Design as Activism Expanding the traditional role of design, planning and architecture.

Design as Activism

Expanding the traditional role of design, planning and architecture

Design that is

• Socially driven

• Economically frugal

• Environmentally responsible

Participatory Design

• Why participation?

• Levels and types of participation

• Design participation

• Participation throughout the life of a project

Public-Interest Design

• Types and levels of interventions

• Imposed vs. agreed upon

• Visioning together

• Process

• Benchmarks

• Performance indicators

Technologies and participation

• Appropriate technologies

• Is small really beautiful?

• Is bigger always better?

• Working with the local and existing resources

• Using the market and technologies at hand

PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE COMMUNITY

1. Why is community participation important?2. Types of community participation3. Community’s roles in the building process 4. Case Studies

1. Low-cost housing projects, Egypt2. Organized self-help rural housing, Tunisia 3. Post-disaster housing, Turkey4. Co-operative housing, Zimbabwe5. Grameen Bank & Self-help housing,

Bangladesh

RAISON D’ÊTRE OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

1. People building houses and physical infrastructure for themselves at a reduced cost and so that they can lead healthy and productive lives

2. Improved social and economic development:

• Claiming rights and influencing decisions in the political arena

• Self confidence

• Gender equalisation

• Improved skills

Citizen control

Delegated power

Partnership

Placation

Consultation

Informing

Manipulation

Self-management

12

34

56

78

Support

Tokenism

Non-participation

Neglect

LADDER OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Inform

Consult

Involve

Collaborate

Empower – Citizen Control

APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

INFORM

• One-way flow of information from officials to the community members.

• No allowance for feedback or negotiation for projects that have already been developed

• Top-down initiative

Inform

Consult

Involve

Collaborate


CONSULT

• Consultation, attitude surveys, public hearings but no assurance of project or that community will be taken into account

• Organisation (housing authority, municipality, NGO, etc.) devises solutions that are ratified by community members

Inform

Consult

Involve

Collaborate


INVOLVE

• Community members are appointed to advisory groups or asked to take part in the various activities, some training may be involved (in order to achieve an appearance of participation) but actually have little voice or influence over decisions.

Inform

Consult

Involve

Collaborate


COLLABORATE

• Community members and organisations become partners who share planning and decision-making

• Community members are part of joint policy boards, planning committees and informal mechanisms

• Community members have some influence over the projects

Inform

Consult

Involve

Collaborate


EMPOWER – CITIZEN CONTROL

• Community members initiate improvements and seek support from outside organisations.

• Community has genuine specified powers on formal decision-making bodies

• Demonstrate control, influence processes and define outcomes of the project

Inform

Consult

Involve

Collaborate


THE POSSIBLE ROLES OF THE COMMUNITY IN THE BUILDING

PROCESS

1. PROJECT INITIATION

2. PROJECT PLANNING

3. FINANCING

4. DESIGN

5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT

6. MATERIALS SELECTION AND PREPARATION

7. CONSTRUCTION

8. MANTAINENCE AND FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

IDEALLY, WHAT KIND OF ASSISTANCE CAN FACILITATING

ORGANISATIONS GIVE?

Design

Layout

Technical solutions

Financial solutions

Social development

ALSO:

SUPPORT AND TRAINING

Show consequences of these decisions but final decisions made by community

case study 2 El Salvador

Activity / actors Beneficiaries NGO GovernmentHired

contractors Private firm

Program initiation (leading role in procuring the master program of reconstruction)Project initiation (leading role in starting the project)

Project financing

Design

Construction

Post-project modifications-additions

N/A

case study 1 Colombia

Activity / actors Beneficiaries NGO GovernmentHired

contractors Private firm

Program initiation (leading role in procuring the master program of reconstruction)Project initiation (leading role in starting the project)

Project financing

Design

Construction

Post-project modifications-additions

N/A

Case 1: Low-cost housing projects, EgyptSource: Ettouney, S and Abdel-Kader, N. (2003)

• Project initiated by Ministry of Development

• Community role:

• design of interior space

• wall construction

• wall finishing • floor finishing

• Over 500,000 units built with this method

Case 1: Low-cost housing projects, Egypt

Case 2: organised self-help, rural TunisiaSource: Rodriguez, M. and Astrand, J. (1996)

•Project initiated by the community. They brought concerns to ASDEAR, an NGO already working in the community who then partnered with SADEL, architects/engineers from Lund University

•Financing from ASDEAR and Ministry of Housing

•Planning, design and building technique by SADEL and ASDEAR (with local studies)


•Construction & maintenance is done by community

•Teams of 2-4 families with one trained mason and supervisor and project manager

Case 3: Beyciler post-disaster housing, TurkeySource: www.beycilerevleri.org.tr

• Project initiated by International Blue Crescent (IBC) in partnership with municipality

• Financing from Catholic Relief Services

• Land and infrastructure donated from municipality

• 168 houses

Case 3: Beyciler post-disaster housing, Turkey

•Strict selection criteria for beneficiaries—land less, 10 year resident, household income less than 200 TL ($200) per month.

•Community role:

•Project planning

•Design input•Training for construction•Construction•Management

• Bey-der residents association•Health and community centre

Case 3: Beyciler post-disaster housing, Turkey

Case 4: Cooperative housing, ZimbabweSource: Vakil, A. (1996) and UNHabitat (1988)

Initiation, planning, financing, design, management, construction, maintenance: Cotton Printers Workers Cooperative Housing Society

•Industry based cooperative

•Policies in place to receive serviced land from government (received 84 lots)

•20 homes built by self-help, rest by 13 paid full–time workers.

•Manufacturing of building materials, providing more jobs and reducing costs (doors, door frames, window frames)

Case 5: Institutionalized self-help, the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh

The Grameen Bank began in 1976 in Bangladesh as an experiment to extend collateral-free credit for income generation to the rural poor

•Loans are dispersed through peer guarantee of groups of 5 members

•Has proved effective in terms of loan recovery (98%) and model is used in other countries

•86% of borrowers are women

Housing loan program:• Bangladesh:

– Extremely prone to monsoons and flooding– 78 million people, 85% rural, 60% landless– Average income US$140 per year

• Diminishing supply of building materials and rise in prices rendered house building and maintenance expensive and unaffordable

• Poor lacked lump-sum payment but able to pay gradually• By 1995 it had funded 331,201 homes


•Project initiated the community (a small group of people)

•Financing from the Grameen Bank

•Management, design, construction, maintenance is done by community


• Must use concrete pillars, corrugated roofing and build pit latrine

• Size, walls, situation, floor height, windows, doors decided by borrower

• Production of pillars is an independent income generating unit


Design as Activism Expanding the traditional role of design, planning and architecture.

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