Case Studies in Design

Case Studies in Design is a collective writing project led by PennPraxis that creates opportunities for community and design leaders to think together about ways to catalyze transformational design, planning, and place-keeping from the ground up. The goals are to learn from ambitious projects designed in community, to share experience through a public library of case studies, and to train ourselves for new ways of working with communities.

Through a collection of 15 case studies in total, developed over a period of 3 years, we hope to build conversation among thinkers and doers in community organizations, movements, public agencies, schools, and the architecture, landscape, planning, heritage and art fields.

As we open the call for proposals for our third and final cohort of authors, we are excited to share a preview of the work from our first round of case studies, set for publication this fall:

Barbara Brown Wilson, associate professor of urban and environmental planning at the University of Virginia and co-founder of the Center for Community Partnerships, studied Living Lab Northern Rivers, a collaborative recovery planning effort after catastrophic floods, led by the New South Wales Reconstruction Authority, Elizabeth Mossop of the University of Technology Sydney, and Ben Roche and Mary Spongberg of Southern Cross University in Australia.

Catherine De Almeida, associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Washington, developed a case study of Mini Mart City Park, a community-focused cultural center, park and brownfield remediation designed by GO'C Studio and the artist collaborative SuttonBeresCuller in the Duamish Valley, Washington.

Timothy Schuler, an award-winning writer and critic, examined the Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote, a collaboration between the Minnesota Historical Society, the Dakota community, and a design and cultural landscape preservation team led by TEN x TEN that restored a Minnesota river confluence of deep Indigenous significance.

Deborah Gans and Lawrence Blough are professors at Pratt Institute and co-directors of the Housing Futures Lab. Together they studied the Church Grove collaboratively-built housing project designed by Architype and Shepheard Epstein Hunter for the Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) Community Land Trust, inspired by architect Walter Segal’s earlier self-built community in London, Walter’s Way.

Allison Nkwocha and Isobel Zoe Morrison, Penn alumna and landscape designers at WRT and Dirtworks, respectively, developed a case study that explores the making of a participatory landscape design in Geneva, Switzerland by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and a design, planning and engagement team led by urbz.

Applications for Case Studies Year 3 are being accepted now through December 1, 2025 at 12 pm. Please view our Open Call for more information.