events

Children as Co-designers: Beyond the School Gates: Reconceptualizing Learning Environments across Global Contexts

Jose Jaime Samper Escobar — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 21:06:26 +0000

Children as Co-designers: Beyond the School Gates: Reconceptualizing Learning Environments across Global Contexts Jose Jaime Sam… Mon, 08/31/2026 - 15:06

For three days in May 2026, CEDaR hosted Matluba Khan, a Senior Lecturer in Urban Design in the School of Geography and Planning in Wales. Dr. Khan has worked across the Global North and Global South, leading participatory processes that engage children and youth in school ground greening and neighborhood planning. On May 21 she gave a presentation at CEDaR that featured her international projects: “Children as Co-Designers—Beyond the School Gates.”

The talk brought together ENVD design faculty, a member of CU’s Health and Wellness Center who is developing ways to use nature to support mental health, designers and program managers from �Ǹ�Թ�’s departments of Parks and Recreation and Open Space and Mountain Parks, architects with the Rios design firm in �Ǹ�Թ�, representatives of Growing Up �Ǹ�Թ�, Play �Ǹ�Թ� and Thorne Nature Experience, a specialist in ecological restoration, and local experts in the evaluation of participatory design processes. It led to a discussion of possibilities for applying participatory processes that Dr. Khan illustrated during current design projects in �Ǹ�Թ�.

Dr. Khan also provided everyone with reports, articles and toolkits for participatory design. During her stay, she toured park and schoolyard sites in �Ǹ�Թ� that were generated through participatory design and planning with local students and communities, for a cross-sharing of ideas between the University of Colorado and Cardiff University.

Bio

Dr. Matluba Khan is Associate Professor of Urban Design at Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning. Trained as an architect and a landscape architect, Dr. Khan has pushed disciplinary boundaries and conducts research at the intersection of education, psychology, health, and the built environment. Her expertise lies in participatory design and planning, intervention research, and the evaluation of design for children's learning, health, and well-being. Dr. Khan has received multiple international accolades for her co-designed projects, including the EDRA Great Places Award 2016 in Place Design and the ASLA Honor Award 2017 in Community Services. A recently completed project led by Dr. Khan, 'A Grangetown to Grow Up In,' was a finalist in RTPI's Sir Peter Hall Memorial Award for Excellence in Research and Engagement and the Inspiring Future Generations Award 2022. Dr Khan’s scholarly and engagement activities have been recognised by Cardiff University’s Celebrating Excellence Awards in Rising Star (Academic) in 2022 and in Civic Mission in 2023.

Dr. Khan provided everyone with reports, articles and toolkits for participatory design. During her stay, she toured park and schoolyard sites in �Ǹ�Թ� that were generated through participatory design and planning with local students and communities, for a cross-sharing of ideas between the University of Colorado and Cardiff University.

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Making Homelands: Tufting San Lazaro Lifeways / Construyendo el Lugar de Origen: Tejiendo los Modos de Vida de San Lazaro

Jose Jaime Samper Escobar — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 23:35:59 +0000

Making Homelands: Tufting San Lazaro Lifeways / Construyendo el Lugar de Origen: Tejiendo los Modos de Vida de San Lazaro Jose Jaime Sam… Tue, 11/04/2025 - 16:35

�Ǹ�Թ�, Colorado / Fall 2024-Fall 2025 / Exhibition / Community Power, Immigration, Environmental Justice, Textile Design

sophie weston chien

This exhibit is a series of tufted textiles that storymap San Lazaro families. The textiles record the ecologies present and changing over time and space, witnessing where folks make home. The series is a visual interview, each rug telling a story with a different family, alongside a transect of life in San Lazaro Mobile Home Park in Northeast �Ǹ�Թ�. Visitors are encouraged to engage with the work visually and haptically, seeing and touching the journeys of some of the people who live at San Lazaro.

This research combines quantitative information in the form of spatial mapping and qualitative information from the oral histories of the residents. Each family was given a series of prompts to answer intergenerationally, about memories of home, how they got here, and emotions and senses along the way. The textile series tells the stories of San Lazaro through many lenses: ecological, familial, cultural, physical, and temporal.

Esta muestra presenta una colección de tejidos que cuentan las historias de vida de las familias de San Lazaro. Los tejidos registran las ecologías presentes y cambiantes a lo largo del tiempo y el espacio, dando testimonio de los lugares donde las personas hacen hogar. La serie es una entrevista visual, cada alfombra cuenta una historia con una familia distinta, a lo largo de un recorrido de vida en San Lazaro, un parque de casas móviles en Northeast �Ǹ�Թ�. Se anima a los visitantes a interactuar con la obra visual y hápticamente, viendo y tocando San Lazaro.

