Participatory urbanism is incremental, but at it’s core is holistic - a kind of design strategy that emphasizes part-whole relations and the inter-connectedness of users by prioritizing their voice in the design process. Here is a review I wrote for MONU magazine about their issue on Participatory Urbanism. Reproduced here in full with permission of the publisher.

I recently wrote this review of Binational Urbanism (by Bernd Upmeyer), an interesting book that I think presents a great model of what qualitative research methods can do for enhancing urban design and spatial and architectural practices. It's a masterclass, really, and Upmeyer's book is worth reading twice because it will overhaul how you approach user-centered design in your practice.