Mindful Urban Dwelling
Care and conviviality as a means to community resilience and adaptation
More Info
expand_more
Abstract
In the midst of climate change, a global pandemic, and an increasingly complex world, urban communities are in need for novel ways to adapt to the new climatic conditions.
Through a vision-led iterative design process, I explored how community resilience can flourish, by focusing on human relationships. Focusing on the values of care and conviviality, the process of commoning, and the act of being mindful, I investigated how urban dwellers can contribute directly towards the wellbeing of their community.
A digital platform is proposed for the empowerment of urban dwellers, to address collectively, great challenges, as the heatwaves, through the proactive sharing of relevant information, and awareness of community needs. A prototype of the concept provided depth on the potential of commoning. A pilot is proposed in collaboration with the Netherlands Red Cross.
An extensive literature review was performed on the areas of heatwaves, urban heat islands, international environmental agreements, the impact thereof in national policy and local resources, participatory practices and the commons, volunteering, care and conviviality.
A transition towards collective futures becomes a necessity in order to address the climate crisis, its effects on our communities and most importantly, personal and collective resilience and adaptation.