Thesis book 786 single

PROJECT NEIGHBOR’D
By Zainab Motiwala
Master of Science
Communications Design
School Of Art And Design
Pratt Institute
May 2014

By Zainab Motiwala
Bachelor of Design,
Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture
Dec 2002
Master of Science, Communication Design
School of Art and Design,
Pratt Institute
May 2014
© 2014 Zainab Motiwala
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Science, Communications Design.
School of Art and Design
Pratt Institute.
May 2014

Jean Brennan May 2014
Jeff Bellantoni May 2014
By Zainab Motiwala
Received and approved:
Thesis Advisor:
Chairperson:
M.S. Candidate:
Zainab Motiwala May 2014

Dedicated to my creative mother, who always prayed for good neighbors before
she moved to our current family home. Now I understand why.

Acknowledgements
Project Neighbor’d has been an eventful and fulfilling journey. Though this
may be the end for this thesis, it is the start of many relationships within my
community and beyond. For me this thesis is more than just a book, it stands
to prove how far I have come, and how much further I can grow. I have learned
so much over the past one year that I feel overwhelmed with a constant urge
to keep this project running, and nurturing the connections it creates. It has
fortified my conviction to continue using my design to benefit the people and
places it touches.
Jean Brennan: The best thesis teacher and mentor I could have asked for.
I have felt privileged to be under your intelligent guidance, and I thank you
sincerely for being like a breath of fresh air amidst all the stress and chaos. You
have deftly maneuvered and inspired me throughout, with your compassionate
support.
Andrew Shea: I feel so lucky that you agreed to be my resource advisor. Your
succinct feedback and experience in the field of social good has honed my work
by causing me to reflect upon angles, I may have missed otherwise. You have
been essential to this thesis, and I cannot thank you enough.
Roger Guilfoyle, Alex Liebergesel, Matt Martin, Heather Green: I would like to
thank you, and the whole Graduate Communication Design Department. This
place has been a second home to me for the past six years. I will surely miss
you all.
David Sabatino (Community Activitist, Valley Stream): The man who believed
in me and gave me the opportunity to enact my dreams. I treasure your support
and our friendship. If everyone had a bit of David in them, this world would be a
better place.

My neighbors and all residents of Valley Stream: This thesis bears testimony
to the power of community, creativity and collaboration in our times. I thank you
all for your participation in making this project come to life. It has been my way
finder around the community through the connections and smiles you all have
provided me.
My classmates; Abha Anand, John Olson, Maria Margarida, Nikko-Ryan
Santillan and Zainab Al-Mashat: Thank you for your timely feedback and for
making me smile when I most needed to. I will miss you all and wish you all the
best of luck in your lives ahead.
Danish Bawla: My husband, my best friend, my soul mate, you have been my
brick wall. I owe it all to you, and would never have been on this journey had it
not been for your solid support and constant encouragement.
My parents: Thank you for your blessings and support. You have always given
me the freedom to make the most of any opportunity and have played a major
role in defining who I am today.
Halima Saadia and Sarim Bawla: You have been the best sister and brother
in law imaginable. Thank you for helping to painstakingly edit my thesis and take
care of my kids. I feel lucky to have you both in my life.
Fatima Malik: Your brilliance with words made my ideas come to life. I thank
you with all my heart.
And to the rest of you: I feel honored and blessed by all who have made this
journey possible. Though there are many who have not been listed here, I
wholeheartedly thank you all. As the Project Neighbor’d community continues
to grow, I hope that it will bring many the same joy that it has brought me.

table of content header leave blank with colored block

TABLE OF
CONTENTS1.0 INTRODUCTION
13. Abstract
14. Abstract Expanded
18. Problem Statement
19. Hypothesis
20. Audience
21. Process & Methodology Overview
22. Anticipated Outcome
23. Justifcation & Relevance
24. Delimitations
2.0 RESEARCH
FRAMEWORK
29. Creativity + Diversity
39. Creative Placemaking
55. Valley Stream As A Case Study
63. Neighbors
73.Conclusion
3.0 CASE STUDIES3.0 CDIE
77. Neighborhood Postcard Project
78. The Passenger Project By IvanCash
79. Postsecret By Frank Warren
80. Neighborland By Candy Chang
4.0 PROCESS &
METHODOLOGY
83. Gaining First Hand Experience
About People And Place
85. Immersing Into The Society
At A Community Level
100. Initiating Interactions
Between Neighbors
112. The Reward Connecting To Place
113. Using Technology As A Multiplier
Of A Physical And Place-Based
Initiative.
5.0 RESULTS
AND FINDINGS
119. Overview
122. Individual Activity Results
128. Conclusion
6.0 WORK CITED D

Welcome to the
neighborhood circle.

ABSTRACT
Project Neighbor’d is a platform for sharing, to aid a diverse community in
knowing and understanding each other. Using the creativity inherent in our
diversity, the mission is to develop a sense of place in order to revive bonds
of neighborliness that have been forgotten in today’s fast paced world.

16
ABSTRACT EXPANDED
Going as far back as I can remember, I
have always been captivated by the idea
of creativity. As a child, I frequently said
that I would be an artist when I grew
up. Nostalgia for those innocent times
brings me to acknowledge how much
the definition of creativity and design has
evolved today. From an individualistic
pursuit, which will no doubt always be im-
portant, our times have brought greater
focus on ideas like collaboration, partic-
ipation and community that expand the
parameters of creativity in innumerable
ways to benefit everyone in the equation.
As a parent to two beautiful boys, a think-
er, designer, and immigrant to the USA,
the last few years have been marked by
many twists and turns and an increased
interest in creativity and collaboration.
Given the fast pace at which society is
changing, our future is extraordinarily
unpredictable. Therefore, what started
as a mission to find new ways for my kids
to develop skills to navigate this unfore-
seen future was radically altered by two
basic questions, which led me to view my
passion for creativity through a different
lens altogether.
“What color am I?” This is the question
that my then 4 year old asked me in
his first week at pre-school and made
me reconsider a lot of things that I had
been focused on. On his first attempt
I shrugged off the question and just
replied, “You’re white.” To me, he falls on
the fairer sider of the family gene. How-
ever, he asked me the question again
and I was stupefied because he wouldn’t
accept the same response and said
in a know it all way, “I’m brown.” While
this question made me uncomfortable
at the time, it has opened up so many
doors that I would probably never have
touched upon in this quest.
My son’s question, brought into focus his
increased awareness and acute observa-
tion of his place in the society around us.
It also forced me to question my status
as a parent bringing up children of dual
heritage. It has made me realize how
important it is to instill a sense of pride
regarding our own heritage and culture
in our children, whilst at the same time
instilling in them an appreciation and
respect for other cultures. It has allowed
me to think about the evolution of society
around me and consider the fact that
most of us are cliquish when it comes to
relating to people who are different from
us. It is imperative for all of us to develop
a feeling of community and belonging to

17
The good we secure for ourselves is precarious
and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and
incorporated into our common life”
Jane Addams
the new places, which we now call home.
The second question that continued the
conversation above was the caption on a
picture of a small girl that I came across
in my search for creativity:
Are you raising me to do good? not just
be good?” This question made me recon-
sider the ways in which I, as a designer
and a parent, can contribute in creative
ways to not just raising my own kids, but
in shaping the environment around them
for the betterment of all who reside
in it. This has made me reflect on the
changing role of design and how I can
use not only my creativity, but also that
of everyone in the community to form a
shared sense of belonging
As adults, we need to realize our own
responsibilities and attitudes towards im-
plementing change. We need to under-
stand that the unforeseen future and
the impact of globalization has and will
continue to change the situations of
tomorrow. Therefore, if we want our
future generation to understand each
other and care about the places they live
in and the world they inhabit, we must
exemplify that in our own actions and
feed their insatiable young appetites
with experience and engagement with
real places, people and objects around
them by using our cultural differences
as assets. Their future rests upon us
getting that right. For that to happen, we
need to surround them with good in their
communities for them to be contributing
and creative citizens of tomorrow, who
shape the fabric of whichever landscape
they choose to settle in, or whatever
situations they might encounter.
It is commonly said that an individual
is an extension of all the people who
share a particular place or neighbor-
hood with him. Thus for anyone who
hopes to initiate any sort of goodness,
big or small, whether it affects his per-
sonal or community life, it is advisable
to share and work with his neighbors
to make his dreams come to life. As
inspirational as a talk about good-
ness may seem, it is useless unless
we apply it to the benefit of all who
surround us. For the purpose of my
thesis and as an individual, my front
door is the starting point into my own
neighborhood, in order to bring about
goodness, even if it is bit by bit.

