Our
Humanifesto

What if neighborhoods were built for humans rather than cars, capital and corporations? We believe the best places on earth are born when spaces are thoughtfully designed and communities are empowered to care for them. Find your place in one of our places for people.

Modern development patterns have broken critical naturally-forming community bonds: both in the case of racist infrastructure planning literally tearing gashes through vibrant communities as well as figuratively through the development of car-centric communities that isolate and disempower our youth and elders.

Humans need a wide range of social and environmental interactions to remain happy and healthy. But it is critical that these interactions are designed into the built environment in a manner that makes them a part of our everyday lives. We don’t have to pave paradise and start society over to accomplish these goals; it can be done in any place at any scale. From a single temporary retail cart to master planned communities, how do we create better places for people?

Design for Humans

Make places that are interesting to people by designing visual interest for human views and perspectives, at distances that are pleasantly rhythmic at people-powered speeds (walking, jogging, cycling, etc). Create spaces at varying volumes; large to inspire awe, small to provide comfort, moderate to energize. Design fixtures and furniture for a range of human bodies, not just Michelangelo’s Vitruvian Man. Build long lasting spaces that improve with age. Eschew consumerism and planned obsolescence which benefit corporations and not people or our environment.

Create Quality Public Realm

Celebrate openness and resist excessive enclosure. Design spaces with at least ten different uses. Support our neighbors who cannot (or choose not to) drive by creating a safe walkable network of spaces that take people from their homes to places they actually need to go. Shift spaces from inefficient private yards that rarely serve few to public spaces that always serve all. Incorporate nature and natural systems into the public realm. Build public spaces that attract a vibrant diversity of humans: proximity breeds understanding. Create intentional transitions from public to private space with distance, elevation change, visual barriers, physical barriers, front porches and doorbells.

Build Resilience

Create adaptive systems that evolve to meet the changing needs of the neighborhood. Plan for the worst-case scenario when the consequences can be catastrophic. Study financial decisions using life cycle cost analysis models. Build strong relationships, such as Public-Private Partnerships to create lasting places. Use redundancy and diversity as important tools for surviving shocks to systems. Design with an understanding that social resilience is as important as the resilience of the built environment.

Allow End-User Impact

Use a design process that seeks and responds to end-user input. Avoid excessive control of spaces that prohibits people from impacting their environments in a personal manner over the long term. Build fair systems of governance that foster participation and allow communities to adapt to changing demographics. Avoid architect’s syndrome by seeing end-user behavior as a tool for refining design.

Embed Equity into Every Decision

Recognize modern urban planning and real estate development as sexist, ageist, racist and classist systems that have been used as tools of oppression and division. Develop for all. Reject the oversimplified concept of “highest and best use.” Cultivate generosity in design and implementation. Provide new avenues for housing and property ownership that serve a broader population. Seek new models for development that avoid land speculation and respect existing neighborhoods. Consider all costs and benefits, especially those that are traditionally externalized. Privatize development efforts, socialize the gains. Design “with” not “for.”

Places for People

We’re energized by the impact we can have on the communities we all call home, but we can’t do it alone. Will you join us in creating better places for people?