This is a special topics course intended to fulfill the individual interests of students, and provide a vehicle for professors to instruct students based on new and innovative developments in the field of environmental design.

The Civic Imagination Studio invites students to collaborate with community-based organizations—most notably the West Oakland Cultural Action Network (WOCAN)—to support local efforts toward environmental justice and community-led planning.

Students work directly with community advocates, planners, and local officials to bridge communication between residents and decision-makers. Together, they design hands-on engagement tools—such as workshops, games, dashboards, or immersive media—that help translate community stories and priorities into strategies that inform policy and design.

The course aims to demystify and democratize planning, making complex processes more accessible and participatory. Grounded in practices of civic imagination, it draws from frameworks such as the Colliberate Curriculum (Partners for Collaborative Change), Just Cities Lab (Harvard GSD), the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), and Creative CityMaking (Minneapolis).

By the end of the studio, students will have developed creative methods for collaboration, contributed to a real-world community initiative, and reflected on how design can expand public imagination and agency in shaping the city.

THIS IS A 3 UNIT CLASS— Please selected 3 units when enrolling.

Credit Restrictions

Enrollment is restricted; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.

Repeat Rules