18
INSPIRATION
I am inspired by a living example of a great
neighborhood in my home country, Pakistan.
For a country that is often portrayed in
the news as being fraught with tension,
my parents neighborhood shines as an
inspirational example of social cohesion,
that continues to influence the residents’
lives and gives them a sense of home,
security and pleasure. I aspire to create
the same opportunity for creativity in the
neighborhood I call home today.
The cohesiveness in the neighborhood,
I witnessed as a child, started with a
simple ballot committee that one of the
neighbors initiated and invited my mother
to participate in when my family moved
onto the block. The committee consisted
mostly of a generation of homemakers,
and though this is an upper class neigh-
borhood, the purpose of combining mon-
ey in a ballot extended beyond financial
reasons and was seen more as a way for
neighbors to get to know each other. It
provided an opportunity for all women in
the neighborhood to meet once a month
at least, at the home of one neighbor,
who would get the total sum of money
and provide lunch for all in attendance.
Ballot committees are banned in Ameri-
ca as they provide ways in which money
can rotate interest and tax-free. How-
ever, these sort of committees are very
common in Pakistan. In fact, millions of
Pakistanis save billions of rupees in this
informal pooling of money. Initially run
by housewives, students, office workers
and shopkeepers as a saving pool for
financial reasons, it has come to include
high society women and even young girls
with the intent of socializing outside of
their fixed family and friend circles. The
fact that money is involved makes sure
that everyone shows up. Each member
of a group of trusted friends or relatives
contributes the same sum to a monthly
pool for a predetermined length of time.
Through a ballot, each participant is allot-
ted a number indicating his or her turn.
Every month, one participant gets the
pool total. Everyone on the committee
keeps contributing until each member
gets a pot of cash.
Since this specific committee took place
in a setting where the people live in close
proximity to each other, the interactions
occurring between people and place
have been far more successful and have
had consequences reaching far beyond
friendships and any other regular ballot
committee. People who live in the vicinity
not only watch out for each other, but
neighbors have a special position during
important events for a family, be it at the
birth of grandchild, a daughter’s wedding,
or a death etc. During any occasion that
warrants celebration, with the distri-
bution of gifts and sweets, neighbors
are considered as important as family.
Though many kids like me have grown
up and moved away, whenever they
come home, they are paid visits by the
neighbors and make an effort to meet
them just as they would with family. The
connections between the women have
even motivated the men to meet each
to address problems that plague the
neighborhood. Examples include, pooling
money together to keep special private
police guards for safety measures, deal-
ing with water shortages, keeping each
other informed and figuring out potential
solutions without any organizational back-
ing or civic structure.
MOTIVATION
The neighborhood mentioned above
truly inspires me, but it also makes me
think about the place I live in now and
how different the situation is from the
largely homogenous neighborhood in
my home country. It also motivates
me to think about the concept of the
neighborhood and how it has always
been the most basic unit of social
organization, in which people interact
most regularly and naturally, making it
recognizable as a real place in which the
lives of residents overlap in a multitude
of ways. I think about how involved we
are in our own lives today, with little
or no time for the people around us.
We pass each other at malls without

19
making any effort to converse, we travel
distances in airplanes without uttering
a word. In public places, we simply plug
in our earphones and hide behind the
screens of our laptops and gadgets to
engage in a conversation with ourselves.
I further consider the neighborhood I
now live in, which is a great example of
a multicultural society that has evolved
over the last two decades from a
completely homogenous and segregat-
ed town that is characteristic of most
neighborhoods in Long Island, New York.
It is truly an example of the change in
the American landscape that is happen-
ing all over.
America is commonly referred to as
the melting pot of cultures, with immi-
grants from all over the world, striving
to attain the American dream of a
better life. Cities like Los Angeles, New
York and Chicago have always been the
entry point for numerous immigrants.
But in recent years, smaller towns and
cities have begun to experience the cul-
tural transformation that comes with a
diverse society. Sometimes the Cauca-
sians living in these towns may not be
accepting of this mixing of different col-
ors in the landscape. For generations
they have been conditioned to believe
in white supremacy and though many
appear to be liberated and tolerant,
some still have an innate human fear
of change. At the moment the whole
world is engulfed in a revolution. Post
9/11 much has changed. For example,
Islam has been objectified in the media
as a religion of terrorists, which is far
from the truth. Also, wars and geno-
cides are taking place all over the world.
This makes me realize the enormity of
my responsibility in raising my kids in a
country to which they belong, but where
they are also seen as different. Being a
parent to dual heritage Muslim children
impassions to safeguard their future. I
wish to bring up my kids to be empathiz-
ing, empowered human beings who are
in touch with their heritage and yet are
connected with mainstream America,
in order to become ambassadors of
excellence today and tomorrow.
This is a question, which has arisen
in the minds of many parents who
are bringing up dual heritage chil-
dren today. As humans, we have a
tendency to stereotype cultures and
religions based on a few individuals.
This can lead to confusion, myths and
misconceptions. By stereotyping, we
are giving rise to more hate crimes,
racism, bullying, depression, stress,
intolerance, low self-esteem and more
religious wars tomorrow. All cultures
have good and bad people. The truth is
there is no singular definition of what it
means to be Muslim, just like there is
no singular definition of what it means
to be Christian, Jewish, or to be a fol-
lower of any other religion. To know the
true nature of any religion or culture,
all we need to do is to look around at
our neighbors, co-workers and our
classmates. The next generations of
Americans need to be nurtured to
grow up to embrace diversity, have
empathy, not be judgmental, and re-
alize the wealth of creativity we have
in our hands due to our diversity.
Diversity is the mother of creativity. I
view it as a methodology for connect-
ing people to place, and thus reviving
old-fashioned values of neighborli-
ness. It makes me think about how
divergent thought and narrative from
so many different cultural experienc-
es and backgrounds can provide a
rich mosaic of ideas. This creativity
lens through which I view diversity
can also be used to develop empa-
thy, leading to more creative ways to
engage stakeholders of a neighbor-
hood in meaningful dialogue, solve
problems in society and lead to the
good life for which everyone strives.
The American Dream I believe in now is a
shared one. It’s not so much about what I
can get for myself for a better life; it’s about
how we can all get by together.

20
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Our society is moving at a faster pace
due to technology, busy schedules and
the frequency with which we change jobs,
homes and locations, making it harder
and harder to feel a sense of community.
It is too easy to become isolated in our
homes, and all these reasons tend to be-
get placelessness. Minimal connection
to the physical place and people around
us can lead to loneliness, depression,
increased violence, and crime etc. Social
media has no doubt, has been very
effective at connecting us, but has also
brought us to an era of neighboring of
taste rather than neighboring of place.
Today people are more connected to oth-
ers who live far away, rather then their
next-door neighbors, many of whom don’t
even know their names.
This decline in physical neighborly
relations in the USA continues to worry
sociologists, and has been a running
theme in the discipline during the last
few decades. Famous sociologists and
philosophers like Ferdinand Tönnies,
Georg Simmel, Louis Wirth, Emile
Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber
all see this decline as directly affecting
the quantity and quality of neighbor-
hoods, and resulting in a diminished
sense of community amongst its resi-
dents. All this consequently leads to the
lack of a community’s ability to organize
for its interests, or to feel responsibil-
ity and civic pride. Robert Putnam, in
his book Bowling Alone concludes that
Americans are now less trusting and the
social capital of society is eroding. This
makes me question the changing color
of the landscape as being a contributing
factor in the decline of social capital.
Many neighborhoods have evolved to be
societies of mixed cultures, rather than
the homogenous neighborhoods of yes-
terday. Violence, racism, fear of change
and cultural differences in society are do-
ing nothing more than tearing us apart.
Rather than celebrating the creativity
and vibrancy that diversity brings with it,
many succumb to the fear of change in
people and exhibit cliquish behavior.
Understanding others therefore is one
of the best ways to dispel these appre-
hensions and misconceptions. Wheth-
er the society shows it or not, this fear
manifests itself in the lack of relations
amongst residents, in which people
may seem accepting, but may not be
comfortable with the idea of diversity
and change. Conversely, the people
who embrace diversity need more cre-
ative outlets to interact with each other
and strengthen their connections.

21
HYPOTHESIS
Physical and participatory interactions
in real world spaces remain a potent
vehicle for nurturing connections in com-
munities, and thereby building a sense
of place for everyone residing in the
community. Neighborhood participation
reduces alienation and allows residents
to feel a sense of place, a shared identity,
and causes them to contribute to the
betterment of the community.
This thesis presents the hypothesis
that physical opportunities, or designed
interventions that are social, participa-
tory and creative in nature can draw out
unique narratives from a diverse group
of people living in close proximity to each
other. Such experiences cause them to
unite, regardless of their backgrounds,
circumstances, age or gender. It allows
them to revive neighborhood bonds in
a diverse society through small connec-
tions that spark conversations, and in
turn lead to community. This endeavor
seeks to diffuse the fear of change, and
views diversity and difference as being
assets to place.
There are many neighborhood, commu-
nity building projects and organizations
active today in the United States. For the
purpose of my thesis, I consider diversity
as an asset for driving creativity, and
consider it a methodology for connecting
people to place. This approach allows
residents to feel part of a larger whole,
in which they have an important role to
play, and thus feel compelled to shape
the culture of the neighborhood around
them. This methodology allows me as
designer working at a grass roots level
to have creative freedom to develop and
design interactions in ways that might
be not possible through a civic structure
because of bureaucratic red tape.

