Laboratory for Radical Participatory Design

“Part” as in participatory. “Part” as in one part of a whole. “Part” as in partake. “Part” as in partner.

PARTlab advocates for a new understanding of participatory design, one that does not simply engage communities, environments, and technologies, but invites them to become active participants in the design process.

PARTlab focuses on lean, fast, small, and actionable solutions, making a case for temporary, transitional, reciprocal, and ecologically responsive architecture as a vital part of our shared urban fabric.

Modes of Participation

Social

Design that participates with its communities, breaking the “fourth wall” by inviting people into the processes of imagining, making, adapting, and inhabiting the spaces around them.

Ecological

Design that participates with its immediate and extended environments as one small part of an interconnected urban fabric, creating bottom-up, reciprocal, and transitional spaces that adapt to changing communities, resources, and site conditions.

Material

Design that participates with its environment, allowing natural materials, ecological processes, and environmental conditions to actively shape its form, fabrication, and use.

Technological

Design that engages technologies, both new and old, as tools for expanding human agency, empowering people to determine when, where, and how those technologies are employed.