explore. reflect. respond. designing for small communities

Designing for small communities.

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People and places are ultimately why design exists. In recent years,

many designers have turned their efforts towards creating solutions to

social problems. Four groups—Make by Þorpið, Austurland: Designs from

Nowhere, Designers & Forests, and Epicenter—have sought, through new

and tested methodologies, to engage with the frontier—the small commu-

nities that are often disregarded for lack of population or lack of capital.

These designers and organizers have contributed to the life in small cit-

ies and towns by participating in in-depth and constructive discourses.

Through immersion, they have found inspiration in community identity,

history, and culture and have found new ways to work as designers. Their

work is as varied as the regions where they reside but they all work collab-

oratively with the stakeholders of their communities and across disciplines.

Design is found as both the solution and the process in the work of these

groups. In the frontier they work in, design may stake out new territory,

creating new paradigms of collaboration and engagement as solutions are

created. For these collectives, the design process is used as an strategy for

regional development, as they aim to clarify and communicate the complex

problems facing small communities. Through a collaborative process the

concepts that are generated not only serve as answers to complex prob-

lems but help to define the path for future inquiry and development.

The problems confronted by small communities are often complex, but

through the methods used within community engaged design sustain-

able results and solutions can be found. Solutions that are created benefit

planet, people, and foster prosperity. In the following, four design groups

from Iceland, Sweden, Great Britain, and the United States share their own

community based design processes, their outcomes and show how design

can be used for engaging people and developing communities.

With contributions by:

MAKE by Þorpið

Iceland

make.is

EPICENTER

United States

ruralandproud.org

AUSTURLAND: DESIGNS

FROM NOWHERE

Iceland | United Kingdom

designsfromnowhere.is

DESIGNERS AND FORESTS

Sweden | United States

designersandforests.us

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DESIGNING FO

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Q: What does community mean to you and your work? How do you define it?

A: Creative community is a playground where people of diverse backgrounds

work together led by creative thinking. The collaboration is to discover the

potential power concealed in common knowledge, traditions and passion,

and how that power can encourage creativity.

Q: What role does collaboration have in your process or projects?

A: Collaboration means everything to Make by Þorpið, the willingness to

form partnership with individuals and groups is the most effective way to

create valuable ideas, projects and network in local and global context.

Collaboration is inherently educational, both through sharing personal skills

and experiences and on an academic or technological level.

Q: What sort of impact do you hope your work have in your community or

the community you are working with?

A: 1. Through creative processes, we hold a desire to create a hotspot in the

far East. Led by an ideology based on utilizing local materials, skills and

production methods, we hope to encourage entrepreneurship and to attract

young people to take part in this development with us.

2. We hope that locally made products demonstrate the cultural legacy of

East Iceland and strive to maximise the value of local materials. We also aim

to incorporate sustainability and design value in all local products.

3. We hope that by introducing creative thinking and design processes into

the community the project will support the development of local industries

and suggest new solutions to old problems within the social systems in East

Iceland.

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image: MAKE by Þorpið

Collaborator Lára Vilbergsdóttir

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Make by Þorpið

Make by Þorpið is a design and development initiative in Iceland. The main focus is on facilitating cooperation between designers and local manufactur-ers and the materials available in East Iceland, with the aim to create projects and products that incorporate sustainability and design value.

Make by Þorpið is a hands on project that relies on people and their ideas, energy and motivation. A main philosophy of the project is to make use of what we have got both in terms of material resources and human resources and to enhance it with different perspective.

Make by Þorpið is a valuable international network and a platform of crafts- people, designers, creative thinkers and producers in the area. The aim is that East Iceland will be a destination for creative people offering diverse services of workshops and residencies in various locations in East Iceland.

above image: Designers and Forests all other images: MAKE by Þorpið

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Austurland: Designs from Nowhere

Austurland: Designs from Nowhere explores the possibilities for small-scale design and production in East Iceland, using locally sourced materials and skills. The exhibited work was created following a series of workshops that took place in Autumn 2013 featuring the designers Max Lamb, Þórunn Árnadóttir, Julia Lohmann and Gero Grundmann collaborating with local practitioners in Egilsstaðir, Djúpivogur, Eskifjörður and Norðfjörður. The products are pre-sented for the first time at Spark Design Space during DesignMarch.

For each designer, the workshops started with an intensive learning process, to help understand better the potential of the materials and resources found among their new surroundings. For Max this meant exploring the hillsides south of Djúpivogur with Vilmundur Þorgrímsson, learning the geology of the mountains and considering potential uses for the rock. Þórunn learnt rudimentary net-making skills under the patient tutelage of net maker and teacher Þórhallur Þorvaldsson in Eskifjörður, while Julia and Gero roamed the coastline in Borgarfjörður eystra collecting seaweed and driftwood sam-ples to test for suitability in their designs.

