Co-designing Infrastructures: Community collaboration for liveable cities

by Sarah Bell, Charlotte Johnson, Kat Austen, Gemma Moore, Tse-Hui Teh

Overview

Co-designing Infrastructures tells the story of a research programme designed to bring the power of engineering and technology into the hands of grassroots community groups, to create bottom-up solutions to global crises. Four projects in London are described in detail, exemplifying community collaboration with engineers, designers and scientists to enact urban change. The projects co-designed solutions to air pollution, housing, the water-energy-food nexus, and water management. Rich case-study accounts are underpinned by theories of participation, environmental politics and socio-technical systems. The projects at the heart of the book are grounded in specific settings facing challenges familiar to urban communities throughout the world. This place-based approach to infrastructure is of international relevance as a foundation for urban resilience and sustainability. The authors document the tools used to deliver this work, providing guidance for others who are working to deliver local technical solutions to complex social and environmental problems around the world.

This is a book for engineers, designers, community organisers and researchers. Co-authored by researchers, it includes voices of community collaborators, their experiences, frustrations and aspirations. It explores useful theories about infrastructure, engineering and resilience from international academic research, and situates them in community-based co-design experience, to explain why bottom-up approaches are needed and how they might succeed.

Praise for Co-Designing Infrastructures
'Co-designing Infrastructures is a useful provocation for museum professionals seeking to evolve their exhibition co-production models. The book, which is co-written by five authors, is targeted at community organisers, engineers, designers and researchers, but its themes will chime with creative producers of collaborative projects.'
Museums Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781800082250
Publisher:	U C L Press, Limited
Publication date:	04/27/2023
Series:	Engaging Communities in City-making
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	236
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Sarah Bell is City of Melbourne Chair in Urban Resilience and Innovation at the University of Melbourne and Visiting Professor in Environmental Engineering at University College London (UCL).

Charlotte Johnson is Head of Research Programmes at the Centre for Sustainable Energy and a Senior Research Fellow at UCL.

Kat Austen’s artistic practice is underpinned by extensive research and motivated by questions of how to move towards a more socially and environmentally just future.

Gemma Moore is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering.

Tse-Hui Teh is a lecturer in urban design and planning at the Bartlett School of Planning.

Sarah Bell is City of Melbourne Chair in Urban Resilience and Innovation at the University of Melbourne and Visiting Professor in Environmental Engineering at University College London (UCL). She is a Fellow of Engineers Australia, the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. Her research addresses urban resilience and sustainability, with particular expertise in water and community engagement with infrastructure. In 2014-2020 she was the Director of the Engineering Exchange at UCL, a programme to support partnerships between engineering and built environment researchers and local communities in London.
Charlotte Johnson is Head of Research Programmes at the Centre for Sustainable Energy and a Senior Research Fellow at UCL. She researches urban environmental transitions with a particular focus on inclusion and social justice. She uses participatory methods and draws on theories from Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies to analyse the social relations that are produced through infrastructural change.
Kat Austen is a person. Her artistic practice is underpinned by extensive research and theory and driven by a motivation to explore how to move towards a more socially and environmentally just future. With expertise in transdisciplinary methods, participatory research and co-creation, Austen is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, artist-in-residence at UCL Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences and lectures at UCL Bachelor’s in Art and Science. She runs Studio Austen in Berlin.
Gemma Moore is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering. She is an applied social researcher who has experience of working on activities that bridge research, evaluation and engagement. Her research interests focus upon knowledge production, participation, social sustainability and health and wellbeing, particularly understanding the relationships between people, their local environment and decision-making processes.
Tse-Hui Teh is a lecturer in urban design and planning at the Bartlett School of Planning. Her research is focussed on how collectives of people, things and other species can coevolve so that people can live in sustainable ecosystems. She uses interviews, discussion groups, workshops and document analysis in combination with design and co-design to understand how the relationships between people, things and other species have changed and are likely to change in the future. Her current projects look at water reuse, water quality, vacuum flush and dry toilets.

Table of Contents

List of figures
List of tables
List of voices
List of abbreviations
How to Read this Book
Acknowledgements
Glossary

1 Introduction
2 Urban Communities
3 Infrastructures
4 Bottom-Up Research
5 Social Housing Decisions: Demolition or Refurbishment?
6 Reconfiguring the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Engineering Comes Home
7 Collaborating for Environmental Justice: Somers Town Air Quality
8 Integrating Water and Urban Greening: The Kipling Garden
9 Tools for Co-Design
10 Conclusions

References