Welcome to the designsustainably blog!
As I finish up my semester, I would like to share some of my thoughts and intentions for this blog and how well I believe I achieved or did not achieve them.
This blog was a means for me to quickly share my ideas and research to a large audience. While the efficiency of initiating, managing, and updating a blog is clear in the sense that the moment I hit “Publish”, a post or page publishes, it does not completely satisfy the requirements of a participatory planning process. In fact, the title of this blog is really a misnomer. The name “Sustainable Community Design for Public Housing” should really be and has since evolved to require a label more like “Sustainable Community Design for Public Housing Residents.
So, despite its many positive and useful qualities, a major shortfall of this blog is the lack of involvement with residents. However, I did learn one essential element of participatory planning that I was surprised by… one that strikes my mind especially. Physical designs to address the problems of public housing and associated residents are often limited by a distinct lack of social and cultural context embedded in the designs. Also, public housing residents desire the same qualities in neighborhoods that any resident desires: namely, comfort, sense of belonging, working fixtures, a visually attractive home, and a sense of pride in one’s own home and neighborhood.
However, the lack of direct involvement with residents was, in many ways, intentional. The Charlottesville area struggles with many preexisting and persistent social and cultural prejudices as well as historic injustices. To approach public housing residents without being adequately prepared about their perspectives and background beyond stereotypes, would not serve them well. Further, to directly speak to residents without an end objective of literally, physically, and IMMEDIATELY helping them with their problems would be an injustice as well. People affiliated the University often have a “paratrooper” mentality that I have tried to avoid… that is, jumping in to “save the day” and immediately withdrawing or leaving the vicinity based on the timeline of students and faculty (the semester academic calendar).
In addition, not only do I, as a researcher, planner, and urban designer, need to be adequately prepared to face public housing residents in person, but the residents themselves must be willing to be truly involved and initiate change from within. How this is to be done, is the ultimate question.