22
AUDIENCE
THEORETICALLY
The audience for this thesis is the design
community and all the people that aspire
to do good through design. By fostering
experiences that support engagement,
empowerment, and empathy, I contrib-
ute my little part to the vast community
of designers, in their efforts towards
social change. It is a tribute to creativity
and the idea that as designers we are
all cultural agents, and we can use our
skills to change the culture of places by
using culture itself as the canvas. I use
this thesis as an example, through which
I can demonstrate the power of design
to enhance life, not just by designing
beautiful products, but also by designing
ideas that enhance the quality of life
today and tomorrow.
CASE STUDY
For the sake of this project, I have cho-
sen my own diverse community of Valley
Stream, in Long Island, New York. This
location will function as my experimental
laboratory, not just to test out my ideas
about community and connections in
today’s time, but with proper support, as
an actual project that continues beyond
the scope of the thesis. While I know
that Valley Stream is a specific unique
community, I believe there are others
like it today in the world’s multicultural
and changing landscape, and the live
social experiment I carry out here can
hopefully be applied to many other evolv-
ing diverse communities.
There is the world we live in and
one that we imagine. It is by our
movement and invention that
we inch closer to the latter. The
world shapes us, and we get to
shape the world.
- Frank Chimero

23
PROCESS &
METHOLOGY OVERVIEW
Gaining first hand experience with
people and place
I conducted several talks and interviews
with various community members, neigh-
bors and community stakeholders , which
were extremely important to the process.
This led to new relationships, building
trust amongst community members
and has been crucial in defining my own
sense of place.
Immersing into the society at a
community level
The best way to get to know and truly
understand a community is to learn
about their hopes, fears and dreams
through experiences that are informal
and comfortable enough to invite self
expression. This was achieved by setting
up a design space for Valley Stream
residents at a local festival that included
interesting historical facts about the
community. Followed by a participatory
dialogue, it allowed community mem-
bers to express themselves in fun ways.
Initiating interactions between
neighbors
The second phase involved connecting
people to each other on a personal level,
with the idea in mind that conversations
lead to connections. The aim was to build
an experience that gave rise to feelings
of togetherness and friendship causing
people to form a strong connection to
place. This was done through a creative
intervention called Project Neighbor’d
that resonated with my intentions as a
designer and Creative modifier.
Utilizing neighbors unique narratives
through participatory design
By using cultural diversity as an asset for
driving creativity, I encouraged neighbors
to contribute their unique personal nar-
ratives to the project. Using a designed
framework and prompting them through
activities that were meaningful for ev-
eryone, I tried to create an environment
where conversation, and sharing can
occur. This also hoped to establish that
creativity is not the sole possession of cer-
tain gifted individuals but anybody can be
creative given the right means to do so.
Rewarding neighbors and thus
connecting to place
There is a special satisfaction that occurs
by contributing and it becomes even
more rewarding when everyone can see
how their contribution acts as a part of
a bigger whole. To maximize this feeling
and with the intention of giving thanks to
participants, the idea of showcasing the
creative contributions is under consid-
eration. This would encourage a sense
of kinship, empowerment and belonging,
thus fortifying the whole experience.
Using technology as a multiplier, of a
physical and place-based initiative
In keeping with our highly technological
and yet at times isolated times, I believe
that the best possible use of technology
is when it facilitates face-to-face interac-
tion. Thus, I have used several forms of
social media and blogs to spread aware-
ness about it and keep people updated
about the project. Aside from the final
project website: projectneighbord.com,
a Facebook page called Designing Good-
ness has been developed to connect with
people in the field and has been updated
regularly to bring attention to its core
mission of using design for social good.

24
ANTICIPATED OUTCOME
Through design, I intend to forge new
relationships in my neighborhood. This
would help residents live well by instilling
and elevating values such as engage-
ment and participation. This is an effort
to creating an environment in which
neighbors are no longer strangers, but
have a renewed sense of civic pride that
uplifts the neighborhoods. Encouraging
people to participate in shaping the life
of the place they call home is intended to
create a vibrant and open atmosphere
that exudes the warmth of home.
Designing a creative intervention that
celebrates the differences in cultures
and backgrounds also seeks to dampen
innate fear in people who do not view
diversity as an asset. The creation of an
enticing environment for conversation
will invite people to better understand
each other. This would hopefully give
rise to a shared sense of identity and
solidify the community.
JUSTIFICATION &
RELEVANCE
To The Zeitgeist Of Our Times
The zeitgeist of our times is the spirit of the
community. With regard to the importance
of community, I put forward sociologist
Robert Nisbet’s definition of the word com-
munity: “all forms of relationships that are
characterized by a high degree of personal
intimacy, emotional depth, moral commit-
ment, social cohesion, and continuity in
time…It may be found in…locality, religion,
nation, race, occupation, or (common cause).
Its archetype…is the family.”
In the 1980’s, former British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher aroused an
uproar through her statement “there is
no such thing as society”(dailymail.co.uk).
However, her vision was one of personal
responsibility. It was of a liberated bot-
tom up nation, in which every individual
contributed and had responsibility, rath-
er than just complaining to the govern-
ment regarding his rights and entitle-
ments. Spurred forward by the greed is
good mantra, a generation was raised to
believe that success meant being selfish
for individualistic pursuits that regard-
ed wealth and luxury as the ultimate
achievement, at the expense of personal
values of community and neighborliness.
Twenty years later, we are shifting back
“Design is imagining a
future and working toward
it with intelligence and
cleverness. We use design to
close the gap between the
situation we have and the
one we desire”.
- Frank Chimero
The Shape of Design .

25
to what are commonly referred to as
old-fashioned values. Community spirit
is considered to be a meaningful part
of this fundamental shift in values, with
companies, organizations and even
individuals working at the grass roots
level to bring about change. Engaged
in social innovation they are trying to
make neighborhoods and cities better
places to live.
The places we live in serve as play-
grounds for inspiration and meaningful
connection and carry much emotional
weight in people’s lives. With the color
of the landscape changing and so many
multicultural towns all over, it is import-
ant to understand that innovation is a
combinatory process; when a group of
people combines their diverse insights
and skills, they are more likely to come
up with creative outputs that benefit
people and place.
To Design & Social Change
This shift of values can be seen in the
paradigm shift that has taken place in
the design community in which the focus
has moved from a practice, that fuels
business to one that addresses real
problems. Developing practical applica-
tions of visual means can create vehicles
for powerful social change in communi-
ties. Traditionally, designers have been
associated with enhancing the looks
and functionality of products and ser-
vices. They have been guilty of bombard-
ing the public with messages that incite
through designed artifacts, glossy mag-
azines, and elaborate advertising skills.
Today the boundaries of design have
evolved beyond materialism towards
addressing positive social change.
More and more designers are interest-
ed in using design for the greater needs
of the society by working for humanity
instead of just corporate clients. In an
interview, Charles and Ray Eames were
once asked, “What are the boundaries
of design?” Charles countered this with
a question, “What are the boundaries
of problems?” This response speaks
volumes of the infinite nature of design
by linking its true outcomes to life en-
hancement by building good experienc-
es and interactions. Working together
to create a better environment be it
globally or locally is now a priority for
many designers. Thus, this thesis sees
design as a medium, which is expected
to do Good and not just be Good.

26
DELIMITATIONS
Today it has become impossible to live a life without technology and it is un-
thinkable to deny its benefits. However, this study is in favor of direct physical
participation and face-to-face interactions. It serves as a reminder that technol-
ogy should not replace the basic human need of physical social interaction, but
should be a medium that catalyzes the process. It should amplify our engage-
ment with the people and places around us we call home.
This thesis does not attempt to make intimate friends of all neighbors, but while
respecting boundaries and maintaining privacy, aims to revive the physical no-
tion of neighborliness that has been on the decline in the last few decades.
This thesis does not claim to bring about drastic changes in Valley Stream, or
to any other diverse neighborhood to which it may be applied to. Rather it hopes
to act as a connector to let conversations happen that enliven the neighbor-
hood bit by bit, on an individual as well as community level. Building community
is never a one-time project, but an ongoing contribution from all stakeholders. It
works with the understanding that we are all part of the equation, and that we
must work towards to being more inclusive and accepting of diversity, in order
to encourage the flourishing future of tomorrow.
This thesis is just a starting point towards addressing problems of placeless-
ness and isolation. Through initiating a network to know our neighbors, we
can embark upon finding creative solutions to problems that we face together.

It is only through our efforts, to create successful examples of societies
where creative diversity is the driving force, that we can bring forth the
power of diversity to created empowered communities so much so that
diversity can become fundamental when talking about creativity and
people will come to realize that different is good.

31
CREATIVITY
+ DIVERSITY
Creativity As Social Value
The 21st
century has brought an
in-depth focus on Creativity as the
most vital skill needed for this centu-
ry and beyond. In the past, creativity
was regarded as a resource acces-
sible to only certain gifted individuals.
Today, creativity is not just exclusive to
artistic or gifted individuals; the term
has come to encapsulate anyone and
everyone whether they are part of ex-
plicitly creative fields or not. Creativity
when linked to individuals, enterprises,
cities or regions, establishes immedi-
ate empathy and conveys dynamism.
It is an optimistic note in a society,
which is constantly reinventing and
aspiring for progress.
Today the world is facing significant
cultural, technological and economic
changes that give rise to challenges that
are unique in nature. Creativity is vital to
address these changes, in order to think
innovatively about problems in all aspects
of our individual or public lives. We must
transform our thinking to cope with this
increasingly complex world and become
better problem solvers to stimulate cre-
ative responses to any issue that comes
our way. Whilst some problems require
just an individual with a good idea, others
may require groups of individuals to work
closely together as a unit and maximize
the impact on the places they inhabit.
Defining creativity is in no way an easy
feat. It may mean different things to dif-
ferent people. With regard to this wide
parameter, there may be many ways
to look at creativity, but the common
thread between all of them is the idea
of combining existing ideas in new ways.
American Creativity theorist Roger
von Oech declared: “Creative thinking
involves imagining familiar things in a
new light; digging below the surface to
find previously undetected patterns, and
finding connections among unrelated
phenomena.” (Oech and Willett)
Psychologists are known to have advo-
cated the fact that true creativity is not
just limited to novelty, but may also have
something to do with the appropriate-
ness of the idea. Cognitive psychologist
Robert J. Sternberg states: “The basic
definition of creativity can be broadly
defined as “the process of producing
something that is both original and
worthwhile”. Morris Stein, professor
of psychology, also puts emphasis on
the words new and useful. He defines
creativity as, “a process that results
in a novel product that is accepted by
a significant group of others as useful,
tenable or satisfying at some point in
time.” (psych.nyu.edu)
Most people may think that creativity is
about creating something new to sell.
Since change is taking place at many
levels in the world today, creativity has
an impact on every aspect of our life
and society; therefore it can apply in
various ways. When the concept of the
Federal Express (FedEx) was developed,
it was not just about inventing a new
service or a new product. People have
been delivering packages to each
other for eternity. The creativity lay
in the system that was formed for
delivery that benefited the society and
provided value to it (Amabile). This idea
of value contribution is also focused
on by writers such as Teresa Amabile,
Professor at Harvard Business School,
2.1
“Creativity is seeing
what everyone else
has seen, and think-
ing what no one else
has thought.”
- Einstein

