Societal Change Through Participatory Design

2014

In African cities, people are peripheral to architectural processes despite the fact that those processes produce buildings—houses—that they use and interact with every day. Laypeople disengagement often produces socially dysfunctional neighbourhoods whose residents lack both a strong sense of community and environmental awareness.

2011

This book documents a two-week action research workshop, Change by Design, undertaken in Nairobi, Kenya from 19th June - 1st July 2011. The workshop was developed and coordinated under the banner of Architecture Sans Frontieres - United Kingdom (ASF-UK), in partnership with the Pamoja Trust, a Kenyan NGO, and the Housing Policy Section of UN-HABITAT with support from the Development Planning Unit of UCL, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment Research Project.

2018

2014

ABSTRACT: This papers aims to illustrate the working and community participatory process as well as the role of architects and urban designers in urban poor housing design through some upgraded low-income housing projects in Bangkok. Two cases is comparatively similar and different context which finally directs to each particular housing development guideline. The paper argues that other dimensions apart from physical significantly influence substantive outcomes. The learning experience among different involved parties can become one of the effective tools to conduct strong sense of belonging as well as community building. There are several concerns in practice, which architects and urban planners/designers have not to neglect and for low-income community those are always economic, political and sociological considerations.

İdealkent, 2022

Urban growth and population increase have been major driving forces for cities, combined with an expanding heterogeneous sociocultural structure. The growing trends in urbanization pose massive challenges of inequalities and exclusions, primarily observed in housing. While housing was initially a sociocultural product involving users, it has transformed into a more standardized and financialized entity in the twentieth century, resulting in the abstraction of users from the production process. Against these exclusionary housing trends, it is the role of designers to redefine the place of users in housing for more inclusive results. So, this paper aims to investigate the potential of participatory approaches in housing to achieve more inclusive outcomes. Accordingly, accumulated knowledge on participation in housing starting in the 1960s is chronologically and interrelatedly discussed and mapped through prominent publications. Then, the benefits of specific participatory approaches in the inclusivity of housing are evaluated regarding three design phases to form a framework for future practices: i) design/predesign, ii) implementation, and iii) (post) occupancy. The study showed that participatory approaches at various phases and levels contribute to creating inclusive housing by increasing users' representation in decision-making, demystifying professional tools, and allowing alternative and dynamic appropriation of living.

Journal of Urban Design, 2019

This paper aims to advance the development of participation in urban design from a substantive standpoint. It departs from a prevailing focus on ideals of participation and describing participatory methods and processes. Instead, the paper stresses the need to acknowledge ‘the political’ nature of public spaces and how this challenges participatory urban design processes. This leads to a substantive exploration of differences, conflicts and power in the planning and design of public spaces, i.e., unearthing the political. The case of a participatory process in a neighbourhgood of Barcelona illustrates the theoretical discussion. This helps bring forward a much-needed critical and reflective, rather than idealistic, theorization and practice of participation in urban design.

Doctoral Studies on Housing, 2008

This research aims to analyze different processes of citizen participation in the development of housing. The study discusses and compares diverse methodologies of participation in the search for customizing the domestic spaces and evaluates which of these methods could be more effective promoting authentic participation in the process of design and construction of housing. Nowadays, besides creating shelters for protection, there is also need to design spaces, which could respond in a better way to the different manners of life. Therefore, it is important to study the process of designing such spaces. There are several ways to share the inhabited space, not every residence is occupied by the traditional family. Sometimes every person in the house has different schedules and in other situations, there are many simultaneous activities that can be carried out in the same room or various ways to use the space. The standard dwelling cannot respond to these differences. The participation of the users is common on the creation of individual dwellings, however for collective housing, there is a demand for organized and immediate methods in which the users can explain their needs and the architects can create a variety of options according to those.

Change by Design workshops, I have been working with colleagues and supporting institutions to build on the latter trends in the field of participatory design, in which participation in informal settlement upgrading processes is part of a wider agenda of deepening democratic practices in the city. 3 Through engagements with collectives that are struggling for the rights of informal settlement dwellers in Salvador da Bahia (Brazil), Nairobi (Kenya), and Quito (Ecuador), we have been reflecting on the role of participatory design in the production of a more just city, not only questioning unequal distribution of resources and exploitative relations, but also as a practice that opens up spaces for new imaginaries about the city, citizenship, and transformation.

Architecture and Urban Planning, 2016

This study analyses motivations, results and technology of the participatory design approach. It is a review based on 32 papers, presenting recent studies on participatory design in architecture and urban planning during the time period from 2000 to 2014. As a result, the main motivations, outcomes and the role of technology are emphasised and discussed. Furthermore, recommendations for future research directions for participatory design research in the field of urban planning are also provided.

Istanbul University - DergiPark, 2018

This paper focuses on a complex community design and community upgrading project in Thailand and reconsiders the role of the community architect as designer, coordinator, and planner to achieve people's participation in the community design. The Mettatham community occupied the land of a Thai temple many years ago. After a period of negotiation, an agreement was reached to rent and share the land between the community and other low income living nearby. Land sharing and settlement upgrading were employed to achieve a win-win compromise. The project was financed by the Baan Mankong Programme (BMP) under the Thai Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI). I was appointed to lead the project as a community architect. This paper examines how a participatory design approach can contribute to solving housing problems and promote sustainability for the future. A participatory design approach to build 56 housing units was undertaken through community design workshops and meetings. Working and interacting closely with people who experience poverty and have great ambition to improve their living conditions is the key to engaging with the poor. Employing simple tools and flexible budgets opened new methods and collaborations within the community and people became increasingly involved in the process to ensure their needs were met.