I am really excited to be able to invite you to the Children Changing Cities panel this Saturday morning (6/19) at 9.30 at the Association for Community Design Conference (here) in Berkeley, California. The panel brings together a compelling collection of thinkers and doers who are redefining how we engage youth in making our cities, [...]
May 27, 2010
Believe it or not this image is a fake…..sort of. This is what the street really looks like. Look closely, very closely and you will notice that these are exactly the same views. That’s right, the image above is exactly the same as the one below, minus a couple of tweaks in Photoshop. At Public [...]
From Public Workshop’s Project Archives: Project: An Outdoor Classroom & Community Space For PS 134 Location:New York, NY Project Director: Alex Gilliam with help from Thor Snilsberg from Project For Public Spaces Year: 2006 Is it possible for children to make meaningful contributions in design processes beyond doing crayon doodles or filling out questionnaires? ‘I want [...]
April 19, 2010
If they are not meant for children, they are not meant for citizens either. If they are not meant for citizens-ourselves- they are not cities. -Herman Hertzberger Herman, quite frankly I couldn’t agree more and therefore when the Association For Community Design decided that the theme of their conference this year would be ‘Toward A [...]
Can a really smart dance company help us see the inner workings of our cities more clearly? In the midst of the tidal wave of chatter about redesigning and rebuilding cities, it is often quite easy to forget or simply miss the beauty, and the importance of the everyday. On the most basic level without [...]
And Brainstorming And Then Eating The Cake Too. Oh my goodness. Last weekend was one the most amazing design-build adventures I’ve ever been a part of. Mind you, it was cake and we didn’t get to do any sort of ‘built’ imagining of possibility on the cake itself but: 1.The number of people who participated [...]
February 21, 2010
Install recumbent bicycle benches at CAP Metro Bus stops? Outdoor stair climbers on Congress Ave.? In-ground trampolines on Guadalupe? Criss-crossing balance beams on 2nd Street? Concrete ping pong tables at intersections throughout town? Climbing boulders on East 5th Street? Let’s face it, many of you would consider me quite out of my mind if I [...]
February 18, 2010
From the Public Workshop project archive: In 1976, a major earthquake devastated much of Guatemala. Fred Cuny, an American disaster relief expert, tried something novel in the world of disaster relief: instead of building new houses for and giving them to displaced Guatemalans, he and his staff trained them to build their own. They trained the Guatemalans to build earthquake-resistant houses and then helped these new master builders train others in villages throughout the region. After this humanitarian crisis had passed, much to the horror of Fred Cuny and his team, these master builders were murdered or forced to leave Guatemala by the government. These master builders were seen as community leaders and a threat to the dictatorial power structure because not only were they helping build homes, but by sharing their knowledge they were helping build stronger communities. The carpenters were valuable to their communities. Save for people such as Sambo Mockbee, Maurice Cox, or Brian Bell can we say the same of architects?
Although Public Workshop may not make it to all of the following conferences, these are certainly events we're keeping our eye on and think you should too.
Event: Chicago K-12 Design Educator Potluck Presentation: You Can Change Your City by Alex Gilliam of Public Workshop Date: Thursday February 4th from 6.30-8.00 pm-ish Location: Landon Bone Baker Architects, 734 N Milwaukee Ave. Here’s why you shouldn’t miss it: Normally Public Workshop wouldn’t trumpet giving a presentation at a relatively informal event but ladies and gents, [...]
February 2, 2010
Local governments are the largest industry in the world without an r + d function. What happens if you create an informal r + d unit for a city, bringing together a carefully chosen group of people who are doing great but very different things in the world to re-imagine issues of civic importance where [...]
January 31, 2010
Many of you may have heard of or seen the jaw dropping French sport, parkours (here). If you saw one of the more recent James Bond films, Casino Royale, then you’re in. All of that amazing, almost too-ridiculous-to-be-possible but true leaping, bounding and clamoring that occurred in the opening scene was parkours. And believe it [...]
You may or may not have noticed, through articles by Public Workshop (here) or via a steady rise in media attention, but playgrounds for the elderly are on the rise. This innovation started in Asia, particularly China, Japan and Singapore but thereafter spread to Spain, Germany and England. Some countries such as Germany are taking [...]
Can a massive foam sword fight in the crosswalk of a busy street change the street-use culture of a community? This Friday University of Texas School of Architecture students are hosting their once a semester Foam Sword Friday at 12.30 at the crosswalk on Guadalupe between 21st and 23rd Streets. How does it work? Simple, [...]
A six foot long Betty Crocker version of Waller Creek? (not the tiny garden pictured here-kid’s stuff). That’s right, six feet long. Have we lost our minds? Probably. An impossible feat? Maybe but we’re going to have a mighty fine time trying. That’s right ladies and gents, as part of the East Austin Studio Tours, [...]
Waller Creek Is For Beasts And Diorama Making that challenges people’s perceptions of what happens in Waller Creek, AND gets them to look a bit closer at all of the fantastic things found in the Creek. Here are some more pictures from last weekend’s endeavors. You can also check out the group’s flickr stream and [...]
Changing a place by talking about someone’s mom and playing games? Dominoes and Talking Smack? What could be better on a Sunday afternoon at a brand spanking new time (4 pm) in a shiny new (as in we haven’t tried it) domino-themed place? Dust off your best momma jokes, bone up on your dot counting [...]
On Tuesday October 20th at 7.00 pm , Public Workshop will be presenting at the Building A Healthier Austin symposium. The organizers have done a great job of assembling a diverse cast of characters involved in health care, transportation, housing, planning, etc. for what will be a great and inspiring conversation. The focus will be [...]
October 18, 2009
Want to see the original article and comments? Click (here) —— How far were you allowed to travel alone when you were a kid? Are you per chance Vicky Thomas, from Sheffield? If by some very unusual fluke you are from Sheffield, England and your name is Vicky, you are now in your late thirties, [...]
October 11, 2009
Low and behold, if you were watching CBS Sunday Morning today you may have notice that Mo Rocca did a piece on Tom Vanderbilt’s excellent book, Traffic and even spent a good deal of time hanging out in Hans Mondermans traffic circle in Drachten. It’s a pretty fluffy piece but cool all the same and [...]
June 18, 2010
imagining, teaching