Pia Palo

About
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piapalo@outlook.com

pia.palo@umu.se

I am an architect and urban designer, currently working as a PhD researcher at Umeå School of Architecture (UMA).  My interests lie at the intersection between the social and the physical, in understanding lived experiences and realities, and in how experimental and artistic processes can be used to think and talk about how and for whom we build our cities. In addition to research work, I teach at both BA and MA levels.

My ongoing PhD research is in critical studies of architecture and urbanism, and focuses on just urban transitions in the context of northern Sweden. I explore how spatial practice (and practitioners) can take on a transformative and productive role in imagining radical and inclusive futures beyond growth through theoretical and practical engagements with ideas of care and relationality.

Border between the informal settlement Woodlane Village/Plastic View and the adjecent church.
Photo by University of Pretoria


Artefacts of Persistence


PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH / 1:1 BUILD / MICRO-SCALE / QUALITATIVE & SITUATED MAPPING / DESIGN EXPERIMENTS
Year: 2022
Site: Woodlane Village/Plastic View, Pretoria, SA
By: Pia Palo, Jessica Lundin, Laura Estrada, & Saskia Langbein
Role: Developing methods and theoretical approaches, conducting interviews, planning and running workshops, graphic design and visual communication.
The project was carried out in collaboration with the local community in the informal settlement of Woodlane Village. The process of creation and the resulting relationships took precedence over the final physical product. The focus of the project was to engage in fieldwork and use small-scale design to initiate a process of building a stronger sense of place identity, a necessary first step in creating long-term change. The outcome was the development of methodologies for community engagement as well as small additions to improve orientability - street names decided on by the community, street signs, a notice board and a map of the settlement.

In informal contexts, our understanding is that the state of impermanence and uncertainty creates a negative cycle where a lack of hope in the future leads to a lack of action towards changing that future. We asked ourselves how we, as architecture students, could initiate a higher level of participation among the residents of Plastic View.

The following question sets the framework:
How can the collective making and design of spatial artefacts act as a catalyst for change?

Read more about the process

Audio-visual sorytelling - life in the settlement




Stakeholder analysis


Stakeholder analysis - mapping key clusters (activity systems) in order to find potentially shared objectives