Dream Play Build: Hands On Community Engagement for Enduring Spaces and Places Recording

A Smart Growth Network Webinar

Friday, February 25, 2022 - 12:00pm EST
Webinars

Resources discussed by the panelists

  • Collaborative, sensory-based community engagement for a more equitable bike/pedestrian environment 
  • South Colton livable corridor plan strategies for community resilience 
  • In Phoenix: a light rail station designed by and for people with disabilities 
  • To build the communities people really want: talk less, play more 

For two decades, James Rojas and John Kamp have been looking to art, creative expression, and storytelling to shake up the classic community meeting.

They joined the Maryland Department of Planning and the Smart Growth Network to share their insights into building common ground and inviting active participation among diverse groups. Their approach, “Place It!,” documented in their new book Dream Play Build, draws upon three methods: the interactive model-building workshop, the pop-up, and site exploration using the senses.

They offered their lessons learned distilled from workshops held around the world and provided a deep dive into the transformational approach and results from a community in southern California.

Slides

Participants

James Kamp | An Island Press Author

John Kamp

John Kamp is an urban and landscape designer, facilitator, and licensed landscape contractor. Through his design practice, Prairieform, he has over 10 years of experience in the design and installation of irrigation-free landscapes, the writing and illustrating of design guidelines—including the Small Lot Design Guidelines for the City of Los Angeles—work in urban tree canopy restoration, and improving neighborhood walkability.

James Rojas | An Island Press Author

James Rojas

James Rojas is an urban planner, community activist, educator, and artist who runs the planning, model-building, and community-outreach practice Place It!. Through Place It!, he has developed an interdisciplinary, community-healing, visioning, and outreach process that uses storytelling, objects, art-production, and play to help improve the urban-planning outreach process. He is now an international expert in public engagement and has traveled around the US, Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America, facilitating over 500 workshops, and building over 100 interactive models.