Este estudio combina información cuantitativa en forma de mapeo espacial y cualitativa en forma de historias orales de los residentes. A cada familia se le dio una serie de indicaciones para responder de manera intergeneracional sobre los recuerdos del hogar, como llegaron hasta aquí y las emociones y sentidos a lo largo del camino. La serie de tejidos cuenta las historias de San Lazaro a través de varios lentes: ecológico, familiar, cultural, físico y temporal.

This work was started two years ago, and as the immigration landscape changed, the focus of the work changed as well. After many conversations with participants, it was clear that the most significant part of the project was telling stories within families, to make sure immigrant parents/grandparents and first-gen kids knew their family history and where they came from. As a child of an immigrant myself, it was an honor to hold that space and translate stories of many homes.

This work was completed in the context of federal agencies disappearing people, people who deserve to live with dignity and safety, where they have put down roots. This is a reminder to continue giving and supporting local rapid response networks. Here is Denver’s: https://www.coloradorapidresponsenetwork.com

Making Homelands has been exhibited at the �Ǹ�Թ� Public Library, Arapahoe Gallery, from August 5 - October 29, 2025.

This work was produced as a collaboration between the Community Engagement, Design and Research Center (CEDaR) in the Environmental Design Department at CU �Ǹ�Թ�, EcoArts Connections, and seven San Lazaro Mobile Home Park families with designer Sophie Weston Chien. It has been supported by Art Omi: Architecture, CU �Ǹ�Թ� PACES Grant, CU �Ǹ�Թ� Council for Arts + Humanities Grant, National Association of Minority Landscape Architects BIPOC Educator Research Grant, and through EcoArts Connections by the �Ǹ�Թ� Arts Commission and the Schramm Foundation. Thanks to Marda Kirn, Susana Roriguez, Rosabelle Rice, Claudia Lopez, Leticia Pérez González and Tuft Love.

Making homelands: Tufting San Lazaro lifeways - Art installation by Sophie Weston Chien runs through December 6th

By Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research

Https://calendar.colorado.edu/event/making-homelands?utm_campaign=widget&utm_medium=widget&utm_source=University+of+Colorado+�Ǹ�Թ�

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Making Homelands: Tufting San Lazaro Lifeways LECTURE

Jose Jaime Samper Escobar — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 22:03:12 +0000

Making Homelands: Tufting San Lazaro Lifeways LECTURE Jose Jaime Sam… Wed, 02/05/2025 - 15:03

Making Homelands: Tufting San Lazaro Lifeways.

Join us for a CEDaR Brown Bag Lunch featuring ENVD Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow Sophie Weston Chien as she presents her postdoctoral project, Making Homelands: Tufting San Lazaro Lifeways.

📅 Wednesday, February 12
⏰12:30 PM
📍 ENVD 213 CEDaR, Environmental Design Program, CU �Ǹ�Թ�

Sophie will share a series of tufted textiles that storymap San Lazaro residents' climatic and political migrations, offering a unique perspective on place-making and displacement through textile art.

Bring your lunch, we wil provide some desserty options and join us for an engaging conversation!

We look forward to seeing you there.

Best,
CEDaR
Community Engagement, Design, and Research Center (CEDaR)
Environmental Design Program, CU �Ǹ�Թ�

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DREAM PLAY BUILD event Monday, September 26

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 18:33:34 +0000

DREAM PLAY BUILD event Monday, September 26 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/15/2022 - 12:33

Jota Samper

DREAM PLAY BUILD

BOOK LAUNCH + LECTURE + MODEL BUILDING WORKSHOP

JAMES ROJAS
JOHN KAMPJOHN KAMP

Monday, September 26
5:30 - 6:30 pm
Environmental Design Building, Room 134Environmental 134
CU �Ǹ�Թ�CU �Ǹ�Թ�

James Rojas and John Kamp have been looking to art, creative expression and storytelling to shake up the classic community meeting.

Their approach, Place It!, draws on three methods: the interactive model-building workshop, the pop-up, and site exploration using our senses. Deceptively playful, this method is remarkably effective at teasing out community dreams and desires from hands-on activities.

Dream Play Build offers wisdom distilled from workshops held around the world and a deep dive into the transformational approach and results from the South Colton community in southern California.

Inspirational and fun, Dream Play Build celebrates the value of engaging with the dreams we have for our communities.

This event includes a lecture and a workshop as part of the celebration of Rojas and Kamp's new book, Dream, Play, Build (Island Press 2022).

Hosted by Growing Up �Ǹ�Թ� (GUB), The Program in Environmental Design (ENVD), and the Center for Community Engaged Design and Research (CEDaR).

reach us at CEDaRcenter@colorado.edu with questions and requests for accommodations

https://calendar.colorado.edu/event/dream_play_build_lecture_workshop#.YyNyWnbMIYp

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May 6: Congratulations CEDaR Spring 2021 graduates!