The project is built on the ideologies of Make by Þorpið and is a direct out-come of the Make It Happen conference held in East Iceland in September 2012. The long-term aim is to make Austurland: Designs from Nowhere a bian-nual project, inviting a new group of designers to the East Iceland region

image: Designs from Nowhere


A: Community is the context in which all of our work takes place, whether

in a global city like London or the villages of East Iceland. Community is

the shared history, resources and skills that define each project and it is the

audience that we speak to with the results.

Q: What role does collaboration have in your process or projects?

A: In the case of Designs from Nowhere, without collaboration there is no

project. At the beginning of the workshops in East Iceland there was an

intense learning process to understand the possibilities that exist in each

community. From the start this meant that each design process was col-

laborative as the designers learnt new skills and explored the cultural history

of the region.



A: We hope that the legacy for Designs from Nowhere is a better under-

standing of the potential that every community holds within it. The project

was created with the specific intention of unearthing hidden or lost skills

or resources in the community that could be developed into new products.

These products represent the communities in which they were made and we

hope that they encourage others to look around them at the resources on

their doorsteps.

all images: Designs from Nowhere

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Collaborator Pete Collard

above: Designers And Forests left: Epicenter

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Epicenter

To accentuate Green River, Utah, USA’s rural pride and pioneering spirit, the Epicenter works to promote the town of Green River and make it a more vibrant place to live and visit. A passionate, multidisciplinary team of young professionals, Epicenter engages, collaborates with, and learns from our community. We value the potent effect of collaboration over egotism, com-munity participation over subversive upheaval, and local solutions over top-down decrees. We see ourselves as part of a change of tone occurring in the design professions, led by emerging professionals who want more than what the licensed professionals have settled for: working unapologetically for the socioeconomic elite. Epicenter is crafting an alternative model of prac-tice, one that can accommodate our fervent desire to collaborate, to provide “shelter for the soul,” and to emphasize place and circumstance. Epicenter’s insistence for these ideals has led us to a radical mission taken on by “citizen architects.” To this great revolt we hereby pledge allegiance.

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TOOLKIT

LIST ALL COMMUNITY STAKE HOLDERS (WHO ARE THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE UP YOUR COMMUNITY? THINK THROUGH

MANY DIFFERENT SPHERES AND SCALES OF INFLUENCE)

EXPLAIN THE STATE OF YOUR COMMUNITY NOW EXPLAIN HOW YOU HOPE YOUR COMMUNITY IS IN THE

FUTURE

DESCRIBE YOUR COMMUNITYWhat does your community do well?

Are there problems in your community?

Where is your community, who are your neighbors?

What resources are available to community members?

Anything left out?

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EXPLAIN HOW COMMUNITY MEMBERS ARE CONNECTED

SKETCH PAD

LIST THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

RECORD YOUR COMMUNITY GOALS

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all images: Epicenter

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A: As local leaders of change, we do hope to inspire our community to craft

a vision for their future. Less locally, we hope to inspire the global design

community to collaborate with their communities and to emphasize place

and circumstance. However, if you're going to work locally, there is little

"hoping." There is only "doing." Since 2009:

We have renovated a historic building in a blighted area of Green River, Utah.

We co-developed the town's first ever affordable housing plan.

We have facilitated the de facto chamber of commerce which has meet every

other week since January 2012.

We have raised funds for and design/building the first ever Habitat for

Humanity home in Green River at a total cost of $76,500 for a 1050 SF 3

bed/2 bath home.

We started the first ever residency program in Green River in 2012 which has

hosted 41 professional artists-in-residence called “Frontier Fellows.”

We started the first ever arts programming in Green River. Since beginning, it

has facilitated 47 multi-session community arts workshops with 141 sessions

serving 385 unique participants ages 4-80, 3 arts and music festivals, and

mentoring 7 local teens as interns (teaching design thinking and promoting

higher education to ages 15-20.

We started the first ever local housing rehabilitation micro-lending program

(“Fix It First”) in Green River and completing 15 critical home repairs during

2013.

We assisted 71 households with social services such as food stamps, unem-

ployment, and various housing programs.


A: Epicenter has a few different communities. Our direct community, that

of Green River, Utah (pop. 952), is defined as each and every resident in

town. Without our local community, the Epicenter wouldn't have purpose.

Everything we do is human-centric and for our local community. Our work

is citizen-led and determined by our community's wants and needs. Beyond

our town's borders, we're a part of a larger community of emerging designers

and artists who share our attitude and common goals of working to create

change through collaboration and design.

Q: What roll does collaboration have in your process or projects?

