We have developed a series of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) that utilize the RAPIDO CORE as a base building and explore different outdoor design layouts that allow for adaptation and flexibility of placement in multiple lot configurations.
Read MoreDisaster Recovery Leadership Development Modules
[bc] has worked with the Texas Organizing Project (TOP) to create resources for individuals to learn about specific issues including flooding, the disaster recovery process, housing and gentrification. We hope that these "Modules" will help people provide informed feedback at community meetings, support community organizing efforts, and empower them to have engaged conversations with local officials and experts.
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Vacant Property Toolbox
The Vacant Property Toolbox responds to both the challenges and possibilities that vacant properties pose while also giving concrete strategies to help property owners avoide foreclosure.
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Brownfields to Greenfields: A Field Guide to Photoremediation
Produced by youarethecity, an urban design practice run by Kaja Kühl in NYC, the guide is aimed at individuals and community groups wanting to remediate toxic soil on vacant lots in their neighborhood.
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Drawing of the Islamic Riad, a shared courtyard that will join repaired homes & businesses
Ghana Think Tank: The American Riad
The Ghana Think Tank's most recent project, American Riad, is a 3 year project that will transform formerly abandoned homes in Detroit’s North End into 8 homes with a shared courtyard. The project concept came from a Moroccan Think Tank working to develop solutions to what they described as the United States’s “problem of social isolation”. Ghana Think Tank co-founder, John Ewing, recalled the feedback from the Moroccan group “They said to us you need to stop this obsession with the single family homes...instead you need housing more like ours: That's communal housing around a common courtyard with a single entrance, then you will have community.“
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A User’s Guide to (Demanding) the Impossible
Written by artists/ activists Gavin Grindon and John Jordan of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, this 68 page guide inspires readers with belief in the impossible. The poetic call to action was initially distributed at the 2010 art activism event organized to protest proposed cuts to arts funding in London. Since its initial distribution the Open Access text has been translated in more than 6 languages and downloaded worldwide.
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Daffodil Project
ne of New York City’s largest volunteer projects has been working for over a decade to make the city brighter one daffodil bulb at a time. Since 2001 New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) has been planting daffodils every fall and watching them grow in the spring. As of 2017 the project has distributed more than a half a million bulbs citywide and partnered with the NYC Housing Authority and city schools to engage more than 100,000 students and volunteers.
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"Active Design: Guide for Community Groups"
As one of the Center for Active Design’s more recent publications, Active Design: Guide for Community Groups addresses transportation, recreation, buildings, green space and nature and healthy foods and beverages. Inspired by NYHD’s work with community partners throughout the 5 boroughs, the Guide for Community Groups provides resources for communities to identify assets, envision the future of their neighborhood and strategize to improve public space. With these tools community led initiatives will be better empowered to make their neighborhoods more livable, vibrant and healthy.
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"Living Alleys Toolkit"
In this Living Alleys Toolkit the San Francisco Planning Department lays out 7 considerations to evaluate before initiating any Living Alley project including hydraulics, underground utilities and accessibility. The toolkit includes the Planning Department’s evaluation of these challenges according to standards and regulations in San Francisco but the principles and questions raised can be practiced and applied in any region.
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"A Mayor's Guide to Public Life"
The Mayor’s Guide to Public Life is an inspiration and how-to guide for city leaders throughout the globe. Based upon a series of interviews with mayors and designers, the guide proposes 5 strategies: Measure, Invite, Do, Evolve and Formalize. With these strategies in-hand, municipalities will have the inspiration and framework needed to build more accessible and inclusive public spaces.
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Jane’s Walk
The global initiative of Jane's Walk is inspired by activist and urban studies scholar, Jane Jacobs. In her practice Jacobs emphasized that cities should be shaped by the residents that occupy them and Jane’s Walks provide opportunities for people to tell the stories of the spaces where they live, work and play while also building new relationships within their communities.
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"Walk Boston: Pedestrian Infrastructure, Strategies for Improving Pedestrian Safety Through Low-Cost Traffic Calming"
In 2015 the WalkBoston published a report on low cost pedestrian improvements entitled Pedestrian Infrastructure: Strategies for Improving Pedestrian Safety Through Low-Cost Traffic Calming. The report focuses on traffic calming strategies that can be implemented quickly and at a low cost by an individual, organization or municipality.
Read More"Trainer's Guide for Participatory Learning and Action and PLA Archive"
The Participatory Learning and Action Trainer’s Guide is part of the the International Institute for Environment and Development Methodology Series which offers tools, techniques and exercises to build dynamic learning environments for adult learners. The two part manual draws on decades of research by the IIED and provides guidelines for community empowerment through participatory projects.
Read More"A Consensus Handbook: Co-operative decision-making for activists, co-ops and communities"
A Consensus Handbook is a manual created by the UK Social Justice and Environmental Activism Worker Co-op, Seeds for Change, that provides tools and techniques for cooperative decision making processes.
Read MoreCandy Chang and Vendor Power
Trained as an Urban Planner, designer and visual artist Candy Chang has been making art in the public sphere since 2006. In 2009 she collaborated with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and the Street Vendor Project to make a poster pamphlet that explained the complex regulatory system for street vendors in New York City. The project includes a history of street vending in New York, interviews with street vendors and policy reform recommendations.
Read More"Organizing for Participatory Budgeting: How to start participatory budgeting in your community."
Participatory Budgeting is a democratic and collective process in which community members decide how to spend a part of a public budget.
Read More"THE CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO URBAN DESIGN"
The Citizen’s Guide to Urban Design is a four section resource guide, commissioned by the Foundation of Louisiana in 2012, intended to guide the general public on how to play an active role in the design of their neighborhoods, communities, and cities.
Read More"Two Seed Grenade Recipes or How to Hide an Illegal Dumping Site"
Authored in the 1970s by New York City's community garden group Green Guerillas as a guide to combatting urban decay, "seed green-aids" are cheap and easy to deploy, and yield unpredictable, but potentially beautiful, results.
Read MoreOrganizing and Learning with Food
Food is, and always has been, something that brings people together. It’s an opportunity to share ideas, to meet new people, to learn new things, and to have some fun. There are so many different initiatives that have food as integral part of community building, here are just a few examples of people and projects that inspire us to think creatively about the importance of a meal.
Read More"Action Guides"
Maryland based planning and design nonprofit Neighborhood Design Center has created five guides to the community services they offer. Topics include planting trees, planning and making a neighborhood mural, home weatherization, weed removal, and giving presentations.
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