about
The project Cities X Citizens explores the question of how to render, not only urban spaces, but also city-making processes truly accessible to citizens. Building on planning and critical urban design methodologies, such as pattern languages, placemaking and community charrettes, Cities X Citizens developed and uses the methods planning-in-situ (i.e. planning the space from the space and in real time) and open planning (i.e. the planning process is potentially open to anyone who wants to participate). Bridging research, pedagogy and design practice, this project focuses on facilitating community engagement as an urban design/planning strategy to revitalize and reappropriate public spaces. Cities X Citizens is a platform to collaborate, brainstorm and think out loud about the democratization of citymaking and the (applied) right to the city.
Key words: citymaking –community engagement – urban design – open-source cities – democratization – public space – interstitial spaces – open planning – pattern language design – placemaking – charrettes – collaborative planning – codesign – self-planning – subaltern urbanism – insurgent planning – the right to the city
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Projects
Puzzle
Accessibility and walkability in the fragmented city
Right up your alley!
Revitalization of service alleyway in downtown Montreal
(Alleyway Bishop/Mackay)
Reclaiming the smart city
Digital Governance and Citizen Agency in the Era of Plataform-ed Urban Ecosystems
The Market Language
Public Markets as Performative Social Place; with case studies on public markets in Montréal, Québec
Open Urbanisms
Challenges and opportunities for open cities and boundless urban systems
people
Silvano De la Llata
(Principal Investigator and founder)
Silvano is an architect, urbanist and educator. He is an associate professor in planning and urban design at the Department of Geography Planning and Environment at Concordia University. He co-directs the Cluster of Design Art Community and Culture (along with Prof. Baron Thymas) at the Next Generation Cities Institute. Before his arrival to Concordia University, he taught at Cornell University, and universities of Tamaulipas and Anahuac in Mexico. For 15 years, his research has focused on public space and the study of alternative uses, such as street vending, graffiti, public assembly and protest, as design/planning agents. As a result of this research, he went on to study a PhD at Cornell University, and wrote his dissertation on alternative planning processes in the context of protest encampments in horizontal social movements. He did research and participated in the Indignados mobilizations in Barcelona, Occupy Wall Street and other social movements in 2011 and 2012. Building on this experience he founded CitiesXCitizens. Additionally, he coordinates brainstorming/reading circles on critical theory, philosophy and cinema to develop strategies to democratize everyday life in the city.
Sahar Alinezhad
Sahar is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at Concordia University. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Urbanism and her Master’s Degree in Urban Design. Her research interests focuses on the livability and conviviality of urban spaces as well as urban quality of life and wellbeing. Presently, her research focuses on collective gardens and self-organizing. More specifically, her research aims to identify if and how collective autonomous practices facilitate social inclusion processes in third places. Sahar aims to empower local communities to actively participate in decision-making processes for their neighborhood common spaces.
Judy Chen
Judy is a Ph.D. Candidate in Geography, Urban, and Environmental Studies at Concordia University. She has a BSc degree in Agricultural Economics from National Taiwan University and holds two MSc degrees, one from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and the other from University College London (UCL). Judy studied Urban Environment at UPenn and Environment & Sustainable Development at UCL. Her master research at UPenn focused on the economics of urban agriculture while at UCL her research revolved around the commodification of public spaces and urban design. Over the past 10 years Judy has accumulated work experience across the private, public, and civic sector. Judy’s research interests lie in urban planning, sustainable urban development, and urban architecture & design. The focus of her doctoral research is on public markets, with emphasis on public markets as spaces of encounter, cultural exchange and sociability. Judy is also a certified LEED Green Associate.
