My work addresses climate justice by empowering communities to realize a more equitable distribution of land and resources. To address such complex issues, I often collaborate with community-based organizations and municipal agencies, and I combine tools of urban, architectural, and multimedia design. Over the years, I’ve been drawn to approaches that I believe get to the roots of systemic change. One—decision-making tools—deals with the process of community empowerment. The other—property reform—shapes the space of community life.

My decision-making tools help community members explore, imagine, and debate potential responses to complex urban issues in a healthy, playful way. For example, I designed three board games, called In It Together, Bartertown, and Mix & Match, which play out more just and equitable responses to wildfires and rising seas. I also wrote a book called The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform, which exposes the politics behind sustainable design, and I co-produced a podcast series called Safari, which gives subway riders a tour of urban animal life just outside their windows. I reflect on such methods by writing about public engagement. I advocate for more direct, collaborative governance by those who are most impacted by design.

I also reimagine the space of property ownership. My goal is to foster regenerative economies and a more reciprocal relationship between people and land. In the Resilient by Design Challenge, for example, our team designed collectively-owned housing to protect communities from displacement due to sea level rise and gentrification. I also designed a hotel in Sichuan, China and a farmhouse in Sonoma, CA, where people can engage with bamboo and chapparal landscapes around them. I also research and write about exceptional community-based initiatives. I am currently writing a book called Property Playbook, which illustrates how activists and architects can co-opt property ownership to foster ecological vitality and repair the dispossession of land from workers and BIPOC people.

Books

Property Playbook
The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform

Articles and Editorial on Property
on Engagement
on Climate and Justice
on Energy
on Architectural Research

Building & Interior Design Minsu
Farmhouse
Block Pantry
Pinterest Headquarters

Landscape & Urban Design Resilient by Design Challenge
Fall Kill Master Plan
National AIDS Memorial

Games & Mixed Media In It Together
Bartertown
Mix & Match
Safari

ExhibitionsSeoul Biennial
Oslo Biennial
YBCA

Fall Kill Master Plan
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc
Pougkeepsie, NY
2011-12

This master plan establishes design and planning guidelines for transforming a creek in Poughkeepsie, NY, into a vibrant community resource. The project imagines new neighborhood centers linked by a new eco-urban walking corridor. Our interdisciplinary team created a research report, phased master plan, designs for three pilot sites, a homeowner’s manual, signage installation, and a public installation at one site along the creek.

Commisioning AgencyHudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. (Ryan Palmer, Green Cities Department) and the Fall Kill Watershed Committee. The Fall Kill Plan was supported by a New York State Hudson River Estuary Program grant: Assessing Watershed Restoration Opportunities in the Fall Kill Watershed.

Scope (1) Report and Master Plan for public greenways across the Fall Kill (2) Design and feasibility study for 3 pilot sites (3) Handbook to help residents, city agencies, businesses, and local institutions relate green infrastructure practices to their land use needs (4) Signage design and installation, completed July 2012 (5) Public signage installation in the creek’s first pilot rain garden, 2014.

Design TeamJanette Kim/Urban Landscape Lab (team coordinator and urban designer) with research/design assistants Gabriel Fries-Briggs, Eliza Montgomery, Marianne Koch, Caroline Ellise, John Buonocore, Sydney Talcott, and Meg Kelly; Matthew Slaats at PAUSE (Poughkeepsie-based community outreach leader); Eric Rothstein at eDesign Dynamics (habitat and hydrology specialist); Alice Feng at Landmine Studio (landscape designer)

Partner Community Organizations and Municipal AgenciesCommittee Members: Andrew Sawtelle (Hudson River Housing), Bob Mallory (City of Poughkeepsie Common Council, 3rd Ward), Ed Glisson (Mid Hudson Children’s Museum), Elizabeth Celaya (Hudson River Housing), Harvey Flad (Vassar College), Jeff Anzevino (Scenic Hudson), Joe Chenier (City of Poughkeepsie Engineering Department), Nancy Cozeen (Upper Landing Committee), Roy Budnik (Mid Hudson Heritage Center), John Mylod (City Resident, Fisherman).

The first phase of the master plan, a signage project along major bridge crossings over the creek, was installed in July 2012, followed by an public signage installation in the creek’s first pilot rain garden in 2014.

To initiate the implementation of the Fall Kill Plan, we created a handbook to help residents, city agencies, businesses, and local institutions relate green infrastructure practices to their land use needs.

The final phase of the project was to design a public feature at the Underwear Factory, the first pilot park along the Fall Kill Creek. We fabricated custom fabricated signage/pavers for rain garden at the Underwear Factory (completed and installed 2014).