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Session Guide

90-Minute Education Session

FRI-A03: Community as Design Consultant/Landscape Architect as Facilitator: Shifting the Design Relationship

Friday, October 27, 2023
9:00am – 10:30am CT
1.50 PDH, LA CES/HSW, AICP, FL, NY/HSW

Centered in the knowledge that nobody knows a landscape better than the people who live in it, three landscape architects discuss elevating community voice to a position of expertise within the design team. This session showcases built projects in various communities of the African diaspora in Seattle, Philadelphia, and northeastern Brazil.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Learn ways to build trust during the design process, from new charette models to leveraging collective community expertise that can inform construction efficiencies.
  • Learn to operate in a community with awareness of the landscape architect’s own positionality—as an insider or an outsider.
  • Learn about the challenges and opportunities of public-realm landscape architecture in neighborhoods that are experiencing chronic displacement, environmental injustice, and an absence of governmental support.
  • Learn how the “design expert” can become a “design facilitator” and how the landscape architect should inform and guide decision-making, but often defer to the community to make their own decisions.