So you’re interested in what you can read to become a better designer, architect, urban planner, urbanist, or neighbour living and working in a super-divers city? Here are a few recommendations from our Designing Cities For All (DCFA) team, and we will add new recommendations periodically. For all you city designers that want to empower yourself (and others), let these reads guide your practice of transforming cities for the better.
In the Netherlands, Amsterdam is one of the cities ranked as a super-diverse city where many locals in different parts of the city take matters into their own hands when it comes to their neighbourhoods. In comparison to policymakers, they know their neighbourhoods the best. That’s why the locals do everything they can to join forces for an equal future where nobody is overlooked. They are not waiting for politics, they’ve already started. For example, in A’dam Bijlmer there is a strong network of women. In Nieuw-West we see many social entrepreneurs who are finding solutions for the problems in Nieuw-West. Floor Milikowski’s latest book Wij zijn de Stad is an inspiring book about the capacity and the importance of community. This book is also very handy for policymakers who are active in A’dam to understand the richness of the suburbs of Amsterdam.
€12,99 (order here, in Dutch only)
Nowadays, we see a lot of research being done, but what happens with the insights that come from this research? Designers want to make the world a better place, while researchers want to study the world how it is. That’s when applied design research comes in. This is a form of research that focuses on developing practical solutions which can be used in everyday life. This book looks into how 22 professors from different academic institutions apply their design research in different fields of society like healthcare. Every contribution contains clear illustrative examples of their applied design research. All these contributions together show us what applied research design is, what it can do and how it works when you apply it in everyday life.
€55,00 (order here for Dutch version, English version to be released Nov/Dec 2021) / free download
