Overcoming Disciplinary Stupidity

Collective Creation for Diversity and Inclusion in Public Space Design

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59490/footprint.19.1.7490

Abstract

This article explores the challenge of designing public spaces in hyperdiverse cities and argues that including knowledge often considered ‘stupid’ is key towards inclusive design approaches. It discusses recent shifts towards co-creation, co-design and placemaking by highlighting the importance of engaging with collective stupidity beyond presumed disciplinary intelligence. The integration of stupid or unconventional ideas in collective creation processes could help better problematise design challenges in public spaces and better engage with diverse perspectives to address diversity effectively. First, we will sketch the main societal pushes and academic turns supporting the enhancement of stupidity through the collective creation of public space for contemporary inclusive and hyperdiverse cities. Then, drawing on a comparative literature study of key authors introducing paradigmatic shifts for today’s theoretical framing and understanding of collective creation, diversity and design ethics in public space, we propose a non-conclusive series of design capacities for public space designers. These designer capacities are situated in contextual and sociocultural awareness, sensitivity to socio-spatial relations and narrative inquiry, and designing with the tacit, hence with empathy and responsibility. Finally, we highlight the relation between stupidity and failure in urban design and present relevant success practices. However complimentary to traditional design capacities, we conclude that these ethico-aesthetic approaches might challenge traditional notions of intelligence, beauty or authorship in design in favour of diversity and inclusivity.

Author Biographies

Mar Muñoz Aparici, Delft University of Technology

Mar Muñoz Aparici is a registered architect and researcher at TU Delft, specialising in design approaches and methods to activate public spaces. Her work is at the intersection of urban design and architecture, with a focus on publicness in cultural and community buildings. She has contributed to projects such as MAKERLAB, which explores how co-creation and design foster cultural value formation in public makerspaces. She has also been a design fellow at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, where she studied the adaptive reuse of art spaces for community engagement. Mar is a pioneer in design-driven research and an active member of the European CA2RE+ research network, which promotes the co-development of innovative approaches in this field. She is also part of the New European Bauhaus community, engaging in initiatives such as NEB Goes South and digiNEB. As director of the design studio lamardebe in Valencia, she combines theory and practice, leading design, research and curatorial projects internationally.

Maurice Harteveld, Delft University of Technology

Affiliated to the chair of Urban Design at TU Delft, Maurice Harteveld’s work focuses on public space. His theoretical concepts of ‘interior public space’ and ‘interior urbanism’ has brought different design disciplines together while pushing the boundaries of urban design in particular. Subsequently, his developing thoughts on ‘domesticated public space’ overlap with cultural anthropology, urban sociology and environmental psychology. This push guided him to develop transdisciplinary and subjective methods. Maurice is thematic lead on Mixed Methods and Design Strategies of the LDE Centre PortCityFutures, leads the Design of Public Spaces research group, and has been leader of research projects City of the Future and Post-Pandemic Public Spaces. His work extends to the Delft Design for Values Institute, and Delft Deltas, the Infrastructures & Mobility Initiative, and to several places and positions around the globe. Next to this, he works at the Netherlands Architects Register.

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Published

2025-06-20