Episode 42: A Framework for Inclusive Healthy Places
On this episode, we’re joined by Sharon Roerty and Maki Kawaguchi, who describe the origins and uses of a framework for understanding, creating and measuring public spaces.
Topics:
Tags:
Sharon Roerty is an urban planner and senior program officer with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Maki Kawaguchi is an architect, urban designer and Director at Gehl. Their organizations have worked together to develop the Inclusive Healthy Places Framework. As Sharon says on the podcast, it arose from a desire to figure out why some places feel like everyone is welcomed. The Framework is a tool with a set of well-defined metrics that can be flexibly applied to fit almost any situation or location. It is a methodology for understanding, evaluating and engaging people with places; and a tool for systems change.
On the podcast, Sharon and Maki share stories about transforming places. They speak of the way the Framework came together around the idea of the potential and power of public spaces to provide dignity for all people. They talk about design and “citizen science” and the way that the metrics in the Framework can be used to help rethink how communities plan and sustain equity and inclusion in public spaces, not as an afterthought but as a through line. The Framework is currently being applied with four partners: American Planning Association, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, National Recreation and Park Association, and New Jersey Community Capital.
Listen to the podcast – and dive into the Framework.