32
known primarily for her writings on
creativity. Professor Amabile proposes
a consensual definition of creativity: “to
be creative an idea must be appropriate,
recognized as socially valuable in some
way to some community” (Amabile and
Pillemer, Perspectives on the Social
Psychology of Creativity).
At its heart, creativity in a social context
is about generating novel ideas that may
have impact on any realm of human
activity, be it private or public life. It may
also affect other related fields, which
may range from the arts to science,
education, business etc. Creativity is
considered the key to finding new ways
of solving problems by approaching situ-
ations with the idea of empathizing and
using imagination. “One concise way of
defining creativity is applied imagination...
you can see the future with imagination,”
says creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson
(London Business Forum). He further
puts forth his analytical view of creativ-
ity and its importance in today’s world
by stating: “I define it as the process of
having original ideas that have value. It’s
a process, its not an event, you can un-
derstand and manage the process and
its about originality and its about making
critical judgments of whether this work
is any good. All creative processes are
intermingled with value judgment”
(Robinson).
Creativity As A Process
It is necessary, to associate the key
terms, divergent and convergent
thinking with the process of creativity.
The former is the ability to think of many
original ideas. Convergent thinking, on the
other hand, is often used in tandem with
divergent thinking. The whole process
can be likened to a funnel. Diverse ideas
are the wide end of the funnel and the
ideas are funneled and narrowed down
through convergent thinking towards a
point where one can logically evaluate,
critique, combine and finally choose the
best idea. Therefore we come to the
realization that convergent thinking on
its own is not feasible to produce a novel
output but it is the divergence of ideas
that lends to discovering every possible
avenue, construct of mind and sensibility.
It allows for a creative solution to emerge
rather than just a correct solution.
This beauty of divergence and diverse
Image: Ted.com
thoughts are the construct for the basis
of this argument. Scientist and two-time
Nobel Prize winner, Linus Pauling stated
aptly: “to have a good idea, you must first
have lots of ideas” (Tim and Wyatt).
Creativity, therefore, can be referred
to as a process which combines or
cross-pollinates existing ideas from
divergent disciplines to connect them to
create a completely new idea which is
then termed as original. Paula Scher has
likened the whole process of creativity to
a slot machine. American theorist and
writer Dorian Sagan mentions it as the
science of connections and Gutenberg
exemplifies the process by giving us the
biggest invention of all time, the printing
press. Creativity thus involves a combina-
tion of cognitive elements that involve the
ability to connect ideas, to see similar-
ities and differences, be unorthodox,
be inquisitive and to question societal
norms (Popova).
This cross pollination of ideas from
diverse sources is explored in a very
resourceful way in The World Café; a
process that uses a simple method of
rotation where people shift from one
table to another and replace the person
previously there to take up ideas where
the former person left off. This results
in engaging conversation that sparks
new connections and relationships. The
World Café process engages new levels
of creative and collaborative thinking sup-
porting the development of unforeseen
perceptions to the theme or question at
hand. As a creative process, it can be
equated to the ecology of conversation
in which diverse participants explore new
opportunities and build upon existing
conversation as they revolve around the
web of conversation carrying seeds of
ideas with the intention to bring forth a
world together. (See images).

33
This brings us to the noteworthy point
that creativity in the 21st century has
moved beyond the manifestation of an in-
dividual’s talent to one that uses collabo-
rative thoughts, skills and talents. Today’s
buzzwords in tandem with the creative
process are critical thinking, commu-
nity, collaboration, and participation.
This comes across most in communities
of diverse learners, thinkers, and doers
and their ability to think and act as global
citizens together. In his book, Group
Genius: The Creative Power of Collab-
oration, author Keith Sawyer explains,
“When we collaborate, creativity unfolds
across people; the sparks fly faster, and
the whole is greater than the sum of its
parts. Collaboration drives creativity be-
cause innovation always emerges from
a series of sparks—never a single flash
of insight. This is the essence of group
creativity”. (Smart Storming)
Thus the word diverse implied by
divergent thinking in creativity brings
us to the idea of diversity as being a
fertile breeding ground for creativity
in the 21st century. In Group Genius,
Keith Sawyer also writes, “…when
solving complex, non-routine problems,
groups are more effective when they’re
composed of people who have a variety
of skills, knowledge, and perspective.”
He goes on to say, “The reason groups
are so effective at generating innovation
is that they bring together far more
concepts and bodies of knowledge than
any one person can. Group genius can
happen only if the brains in the team
don’t contain all the same stuff.” Thus if
the creative process, be it individual or
group, is fed by people as the source of
inspiration, then diversity is subsequently
vital to idea generation and forms the
basis of any sort of creative process
(Smart Storming). Image 2.3: world cafe
Images: The World Cafe

34
Diversity Is The Mother Of Creativity
In the past, much of the public interest in terms of diversity has focused on
issues of fairness and representation. Here I would to like to elaborate and
shift the focus, on the power of diversity to make better and more connected
societies. But before we can make a distinct connection between diversity and
creativity, one needs to look at the basic ethos of human intelligence as defined
by Sir Ken Robinson in one of his famous TED talks. “It’s diverse. We think of the
world in all the ways we experience it” (Robinson)
By definition, diversity in a group of people refers to differences in their demo-
graphic characteristics, cultural identities, ethnicity, training and expertise.
But diversity can be both demographic and non demographic. With regard
to demographic, it refers to people who are different in gender, nationality,
race and ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation and disability. On the other
hand non-demographic relates to individuals with different knowledge levels,
communication styles, educational background, personal and professional
talents and expertise.
Different variables among people can bring about a wide range of capabil-
ities and creative output to the table. For example a mixed range of ages
can allow for a multigenerational perspective in terms of experiences and
values; People from different professional disciplines may offer incredible
insights from their unique perspectives; Different genders and individuals
with personal backgrounds from different countries of origin can contrib-
ute with their diverse world viewpoints and cultural understanding. In fact,
in today’s multicultural landscape, cultural fusion can be one of the most
powerful elements of innovation. It can drive creativity and be a forerunner
in creating a better society. Thus, diversity in societies, if provided a proper
infrastructure that facilitates and encourages idea formation, communica-
tion and exchange, can lead to greater creative outcomes and outperform
people in a blended or homogenous environment. MIT prizewinner, Profes-
sor Joseph M. DeSimone Lemelson states: “There is no more fertile ground
for innovation than a diversity of experience. And that diversity of experienceImage: The World Cafe

35
arises from a difference of cultures,
ethnicities, and life backgrounds…”
(Pinschmidt).
Diversity should be acknowledged as one
of the most influential factors in driving
creativity and growth in our societies
and environments today. The rich fertile
breeding grounds that diversity provides
for creativity can be understood through
organizations, their workforce and their
goals for innovation in this competitive
era. A recent Forbes study (Forbes) has
confirmed the diversity in the workforce
as the root of innovation and active bom-
bardment of new ideas that are crucial
to organizations of today. This addresses
the understanding that the individual
has a capability, with certain limitations,
in terms of its personality, culture and
expertise. Thus by combining diverse
profiles, this balances the aspect of blind
spots and perspectives, which a confined
homogenous workforce may overlook in
many cases. In such cases, diversity may
trump even the very best individual ability
due to the richness of perspectives and
problem solving approaches towards a
similar goal or outcome. Communities
and cities are combinations of individuals
similar to workforces in organizations.
By leveraging the creativity inherent in
our diversity we can create outcomes
that can have positive impacts on all
aspects of our personal, professional,
and social lives.
Culture, As It Relates To A Sense
Of Belonging
Culture is not a label for a group of peo-
ple. It is an abstract way and shared sys-
tem of values, beliefs, customs and rules
of conduct amongst people that make
them behave in a certain way. It is the
basis on which people perceive, believe,
evaluate and act. Culture provides identi-
ty in a diverse and dynamic way. An easy
way to understand this is through as-
pects, which are visible and differentiate
one culture from another. These include
food, clothing, celebrations, social habits,
language, music, arts and religion. All
these are part of an individual’s cultural
heritage and designate how a person
lives and acts in society. Culture affects
everyday life as to how each individual
thinks, feels, and learns and even what
he considers to be beautiful or ugly.
Culture therefore has a very direct
relevance to diversity through the
difference in experiences that define an
individual and his connection to that cul-
ture. What might be acceptable in one
culture might be taboo in another. In ab-
stract terms, culture is an expression
of humanity, an expression of its creativ-
ity through its various common grounds
with other cultures. Culture is born out
of human interaction and therefore is
vital to the way people relate to other
people. The important feature of culture
is that it forms invisible bonds between
people who share the same cultural
background and holds them together by
passing on the values from one genera-
tion to another. It is this continuity that
sustains it, retains relationships and
creates a sense of belonging in people
to the country of that culture or to the
new places they inhabit and call home.
The aspect of belonging that is explored
here is social identity; a core aspect of
how we define who we are. We are all
individuals but it is our belonging to par-
ticular groups of people that construct
our culture or identity. It is a fundamental
aspect of being human and is also a pri-
mary aspect of connecting to the place
we are originally from or with regards to
adopting the culture of a place where we
now belong. Thereby, it is important to
consider the notion of belonging what it
means and how it defines our emotional
connections to places.
There has been ongoing debate about
the shift in the paradigm of belonging in
recent years. The interconnectedness
brought about by technology allows
people to connect from near and far in
innumerable new ways that we could
have never imagined before. Through
technology we can experience places
before we have even seen them. Yet
after a certain point, too much of even
a good thing can have negative effects.
Technology, while benefitting us in nu-
merous ways, has at times, also isolated
us from our physical sense of belonging
to places. For example, our neighbor-
hoods are becoming impersonal and
anonymous which detracts from our
sense of belonging to the place.
In the past belonging was more rig-
idly defined in terms of its limitations
to social identities such as class and
religion and geography. Today, people
have more power over the categories to
which they want to belong, like groups,
communities, brands and lifestyles. In
terms of geography, people are more
likely to be connected to their social me-
dia friends who may be far off but who
they maybe able to relate to, in terms of
mental level, taste, social, financial and
professional levels rather than people
around their own physical space.
The fact that people continue to search
for new ways to locate themselves in an
ever changing society, points explicitly
towards the innate and timeless human
need of social bonding, loyalty, security,
acceptance and more succinctly belong-
ing. As advocated by Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs; a psychological theory centered
on humans’ innate desire for fulfillment,

