Read – PennPraxis

Genesis and Genocide: The Dakota Effort to Reclaim Fort Snelling

Timothy A. Schuler

Can design be an expression of a nation’s sovereignty? Can it aid communities in the pursuit of justice? Read Genesis and Genocide: The Dakota Effort to Reclaim Fort Snelling by Timothy A. Schuler

Living Lab Northern Rivers: A Case Study in Recovery Planning Co-design

Barbara Brown Wilson

With more extreme climate events happening across the globe, what roles can designers and planners play in supporting community-driven recovery? How should the processing of grief and loss inform the co-design process? What does ethical recovery look like when building back is not a viable option? How can creativity be woven into processes of building adaptive capacity while recovery is ongoing? Read Living Lab Northern Rivers: A Case Study in Recovery Planning Co-design by Barbara Brown Wilson

Church Grove: A Case Study in Self-Build Housing

Deborah Gans, Lawrence Blough

The “how” of community building and the “what “of architecture are perhaps nowhere better conjoined than in the self-build housing movement, founded on the premise of collective process from project inception and construction to its ongoing shared management. Read Church Grove: A Case Study in Self-Build Housing by Deborah Gans and Lawrence Blough.

From Abandoned Gas Station Brownfield to Arts + Resilience Community Hub: Seattle’s Mini Mart City Park

Catherine De Almeida

How does one create a new community space without triggering the displacement and gentrification patterns that often follow arts and parks-led redevelopment? Mini Mart City Park (MMCP) represents a radical reimagining of brownfield redevelopment. It is a project that challenges conventional, profit-driven models by centering environmental repair, cultural regeneration, and genuine community agency. Read From Abandoned Gas Station Brownfield to Arts + Resilience Community Hub: Seattle’s Mini Mart City Park by Catherine De Almeida

IFRC Park in Geneva

Allison Nkwocha, Isobel Zoe Morrison

Allison Nkwocha and Isobel Zoe Morrison, Penn alumna and landscape designers at WRT and Dirtworks, respectively, developed a case study that explores the making of a participatory landscape design in Geneva, Switzerland by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and a design, planning and engagement team led by urbz.

Clubcommission Berlin

Andreina Seijas, Lutz Leichsenring

Lutz Leichsenring, co-founder of VibeLab, and Dr. Andreina Seijas, founder of Night Tank, are studying Clubcommission Berlin—a non-profit network of 350+ music venues and cultural stakeholders—and the role of community-driven Nightlife in shaping adaptive urban regeneration. Pictured are participants in a Free Open Air Initiative test event at “H13” on the banks of the Spree River, Berlin-Spandau. (Image credit: Jason Krüger)

Machan: Play, culture and community space in Dhaka

Farasha Zaman, Ruhul Abdin, Kazi Arefin

Farasha Zaman, a landscape architect and Weitzman alumna, and Ruhul Abdin and Kazi Arefin, co-founders of Paraa, a research-based design and architecture studio in Dhaka, Bangladesh are examining Machan, a community center in the informal settlement of Korail, Dhaka. The design of the center was facilitated by Paraa in collaboration with residents and local leaders through a years-long participatory process.

UTOPÍAS, Iztapalapa

Zach Mortice, Karol Yáñez, Itzel Fuentes

Writer Zach Mortice and an author team of urban planners Karol Yáñez Soria and Itzel Julieta Fuentes Morales are developing complimentary analysis of the UTOPÍAS (an acronym for Units for Transformation and Organization for Inclusion and Social Harmony), a network of major parks and community spaces in Iztapalapa, Mexico City generated through varying combinations of grassroots activism and federal and municipal urban social policies.

Over the Rhine, Cincinnati

Danilo Palazzo, Vikas Mehta

Danilo Palazzo and Vikas Mehta, both professors at the School of Planning, University of Cincinnati, are examining Over-the-Rhine (OTR)—one of the largest, most intact urban historic districts in the United States with over 1,100 historically contributing buildings. Their case study explores OTR's rapid 21st-century transformation from a neighborhood marked by severe decline, disinvestment, and the 2001 civil unrest following the police shooting of Timothy Thomas, to its 2017 recognition by the American Planning Association as one of the nation's "great neighborhoods."

CASE STUDIES