设计与公正

Can design—architecture, graphic design, city planning—ameliorate social inequality? 去年, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum set out to investigate that question with a thoughtful exhibition. 毫不奇怪 由人民:设计一个更美好的美国 由三位作家撰写.

健康城市的神奇战略

明迪·汤普森·富勒洛夫71年 served on the exhibit’s advisory committee and co-wrote The Aesthetics of Equity: 健康城市的神奇战略 对于目录. It outlines the work of the Cities Research Group, which Fullilove helped found in the 1990s to better understand the myriad health epidemics ravaging low-income communities of color across the country—AIDS, 快克可卡因成瘾, 暴力, 和更多的.

The following excerpt describes a watershed moment when the group realized how physical changes to the landscape of Orange, N.J.，正在影响公民;

威廉·莫里斯近日, a professor in the Design and Urban Ecologies program at Parsons, 新设计学院, describes “naming and framing the problem” as the first step of design. 我们的第一位顾问是Michel Cantal-Dupart, who came in 2009 to examine the issues in the center of town. 他仔细研究了这个地区, 和居民一起散步, 查看历史地图, … and presented us with an unexpected observation. The 1960s division of the city by the construction of a freeway—the highway later known as Route 280—was understood by all of us. But Cantal pointed out that a shift in the train line had also contributed to the fracture of the center of the city, 创造了一个日益恶化的建筑岛. “看，”他对我们说. “It is as if there are two rivers—the train and highway. 在巴黎我们有一个这样的岛. We call it Isle de la Cité, it is a very popular spot. 你应该重新考虑你的城市岛, beautifying the ‘river banks’ and reconnecting the north and south.“

He used his blue colored pencil to show us how the train and the highway were rivers. Suddenly, City Island leapt off the page, giving us a new perspective on the city.

The role of the train line in the division of the city was revisited by 威廉·莫里斯近日. He and his students helped us to understand that 新泽西 was in the middle of a spurt of transit-oriented, ‘smart’ growth that was pushing massive construction around train stations. 在其他城市, 就像哈里森, 新泽西, the new construction was completely unrelated to the historic city’s contents and form. 像奥兰治这样的后工业城市, Harrison was inhabited by working people who lived near the now-empty factories that once provided a good living. These were being bulldozed and replaced by luxury apartments for people who could take the train to work in New York City.

“这种发展,莫里什告诉我们, “focuses on a rail corridor and ignores the rest of the city. This will displace the poor and intensify the fracture that you’re trying to repair. What you want to help people understand is that there is a larger city to restore, 交通方式有很多种, there is much opportunity for creating jobs in Orange so that people don’t have to commute. You have the opportunity to carry out a real and effective urban restoration, 这不是最新的城市更新形式.”

设计正义+设计空间

“Mass incarceration is a major social problem, as is the overuse of punishment generally,” says 芭芭拉·托斯博士.D. ’14 (GSSWSR), co-founder of the DJ+DS initiative to explore the relationship between restorative justice and the design of justice spaces. “The result is that those who commit crime rarely understand the true consequences of their actions and victims rarely receive justice in a way that addresses their needs.”

DJ+DS uses design to challenge how we think about justice, 司法实践, the spaces needed to accommodate those practices. The group works with incarcerated men and women to create new types of justice spaces that are inspired by the restorative justice philosophy. 它对 人民 included 3-D paper models and a perspective drawing of several of their design concepts.

实地指南，以确保选民的意图

由 惠特尼·奎森伯里，76届, the Center for Civic Design and its partner Oxide Design contributed a set of 10 pocket-sized books containing design guidelines and best practices for ensuring voter intent. “Election officials are unacknowledged designers,” says Quesenbery. “他们创造字母。, 形式, 通知, 和选票, but most don’t understand civic design and how to meet the varying literacy needs of the general population. The field guides help officials bridge that gap to create tools that voters can really use.头衔包括 设计可用选票, 设计选举处网站, 有效的投票工作人员材料.