Co-designing Infrastructures: Community collaboration for liveable cities

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

Jan 2023 · UCL Press

Ebook

236

Pages

Eligible

About this ebook

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 it in community-based co-design experience, to explain why bottom-up approaches are needed and how they might succeed.

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 col...

Discover more

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

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets

Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.

Laptops and computers

You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.

eReaders and other devices

To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.

Flag as inappropriate