A Manifesto for the Just City

We use manifestos to express our desire for POSITIVE CHANGE.

Manifestos publically declare ideas, values, and objectives.

In architectural and planning education, we need architects, urban planners, sociologists, environmental engineers, landscape designers, urban geographers, and others who can work in multidisciplinary teams and in partnership with citizens, who are sensitive to the needs of our planet and who can play new roles bridging city planning, citizens and communities.

Designers must include different voices in the conversation in order to cater to the needs of very diverse groups of people living in our cities. We must promote citizen participation not only to achieve better cities but also to achieve better democracies.

We also have a duty to speak for the most vulnerable, whose voices are never heard in city planning and design.

The world has changed, and we are now experiencing a shock in most of our natural and human systems (health, the climate, the economy, democracy, and inequality).

What would a modern manifesto about sustainable and inclusive urbanization look like today?