Field Notes on Design Activism: 2

Published by Place Journal, featuring Brandi T. Summers, Jeremy Till, Peggy Deamer, Jeffrey Hou, Daniel A. Barber, Dahlia Nduom, James Graham, Nora Wendl, Cassim Shepard, Andrea Roberts, Sara Jensen Carr, and David Theodore. From their website, “This is the second installment of a narrative survey in which several dozen educators and practitioners share perspectives on […]

Field Notes on Design Activism: 1

Published by Places Journal, featuring Simon Sadler, Adnan Z. Morshed, Aneesha Dharwadker, Ozayr Saloojee, Thandi Loewenson, Anya Sirota, Adam Arinsky, Matias Del Camp, Germane Barnes, and Irene Cheng. From their website, “This is the first installment of a narrative survey in which several dozen educators and practitioners share perspectives on the intensifying demands for meaningful […]

Project Row Houses

Project Row Houses (PRH) is located in Houston’s historic third ward, which is one of the oldest African American neighborhoods in the city. Their mission is to use engagement, art, and direct action to enrich communities with engagement. It is a home base for initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities. The programs strive to […]

Open House

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 […]

From Pop-Up to Permanent: 5 Lessons in Tactical Urbanism

Tactical urbanism involves pop up projects that are designed to engage the public and inspire more permanent change. This article outlines five stages that can lead a temporary project to have more lasting impacts. These stages include: uncovering value, engaging stakeholders, documenting/measuring, attracting attention and inspiring programs or policies. Authors Melinda Hanson and Majed Abdulsamad […]

Community Engagement during the Pandemic and Beyond

During this unfortunate pandemic, in-person meetings and workshops needed for many collaborative design process are no longer possible. In this video, five landscape architects share their experience on how they continue to involve and collaborate with the community and stakeholders in decision making. They offer creative and effective strategies, tools and lessons for the pandemic […]

How to make a model city: Place-It by James Rojas

This video gives a guideline on how to create a model city using everyday household art supplies. This concise video provides detailed instructions on how to create 3-dimensional topography and placement of different objects that may be on hand. This mixed-use of different supplies allows for an engaging, yet easy way to create your very […]

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” […]

Democratic Drawing: Techniques for Participatory Design

This article addresses the challenge of drawing with the public in collaborative design processes. It outlines methodologies for representing people, exchanging information spatially, coauthoring design, encouraging self-representation and visualizing deep community values. Author Randolph Hester [button url=”http://faculty.washington.edu/jhou/rim/2004/papers/RandyHester.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#444444″]Read Here[/button]

A Refrain with a View

In this classic text Randolph Hester, a pioneer of community engaged design, presents a survey of participatory design history and outlines opportunities for improving this practice today. He notes the need for visionary synthesis as well as greater inclusivity and collaboration in planning. Author Randolph Hester [button url=”https://escholarship.org/uc/item/87c2d02w” target=”blank” background=”#444444″]Read Here[/button]