36
“belonging is a need that we naturally
seek in order to feel loved” (VCE Blog). An
investigation by the SIRC (Social Issues
Research Center) put forward six key ele-
ments that people believe are important
to their sense of belonging:
Family remains the strongest element
of human social and innate need for
belonging and despite modern society
and its changes in the structure of
families, it still comes to front as the
heart of belonging.
Friendships are the second most
essential aspect of enforcing a sense
of belonging. While this aspect has
definitely undergone a change in terms
of technology, the physicality of human
interaction can never be replaced
completely. In the past, this aspect was
mostly concerned with a large extended
family living in close proximity. With
regards to my personal experience of
moving to the United States, new friends
in a new place can aid adaptability to
place and can also create a sense of
belonging to that place.
Nationality remains a strong tie
between individuals and the countries to
which they belong. It reflects in the way
people operate their day-to-day life and
the way they adopt the traditions and
values of their home countries.
Professional identity is often the
first trait people describe when they
introduce themselves. Professional
identity for both men and women today is
an important factor as their source
of income or position in a workforce
directly relates to their financial and
social status and therefore heightens
their sense of belonging.
Team spirit and shared interests
influence belonging in many ways for
both men and women. Belonging to a
club, sharing hobbies or team sports, are
an important source of identity for many.
Interestingly, all of the above point to
the fact that our sense of identity and
belonging is shaped fundamentally by
our social interactions which play a vital
aspect in any individuals life, and without
which one may feel isolated and lost. Al-
though it makes sense to think of human
beings as individuals, we must realize
that being human implies belonging to a
group of individuals, thereby connecting
people and places to a certain personal,
cultural, historical and social context.
Stereotypes And Misconceptions
About Cultures
The cities we live in today can be consid-
ered as resilient ecosystems and can be
likened to the unifying theory of the life
sciences, advocated by the English natu-
ralist and geologist Charles Darwin. He
compares the diversity of life to a forest
in which we are concerned about the
diversity in plants and animals. Similarly,
the world we live in and the growth of
the place we inhabit has much to benefit
from the cultivation of diverse ideas and
cultures, which add to the life and our
belonging to places. But to do that, we
have to suspend our fears, decrease
our resistance to change and forgo the
misconceptions and stereotypes through
which we tend to classify people and
their cultures. These classifications are
what give rise to issues like racism and
crime in society.
In the world today, millions of people
have migrated to places far from their
roots for reasons such as economic
hardships in their home countries, social
strife, poverty and more. This displace-
ment brings to light the adverse issues
regarding stereotypes and misconcep-
tions about people who are different
than us. Everyone at some point or other
“Do you know how to get rid of the
darkness? You can’t fight the darkness.
The only way to get rid of the darkness
is to turn on the light. When you turn
on the light, everything becomes clear. If
you fight all the problems in the world, it
wont solve the problems of the world but
if you unite and come together in peace
and harmony then you can create the
world that you want.”
- Bahai’ activist

37
has been guilty of being judgmental
about other cultures. The Oxford Dic-
tionary defines stereotypes as: “A fixed
idea or image that many people have of
a particular type of person or thing, but
which is often not true in reality.” These
stereotypes in turn lead to misconcep-
tions and often withdrawal from people
we don’t know or recognize as being
similar to us. In fact a fear of change
has been categorized as the most
widespread type of fear that humans
are innately prone to. Stereotypes are
often created about people of specific
cultures or races. In fact almost every
culture has a stereotype attached to it.
Though stereotypes may be centered
on race and culture a lot of times, they
exist towards various other groups
like gender, sexual and orientation etc.
Therefore they can lead people to live
lives of segregation in society, driven by
hate and misconceptions and can also
adversely affect the community at large
by creating a hindrance in its cohesion
and social mobility.
In the cognitive revolution of the1970s,
there was an explosion of psychological
research into the way people think. A
simple but profound idea was put forth
that in order to understand and make
sense of the world around them, human
beings have a habit of classifying every-
thing into categories like people, places
and things to decipher them. If further
expanded on, this can be taken forth as
an antecedent towards the formation of
stereotypes that influence our pattern
of thought and perceptions about other
people. To explain it more scientifically,
the human mind takes information and
images it is exposed to everyday and
makes a decision whether to accept that
information or not. While it may choose
to not accept it at that point, by being re-
peatedly exposed to the same message,
the mind may store it into the subcon-
scious. In the moment that we see or
meet someone from a certain culture,
the mind transfers the information from
the subconscious to the conscious and
that is when stereotypes and misconcep-
tions develop.
The United States, despite being consid-
ered to be the melting pot of cultures,
has a dominant force of white people in
corporate, executive and political leader-
ship positions. In the past, but to lesser
extent today, they are privileged with
social benefits to enjoy in their social, po-
litical, or economic spaces. In countries
like Europe and America where white
superiority and domination is embedded
in history, people have been conditioned
to accept it. They may have also come
to believe that white dominance is the
preferable arrangement for the soci-
ety they live in. It also brings with it the
idea that white people are normal and
anybody else is different. This has been
passed down by generations experienc-
ing a power-based system, which views
change with fear. This however, in no
way implies that all white people are like
that and it is not meant to be disrespect-
ful to the ones who do regard the diver-
sity now inherent in their environments
as being beneficial. But it just strives to
highlight that the privilege has driven
many to turn a blind spot to the fact that
we as humans are all created equal and
the color of skin has no value in deter-
mining our merit or success in life.
In a compelling research based on new
approaches to parenting in the book
Nurture Shock, a specific chapter was
devoted to the issue of why white people
do not talk about race with their children
and what it entails. With many stories
about how teachers and parents strug-
gle to talk about race, Nurture Shock
Mahzarin Banaji, Psychology professor
at Yale University states: “Our ability to
categorize and evaluate is an important
part of human intelligence. Without it,
we couldn’t survive.” However we come
to realize that in the case of stereotypes,
it may not be too beneficial to our
understanding (Paul).

38
provides many insights into myths about
what we as parents consider as being
right for our kids. This study is especially
relevant here to understanding how
people develop and make meaning out
of their environments. I highlight some of
the relevant case studies below.
In a case study about a research con-
ducted by a doctoral student, Brigitte Vit-
rup in 2006, regarding children’s racial
attitudes, Vitrup realized that most white
parents who claimed to be liberal, mul-
ticultural and embracing diversity were
hesitant to talk to their children about
race. This lack of comfort was a fault
on the parents’ behalf thinking that by
bringing attention to racial differences,
it would unavoidably lead to a racial con-
struct. This inevitably led them to avoid
the topic completely. Most white parents
could not go past the clichés phrases
like everybody is equal, hoping that the
kids would eventually learn themselves.
This goes against our earlier point, of
the characteristic of human intelligence
and its ability to categorize. In this case,
it proves to be negative to children who
are trying at a very young age to make
sense out of their surroundings by cat-
egorizing things and their environment
as the way they see it. When race is not
explained explicitly, children jump to their
own conclusions and believe that their
parents don’t like other races. This also
leads to pride in being white and most
white children conclude for themselves
that they belong to a race, which has
more power and wealth in society lead-
ing to many social issues.
Another very important issue brought
forth in the research was the quest to
find identity and thus the basic human
nature to belong. We often witness how
kids divide themselves up in groups in
school, but we must consider those
groups are never random. This goes
against, what the authors describe as
the Diverse Environment Theory, which
many parents may believe in. This theory
sheds light on the thinking that putting
kids in diverse environments like multicul-
tural schools will make them get along
with kids from other cultures. On the
contrary, it may not lead them to develop
better racial attitudes more than if they
were at a homogenous school. Children
have a tendency to like others who are
similar to them or who have the identity
they are looking for and this makes them
prone to hanging with kids who they are
similar to, which leads to the formation
of cliques and grouping by color espe-
cially in diverse schools. This formation
of racial groups and mental constructs
is evident in how humans continue to
be cliquish and more comfortable with
those who are similar to them.
Another very important reading in
Nurture Shock was related to how
minorities, in their quest to enhance
the ethnic pride of their children,
develop racial identity of their kids. In
order to make children confident and
also prepare them for any bias that
they may come across, minority parents
talk about race at a very young age
with their kids. Case studies showed
that those children prospered in their
leadership skills and at making concrete
connections with those around them.
This proves that we ourselves have to
disregard fears and set examples for
our coming generations by recogniz-
ing that fear cannot be rid off till we
educate ourselves and foster social
contact with other cultures. This must
be done so we can set an example for
our kids before we expect them to be
any different. We all need to understand
that as society progresses, the minori-
ties will one day will be majorities and

