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Book cover for Co-designing Infrastructures open access

Publication date: 27 April 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800082229

Number of pages: 236

Number of illustrations: 33

Co-designing Infrastructures

Community collaboration for liveable cities

Sarah Bell (Author),  Charlotte Johnson (Author),  Kat Austen (Author),  Gemma Moore (Author),  Tse-Hui Teh (Author)

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.

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

DOI: 10.14324/111.9781800082229

Number of pages: 236

Number of illustrations: 33

Publication date: 27 April 2023

PDF ISBN: 9781800082229

EPUB ISBN: 9781800082250

Hardback ISBN: 9781800082243

Paperback ISBN: 9781800082236

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

Listen to the authors of Co-designing Infrastructures

Listen to Tse-Hui Teh discuss Co-designing Infrastructures on The Bartlett Planning Podcast


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