PERSPEKTIVENWERKSTATT

Visionary designs, cooperative strategies, new initiatives – five days of participatory quarter planning that are certain to challenge existing views and priorities. Background, concept and practical application of the method are explained and illustrated throughout.

Andreas von Zadow, Perspektivenwerkstatt, 1997, 102 pages, fully illustrated. ISBN 3-88118-231-4.
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a revised and updated version of this book is in process

The Community Planning Event Manual

A revised and updated version of the handbook “Action Planning” was published.

Nick Wates. The Community Planning Event Manual. 121 S. ISBN 1-84407-492-1, 2008, GBP 17,-. Earthscan, London.
This `how-to-do´manual for community planning workshops is a revision of a former work by Nick Wates: Action Planning (1996, Rezension TRIALOG 53:51) und Community Planning Handbook (2000). Systematicly are discribed: the basic necessity for community planning, the recommended ways to come to decisions, as well as necessary preparations, schedules and follow-up acitvities to get precise results.

Especially helpfull is a 30 pages strong annex with data, adresses, tabels, and references. This book is reflecting the experiences of 40 years since the very first event in 1967, when the American Institute of Architecture arranged the first workshops in 125 town. Too special details are omitted, proven tools are presented (as the use of post-it-notes and the attendance of 4 – 5 students of architecture for the visualisation of ideas). Although the manual is still geared to English means it can also aid pretty good for other countries if carefull transfered.
Kosta Mathey

find out more under www.communityplanning.net

La Participation Dynamique

The french manual on Community Planning is published in 2009 with the title “Concertation citoyenne en urbanisme”.

RESIDENTS’ INITIATIVES

Using the examples of seven alternative projects across Europe which sprung from individual initiatives, Andreas von Zadow examines the various motivations and concepts that were instrumental in helping seemingly utopian projects to be accepted. Are these “social entrepreneurs “ different tin any respect? What drives them? What is the secret of their success? Are we all capable of achieving similar things?

Andreas von Zadow, Eigeninitiative, Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 1998, 140 pages, fully illustrated. ISBN 3-8251-7168-X.
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The projects described in the book are:

• Execute the work in economy, Gelsenkirchen – How to become a house owner on a small budget and with plenty of personal contribution.
• Urban development project E.V.A., Culemborg (NL) – How a self-made woman created an integral, ecological urban settlement.
• Forward-looking human resources development, Wels (A) – The rise of an ordinary secretary to committee chairwoman or: how to successfully give the authorities a shake-up.
• StattAuto Car sharing GmbH, Berlin – From student to entrepreneur and instigator of municipal transport policy.
• Battlebridge Centre, London – A woman and her fight against the establishment, and how she transformed a derelict railway land into an inner-city socio-ecological oasis.
• Miljöligan, Stockholm – From problem-borough to European showpiece project: The recipe for success of a citizens’ action group.
• *Net acquisition, Schönau (D) – The “electricity rebels from the Black Forest” or How a community founded its own power station.