All of the Above
Janette Komoda Kim
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
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In It Together
Resilient by Design Challenge
2017-18
In It Together reveals how diverse communities can work together to adapt to climate change. This board game animates the impact of rising seas on ecology, economy, and equity in cities, and plays out multiple adaptation response scenarios, from top-down planning to grassroots community investment. This game facilitated collaboration with agencies and local non-profits throughout the Resilient by Design Challenge. We used the game to gather stakeholder input about their priorities and facilitate collaboration among diverse partners at eight working meetings. The game proved especially useful at sparking playful dialog about otherwise contentious issues and building empathy among diverse perspectives through role play.
Design teamJanette Komoda Kim/Urban Works Agency in consultation with the All Bay Collective team (AECOM, CMG Landscape Architecture, CCA Urban Works Agency (principal investigators: Janette Komoda Kim and Neeraj Bhatia), UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design; with David Baker Architects, Silvestrum, Skeo, and Moll de Monchaux) in the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge and CCA students: Shahad Alamoudi, Marwan Barmasood, Georgia Came, Denisse Correa Guerra, Alli Foronda, Eric Fura, Francisco Garcia, Jessica Grinaker, Fathmath Isha, Lori Martinez, Jennifer Pandian and Sabrina Schrader.
Community PartnersEast Oakland Collective, Oakland Climate Action Coalition, Scraper Bike Team, Merritt College Brower Dellums Institute for Sustainable Policy Studies, Planting Justice, HOPE Collaborative, East Oakland Building Health Communities, and Repaired Nations. Municipal partners: Oakland Planning, City of Alameda, BART, the Port of Oakland, East Bay Regional Park District, and East Bay Municipal Utility District.
Grants$250,000 from Resilient by Design Challenge to the All Bay Collective; $40,000 to Urban Works Agency. RBD was in turn supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Exhibitions and PerformancesCCA Critical Studies (2021), CCA Architecture Division (2020), National Organization of Minotiry Architects conference (2020), UTOPIAA (2020), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2019), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2018-19). Global Climate Action Summit (2018), San Francisco Public Library (2018), Rock Wall Wine Company (2018), SF Jazz May 2018 (RBD pop-up exhibit), CA Adaptation Forum Network Meeting (2018 and 2019), East Oakland Collective (2018), Higher Ground Leadership Workforce (2018), Summit on Coastal and Estuarine Restoration and Management (2018, BART Coliseum Station (2018), Shore Up Marin (2018).
Writing OnArchitecture from Public to Commons (2023); Designing Change (2023); Games and Play in the Creative, Smart and Ecological City (2021); Scenario Journal (2020); The Estuary Commons: People, Place and a Path Forward (2018).
More InformationPlease visit the Urban Works Agency website here and here.
Image CreditsFirst section: top image by Sara Lafleur-Vetter. Second section, clockwise from top right: Sara Lafleur-Vetter, Kris May, and Claire Bonham-Carter. All other images by Janette Kim/Urban Works Agency.