Community-centered Design. A Design Perspective on Innovation In and For Places

In the design field, attention to local and territorial issues is relatively recent and is marked by the evolution of design as a discipline that deals not only with single products, but also with complex systems. Territories and communities became a design object to support innovation in the public sphere and society. Starting from a design for places perspective, the the aim of this article is clarifying and outlining the “community-centered” approach to describing possible design contributions. Through literature review and case studies, four possible scenarios for community-centered design are defined, including bottom-up and top-down strategies. As result, the scenarios outlined are (i) design by communities, (ii) design with communities, (iii) design for communities, and (iv) design of communities. The first part of the article focuses on places and communities as design object, the second part introduces a framework to interpret community-centered initiatives and describes the four scenarios. In conclusion, some implications for design interventions are outlined.