39
we all need to be aware of this massive change. By being understanding of
the existence of multiple tribes, colors and cultures, we can make use of social
interactions to drive away fear and misconceptions and provide ways in which
we can all enjoy the sense of belonging to places we call home.
A Sense Of Place
Social interactions may define a sense of belonging to people but it is import-
ant to remember that these interactions are often rooted in context to the
physical space, which brings us to the important aspect of belonging to place
as being essential to rooting human beings in the spaces and places they
share with others.
To understand what we refer to as place and how it influences belonging so
prominently, it is important to understand place and its distinction from space.
Marie-Laure Ryan best describes this difference in the following excerpt from
Space, Place and Story:
Whilst space is an abstract collection of points separated by certain distances,
place is a concrete environment with which people develop emotional bonds;
while the points of space are interchangeable, place has its own unique char-
acter; while space is an empty container for discrete objects, place is a network
of interrelated things; while space is open and infinite, place has boundaries;
while space is anonymous, place involves a community and a lived experience;
while space is timeless, place is shaped by history. In short, while space is a
mathematical concept, place is a social concept.
Thus, we understand that the core human interactions between family, com-
munity and national histories when woven into the physical landscape creates
the emotional connections that make a place. It also makes us aware that a
sense of place cannot be just created in a day. It takes time, reflections and in-
teractions before a group of people can foster unique attachments that define
their sense of belonging to place. Whilst places may undergo changes and peo-
ple may move from places they grew up in to newer places, belonging to each
of these places can be considered the basic core of happiness in humans.
The idea of sense of place is portrayed in roman religion through a spirit called
genius loci; the spirit that inhabits the place and represents what makes a place
so different from other places. Even though there are so may interconnected
layers of communication in todays world, there is an inherent loss in physical
contact and the places that we live in. This has brought about awareness in
planning and design fields, which relate to the physical planning of space to aid
in restoring the sense of belonging to places.

41
CREATIVE
PLACEMAKING
Introduction
One might define the 21st
century as the
Century of Cities. Despite the economic and
global crisis faced by the world, experts in
various fields are increasingly interested
in finding new ways of combining their
knowledge in a process which benefits not
only the physical place but the material,
spiritual and cultural connections present
in it as well.
With reference to the design of places
we share, it is interesting to outline the
characteristics of what makes a suc-
cessful public place. This is best defined
by the leading non profit organization
Project for Public Space (PPS): “Great
public spaces are where celebrations
are held, social and economic exchang-
es take place, friends run into each
other, and cultures mix. They are the
front porches of our public institutions
– libraries, field houses, neighborhoods,
and schools – where we interact with
each other and government. When the
spaces work well, they serve as a stage
for our public lives”.
This definition of public spaces highlights
several terminologies that have emerged
over the years and speak in their distinct
ways towards strengthening civic pride,
heightening emotional belonging to place
and arousing creativity in everyone re-
gardless of background to contribute to
better cities, communities and societies.
Amongst these, gaining momentum are
the terms Placemaking, Creative Place-
making and Participatory Design. All
three terms, in their own distinct ways,
speak about the engagement of people
with the intention of achieving change.
Placemaking and Creative Placemaking
delve more into the changes to the phys-
ical place. Participatory Design, on the
other hand, is a methodology that covers
a wide variety of uses in terms of product
and service design. Yet it is also a great
tactic for active engagement with re-
gards to people and place. In the order of
this argument, we must first understand
the significance of Creative Placemaking,
its antecedent Placemaking and then the
methodology of Participatory Design in
order to achieve the intended outcome
for this thesis.
Defining Placemaking
A definition of Creative Placemaking
would not suffice if we do not reference
it to its antecedent Placemaking. More
commonly associated with urban design
and planning, Placemaking has come to
encapsulate various disciplines. Project
for Public Spaces, one of the oldest and
core Placemaking organizations states:
“Placemaking emerged, manifesting itself
as the process by which we can find the
right fit between people and place. Place-
making urged urban planners, designers,
and engineers to evolve beyond their hab-
it of looking through the narrow lens of
single-minded goals or rigid professional
disciplines to a collaborative process
where the design and plan of a space
should be a partnership with the experts
of the community space: the people who
live, work and play in that place” (PPS).
The term Placemaking originated in the
1960’s, when writers and visionaries
like Jane Jacobs and William H Whyte
(author of The Social Life of Small Urban
Spaces) proposed the revolutionary idea
about “designing cities that catered to
2.2

42
people, not just to cars and shopping centers”. Their attention to the concept of
enticing public spaces and highlighting the importance of lively neighborhoods
to make communities thrive, brought about groundbreaking fundamentals for
creating social life in public spaces through the creation of meaningful and
connected places (Whyte).
PPS evolved their Placemaking process based on their work with William H
Whyte in the 1970s, and describe the basic process as an idea that “involves
looking at, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work and
play in a particular space, to discover their needs and aspirations”. This infor-
mation is then used to create a common vision for that place. The vision can
evolve quickly into an implementation strategy, beginning with small-scale, do-
able improvements that can immediately bring benefits to public spaces and
the people who use them”. Defining this as their “Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper”
(LQC) approach, they focus on simple yet profitable ways to leverage local cre-
ativity and resourcefulness and turn the regular public space into cherished
community places (PPS)
More than a philosophy or just a way to create better urban design, Placemak-
ing is a multi-layered process of participation. It aims at diverse social interac-
tion between the residents of a community to take part in the planning, design,
management and programming of public spaces leading to active, engaged
relationships to the spaces they inhabit. This furthers the development of ac-
tivities and connections - cultural, economic, social and ecological - which help
define the place and result in people spending more time in their communities.
The Project for Public Spaces founder, Fred Kent, defines Placemaking in an in-
teresting manner: “Turning a neighborhood, town or city from a place you can’t
wait to get through to one you never want to leave” (PPS). In the Placemaking
process, the role of each community member is redefined whether it’s the CEO
of an organization or a pedestrian on the street through their participation in
the place and experiences they share in the community. It creates a culture
of participatory and grassroots democracy where the community has direct
ownership of the process and its outcomes.
In evaluating thousands
of public spaces around
the world, PPS has found
successful places have four
key qualities in common: they
are accessible; people are
engaged in activities there;
the space is comfortable and
has a good image; and, finally,
it is a sociable place – one
where people meet each other
and take people when they
come to visit. PPS developed
the Place Diagram as a tool
to help people in judging any
place, good or bad.
Text and Image: PPS
We work for better public
spaces so that people will
have somewhere to sit and
talk with their neighbors.
- PPS

43
At The Alley Project, a garage
serves as a canvas for art, a
studio space for community cre-
ativity and a forum for events.
Photo: Erik Howard
Captions: PPS.
You know that you're in
a great place when you're
surrounded by all different
sorts of people, but still
feel like you belong.
Text and Photo: PPS
A young Detroiter participates
in the creation of a mural
at The Alley Project in
Southwest Detroit.
Photo: Erik Howard
Captions: PPS.

44
Creative Placemaking
On the other hand, a relatively new
term and an offshoot of Placemaking, has
emerged in recent years called Creative
Placemaking. Interpretations of the term
“Creative Placemaking vary but is more
relevant for me as a designer and the focus
of this thesis. It is an attempt to enhance
community and economic development
through arts and cultural initiatives that
have impact on place with regard to social,
economic and physical outcomes.
The top organizations funding this
relatively new term are the National
Endowments for the Arts (NEA) and
its non-profit Art Place; a collaboration
between NEA, 13 leading organizations
and a few of the nations largest banks
(namely Bank of America, Citi bank,
Deutsche Bank, Chase, MetLife and
Morgan Stanley). In an effort to reinvig-
orate communities through arts and
culture grants, these organizations fund
Creative Placemaking projects, with a
focus on reinventing neighborhoods and
downtowns across the 50 states. Com-
munities all around the United States
are readily embracing this new trend in
an attempt to improve the quality of life,
increase jobs, boost the economy and
thereby enhance prosperity.
The term, Creative Placemaking was
generated by the NEA white paper for
The Mayors’ Institute on City Design
Times Square Transformation
‘INSIDE OUT PROJECT: 701
Seventh Avenue.’ Backdrop
for Summer Solstice in Times
Square, New York, NY.

45
and was co-authored by Ann Marku-
sen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus. The
authors describe Creative Placemaking
as a situation in which “partners from
public, private, non-profit, and community
sectors strategically shape the physical
and social character of a neighborhood,
town, city, or region around arts and
cultural activities. Creative Placemaking
animates public and private spaces, re-
juvenates structures and streetscapes,
improves local business viability and
public safety, and brings diverse people
together to celebrate, inspire, and be
inspired” (Markusen and Gadwa).
The other chief force behind the Creative
Placemaking movement, ArtPlace, bas-
es its definition on the vibrancy factor.
“ArtPlace believes that art, culture and
creativity expressed powerfully through
place can create vibrant communities,
thus increasing the desire and the eco-
nomic opportunity for people to thrive
in place.” Vibrancy is thus defined in the
context here as “places with an unusual
scale and intensity of specific kinds of hu-
man interaction.” ArtPlace links vibrancy
to art and cultural efforts that cause
positive progress in the economy by
accumulating value, creating community
pride, attracting new business ventures,
resulting in more jobs and thus leading
to a better economy and prosperity
(Art Place America).
Food Chain, Sauk County, WI.
The annual Farm/Art DTour, a 10-day, 50-mile self guided tour through scenic
farmland punctuated by temporary art installations, Roadside Culture Stands, Field
Notes, Pasture Performances and more. Through the DTour and related project,
“Food Chain”, artists explore the timeless connection between land and people.
The Anpetu Was’te Cultural Arts Market,
Minneapolis, Minnestoa.
Photos and Text: Art Place America

46
The Creative Modifier
Another very important aspect of the
Creative Placemaking process is the
specific emphasis on the artist as a
facilitator or more popularly in their
terms: the Creative Modifier. Art
place states that successful creative
placemaking “…places artists and art
at the center of planning, execution and
activity.” This distinctly speaks of the ca-
pacity of the power of the arts, culture
and creativity to shape neighborhoods,
cities and towns and regions. It also
sheds light on the significantly debated
issue about the importance of the arts
today. It expresses that arts and culture
possess an inherently vibrant quality and
are advocated as vehicles for change,
providing empathy, engagement, em-
powerment, expression and enrichment
to the places they come in contact with.
In the course of doing so they address
the core skills of the 21st century:
community, creativity and collaboration.
artists + space = place
place > space
The inaugural Redmoon
Great Chicago Fire
Festival (GCFF)
introduces an annual
event tradition that will
celebrate the diversity
of Chicago’s great
neighborhoods and the
city’s powerful spirit
of renewal.

