The Challenges of Co-Design in the City of Boston
UnxDesign is an annual conference at the GSD. Join us for our morning workshops!
Sign up for any ONE session.
Open to Harvard and MIT students.
Limited seats available!
A discussion-based workshop that looks honestly at what “ideal” co-design can be and why it’s so difficult to deliver inside bureaucratic systems. Together, participants will build a shared definition of co-design and why it matters, then unpack a real basement-flooding case study to identify the constraints (process, policy, timelines, risk, power, and accountability) that often pull projects away from co-design principles. The session closes with a collaborative brainstorm on practical strategies cities and other public institutions can use to get closer to the ideal, without ignoring the realities of government work.
The Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) was formed in 2010 as the Mayor's civic research and design team (one of the first in the nation). They explore and tackle intractable problems with fresh perspectives and lead experiments and prototypes that cover a range of topics.