Change by Design: Building Communities through Participatory Design

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.

2018

Title: Exploring pitfalls of participation and ways towards just practices through a participatory design process in Kisumu, Kenya

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.

Question: Can participatory design effect a reduction in the violence we are witnessing in today's society? Disenfranchisement is one of the root causes for the upsurge of extreme social friction we are witnessing today, and this feeling can be reduced by incorporating participatory design into new urban projects. Particularly, housing developments built by authorities for those on the low end of the socioeconomic scale, where it seems, most of these perpetrators of violence are found and groomed. Thus, it could be argued that participatory design can effect a positive change within a group of people, therefore society. Current examples of housing for low income families, when contrasted against this new model that has emerged, demonstrate the advantages of this design model as a basis to form cohesion between diverse community members. One well documented participatory example from the Brighton area of the United Kingdom is an excellent exemplar when contrasted against the traditional model. This new model of incorporating community interaction as part of the urban planning design criteria breaks down insular lifestyles thus diminishing the tendency for social or religious disenfranchisement and the resultant social problems.

Aligned with approaches that push the boundary of live projects beyond the live build only, this paper presents an action-learning initiative in Ghana in a site forged by modernist practitioners under colonialism. The notion of lived-in architecture is relied upon to apprehend how inhabitants re-shape and fabricate their dwelling environments. Using an inter-disciplinary methodology to map such contributions, students are exposed to the importance of voicing communities' tacit knowledge. The analysis stresses the dialectic relationship between architectural artefacts and user-based transformations. Through intensive fieldwork, students gain insight on the capacity of self-builders and on the value of designed spaces that encourage dwellers' appropriation. As part of the process participants reflect on their positionality as spatial practitioners and on the relevance of documenting re-design for the emergence of alternative urban imaginations.

2016

There are many ideas these days about how to create positive social and environmental change for low-income communities. These ideas, associated with terms such sustainability, urbanism, community mobilization or community development to design new principles of strategies and structures for giving an opportunity for a better life. In doing so, design research will be a strong tool of establishing scenarios for social development to repair and revitalize of local built environments. However, the design vision of “retrofitting” of low-income areas is still far from the real needs and potentials of the region and its inhabitants, effectively enabling people towards sustainability. This issue of this paper is to obtain a better understanding of the design’s contributions for environmental, social and economic challenges for increasing the ability and skills of people from local community. It is a case study approach to the question of developing platform of design thinking with the exp...

Drawing on participant observation, reading, and professional and teaching experience over 53 years, we conclude that the stakeholders in design education have not yet engaged adequately with one another. We support this with citations, where they exist, and with well-remembered anecdotes that exemplify repeated experience. We submit that all stakeholders have fallen short of establishing appropriate links among academia, government, industry, the international community, designers and communities in Kenya. As a simple understanding among educators and practitioners, 'design' means creative problem solving. There are many subfields in design that are often, associated with other academic and professional disciplines to the neglect of the importance of design in those disciplines. As an example, 'Social Change Design' is often termed 'National Development Policy'. In general stakeholders are not yet fully connected, smooth and efficient in their engagements with design education and practice. Consequently, Kenya is losing-out on benefits Design may bring to national development. In order for Kenya to fully benefit from Design it is important for stakeholders connect and interact with each other. Introduction This article is based on years of participant and non-participant observation of design processes and response to outcomes of design. As a discipline, design is changing always and everywhere, yet it seems design education does not always engage adequately with the community in Kenya. Consumer response to design is often subjective and uncritical. Designers and enthusiastic nondesigners love to link design to technology and the future yet doing so further complicates rational development. As a result, interaction among design stakeholders in Kenya seems to have changed very little in the last 50 years.

International Journal of Innovative Research and Development, 2019

The Kibera Soweto East Housing Project was developed under the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme (KENSUP) whose main objective was to improve the housing conditions of the residents of Kibera through the construction of 822 low-cost formal houses. However, phase one did not take into consideration the adaptive standards for multipurpose room occupancy as prescribed under the KS Building Code, 2009 thus negatively impacting the recommended habitability standards of the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme. This study therefore sought to establish the adaptive standards for multipurpose interior design in Kenya as well as assess the extent to which the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme has applied them. The research design was the case study model where the research employed the collection and analysis of qualitative data obtained through examination of documents, interviews and observations. The study was carried out at The Kibera Soweto East Housing Project, Kenya and its residents plus the professionals involved in the project as the respondents. The output was the recommendation of three strategies for the improvement of future slum upgrading housing programme which include employment of the open plan concept by combining the living room and kitchen into one big space, elimination of corridors to create more space for other rooms and installation of sliding doors instead of hinged doors. When spaces created for low-cost housing are not up to standard as prescribed under the code, the living standards and quality of life and of the residents living in these particular houses are negatively affected.

Interdisciplinary collaborative design for culturally diverse and under-represented communities hinges on understanding cultural environments; building trusting relationships and fostering a respectful approach to community. It requires a diverse disciplinary knowledge and the capacity to take action by blurring the boundaries between disciplines. This chapter discusses the application of design-led research approach with a participatory design mind-set by bringing the users to the forefront of a design as active co-creators. It examines two projects – a Māori landscape regeneration project in the Wairarapa region of Wellington; and a Tokelau / Pasifika cultural museum exhibition. The research project is framed around three critical stages: design analysis, design exploration and design synthesis. This interdisciplinary collaborative research process can create new opportunities for architectural design education as it educates students and the wider community as active world-citizens.

Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement and Social Change in Contemporary Society, 2018

Interdisciplinary collaborative design for culturally diverse and under-represented communities hinges on understanding cultural environments; building trusting relationships and fostering a respectful approach to community. It requires a diverse disciplinary knowledge and the capacity to take action by blurring the boundaries between disciplines. This chapter discusses the application of design-led research approach with a participatory design mind-set by bringing the users to the forefront of a design as active co-creators. It examines two projects – a Māori landscape regeneration project in the Wairarapa region of Wellington; and a Tokelau / Pasifika cultural museum exhibition. The research project is framed around three critical stages: design analysis, design exploration and design synthesis. This interdisciplinary collaborative research process can create new opportunities for architectural design education as it educates students and the wider community as active world-citizens.