Can Design Directly Impact Civic Life? The Center for Active Design is Out to Show Us How
There’s perhaps no time in the U.S. when people are more attuned to civic engagement than during a presidential election year, and 2016 is no exception. But the (deteriorating) state of civic engagement has been under a microscope for the past several years, and for good reason. Growing social and economic divides accompanied by a side of low voter turnout have made it difficult for communities to build trust and revitalize and reconnect neighborhoods and people. The Center for Active Design has always pushed for better design through the lens of wellbeing. With its active design guidelines and other support efforts and events, it helps design firms use proven, evidence-based design elements to make their spaces, and the people who use them, healthier and more active. Now, the CfAD is turning its attention to civic engagement. The Center recently announced the launch of “Assembly: Shaping Space for Civic Life,” …