Participatory planning and design for community ‘buen vivir’ action plans for informal settlement upgrading

Quito, Ecuador

Source of all images: ASF-UK

Organisation: Architecture Sans Frontières - UK

Partners: CONBADE Ecuadorean confederation of Barrios, Polytechnic Salesian University and Neighbourhood Government of Atucucho

Years: 2012-13

My role: Project lead and manager in Ecuador, including partnership building. Co-lead of the Change by Design international programme hosting this project.

Co-development of methodology, co-facilitation of workshops and participatory planning activities to develop the ‘Buen Vivir’ community action plan for Los Pinos and an urban design strategy for open spaces in Atucucho. This included tool design, data collection and analysis, capacity building and training for community groups and built environment practitioners, and organisation of a stakeholder simposium.

Supervision during a 5-month period of a field team of five urban planners and designers to support the finalisation of the action plans and public space projects, capacity building of community leaders and organisations, and the organisation of multi-stakeholder workshops, including the municipality, to identify synergies and joint project proposals.