The Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP) is a year-long collaboration between University of Oregon and various stakeholders including Oregon city, county, special district, tribe, and other governmental partnerships. In the academic courses, students work on partner-identified projects to solve the real-world problems in community challenges and sustainable development. The SCYP outlines a sustainable and livable […]
The Open Space Seattle 2100 project was a grassroots effort to engage a wide variety of stakeholders in discussing the future of Seattle’s “green infrastructure.” Led by the Green Futures Lab at the University of Washington, a charrette was conducted in 2006 with over 300 people from many disciplines participating. Each team focused on a […]
The IUCI is a program based in Seattle, Peru, and Nepal that focuses on design activism, research, and education. It looks at integrated, interdisciplinary design of infrastructure and public space through assessment, design, and implementation through community-driven interventions. Designers, students, and professionals collaborate with marginalized communities to improve human and environmental health. Projects include a […]
Lafayette Park (Oakland, CA) was designed by Walter Hood in 1998 as a space for everyone, from people facing homelessness to business folk to families. Hood began this project in 1994 via research and interviews with people who were using the square. It used to be called ‘Old Man’s Park’ due to the men who […]
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 […]
Conflict Kitchen was a restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA, that cooked and served food from countries the United States was in conflict with. It was founded by Jon Rubin – an art professor at Carnegie Mellon University – and Dawn Weleski. They provided a space and opportunities for people to learn about and discuss the focus […]
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 […]
Founded by designer Bernhard Lenger, the ‘We Are Human Rights’ project is a collaboration between designers and human rights defenders to explore how design can support activists. There are currently seven collaboratory design activism projects wordwide, in Burundi, Colombia, Kenya, Nicaragua, Mexico, Sudan and Russia. For example, the Kenyan project is a platform for global […]
“Livable City Year is a multi-disciplinary program that engages University of Washington faculty and students to work on high-priority projects identified by community partners. We work with communities of all sizes and budgets, and our partnerships can have a broad range of timelines and scopes based on partner needs.” City of Bellevue in 2018–2019 City […]
The Othello Square project is a community-driven development initiative which strives to enhance equity in Southeast Seattle. From 2016 to 2018, the Othello Square Governance Committee and Othello Community generated the design guidlines and criteria for the new development, which consists of four buildings that will support more than 350 living-wage jobs and provide different […]
A dilapidated house was transformed into a public space for performance and celebration that can be folded and unfolded by hand as needed by the community. This project was idealized when community members discussed their frustration about the loss of public space and lack of racially integrated social spaces in York, Alabama with artist/activist Matthew […]
Sole Food Street Farms is an urban farming project in Vancouver, British Columbia that provides low-income residents with “jobs, agricultural training, and inclusion.” Many of these community members are recovering from drug abuse and deal with mental health issues. With funding from grants, Sole Food Street Farms temporarily grows food on vacant land. Crops are […]
Fresh Moves Mobile Market is a grocery store in a city bus. Fresh, local food is driven throughout Chicago, specifically to schools, community and health centers to provide an avenue for people fo buy nutritious produce grown by Chicago’s urban farmers. By going to places that are already used by may communities, Fresh Moves is […]
Traction is an interdisciplinary design and research nonprofit that collaborates with at-risk communities to implement participatory design interventions. Claverito is a floating informal community in Iquitos, Peru located on the Amazon River. The Traction team (including students from the University of Washington, Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana, and Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos) […]
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 […]
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 […]