Bruno Mendonca
Bruno Mendonca is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at Concordia University. He received his BSc degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Bennett Methodist University Center and holds an MSc Degree in Architecture and a Professional Degree in Urban Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His master’s research focused on the spontaneous use of informal and interstitial public spaces for leisure and social interactions in low-income suburban neighborhoods crossed by railways in Rio de Janeiro. As a Research Assistant at the Cities by Citizens Research Lab (C²), Bruno has been working on a project that addresses pressing issues of urban fragmentation and accessibility in a site-specific case study in Montreal. Bruno has also worked in partnership with different stakeholders, in Brazil and abroad, in projects that have explored the development of participatory methodologies to engage citizens in urban design projects. Currently, the focus of Bruno’s doctoral research is to investigate how digital technology has shaped platform-ed cities by fostering novel governance structures, modes of expertise, and ways of knowing and co-designing urban spaces.
Alumni
Heba Alqub
Heba received her Ph.D. in Geography, Urban, and Environmental studies at Concordia University. She got her Bachelor degree in Architecture from the University of Jordan in July 2011. After three years of practicing the profession in an Architectural consulting firm in Amman-Jordan, she got her master degree of Architecture- Post professional (UDH) Program: Urban Design and Housing at McGill university. Her master research revolves around reviving traditions and cultural values in contemporary Arab-Islamic Architecture, which allows for a deeper understanding of design as both method and production. At the present time, Heba’s passion in the public realm of open spaces and the ways users tend to use the space differently from what it was initially intended to provide, has shaped her current interest and research area.
Nathan Powell
Nathan received his M.Sc. in Geography, Urban, and Environmental Studies at Concordia University. He earned his Bachelor degree in Urban and Regional Studies at Cornell University in 2021. His studies revolves around the intersection of communication and planning, and, more broadly, public life. In this, he concerns himself with telling the stories of urban change makers and extracting the educational value in these stories. His work includes several independent podcast projects, an extended literary analysis of the role of political media pundits in the 2020 US presidential election, as well as several interviews in public stakeholders in the areas of planning, politics, culture, and society.
mohammad manshaei
Mohammad received his M.Sc. student in Geography, Urban and Environmental studies at Concordia University. With a background in architecture, and after some years of professional practice as a designer, now he is interested in investigating more about the role of architecture and design in shaping contemporary societies. His area of studies are architecture history, modernism, consumerism culture and design activism.
Past Projects
Urban Diaries
Insights to reimagine indeterminate spaces along the Pointe’s Rail Track
Description:
This project seeks to reimagine the indeterminate spaces along the elevated railway of the Pointe based on the community’s perceptions. The railway is an important post-industrial element in the cultural landscape of the Pointe as it has contributed to its wealth and development. While it was a connective element that connected the neighborhood with the rest of the city, nowadays, the railway is becoming a divisive element. Not only diving the residents who either support or oppose its presence, but also dividing the urban fabric, resulting in many ‘residual’ spaces ((tunnels under railway, walls, fenced spaces etc.). These spaces are bound with many memories and unexpected stories due to the historical significance and the current debate of the railway. Moreover, as the neighborhood is undergoing gentrification, the sense of place and the industrial heritage of the neighborhood is lessening. Thus, the project aims to explore the community’s perceptions as a tool to revive and reimagine these spaces.
Parks as Community Platforms
Redesign Of Two Park Sites In Côte-Des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-De-Grâce
(Kent Park And NDG Park)
Description:
The Arrondissement Government of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce invited Concordia University and Université de Montreal to collaborate in the redesign of two sites in two parks in this district – Kent Park and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG Park). Under the coordination of Silvano De la Llata and with students as facilitators, the methods of planning-in-situ and open planning were tested for the first time in this two parks. After a thorough analysis, intense collaboration with the borough government and two community charrettes we learned that interactivity, versatility and social permeability were the most important values to enhance this parks as well as that stakeholders largely liked their parks as they were. Therefore it was proposed that the sites were enhanced and turned into community platforms that citizens could appropriate and adapt according to their needs. The ideas produced in these exercises were later partially adopted and adapted by design firms and the city. These two sites have been built and soon will be inaugurated.
Contact us
Department of Geography, Planning and Environment
1455 de Maisonneuve West
H 1255-27 (Hall Building)
Montréal QC
H3G 1M8
Canada
Email: info@citiesxcitizens.com