Architecture, Participation and Society

How can architects best increase their engagement with building users and wider society to provide better architecture?

Since the mid 1990s government policy has promoted the idea of greater social participation in the production and management of the built environment but there has been limited direction to the practising architect.

Reviewing international cases and past experiences to analyze what lessons have been learnt, this book argues for participation within other related disciplines, and makes a set of recommendations for architectural practices and other key actors.

Paul Jenkins is an architect by initial training, expanding this to work in urban planning, housing policy and a wide range of social research related to the built environment. His career has included extensive experience working with communities in the UK and overseas in Sub-Saharan Africa. He directs the Centre for Environment and Human Settlements (CEHS) research group at the School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University and is Research Professor at the School of Architecture in Edinburgh College of Art.

Leslie Forsyth is an architect, planner and urban designer with experience in practice, consultancy, education and research in the UK and Germany. He currently is Head of the School of Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art where he also coordinates the postgraduate programmes in Urban Design.