Placemaking with Young Adults: Impressions on the Festival of Futures
by Ella Alemayehu-Lambert
Participatory Architecture, Design Activism, Community Architecture, Urban Planning and Design; Co-design, Community Engagement, Placemaking, Mutual Learning, Design Innovation, Collaborative Theory and Methods
Mirian is a Lecturer in Participatory Architecture at Lancaster School of Architecture, UK registered Architect ARB, and a member of the ImagintionLancaster cross-disciplinary design research group at Lancaster University (LU). She is also a guest Lecturer at the Master’s Rebuilding the World (RBW) – School of Architecture Bordeaux (ENSAP-BX). Previously she was a Lecturer in Design and Architecture at the University of the West of England (UWE). Mirian’s research explores other ways of doing architecture by strengthening community engagement in the transformation of the built environment. Such a transformation comprises the emergence of shared meanings, creating an environmental system that operates on symbolic and emotional levels. Her research also explores the interaction between citizens and the Public Sector in the built environment, and how co-design can be a driver for change in architectural processes.
Her core research draws a convergent path in-between the designing of spatial conditions and human agency with a focus on activating genuine collaboration to support social innovations. Mirian leads research between communities and the Public Sector with a particular focus on developing effective strategies and tactics to standardise more participatory architecture and co-design frameworks. She led MyMainway, a consultancy project in partnership with Lancaster City Council (LCC), which consisted of a series of public engagement events of different nature – from August 2020 to January 2021 – seeking to build a close-knit collaboration with Mainway residents to collectively reimagine the future of the social housing estate. Here participatory architecture stands for the democratisation of the production of social space. It employs designerly engagements to build a bridge between political, social, and economic agents, and citizens.
Her doctoral thesis explored the intrinsic relationship between mutual learning and community-based co-design, focusing on how such a relationship influences the co-design process. She participated in several research projects such as Emotional City, The Political Lab, and Leapfrog. She also has experience as a n expert consultant for organisations in China and Europe, such as beentheretogether. Recently, she has been involved in EPSRC project Embedded Intelligent Empathy in Design, British Academy project Mapping Values, IAA – ESRC Growing Together, British Academy project Youth, Democracy, and Sustainable Citizenship.
PhD diagram phase 3 of the theoretical framework: participants enacting genuine collaboration, 2019.
She has presented her work at international conferences such as the Design Research Society, the European Academy of Design or Design Principles and Practice, and has had her work published in the Design Journal and the International Journal of Art & Design Education. She is also a member of the Scientific Committee of BAc (scientific publication of contemporary architecture) and part of the international review board of Charrette , discern (International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship), ServDes 2018 Conference, EAD 2021, and reviewer of books and special issues in Europe and Latin America, e.g. Base, Diseño e Innovation.
Mirian has both an academic and a professional background in participatory architecture, urban planning, design innovation, design ethnography and co-design. Driven by her curiosity in understanding the symbiotic relationship between environmental conditions and people, she has acquired a unique set of design research skills and knowledge which enables her work at the edges of a wide range of disciplines, understanding and analysing their potentialities, and bringing their valuable contributions to animate and strengthen design research and architectural transformations.
Mirian is particularly interested in supervising research projects that investigate new radical collaborative practices in Design and Architecture, including technology-mediated engagement in participatory processes. Theoretical and methodological innovations in the development of distributed, practice-based transformative rural and/or urban environments are another key focus.
by Ella Alemayehu-Lambert
Placemaking with Young Adults
The future is a work in progress
Placemaking with Young Adults
The future is a work in progress
Making Sustainable Places
A participant's view on Placemaking with Young Adults
Third event
Placemaking with Young Adults
Mapping Values: Co-constructing understandings of the good city in pursuit of new models of urban governance
Second event
Conference paper published in proceedings – Design Research Society DRS2022 Bilbao
First event
Share your stories and experiences of sustainable ways of living
Imagination researchers are going to DRS 2022 in Bilbao
Mapping Values: Co-constructing understandings of the good city in pursuit of new models of urban governance, British Academy
Mapping Values: Co-constructing understandings of the good city in pursuit of new models of urban governance, British Academy
We are looking for participants who are familiar with Kilburn area. Get away from your normal routine and come along to have lunch and share your stories about Kilburn over a short walk
Tea Talks – Lancaster School of Architecture
A conversation with Mirian Calvo, Marianna Cavada and Christopher Boyko.
Creative West End Christmas Market and Guerrilla gardening in strategic places in the West End Morecambe
Reflections from the fieldwork activities
Reflections from the fieldwork activities
Reflections from the fieldwork activities
Embedded Intelligent Empathy in Design, EPSRC – Connected Everything II
Embedded Intelligent Empathy in Design, EPSRC – Connected Everything II
Engagement Event 02 June
New paper published in The International Journal of Arts & Design Education (iJADE)
A two-day workshop on Participatory Architecture & Co-design
Exploring refurbishing options with Mainway's residents
Journal paper published in International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship (discern)
Scrawl on the Wall
Presenting findings and getting residents' feedback!
Playing and Co-imagining the future redevelopment
Reflections from the fieldwork in the "door to door engagement" activities for My Mainway
Creative designerly activities at the doorstep!
Online workshop
Touring walk with the councillors to discuss their views about Mainway.
Walking as a way to get to know first-hand sociocultural complexities of urban areas
A two-day workshop on Participatory Architecture & Co-design
Research Project: Youth, Democracy and Sustainable Citizenship | Dr Mirian Calvo | 28th May 2022
Research Project: Youth, Democracy and Sustainable Citizenship | Dr Mirian Calvo | 28th May 2022
A barometer to understanding and activate social wellbeing through micro-gardening
Co-constructing understandings of the good city in pursuit of new models of urban governance
Reimagining the City and Empowering Young People through Engagement with Policy-Makers
Consultancy Project
The Leapfrog project will be a close collaboration with public sector and community partners to design and evaluate new approaches to consultation.