The Practice of Participatory Design

For the past few weeks our discussion of architectural history and theory has taken place through the lens of participatory design – both on the scale of individual architectural projects as well as on the macro scale of city planning and design.  In the text Everyday Urbanism, John Kaliski explains the guiding principles of participatory urban design, writing that “City design as situational architectural acknowledges that each person and entity is constructing space and place with the acts of daily life […] Working to design the city in this manner, the acts of the architect or planner cannot exist without the input of the city dweller.” In the introduction to the same text, Margaret Crawford echoes this idea of participatory design on the macro scale of the city, emphasizing that, “the practices of everyday urbanism should inevitably lead to social change, not via abstract political ideologies imposed from outside but instead through specific concerns that arise from the lived experience of different individuals and groups in the city.” Through the discussions and lectures of the past several class meetings, I think we have all observed the value of participatory design on both the architectural scale and the macro-urban scale.  I would even say that as a school of architecture, Clemson exhibits support for the ideologies of participatory design by offering a certificate in Community Design Build.  However, as this topic becomes more significant and pressing in our industry, my question is why hasn’t academia, or at least our academic institution, responded to this need with a curriculum that exposes students to actual participatory design projects? Instead of our studio projects being completely hypothetical, how can we learn, through experience, about the methods and practices of participatory design by using feedback from actual community members to inform our designs?