A: As emerging professionals, we value the potent effect of collaboration

over egotism, community participation over subversive upheaval, and local

solutions over top-down decrees. We see ourselves as part of a change

of tone occurring in the design professions, led by emerging professionals

who want more than what the licensed professionals have settled for:

working unapologetically for the socioeconomic elite. We are crafting an

alternative model of practice, one that can accommodate our fervent desire

to collaborate, to provide “shelter for the soul,” and to emphasize place

and circumstance. Our insistence for these ideals has led us to a radical

mission taken on by “citizen architects." To this great revolt we hereby pledge

allegiance.

Collaborator Maria Sykes

all images: Designers and Forests

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Designers and Forests

Designers and Forests is a small group of interested individuals engaging in a conversation about their, and society’s, involvement with forest environ-ments. Forests offer a wealth of possibilities. They are rich in raw material, yet also play a complex role in society—places that can be both very wild and highly cultivated and that elicit strong emotional responses.

Through our interaction with the forest environment, we find opportunities for connections between individuals, scientists and designers to engage in interdisciplinary research and creative collaboration within our communities and throughout the world. While our methods are simple, our aim is lofty—to create healthier forests, healthier communities, while creating better design-ers and citizens. We maintain focus by keeping our efforts small and sustain-able. We believe in taking creative risks, confronting conflicts, and making informed decisions that will benefit the small communities where we live and work.

Beetle Kill and Aspen Die-Off is the inaugural project of the larger Designers and Forest collaborative. This design venture was prompted by the pine, spruce, and aspen that are stressed and endangered as a consequence of changing conditions in the Intermountain West. It links designers from Sweden and New York with foresters, scientists, activists, designers, arti-sans, and community members in Utah. The overall goal of the project is to help revitalize forests and foster healthier communities by taking a holistic view of both natural ecosystems and the design process.

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A: Community is an increasingly fluid concept. Certainly, there is the

most traditional definition—those who you live or work with, knowing or

experiencing them directly. When working with community based design,

the community is your audience. However, the range of the community may

vary. In many places in the United States, travel is expected so the physical

scope of the communities is greater. In other, more densely populated places,

a community may be a neighborhood, a block, or even a building. Perhaps it

is the sense of awareness of who a person shares immediate space with, of

those who are impacted by that person’s actions, that defines a community.

A newer definition of community grows out of the increasingly global, far

reaching connection made possible through modern means of communica-

tion. In preparing for this project, we spoke more frequently with a colleague

in Sweden than with many individuals in our traditional community. In such a

case, community may be defined through shared beliefs, interests, expertise,

and experience, no matter how geographically isolated


A: Design is inherently collaborative. There are so many creative individuals

currently working and solving problems in their own communities that we

must acknowledge their experience and efforts, learning from, and working

with, them. As we design, we involve experts from different disciplines in

our process, helping us to answer the questions we cannot. We also view the

people or the communities we work with as being an essential part of the

design process. Designers should hand-over some of their creative assump-

tions, and create work that many people—even a community—can take

ownership of and continue.



A: We gauge the impact of our work on multiple levels. There is the simple,

yet lofty, goal of making the world a better place by making life easier for

another person or by putting a smile on a face. At a more complex level, we

would like our work to continue beyond our own efforts and ideas, inspiring

others to action. We view the design pieces we create to be only one way to

have an effect. It is the interactions that are part of the design process—the

informal conversations and formal workshops—that have the potential for

as much, if not more, impact. Through experience, people learn. Through

exposure to other points of view, people may change their perspectives and,

hopefully, their actions.

Collaborators Megan Urban & Jason Dilworth

all images: Designers and Forests

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A: The community for me means resources. When applying design thinking

in development processes, and connecting the community to it, there

are endless opportunities. Design can bring forward more knowledge,

experiences and thoughts, and enhance the creativity throughout the whole

process. Design adds important tools for innovation and visualization.

Connecting to the community in regional development is essential for

achieve shared understanding of challenges and visions. It is a must for

getting knowledge of the needs, important information, and relating to

different stakeholders. When I work in community based design projects I

aim to co-create, and co-design. The inspiration comes from the community,

and the outcome is more sustainable.


A: First of all, without collaboration, the work would not be all that fun.

Collaboration is a fuel to me, specially within design projects . I get knowl-

edge from specialists, I learn and explore. I get new friends and connections.

Together we test and experiment. Together we can make stuff, that none

of us could come up with alone. I also believe that creative problem solving

is made best together. We can use our different creative skills and crazy

thoughts, and mix them up to fantastic results. Collaboration means respect,

humbleness and curiosity. We need more collaboration between different

minds and people. Between ages, between different cultures, between

disciplines. Collaboration makes us work more together, we can understand

each other better, reach out and make the world a better place.’