47
Principles of Creative Placemaking
Within Creative Placemaking, many
tools and strategies have been creat-
ed and adopted to foster connections
between people and place. While, driving
a broader agenda of change, growth and
economic transformation in the com-
munity, Creative Placemaking has an
added benefit of building the quality and
character of the place. These include,
but are not limited to, cultural districts,
artist relocation projects, mixed-use de-
velopment, municipal cultural planning,
creative industries, public art, commu-
nity art and urban design. This change
from space to place through the arts
and culture creates the sense of belong-
ing that human beings desire.
Whilst many may view Creative Place-
making purely as an urban revitalization
tactic, it brings us to the realization
that the essence of any place-making, is
engagement to the places that people
live, work and connect in, to the point,
where they themselves become vested
and connected so that they become
place-makers themselves. “Creative
place making leverages the creative
potential already present in a place. All
places have creative potential just wait-
ing to bubble up. Even while drawing on
resources from beyond the community,
leveraging local artistic and organiza-
tional talent and assets increases the
value in a community and the commit-
ment to it, while nurturing an enduring
sense of place” (Art Place America).
ArtPlace has outlined several different
principles of successful Creative Place-
making out of which I would like to focus
on the one that relates to the purpose of
my research. They advocate successful
Creative Placemaking as a process that
“fosters connections among people and
across cultures. The relationships built
among diverse groups of people create
safer, more open places that create
more opportunity and foster a sense
that everyone is welcome” (Art Place
America).
Diversity and its connection to
Creative Placemaking
Creative Placemaking “contributes to a
mix of uses and people that makes plac-
es more diverse, more interesting and
more active, thus making spontaneous
interaction more likely. Intensifying and
mixing activities creates the promise
that visitors can stumble onto the fun,
mingle with other people, or happen
upon opportunity.” This statement high-
lights certain words like interactions,
diverse, opportunity, active, and sponta-
neous etc. that all add values like hap-
piness, satisfaction and belonging into
the equation of diverse communities
today. To apply Creative Placemaking
within the specific scope of this thesis,
I would like to redirect the conversation
back to my emphasis on diversity and its
relationship to creativity.
Restating my belief that diversity is fer-
tile breeding grounds for creativity can
now explain why Creative Placemaking
is the means by which one can engage
many type of people, as active partici-
pants in fostering an emotional bond to
place. The diversity of people acts as a
major contributor to the creativity that
will drive the place forward economical-
ly, socially and emotionally. To elaborate,
we have come to acknowledge that
we live in an age of innovation, which is
directly related to creativity. Our times
emphasize original thought, ideas and
expression. Being open to diverse cul-
tures and backgrounds brings a wealth
of new angles to the equation as the
The Wynwood district in Miami is one of
many being rejuvenated through art.
Martin Luther King “I have a Dream”
projection by Russ RuBert on 170’ wide
historic silos in downtown Springfield. Part of
the ideaXfactory project in Springfield, MO
Text and Photos: Art Place America

48
greater the diversity the more distinctive
the ideas, narratives and experiences.
These lead to innovative outcomes for
the community and its vibrancy.
Another important aspect here is that
since Creative Placemaking is mostly
a collaborative effort, it also becomes
a way of weaving the social fabric of a
diverse community together. Every hu-
man being has the right to live in a great
place and also the right to contribute to
making that place greater. Therefore
by maximizing the creative potential of
a diverse community, it would ultimately
lead to better relationships between
diverse people by helping them form a
common vision for their community and
build trust in each other, in their efforts
towards the common goal the good of
the place they all belong to and which
they call home.
Creative Placemaking To Me As A
Designer
In recent years the designer’s goal
has undergone a significant change.
Designers are increasingly driven to do
good for society. The power of design is
now increasingly focused on changing
existing behavior and shaping com-
munities, as opposed to just designing
products and services for people. The
designers changing role is best under-
stood in terms of working with people
and not just for people. Creator of the
Design Revolution Toolkit, Emily Pilloton
states how as designers we “can design
better solutions for the greater good:
for people instead of clients, for change
instead of consumption” (Pilloton).This
can be proven by the success of the
recent trend of the power of design as
a way for creating conversations and
interactions. A relative understanding
of this stems from the success stories
of Facebook, Twitter and other social
platforms as mediums for conversations.
The success of these social media plat-
forms sheds light on the basic human
need of living in and amongst others
rather than in isolation. Human nature
is well regarded in the following phrase
from a famous quote by one of the most
founding figures in western philosophy;
Aristotle: “Man is by nature a social
animal.”
Labeling the human being as a social
animal traces us back to our evolution
and we realize that in this era of tech-
nology, the success of social platforms
is not just due to the technology itself.
The computer can never replace the
vibrancy of physical human interaction. It
just provides the medium for fast paced
conversations to happen. Therefore, it
is not the technology that is creating
conversation but rather the vibrancy of
human thought, personal views, expe-
riences and narratives. If we as human
beings can design such mediums for
virtual conversation then it is apparent
that it is our innate nature to live a life
that is built on our social and emotional
connections to each other, rather than
a life of isolation with our faces hunched
over our laptop screens and our one
sided conversations with our televisions.
It is our own input through feelings of
hope, aspiration, dreams that shapes
the conversation on the computer and
it is these acts that create culture.
Professor of design for social innovation
at SVA, Lee-Sean Huang states, “Design
is a tool for becoming a cultural agent.”
In my thesis, I connect this statement to
the notion of using design to affect the
culture of a place by using culture itself
The Inside Out Project
by Tedx karachi, pakistan - may 2011
STATEMENT: To expose the
persecution of minorities in Pakistan.
The Inside Out is a large-scale
participatory art project (by Artist
JR as the winner of the 2011 TED
prize) that transforms messages
of personal identity into pieces of
art work. Dubbed “the people’s art
project,” Inside Out’s goal is to
give a voice to the people within
their communities.
Text and Photo:
Inside Out Project

49
as the canvas. Furthering our argument
of diversity being fertile grounds for cre-
ativity, we face the basic reality that the
human race is extraordinarily diverse in
so many ways. Thus if we consider the
act of divergent thinking as the grounds
for creativity, we come to realize that
each of the 7 billion people on the face of
this earth has their own unique narra-
tive that can add to the vibrancy of the
conversation, which no computer can
ever replace.
In light of this, I place the designer as the
creative modifier who can design cre-
ative interventions that allow for entry
for all kinds of people in the community.
Through my process I will strive to devise
ways that allow for peoples creativity to
emerge.These interventions would be
focused on heightening the sense of be-
longing and ownership of place through
artistic and cultural interventions. Thus
the role of designer is instrumental here,
as designers are wonderfully skilled
in their abilities of tackling projects,
engaging audiences and challenging the
norm. They are accustomed to working
with all sorts of people and organizing
their research into creative outcomes
that inspire change. Creative interven-
tions from the designer’s point of view
also open up opportunities that not only
allow dialogue to emerge but instigate
connections and friendships, which go a
long way to progress. Therefore, consid-
ering diversity amongst the people and
connecting them is a big stride towards
a bigger picture of doing good for the
community and the world at large, at the
same time, providing value to the design
field’s changing paradigm of doing good.
Since, the whole idea of Creative Place-
making revolves around creative ways
to engage community around place. I
will design interventions to heighten the
sense of place and belonging by not only
using the physical location as the place
but the emotional concept of belonging
to that place or neighborhood. I intend to
develop a discourse around the idea that
we can all share a similar space, but we
can have a different sense of place. It is
our distinct stories and narratives that
allow for that to emerge. One anticipated
outcome is people being more vested in
the physical place they inhabit together
and thereby uplifting the place to which
they belong.
With the intention to focus on a neigh-
borhood as my point of entry, I would like
to clarify that the neighborhood in terms
of its planning is very important in its
role for promoting social diversity and
increasing the social capital of place. It
represents a small enough area that
supports the ideals behind neighborli-
ness, encourages collaboration, while
still being theoretically broad enough
to encompass a diverse audience that
can reflect beyond themselves and
their homes to consider their role and
contribution to place. Creative Placemak-
ing therefore leverages my ability as a
designer to connect the dots allowing
me to bring about ideas and everlasting
relationships that make the neighbor-
hood as vibrant as its diversity.
Furthermore, in an effort to empha-
size design and its relation to art and
culture in Creative Placemaking, I view
design as both an applied and a liberal
art. As an applied art, it combines cre-
ativity with innovativeness. It is a form
of a human endeavor, which combines
craft with technical skills. By liberal art,
it refers to the capability of design to
stimulate movements or changes in
society and in dealing with people. In or-
der to do that a designer has to explore
all fields from language to literature,
philosophy, math, science and history in
order to be knowledgeable as a cultural
agent to create effective solutions and
to build a shared vision.
I also believe design has the ability to
shape community and be a voice of
change by driving behavior. It is essen-
tially a communication-driven uniting
force and a primer for change, be it big
or small. Design can add value to a con-
versation by changing the way people
usually communicate through creative
interventions and tactics. This allows for
visible, tangible and simple outcomes to
manifest themselves amongst commu-
nity members. In the case of this thesis,
the outcomes being related to place,
design lines up perfectly with Creative
Placemaking.
My Creative Placemaking process, as a
communitcation designer includes:
Step 1: To understand, first hand, the
experiences of a diverse community through
opportunities to engage with them in
dialogue on a community level.
Step 2: Designing creative interventions
that allow for individual interactions be-
tween neighbors, in an effort to change the
me to we, by utilizing the creativity present
in the peoples’ diversity as the fuel for the
required dialogue.

