Designing Cities For All

In Designing Cities For All (DCFA), Pakhuis de Zwijger’s two year research and activity programme funded by the Creative Industries Fund NL, we take a critical look at the design field, redefine what it means to design, and question the role of designers in creating cities of belonging - cities of, for, and by everyone. 

Cities of Belonging
The idea of Cities of Belonging is inspired by writer OluTimehin Kukoyi’s TEDx-talk Who Belongs in a City? In this TEDx talk, Kukoyi amplifies that ‘The only cities worth building, indeed the only futures worth dreaming of, are those that include all of us, no matter who we are or how we make homes for ourselves.’ While belonging can mean different things to different people, sociologist Yuval-Davis (2006) defines 'belonging' as a feeling of 'emotional attachment, feeling at home and feeling safe’. What does it mean to feel at home in a city when the infrastructure of the city does not recognise your existence?

Going slightly back in time, the highway to the Jones Beach State Park in New York designed by architect Robert Moses is a tangible example of belonging being disrupted. The viaducts, which were built from 1920 to 1970, which are only 2.70 meters high made it impossible for buses to get to the park. Buses which are mainly used by people who can't afford a car. Unfortunately, this applies to a majority of the Black population. This is an example of exclusionary design, which in this case is caused by oppressive systems like the Jim Crow laws and racial segregation. However, these waves of exclusion of the past flow into the present. The highways and viaducts still exist and cause social inequality, even today.

Designing for ‘the other’ 
The opposite of belonging is ‘othering’. To understand how to create cities of belonging, it is important to understand in which ways people feel excluded or alienated from society. The design of the Beach State Park in New York might feel far away, back in time. However, this white superiority thinking is also reflected in more contemporary examples.

A while ago a video went viral about a so-called 'racist' soap dispenser. Of course, the dispenser itself is not racist, and probably neither is the technology team behind it. Still, the dispensers’ design excludes a large part of the population. It uses an optical sensor, which responds when you slide your hand under it. Lots of sensors, however, mainly the slightly cheaper ones, have trouble registering dark skin, so when a Black person uses it, no soap comes out.

Soap dispensers might feel like a micro example of exclusion, but the same goes for sensors in fitness trackers and heart rate monitors, where exclusion can have much greater (health) consequences. This also painfully illustrates the lack of diversity in the tech industry and product design: if there had been a Black designer or engineer on the team, this may not have happened. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, showing that the dominant narrative of design and design thinking is often rooted in systems of exclusion. Most designers, governments, or companies design for the middle, and not for the margins. When we as a society start designing for the people who are actually living with the failures of designed products, spaces, and systems, we might create and build stronger structures for everyone. 

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