Participatory Spatial Intervention: How can participatory design and a diversity lens help address vulnerabilities in Bar Elias, Lebanon?

This publication presents the process of implementing a Participatory Spatial Intervention, its methodology, and our reflection as a way of sharing our experience of this co-design project that took place between August 2018 and July 2019. The Participatory Spatial Intervention is a co-produced way to build capacity and generate knowledge through an experimental process aiming to have an impact on the sustainable prosperity of the locality. A physical spatial intervention is embedded in a participatory action-research process and becomes a catalyst for generating questions and activate local social processes. We learned that combining action-research, citizen science, participatory design and a diversity lens not only contributes to the design of infrastructures that respond to residents’ needs, but that it can transform social relations, build a human infrastructure able to negotiate and activate important change processes, while diffusing social tensions. This work took place in Bar Elias (Lebanon) which hosts a large number of refugees and vulnerable populations.