BANKS+Research+Design+Grid


 * Aims || Questions || Data Collection || Emerging Arguments || Literatures ||
 * Identify characteristics and useful definitions for "technologies of public space." || What technologies do you find in good public spaces?

What technologies create good public spaces? || Work with communities in North Central Troy and Kumasi Ghana to better understand what makes technologies of public space.

Read secondary literature on "place making", critical technical practice, participatory action research, and critical making. || Good spaces are well-defined in their boundaries and flexible in their usage (Lynch 1981).

Ownership (a kind of technology) can make all the difference. From People's Park in Berkeley (Mitchell 2003) || Anarchist theory, critical making literature, participatory action research, open source projects and community design best practices. ||
 * New methods for collaborative design ||  || Conduct interviews with charrette participants in North Troy.

Field notes about the planning and construction of Freedom Square || Target users and stake holders must be a part of the process very early on.

Products, services, and architectures that come about through relatively free market forces may never fill the needs of underrepresented groups or the poor. ||  ||
 * Solve perceived local community problems and improve general living conditions without gentrifying the area. ||  ||   || Poorer communities tend to do a lot of culture work that produces value that is sold by capitalists that own the land and profit off of the culture and character of the space. I.e. Greenwich Village, New Orleans, and SoHo. (See Harvey 2012) ||   ||
 * How can communities within municipal regions create mutual aid networks and communication tools that reduce perceived community issues. ||  ||   || No matter how radical the intentions of a given organization, it must dedicate a considerable amount of thought to how it interacts with and it what ways it is "compatible" with the status quo and "mainstream" institutions. (See Graeber 2009 and Harvey 2012) ||   ||