How Community Design Can Transform Spaces and Lives

Community design is a participatory approach to architecture and planning that involves the collaboration of residents, stakeholders, and professionals in shaping and managing the built environment. It aims to enhance the culture, heritage, and identity of a place, as well as address the social, economic, and environmental challenges that communities face. Community design can create spaces that are functional, beautiful, and sustainable, and that reflect the needs and aspirations of the people who use them.

One example of a successful community design project is the Aridagawa Community Design Workshop, led by Propel Studio Architecture and PLACE, a landscape architecture firm. The project took place in Aridagawa, a small but vibrant farming town in Wakayama prefecture, Japan. The goal was to empower the local community to conceive of new ideas for the reuse of an abandoned, city-owned nursery school building.

The design team traveled to Japan for a series of workshops and also invited community members to visit and learn from the Portland design and planning process. Using a “Kitto”, a toolkit for community engagement, they developed a series of activities and games that got the locals brainstorming ideas, sketching out plans, and thinking about the opportunities in a new creative way. The goal was to break down social barriers and enable everyone to express their ideas.

Through the workshops, the design team learned about the town’s strengths and challenges, and the residents’ desires and visions. They then turned these ideas into architectural and landscape designs and renderings to visualize what the end result could look like. The final proposal focused on converting the nursery school building into a community asset that catered to young women entrepreneurs. The project also included a master plan for the town as a whole, with suggestions for improving the public spaces, transportation, and amenities.

The Aridagawa Community Design Workshop is an example of how community design can transform spaces and lives. By engaging the local community, the design team was able to create a proposal that was responsive to the context, respectful of the culture, and supportive of the future. The project also inspired the residents to take ownership of their environment and to continue the process of making positive changes.

One of these businesses, NomCraft Brewing pictured below, was a direct result of the community work we did.

If you are interested in learning more about community design and how it can benefit your project, please visit our website here to learn more about our experience and process.