Content uploaded by Henry Sanoff
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Henry Sanoff on Oct 09, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Community Participation Methods in Design and Planning
... Participation means engaging communities at every stage of the design process, from identifying needs and challenges to implementing and evaluating proposed solutions. Naturally, this shift in design perspective offers some advantages over top-down design but also brings new challenges when implementing such processes, as some authors point out (Palleroni 2004;Sanoff 1999;Shuler and Namioka 1993). ...
... This allows for different voices, means, and sociotechnical solution principles according to the characteristics of each project (Spinuzzi 2005). This is achieved through workshops, focus groups, and other participatory techniques since users are experts in their own needs and contexts (Sanoff 1999). Clay Spinuzzi (2005) mentions that, more than another form or style of design, it is specifically a research methodology of such processes where its goal is not focused on the traditional idea of including users in projects but is based on a notion of participation that involves the interaction of active groups of citizens in open and articulated processes seeking sociotechnical changes (Ehn 2008;Manzini and Rizzo 2011). ...
... On the other hand, debates have arisen on how to properly define and apply participatory design. Some argue that it is necessary to focus more on the social relationships between the actors involved, while others argue that it is more important to focus on the techniques used (Palleroni 2004;Sanoff 1999;Spinuzzi 2005). Other authors have proposed ethical principles to guide these practices (Kelly 2019), while others point out that it has a sociotechnical approach in which non-human elements, such as techniques, tools, scripts, norms, and values, are fundamental (Rice 2018) to transform and create new practices in a human group. ...
... Since Henry Sanoff advocated for the pursuit of deliberative democracy in the design of built environments, the past two decades saw a "participatory turn" 43 in spatial design where practitioners aim to "discover how to make it possible for people to be involved in shaping and managing their environment." 44 From community design, 44,45 community architecture, 46 to community participation, 47 researchers and practitioners have been iterating through how to operationalize participation in spatial design practices. These approaches are united by the idea that participatory approaches to spatial design "seek a citizen voice capable of recognizing other group's interests, appreciating the need for tradeoffs, and generating a sense of common ownership." ...
... Since Henry Sanoff advocated for the pursuit of deliberative democracy in the design of built environments, the past two decades saw a "participatory turn" 43 in spatial design where practitioners aim to "discover how to make it possible for people to be involved in shaping and managing their environment." 44 From community design, 44,45 community architecture, 46 to community participation, 47 researchers and practitioners have been iterating through how to operationalize participation in spatial design practices. These approaches are united by the idea that participatory approaches to spatial design "seek a citizen voice capable of recognizing other group's interests, appreciating the need for tradeoffs, and generating a sense of common ownership." ...
... These approaches are united by the idea that participatory approaches to spatial design "seek a citizen voice capable of recognizing other group's interests, appreciating the need for tradeoffs, and generating a sense of common ownership." 48 Participatory approaches to spatial design have since expanded beyond traditions in deliberative democracy 6,44 to engage with scholarship in Participatory Action Research (PAR), 44 Participatory Design (PD), 49 and co-design. 2,3,50 Across these traditions, the consensus holds that meaningful participation not only gives stakeholders access to the decision-making process, but further empowers them to affect outcomes. ...
This paper explores the potential of chatbots, powered by large language models, as a tool for fostering community participation in architectural and urban design. By taking a hybrid approach to community participation in a real-world mixed-use building project, in which we integrated remote chatbot engagements with face-to-face workshops, we explored the potential for a hybrid approach to scaling up the reach of participation while ensuring that such participation is meaningful, genuine, and empowering. Our findings suggest that a hybrid approach amplified the strengths and mitigated the shortcomings of the two methods. The chatbot was effective in sustaining the length of participation, broadening the reach of participation, and creating a personalized environment for introspection. Meanwhile, the face-to-face workshops still played a crucial role in bolstering community ties and trust. This research contributes to understanding chatbots’ strengths and weaknesses in participatory processes, both within spatial design and beyond. In addition, it informs future explorations of participatory processes that span different spatial-temporal configurations.
... The type of projects proposed with the idea to solve the housing problem do not respond adequately to the life situations of its future inhabitants and tend to aggravate social, economic, and political problems rather than solve them. According to Turner, the housing problem, unlike economic problems such as employment and the distribution of wealth, is a problem linked to the adequate use of the resources available for construction, and it is not solved by forcing all resources indiscriminately for the production of the maximum number of homes that meet modern standards (Turner & Fichter, 1972 (Sanoff, 2000): ...
... He argued that governments were wasting their time and that the poor were much better off building their own homes than letting the state look after them. As an advocate of self-determination, Turner believed that when people are in control of decisions about the design, construction, and management of their housing, the process and product will affect their social wellbeing (Sanoff, 2000). ...
