- all (22)
- viewpoints (8)
- profiles (5)
- projects (8)
- programs (1)
Community Engagement
-
Programs
3 Projects Strengthening Communities Through Design
From affordable housing to civic spaces and schools, these 2025 Planet Positive Awards winners demonstrate how design can foster connection, expand access, and improve quality of life.
-
Viewpoints
An A-to-Z Guide to the America We Want to Build
For the United States’ 250th anniversary, METROPOLIS highlights the designers and ideas shaping a more equitable, sustainable, and imaginative future for the built environment.
-
Projects
Baltimore Reclaims the Public Pool
CannonDesign’s modular pool strategy is delivering affordable and flexible aquatic centers to neighborhoods long excluded from public infrastructure.
-
Profiles
What Restrooms and Parking Lots Teach Us About Cities
At WXY, a people-first approach is quietly reshaping how New York—and increasingly the country—thinks about public space, sustainability, and civic design.
-
Projects
In Chicago, Adaptive Reuse Projects are Amplifying Local Nonprofits’ Missions
New projects by Future Firm, Lamar Johnson Collaborative, and Canopy all transform existing warehouse and church buildings into meaningful, community-driven spaces.
-
Profiles
Emergent Vernacular Architecture Studio Builds for Community Resilience
From Haiti to Lebanon, the London-based studio helps create public spaces for those that need it the most.
-
Projects
Where Housing Meets Humanity
Three innovative housing projects that focus on care, community, and climate, redefining public housing with dignity.
-
Viewpoints
Designers Rethinking Our Relationship to Water
Across sculpture, planning, and public space, designers are making invisible water systems visible again—challenging us to live differently with them.
-
Projects
In Chicago, a Shuttered School Becomes a Beacon of Community Design
Lamar Johnson Collaborative turns the former elementary school into the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, a hub for career training and community pride.
-
Viewpoints
How Can Architecture Reflect the Needs of Its Communities?
Community engagement is a hot topic in design, but what is it and, more importantly, how do we do it? Here, we’ve gathered some top insights from our archives.
-
Viewpoints
The Architects Shaping NYC’s Public Life
On NYC’s 400th birthday, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Weiss/Manfredi, and Marvel talk about civic spaces that shape the city's infrastructure.
-
Viewpoints
These Students are Reclaiming Community Through Experimental Design
Future100 award–winning student projects reimagine what nurtures society—and what the traditional housing market neglects.
-
Projects
A New Standard for Housing the Unhoused in Palm Springs
JFAK’s Homeless Navigation Center blends modular housing, support services, and shared spaces to create a humane, dignified alternative to traditional shelters.
-
Profiles
At the Mellon Foundation, Justin Garrett Moore Connects Place and Memory
The Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place grant-making program is transforming communities through storytelling, conservation, and design.
-
Viewpoints
How Can We Amplify Indigenous Design?
Catch up with METROPOLIS's ongoing coverage of indigenous design leaders, community engagement, and efforts to decolonize design.
-
Projects
The təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre Reflects Local Values
Canada’s first Zero Carbon–certified aquatic center cuts back on its carbon emissions while building community engagement.
-
Viewpoints
Changing Architecture from the Ground Up
METROPOLIS's 2024 Fall Issue explores projects and practices that blend tradition with innovation, challenging the status quo in architecture and design.
-
Viewpoints
Three Firms Redefining Design Through Community-Led Processes
As part of their Alternative Practices project, Verda Alexander and Maya Bird-Murphy spotlight firms that are turning traditional Western design thinking on its head.
-
Profiles
Ifeoma Ebo Is on a Quest for Urban Healing
Through trauma-informed design processes, Ebo aims for community stewardship and empowerment.
-
Projects
Xtreme LA Trains Tomorrow’s Design Leaders on Environmental Stewardship
Students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo leveraged traditional ecological knowledge and community engagement to envision a future for Morro Bay, California.