Designing for the Systemic Proximity: Positioning and Placemaking

This workshop explores the concept of Systemic Proximity as a relational and systemic lens for addressing complexity in urban design and placemaking. Building on the authors’ prior research and doctoral work, it presents a reflective, practice-based approach to urban transformation, emphasizing positioning, self-ethnography, and materiality. Participants are invited to bring personal objects and narratives to engage in boundary object mapping, fostering deeper awareness of their roles within socio-technical systems. The workshop extends the paradigm of the 15-Minute City by centering relationships—between people, places, and institutions—as essential design elements. Through hands-on activities and theoretical grounding in Systemic and Relational Design, the session introduces infrastructuring and placemaking as tools for embedding care, inclusion, and reflexivity into the design process. By integrating the Quintuple Helix framework and drawing from service ecosystem theory, the workshop equips participants to co-create urban services and spaces that are not only proximate in distance, but also meaningful in connection. Ultimately, the workshop seeks to advance design discourse by cultivating mindful, situated, and interconnected practices that can enable positive social change in complex urban contexts.