This research presents a description of the role of the architecture and the role of the people that inhabit it, and the relationship between the two. The role of architecture had been losing its social relevance and credibility, becoming, for the most part, individualist and capitalist-driven. However, in recent years, it has been evolving gradually into a more socially concerned practice, in a process that can be described as a change of mentality in architecture. Simultaneously, the role of the people in the shaping of cities has become too important to ignore. The rapid rate of urbanization and their power of self-construction have put in evidence that a new approach and methods in the architectural practice are necessary. Participatory architecture, the focal point of this paper, is where both roles come together. The history of participation in architecture and the roots of the concept are analyzed through literary research. Furthermore, the study of cases from different parts of the world but based on the same participatory philosophy, helps to give a comprehensive view of the social impact and transformational power this approach to architecture can have.
... Por ejemplo, Manzini (2015) enuncia la importancia del diseño para la innovación social definido como la generación de respuestas desde las capacidades de un grupo social. Por otro lado, en el campo del diseño participativo (Cross, 1972;Sanoff, 1999), se ha instalado la noción de co-diseño (Sanders y Stappers, 2008), refiriendo a la creatividad colectiva aplicada a un proceso de diseño. Para las problemáticas sociales y productivas de la actualidad, la participación en el momento de decidir cuestiones importantes está ganando interés. ...
La agricultura familiar es el principal modo de producción agrícola del planeta. En el mundo existen unos 1.500 millones de campesinos, minifundistas y pequeños productores. Sin embargo, ocupan sólo el 20 por ciento de las tierras disponibles. A pesar de habitar el territorio en pocas hectáreas, producen el 56 por ciento de los alimentos que se consumen en el planeta. La agricultura convencional y el agronegocio, como vías de innovación dominante, presentan desafíos e incompatibilidades con el contexto de los agricultores familiares: tienen gran impacto en el entorno natural, provocan degradación ambiental, concentra la producción y desplaza a las poblaciones rurales. Muchas innovaciones han eliminado a los agricultores del proceso creativo al desarrollar artefactos que supuestamente acomodan su actividad, ignorando en gran medida sus aportes y deseos empíricos. Algunos, abandonaron sus modelos tradicionales y adoptaron tecnología exógena pero han sufrido grandes cambios y fracasos en sus esquemas productivos. La innovación convencional no ha logrado desarrollar soluciones consistentes específicas para la agricultura familiar. En vista de estos problemas, ¿qué sucede cuando se aplican modelos abiertos y participativos en el diseño de tecnologías, máquinas y artefactos? La investigación tiene como objetivo determinar de qué manera se implementa el diseño abierto y qué beneficios presenta. El propósito del estudio es analizar cómo se produce el proceso de apertura en proyectos participativos de desarrollo e implementación de tecnologías abiertas en el ámbito de la agricultura familiar a nivel nacional. Para ello, luego de realizar un mapeo de casos existentes de desarrollo tecnológico participativo de artefactos internacional, se analizan cuatro proyectos de desarrollo tecnológico en el ámbito nacional donde participan diseñadores, fabricantes, investigadores y familias productoras. ¿De qué modo se generan e implementan las tecnologías abiertas?, ¿cómo es la participación en el proceso?, ¿qué aprendizajes, conocimientos y desafíos se producen al implementar los modelos abiertos?, ¿qué potencialidades y limitaciones tiene este modelo de desarrollo? El análisis permitió formular y describir modalidades de diseño abierto y participativo que respondan a experiencias implementadas en la actualidad contribuyendo a identificar estrategias de apertura y participación adecuadas. La investigación presenta como idea rectora que los procesos de desarrollo tecnológico abiertos reportan beneficios en la resolución de problemáticas debido a que solucionan problemas complejos con pocos recursos y bajo costo, utilizan la inteligencia colectiva de involucrados, aceleran el ciclo de innovación en relación a los modelos de innovación convencionales y brindan la posibilidad de generar diseños adaptables a diversos contextos. Sin embargo, a pesar de estas potencialidades, también existen dificultades, impedimentos y limitaciones. ¿Cuáles son?, ¿cómo lidian los participantes con ellas? El análisis generado permite pensar a las tecnologías abiertas y los procesos participativos como un modelo alternativo de innovación en vista de los desafíos de la agricultura, donde la disciplina del diseño tiene un rol estratégico y esencial en este tipo de procesos.
... The insights from this validation of the YouWalk-UOS application demonstrate the potential for mobile technology to bridge the gap between users of urban space users, designers, and decision makers. By providing a platform for users to voice opinions on their experiences and perceptions, the application aligns with contemporary participatory design models (Sanoff 2000) that value stakeholder engagement and collaborative decision-making. ...
