Designing Politics

Designing Politics was a series of annual design challenges addressing the potentials and the limits of design in thinking critical questions about the politics of urban culture in different cities.

In New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro respectively it asked to how design could engender ideals of free speech, commonality, and respect. Artists, activists, architects, and performers proposed spatial interventions that would stimulate or uphold these political values. Together, the designs and thinking the project has generated are a catalogue of reflections on the way that urban space produces political cultures.

 

Alongside the three online competitions, the project has consisted of workshops, public lectures, exchanges, and exhibitions in London, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Berlin, as well as a working group in Paris. A full archive of briefs and outcomes can be found here.

COLLABORATORS

The Designing Politics working group was supported by the Collège d’études mondiales (FMSH) via the Global Cities chair held by Richard Sennett. The London Festival of Architecture, Make:City Festival (Berlin), Museum of the Future (Rio), and Sao Paolo Biennial have featured Designing Politics exhibitions as part of their programmes.