Public Lecture: Democratic Design and Community Development by Professor Henry Sanoff

Democratic Design and Community Development

Public Lecture by Professor Henry Sanoff

Department of Architecture and Urban Planning

College of Engineering, Qatar University

March 7, 2012
Doha, Qatar

Democratic design is an attitude about a force for change in the creation and management of environments for people. Its strength lies in being a movement that cuts across traditional professional boundaries and cultures. Its roots lie in the ideals of a participatory democracy where collective decision-making is highly decentralized throughout all sectors of society, so that all individuals learn participatory skills and can effectively participate in various ways in the making of all decisions that affect them. This presentation includes examples of my architecture and planning case studies in Japan, Mexico and the United States that illustrate a variety of participation methods by which people can be involved in shaping and managing their environment.

Professor Henry Sanoff is a world recognised specialist in the field of community participation. He is an author of world published books, among them: Community participation methods in design and planning, Designing with Community Participation, Three Decades of Design and Community, Participatory Design: Theory and Techniques, Design Games, Methods of Architectural Programming and Visual Research Methods in Design. His other fields of interest include: social housing, community art, children’s environment and aging populations. He is the author of, among others: Creating Environments for Young Children and School Design: Planning with People: Integrating Programming Evaluation and Participation in Design. Another subject of his concern is environmental education, which resulted in the book Seeing the Environment, he has been also one of the founders of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) in 1969.

For more information on the lecture,
visit http://www.qu.edu.qa/engineering/events/auppublichenry.php

For more information on the work of Professor Henry Sanoff,
visit http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/s/sanoff/www/henry.html
and  http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/s/sanoff/www/schooldesign/home.html