This paper introduces a novel approach to evaluating urban open spaces (UOS) by developing a mobile application, YouWalk-UOS. Overcoming current limitations and the need for integrating digital technologies and participatory methods into UOS assessment processes, the study establishes a comprehensive framework addressing functional, social, and perceptual dimensions with 36 identified aspects. The framework and the mobile application are tested at Grey’s Monument in Newcastle, England, revealing its potential to capture a thorough perspective of UOS. The findings suggest that mobile technology can revolutionize urban space assessment, emphasizing the value of user-contributed data for various stakeholders, including designers, educators, and policymakers.
"¿Quién quiere jugar?" "!Yooooooooooooooo!" Las infancias emocionadas gritan al unísono en respuesta a un organizador del taller "Ciudad, Espacios Públicos Infancias". Durante unos días intensos, el estudiantado del grado de arquitectura de cuatro universidades interactúa con más de 70 niñas y niños de 6 a 12 años y sus respectivas familias y equipo docente de la escuela primaria pública de la colonia Alemán en Oaxaca de Juárez, México. El objetivo inicial: desarrollar un diagnóstico sobre necesidades en el entorno urbano de la escuela. El programa de las jornadas incluye rutas exploratorias, actividades artísticas diversas para describir, imaginar y cartografiar su barrio (colonia), juegos colaborativos, debates, conversaciones, risas, tamales, conciertos improvisados y numerosas comidas con las familias y el COMVIVE (Comité de Vida Vecinal). Sin embargo, lo que iba a limitarse a un diagnóstico deriva, dada la metodología abierta y oportunidad latente, en una operación de urbanismo táctico en la cual la comunidad participante se apropia y transforma el espacio público frente a la escuela. En el Tequio -jornadas de trabajo voluntario comunitario por el bien común - participan vecinas y vecinos del COMVIVE, estudiantes de arquitectura, y la comunidad de la escuela primaria. En tres días y con un presupuesto mínimo, 930m2 de espacio público en estado de dejadez y usado como aparcamiento se convierten en una gran explanada jugable multiusos, segura de día y noche. Un espacio público comunitario co-diseñado, co-construido y actualmente co-gestionado por su población cercana. Las infancias, también denominadas "generaciones futuras", siguen siendo un colectivo vulnerable con poca voz en la toma de decisiones sobre el futuro de sus espacios urbanos, a pesar de ser las primeras interesadas. Este proyecto es un manifiesto claro: repensar los espacios urbanos no solo para las infancias, sino desde y con ellas, reconociendo su derecho a la ciudad. Un ejercicio complejo, que pide un esfuerzo considerable de comunicación y empatía para hablar de temáticas estructurales como inseguridad, violencias de género, medio ambiente, y del rol del urbanismo. Para ello, el estudiantado de arquitectura tiene que confeccionar sus propias estrategias de co-creación urbana. Estas prácticas colaborativas son recogidas aquí como metodología abierta que permita replicar el experimento en diferentes contextos locales e internacionales. Esta forma de hacer arquitectura propone una alternativa a los proyectos desarrollados estrictamente desde las instituciones al incluir la ciudadanía de forma activa. Una forma de hacer ciudad abierta y colaborativa con un fin único: un presente y un futuro más positivo e inclusivo.
In/Visibility is unequally distributed in society and closely related to the distribution of power and privilege. Using images and narratives to mobilize is part of political strategies. The relationship of in/visibility and migration is the guiding question for this edited volume. The chapters discuss multidisciplinary perspectives and factors that contribute to the visibility of forced migration beyond a policy-centered discourse. They focus on the voices and agency of refugees in different countries and contexts. By including research, practical experiences and artistic methods, the volume will be of interest to readers from different academic disciplines and the arts as well as to practitioners.
First published in 1992, this book is about making connections that may lead towards a new professionalism, since the past several decades have given rise mainly to new kinds of specialists in the areas of programming, evaluation, and participation. The implications for such integration are far reaching, with profound future effects on the physical environment, the design professions, and the education of designers. The book is split into four sections dealing with facility programming, several forms of evaluation, participatory design, and the application of Theory Z principles. This book will be of interest to students of architecture and design.
This article is a critical analysis of Belgian architect Lucien Kroll's approach to rehabilitating the Perseigne social housing project in the French Normandy town of Alencon. In exploiting architectural intervention as a vehicle for social regeneration, Kroll utilized both the process and vocabulary of design to encourage the inhabitants to challenge their immediate social and physical environment. This article summarizes a post-occupancy evaluation of the Alencon project based on site visits and archival research.In addition, the paper reviews both historical and contemporary aspects of the French social housing movement. -Author