Design as Democracy: Techniques for Collective CreativityDavid de la Pena Winner of the Environmental Design Research Association's 2018 Book Award How can we design places that fulfill urgent needs of the community, achieve environmental justice, and inspire long-term stewardship? By bringing community members to the table, we open up the possibility of exchanging ideas meaningfully and transforming places powerfully. Collaboration like this is hands-on democracy in action. It’s up close. It’s personal. For decades, participatory design practices have helped enliven neighborhoods and promote cultural understanding. Yet, many designers still rely on the same techniques that were developed in the 1950s and 60s. These approaches offer predictability, but hold waning promise for addressing current and future design challenges. Design as Democracy: Techniques for Collective Creativity is written to reinvigorate democratic design, providing inspiration, techniques, and case stories for a wide range of contexts. Edited by six leading practitioners and academics in the field of participatory design, with nearly 50 contributors from around the world, Design as Democracy shows how to design with communities in empowering and effective ways. The flow of the book’s nine chapters reflects the general progression of community design process, while also encouraging readers to search for ways that best serve their distinct needs and the culture and geography of diverse places. Each chapter presents a series of techniques around a theme, from approaching the initial stages of a project, to getting to know a community, to provoking political change through strategic thinking. Readers may approach the book as they would a cookbook, with recipes open to improvisation, adaptation, and being created anew. Design as Democracy offers fresh insights for creating meaningful dialogue between designers and communities and for transforming places with justice and democracy in mind. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 Suiting Up to Shed | 9 |
2 Going to the Peoples Coming | 45 |
They Know We Know and Together We Know Better Later | 73 |
4 Calming and Evoking | 101 |
5 Yeah Thats What We Should Do | 133 |
6 Cogenerating | 165 |
7 Engaging the Making | 195 |
Common terms and phrases
activity settings alternative Bayou Bienvenue building carrito challenges collaboration collective community design community members community’s context create creative Cultural Keepers decisions democratic design design process design team discussion draw engage environmental evaluate event experience expertise facilitator Figure focus garden gestalt goals grade separation Hester Jr ideas identify impacts instructions interactions issues Joe Mulligan Karuk Kibera knowledge Koishiwara landscape architecture locations Lower Ninth Ward machizukuri meeting models munity neighborhood nity º º º open space organized outcomes pallets park participants Participatory budgeting participatory design people’s play playground priorities professional proposed public space reflection requires residents sea level rise Setagaya share skills smartphones spatial spoonbill step story strategies street Taiwan team members technique testing Timeline tool transformative understand urban urban planning videos village visual