“At its best, design can be a collective and inclusive process that addresses spatial injustices, empowering all those that the built environment serves, but more often this is short-circuited by ‘community engagement’ conducted at a superficial or tokenistic level.”

“…the housing crisis cannot be remedied without a robust sustainability vision; public spaces cannot truly celebrate neglected histories without addressing entrenched socioeconomic inequities; post-pandemic, the city cannot nurture better health and wellbeing for its inhabitants without challenging deep-rooted petroleum-fuelled habits that dictate urban design.

“Acknowledging the intersectionality of the challenges that the built environment faces, this research poses co-design both as a powerful design tool to uncover inequities and opportunities to redress them, and as an invaluable civic process…”

“With the ethical framework of spatial justice, practitioners first need to acknowledge the power and capital structures that shape the conditions for practice:

• Land ownership, which dictates the possibility and conditions of development;
• Forms of politics, from direct and representative democracies that determine processes of decision-making;
• Distribution of resources, what is being invested and in who.
• The built environment, the manifestation of political and design decisions. 

Typically, practioners solely operate at the last and most superficial strata, but with the framework of spatial justice, one must consider the fuller stratum of development layers, address deeper structural issues and find opportunities to leverage more meaningful and impactful change. The architect, or the designer in this sense will likely find theirself in the role of the ‘double agent’, where one has to negotiate between the interests of large landowers and small local groups, balance client requirements and one’s obligations to the public. …this professional positionality is not entirely neutral – every design decision has the potential to exclude and include, to provide generosity or withhold it. Within the framework of spatial justice, co-design (if conducted ethically and effectively) can be a means for different parties of the project to reconcile different value structures, and crucially, alter the power dynamics to facilitate meaningful collaboration and partnerships.”

READ THE FULL REPORT