd/2017/03/24/social-justice-and-activism-design” target=”blank” […]

History and Traditions of Design Activism

This design panel includes Clare Cooper Marcus, Stanley Saitowitz, Michael Teitz and others discussing the historical and philosophical roots of Design activism. The panelists discuss the need for social conscience in planning, recognizing people who were revolutionary in the field in the 1950s, recognizing problems and confusion in design and planning, early projects and innovation […]