50
Participatory Design
Going forth in our argument we now come to the design tactic that would
best serve as the bridge between Creative placemaking and Communication
design: Participatory Design. My interest in Participatory Design stems from
a progressively developing interest in creativity and leveraging the creative po-
tential within every human being. It is essential that I bring to light a discussion
into what it encompasses and brings to the table.
Theory + Context
Participatory Design, as a methodology of design, is completely opposite of
the traditional model of design. Rather than designing for users, it serves to
design with the users. To elaborate, as the name implies, instead of delivering
a final finished product or service to the consumer, it differentiates the tradi-
tional consumer to become a prosumer with a more active role in the design
process. The most successful participatory design seeks out content from
the user be it in visual form, thematic content, movement or action. Using the
input from the users, the designer translates the contributions into some-
thing greater than the initial contribution. The user is thus transformed into
an active stakeholder in the process and has ownership in the end product or
service that they would usually not have had in a the conventional approach.
The design field itself in the last few years has seen an influx of participatory
experiences, which reflect, a change in the mindset of people, and require new
ways of thinking, feeling and doing. Author of Make tools.com, Elizabeth Sand-
ers states: “Participatory design appreciates that all humans have something to
offer and can be both articulate and creative when given the means to express

51
themselves…In Participatory experienc-
es, the role of the designer and re-
searcher blur and the user becomes a
critical component of the process.”
The participatory culture has encour-
aged designers to reach out to the vast
pool of creativity in every human being
around them in various impactful ways.
The emergence of trends like crowd-
sourcing and the success of websites
like Threadless, Ponoko, the emer-
gence of blogs and the daily usage of
websites like Vimeo, Facebook, Youtube
and Wikepedia etc. has further pointed
towards the shift in the viewer as con-
tributor. In fact the viewer may have be-
come conditioned to approach design
with the intention of participation. The
difference between the collaborative
and participative culture should be real-
ized here. Collaborative suggests equal
involvement in a joint effort while Par-
ticipation is to take part in something
that doesn’t need the act of working
together but the idea of involvement at
an individual level to a larger outcome
curated by the designer.
Participatory design is not a design style
but rather an approach to a design
process. It is used in a variety of fields
from software design, urban design,
landscape architecture, product design
and graphic design. It even stretches
out to fields such as medicine in an
attempt to design experiences prod-
ucts or services that are receptive to
the consumer and the users’ cultural,
emotional, spiritual and practical needs.
Although the scope cannot be accumu-
lated in one argument, these different
types of projects share certain charac-
teristics like community, modularity, flex-
ibility and technology in some way. The
tools and techniques used to generate
participation encompass a broad range
of commercial, community oriented
and research contexts depending on
the aspect being explored. These can
include anything and everything from
digital systems, gaming, visioning and a
host of physical and digital frameworks
for feedback for products, services
and experiences.
Appeel (2007) is thousands of
stickers arranged into a grid. Peeling
one of them off puts a round ‘pixel’
in one’s hand while leaving a white
space in its former place. The pixels
take on a life of their own as they
become part of messages, images,
collections. Realized by purely analog
means, the stickers of Appeel
embody many of the paradigms we
commonly associate with the digital
world. It is a binary carrier for all the
messages humans can imagine
Text and Image: Apeel

52
While the concept of Participatory De-
sign is not new, technology has certainly
expedited the process and made it into
an important area to focus on in the
design world. Participatory design was
originally conceived in Scandinavia in
the 60’s and was named Cooperative
Design, based on the idea of community
opinions in decision-making and was
mostly concerned with trade unions
as a way to harness communication
between workers and managers. The
Americans later on, changed it to the
current term in light of their view of
strong separation between workforce
and hierarchy. Fine arts incorporated
postmodern values throughout the
1960’s and advocated for an interest
in the viewer to participate in the art in
front of him, to become whole with it,
change its meaning and interpretation.
Historical art movements around the
world like Dadaism, Constructivism
and the Gutai Art movement provided
a wealth of social experimentation
and fueled participatory movements
in the arts. Yet they remained in the
realm of cultural experiments, as part
of movements of artistic expressions
that spoke, engaged and provoked the
viewer to respond and thus form the
basis of participation.
Many Gutai artist created experiences in
parks that invited people to participate.
CLOCKWISE:
“Water” by Motonaga Sadamasa and
“Please draw freely” by Yoshihara Jiro
1956. From Gutai: Splendid Playground”
exhibition at the Guggenheim, NY.
Photo courtesy: Guggenheim, Ny

53
Today the participatory experience has
moved beyond just the arts to a point
of intersection between art and design.
The age of innovation has brought a
yearning for more creativity and ways
to use that creativity. Participatory
design therefore gives an opportunity
to channel that creativity. It comes
about as a visual language that gives
voice to individual expressions of ideas
and feeling that are often so difficult to
express. The amusing part about this is
that people often participate because
its cheap, easy and fun to do so but
in the process they end up forwarding
insights on their feeling, dreams, and
imaginations which might not have
emerged with a regular questionnaire
or interview. In the process of contrib-
uting, they may enjoy the expression
that comes with it, the empowering
feeling that their contribution is a part
of the bigger picture, and the creative
fulfillment it provides. Therefore the
intrinsic human need; to belong to
something greater, makes them feel
fulfilled and happy with this simple act
of participation.
Before I die… (2011) emerged as
powerful tool to remind us of the
things that make our lives meaningful.
one of the most creative participatory
projects and an experiment that has
achieved great recognition worldwide.
Confessions (2012)
Visitors were invited to submit their
confessions on wooden plaques in
the privacy of confession booths.
The project explored the idea of an
anonymous sanctuary to help us
console one another as we make
sense of our lives.
Text and photo: Candy Chang

54
Participatory Design As Dialogue
For Making Place
For the purpose of my thesis, I refer to
the community aspect of participatory
design as the essence for the creation
of social interaction amongst communi-
ty. By using participatory experiences as
dialogue, a sense of place can ultimately
be developed by engaging, connecting
and building community. This in turn,
would benefit the social capital of the
community. Paul Lample, in his book;
Creating a New Mind: Reflections on
the Individual, the Institutions and the
Community, plays on the popular meta-
phor and states:
“The Community as a Whole is More
than the Sum of its Parts” (Lample).
The role of the designer is therefore
elevated to that of a community builder.
In light of recent social trends, and the
human need for belonging and physical
interactions, we have seen that people
feel psychologically satisfied when they
make connections with other people.
The conversation that rises from these
connections often lends itself to demo-
cratic expression and identity especially in
instances of place and community build-
ing. Nina Simon in her book, The Partic-
ipatory Museum defines the facilitation
of dialogue as an art and attributes the
general principles behind it to be similar
to designing participatory environments.
Participatory design as a tool to facilitate
dialogue can be seen as the nexus be-
tween design and Creative Placemaking
as we expand on our argument further.
interaction
conversations
connections
influence thoughts
belonging
community

55
Participatory Design, The Bridge
Between Communication Design
And Creative Placemaking
Elaborating further, with regard to
its capability to elicit conversations,
participatory design is one of the major
tactics that brings rewarding results
by bringing into focus the people of the
place as important partners in the pro-
cess and having knowledge about the
place. Participatory design thus acts as
a bridge between the communication
designer and Creative Placemaking to
facilitate that dialogue in meaningful
and motivational ways. Participatory
design plays a key role in connecting
the designer with the users of the
place, with creative ways to achieve the
intended outcomes for Creative Place-
making; to create place and shared
vision for place.
Project for Public Spaces (PPS) regards
participation as being highly effective:
“Whether the participants are school-
children or professionals, the exercise
produces dramatic results because
it relies on the expertise who use the
place every day, or who are the poten-
tial users of the place.’’ In relation to
both creative placemaking and commu-
nity, the designer can offer a democrat-
ic approach through the engagement
of all stakeholders in the place, and can
create greater opportunities for them
to see each other’s contributions and
realize their similarities, thus bringing
about a shared passion for community.
Some may view participatory design, in
a negative light, as a means to delegate
responsibility and innovation into the
hands of amateurs. However the role of
the artist or designer is extremely im-
portant in participatory design. Although
other community members are required
to participate, the creative modifier is
the one who realizes the concept, the
framework for dividing up the process,
the mechanics behind it and the curation
of the collected responses in the final
form. None of this is possible without
the designer, his skills, and the way he
funnels the results of the participatory
dialogue towards the best outcome
possible. The designer, thus becomes
an art director or an animator amidst a
diverse population, building community
and connections between participants
at the same time as being a leader and
educator. By catalyzing ways to allow for
people’s creativity to emerge and at the
same time convening their responses,
the designer can help create an environ-
ment that ultimately benefits the sense
of place and community.
Milton Glaser talks about the concept of
shared identity within a community by stat-
ing: “Linking beauty and purpose can create
a sense of communal agreement that helps
diminish the sense of disorder and incoher-
ence that life creates”
Suggestion box consists of a
18” X 18” X 18” cardboard
box, painted white with
“SUGGESTION” stenciled on
it. Placed at various locations
across the United States,
the public is asked to make
suggestions about anything
they would like.
Text and Image: Illegal Art

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