Detroit Collaborative Design Center…amplifying the diminished voice is the first of several film projects about participatory community design. This film and related projects will be of interest to architects, landscape architects, interior designers, city planners, academics, non-profit community based development organizations, indigenous peoples and those people interested in participatory design, community design, and a best practice approach to collaborative decision-making.

Sheri Blake conducted the research for this film. Blake observed and filmed nine workshops over eight months. Several focus groups and key informant interviews were conducted with stakeholders from Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC), and former stakeholders from various projects designed by DCDC, including Friends School Gymnasium, Mercy Education Project, NPower Michigan, People United as One, and the St. Vincent de Paul Van Elslander Family Center. Blake visited sites and interviewed users, both youth and adults. Various architects, designers, design professors, and related technical assistance providers, who have collaborated with the design center, were also interviewed or participated in focus groups. Blake attended lectures and student site visits conducted by design center staff. Forty-five hours of footage was filmed, collated and edited for this project. This film represents a best practice approach in collaborative decision-making that has been tested and adapted over ten years by various Detroit Collaborative Design Center staff, and externally evaluated by Blake in the making of this film.




OTHER PROJECTS IN PROGRESS

Detroit Collaborative Design Center...architecture as a political act is in production. The DVD will include a short history of the design center and their social justice mission. A range of projects, built and un-built, their design intentions and how the participatory design processes were adapted contextually and over time will be described. A series of film clips on the “how-to” of several of the workshop processes will be provided. Additional clips will explore specific projects and issues related to successful participatory design practice, drawing from workshop footage and related interviews.

Case study research is underway for Participatory Community Design…building design and development literacy. This third film will focus on how various designers build design and development literacy as part of substantive participatory design processes. The film will provide designers and others interested in collaborative practices with an understanding of how to reframe language and processes so that stakeholders can participate more effectively. A selection of best practices will be highlighted in the film.

Participatory Community Design…knowledge, skills, and attitudes will be a series of essays on film exploring issues about effective practice in participatory community design, technical assistance delivery, organizational capacity building, and related themes. The essays will incorporate a range of footage from the case studies described above.

Research is also being conducted on the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for good practice, towards the creation of an Institute in Community Design or a model for a Masters curriculum in Community Design.

A portion of this research/production work

Demystifying Expert Practice:
Mutual Knowledge Sharing in Community Design

is being funded by

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Research/Creation Grant in Fine Arts

If you would like more information, or wish to provide financial support to these projects, contact Sheri Blake at blakes@cc.umanitoba.ca or telephone 1-204-474-6426.




Director’s Bio

Sheri Blake, D.Eng. (Arch), M.Eng (Arch), MCIP, is Associate Professor, Department of City Planning, University of Manitoba. She is a former Monbusho Scholar (1987-93) and Fulbright Scholar (2000-1). She specializes in creative community engagement, community design, inner city community revitalization, and community and economic development. She has won several awards for teaching and community outreach. Blake’s publications, as writer, editor, or co-author, include: Chautauqua 2004 Proceedings: An Extravaganza of Participatory Planning and Design (Winnipeg: UM/Department of City Planning, 2006),“Community Design Centers: an alternative practice.” (Time Saver Standards for Urban Design, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003), Non-Profit Textbook: A Business Revolution Initiated by Creative Citizens (Tokyo: Housing and Community Foundation, 1997). Women’s Self Employment Project (Sou International, 1995), a documentary film Blake co-produced and co-directed, won Honourable Mention at the Bettina Russell Film Festival 1995.