A: The wanted impact depends on what we want to achieve. Often the aim

within community based design projects is to strengthen the identity of a

place to make a destination more attractive. We set up common guidelines

in a communication platform, that the community works from. We look at

the stages in the brand wheel and try to maintain a high level of satisfaction

for the visitors. The community decides together the core values and works

together to communicate them through signs, marketing, food, scents,

materials, buildings etc. Then, there can be other reasons to strengthen the

identity and the connection to a place. We want to connect to our story,

we want to be proud, and feel as a collective. Sometimes we can achieve

that in unexpected ways. Through provocative design, through design that

illuminates a situation, design that has a content and a message, design that

engage. That’s what I want; I want my work to engage the community!

Collaborator Daniel Byström

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Designers and Forests collaborator Paul Rogers

Director, Western Aspen Alliance

Ecology Center Associate

Wildland Resources Department

Utah State University

Q: Describe your work?

A: My work addresses forest ecology and large-

scale landscape monitoring. I am most interested

in human impacts on forest communities. Thus,

my research has entailed investigations into

fire ecology, monitoring methods, lichen and

plant surveys (as bioindicators), large ungulate

herbivory, and air pollution. All of these factors,

and others, affect forest change and resilience.

Human decisions on controlling their own

impacts, as well as those of wild and domestic

animals, play a big part in present and future

system integrity. In recent years, I have focused

much of my energies on understand quaking

aspen (Populus tremuloides) ecology and dis-

seminating recent science related to this topic to

interested scientists, land and wildlife managers,

non-government organizations, schools, and the

public.

Q: What can a designer learn from the forest and

it’s ecosystems?

A: Interconnectedness. Much as we’d like to

believe that natural and social systems operate

along simple linear pathways, this is rarely the

case. Some may believe this runs counter to basic

tenants of design which often invoke simplicity

and elegance. However, I would argue that

connections between salient components—be they

trees and soil, fire and fuels and wind, or sound

and color and beauty—are all lessons to be drawn

from thriving forest ecosystems. I am particularly

interested in links between humans and natural

systems. Sometimes the connections are positive,

in that they promote sustainable natural and

social environments, and sometimes they are

negative, in which they trend otherwise. When

Euro-American settlers first came to the Rocky

Mountain West they saw the high mountains and

forests as a bounty, there for the taking. As time

passed, settlements arose, and societies matured

preservation of surrounding wildlands became

synonymous with self-preservation. Overgrazing

lead to flooding. Fire suppression lead to fuel

build-up. Damning too many rivers in times of

water plenty lead to over-allocated water in times

of drought. Thus, we are faced with dilemmas

calling for design solutions based on compatibility,

sustainability, and resilience at the crossroads of

human ingenuity and ecological complexity.

Q: What is the one thing you would like people to

know about the ecology of the Utah forests?

A: The things we do to forests have implications

for us. Sometimes those implications have direct

monetary consequences, like degradation of

grazing or hunting lands that affect people’s

livelihoods. Other times they simply impact our

quality of life, as in reduced stream flow, wildlife

habitat, camping opportunities, or aesthetic value.

Forests, and the beauty their complexity holds,

may serve as an elixir to societal ills; those busy

and stressed lives overly dependent on instant

gratification. For example, aspen may form a

forest of genetically identical stems connected

underground. Over time, these aspen “clones”

may expand or contract depending on larger

factors impacting their development. If we allow

too many animals to eat the young sprouting

stems from extensive aspen root systems we are

dooming clones, forests, even large landscapes to

reduced aspen cover and the biodiversity those

forests support.

Ecology is an open-ended query into the way

the natural world functions. Ecologists embrace

complexity for the lessons it teaches about

natural systems and the way we engage them.

In understanding connections, we learn while

we contemplate. This, of course, takes time and

patience. We can learn from the forests around

us by making connections. The wisdom of these

lessons helps us all live compatibly together.

WESTERN ASPEN ALLIANCE is a joint ven-

ture between Utah State University’s College

of Natural Resources, USDI Bureau of Land

Management, and the USDa Forest Service,

whose purpose is to facilitate and coordi-

nate research issues related to quaking aspen

(Populus tremuloides) communities of the

west. The WAA disseminate state-of-the-sci-

ence aspen information to interested manag-

ers, researchers, the public, and other entities.

We host conferences, webinars, an online aspen

subject matter bibliography, and an exper-

tise database. The goal of the Western Aspen

Alliance is to facilitate effective and appro-

priate management of aspen ecosystems in

Western North America through coordinated

scientific efforts and shared information.

www.DesignersAndForests.us

Designing for small communities.

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DESIGN by MEGAN URBAN & JASON DILWORTH, DESIGNERS AND FORESTS PRINTED IN JAMESTOWN, NY, USA

image: Designers and Forests

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community engaged design

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