Smallx20: Twenty Years of Community Engaged Design in New Orleans

The Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design is the outreach arm of the Tulane School of Architecture. The Center works with nonprofit organizations and community-based groups to provide design services to communities who are consistently underserved by the design professions.  The work focuses on equitable participation, meaningful outcomes, design excellence, and inclusion as critical parts of the design process.

Smallx20 tells the story of the Center’s founding and illustrates the Center’s approach to design in service to community needs. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, and the ensuing federal levee failure flooded 80% of the city. While the groundwork for Small Center was established before the storm, the Center’s early work served to support community needs during the city’s recovery. Smallx20 details how the Center’s responsiveness to community voice continues to characterize its approach to public interest design and architectural education.

The Center is consistently recognized as a national leader in community-based design, with a commitment to deep collaboration and design excellence. Through guest reflections, case studies, and photographs Smallx20 offers a window into the Center’s working methods, the resulting designs, and a portrait of the communities and traditions that shape New Orleans culture.

Maggie Hansen is an assistant professor in Landscape Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. From 2014-17 she was director of Tulane’s Small Center for Collaborative Design, and continues to write, teach, and research models of participatory practice across disciplines.

Nick Jenisch is associate director of Urban Design at Tulane’s Small Center for Collaborative Design. He has worked in public interest design for twenty years, with projects encompassing architectural design/build, water management, park & public space design, and cultural sustainability.