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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on Architectural Research
Selected Editorial
ARPA Journal
no. 05 “Conflicts of Interest,” 2018, Editor
no. 04 “Instruments of Service,” 2016, Managing editor
no. 03 “Performance,” 2015, Editor
no. 02 “The Search Engine,” 2014, Managing editor
no. 01 “Test Subjects,” 2014, Editor
no. 00 “Cracker Jack Bonus Issue: Labs,” 2014, Editor
ARPA Journal was a digital publication that served as forum for debate on what is applied research in architecture. Each of the five issues focused on a technique or protocol of research to examine its ethical stance and spark ideas for its potential transformation. I created ARPA Journal in conjunction with the Applied Research Practices in Architecture initiative at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Link to publication.
“Harvesting Change. An Interview with Sweet Water Foundation’s Emmanuel Pratt.” ARPA Journal no. 03, June 2018.
This interview with Emmanuel Pratt explores how the Sweet Water Foundation’s role in shaping neighborhood development and local economies has intersected with the marketplace of funding—across sources as diverse as the agriculture industry, education, and arts. Topics include the metrics of evaluation, the terms of legitimacy, sites for value creation, and opportunities for experimentation. Link to publication.
“Task Environment. Architecture and the ‘Creative Economy’: an Interview with Arindam Dutta.” ARPA Journal no. 01, May, 2014.
An interview with Arindam Dutta, Associate Professor at MIT and editor of A Second Modernism: MIT, Architecture, and the “Techno-Social” Moment (2013). This conversation examined the implications of MIT’s history for research practice today, amidst an innovation economy structured by venture capital and private intellectual property.
“Efficiency as Productivity. A Conversation with Craig Schwitter, Actually We Have Extra.” Intervidew conducted by Esteban de Backer and Janette Kim. ARPA Journal no. 03, July.2015.
An interview with Craig Schwitters, Senior Partner at Buro Happold and Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University. This conversation explored inventive and often counter-intuitive strategies for expanding the terms of performance for the use of energy in buildings--not just through the cost and volume of energy use but through density, flexibility, waste capture, and diversified capacity and control. Link to publication.