Community Design and Planning Centre

Scattered wooden blocks and small blue pieces form a miniature cityscape on a flat surface, evoking a sense of playfulness and creativity.

Join us to learn about the Faculty of Architecture Community Design and Planning Centre (CDPC) – and how you can be involved! The CDPC is dedicated to advancing community-based research and creative projects within the realm of the built and natural environments. We partner with diverse stakeholders to tackle pressing local challenges and develop holistic solutions that enhance quality of life and promote equitable access to resources and opportunities.

Richard Milgrom PhD RPP MCIP is an Associate Professor in the Department of City Planning.  His teaching and scholarship have centred on the social impacts of planning and design. He has explored participatory processes that allow voices in planning processes for communities that have typically been excluded from decision-making that shapes human settlements. This work has engaged with the Centre on Aging to explore how Manitoba cities and town can improve the quality of life for older adults, and with discussions about how Downtown Winnipeg could be revitalized to accommodate inclusive residential districts and safe, welcoming public environments.

His interests in participatory and community-based design processes have been fed by involvement with activist planning networks, including Planners Network (www.plannersnetwork.org) and the International Network for Urban Research and Action (www.INURA.org). These organizations provide connections to an international array of planners, designers and centres engaged in community-based work.

Alixa Lacerna is a Cebuano whose heart has found home in two places, Cebu (Philippines) and Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg, Manitoba). Through travel, Alixa realized that despite crossing different borders, lands needn’t be seen as separate countries, but rather the lands crossing the oceans are extensions of each other. Alixa’s education in environmental design and architecture allowed her to experience the sacredness of Nature’s time, and the surety of slowness. She feels that mainstream design and planning have severed our spirituality and kinship with our animal relatives, land, and water. So as a designer, our reconnection has been Alixa’s daily practice, inspired by the Diné word and understanding of Hózhó—the joy of being part of the beauty of all creation.