Anonymous — Thu, 13 May 2021 15:49:36 +0000

May 6: Congratulations CEDaR Spring 2021 graduates! Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/13/2021 - 09:49

On May 6, 2021, CU �Ǹ�Թ� held its virtual graduation ceremony. Join us in congratulating our graduating students employees, interns and researchers who were involved in CEDaR projects!

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May 16: Congratulations CEDaR Spring 2020 graduates!

Anonymous — Thu, 28 May 2020 22:47:14 +0000

May 16: Congratulations CEDaR Spring 2020 graduates! Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/28/2020 - 16:47

On May 16, 2020, CU �Ǹ�Թ� held its virtual graduation ceremony. Join us in congratulating our graduating students employees, interns and researchers who were involved in CEDaR projects!

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Feb. 15: Adaptation Urbanism with Andrés Duany

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 14:36:02 +0000

Feb. 15: Adaptation Urbanism with Andrés Duany Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/03/2020 - 07:36

The Adaptation Urbanism workshop, led by Andrés Duany, will explore principles of designing for climate change. Over the last few years, Duany and colleagues have been developing design responses to climate change building on New Urbanist tools and principles. In this workshop, Duany and others will unveil this new work and discuss how to apply these ideas to the Front Range. Join planners, architects and urban designers in this important discussion.

Concepts used in the workshop include agrarian urbanism, climate comfort zones, co-housing, decanting, defensible space, equity, gift economy, light living, lean governance, local infrastructure, loose space, permaculture, pockets of resilient infrastructure, receiving regions and areas, relocation readiness, self-administration, self-sufficiency, sharing, slow city, slow food, slow money, subsidiarity, succession, third place, transect, urban farming and vernacular.

Bio

Andrés Duany is a founder and principal partner at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, widely recognized as a leader of the New Urbanism, an international movement that seeks to end suburban sprawl and promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods. As an architect, urban designer, planner and author, he has influenced planners and designers worldwide and produced plans for hundreds of new and renewed communities across the globe.

Duany led the development of the plan and code for Seaside, Florida; the Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) zoning ordinance; the SmartCode, a form-based zoning code adopted by numerous municipalities seeking to encourage compact, mixed-use, walkable communities; the concept of the rural-to-urban transect; and inventive affordable housing designs, including Carpet Cottages and Cabanons. Locally, Duany also designed the popular Prospect development in Longmont, the state’s first new urbanist neighborhood.

Event Information

Who: Planners, designers, city officials, faculty, students and anyone interested.

What: Adaptation Urbanism Workshop with Andrés Duany

When: Saturday, Feb. 15, 9:30-6:30 p.m.

Where: CU �Ǹ�Թ�, Environmental Design Building, 1060 18th St., ENVD 134, �Ǹ�Թ�

Cost: New, reduced price $50, includes lunch! Space is limited and is on a first-come, first-serve basis. A limited number of scholarships are available for students, but must be requested in advance by first registering for a scholarship and emailing the request to cedarcenter@colorado.edu.

Registration

Questions

Hosted by: Community Engagement, Design and Research Center (CEDaR) and the University of Colorado �Ǹ�Թ�

He is the author of many essays and articles and co-author of several books including, "Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream," "The SmartCode," "The Smart Growth Manual," Garden Cities: Agricultural Urbanism" and "The New Civic Art."

Tentative Schedule
9:30 - 10:30 a.m.
Presentation: Introduction and premises

10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Discussion: Recommendations and practice
Adaptation concepts and patterns

12 - 1:30 p.m.
Lunch (provided)

1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Presentation and discussion: Key concepts and patterns.

5 - 6:30 p.m.
Conclusions

Led by Andrés Duany, the Adaptation Urbanism workshop focuses on urban design ideas and adaptation plans to help planners, designers and city officials address climate change and related natural disasters. Duany is founder and principal partner at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, widely recognized as a leader of the New Urbanism, an international movement that seeks to end suburban sprawl and promote environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types.

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Feb. 4: Webinar - How to create a child-friendly city map

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 15:09:19 +0000

Feb. 4: Webinar - How to create a child-friendly city map Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/02/2020 - 08:09

In 2019, Growing Up �Ǹ�Թ� (GUB), �Ǹ�Թ�’s child- and youth-friendly city initiative based out of the University of Colorado's Community Engagement, Design and Research (CEDaR) Center, created the United States’ first printed, child-friendly city map. GUB also created a digital version of the child-friendly city map, and under GUB’s supervision, a team of graduate students created a digital teen-friendly city map. These free, bilingual (the printed version) maps have reached more than 15,000 families, and they were co-created with local children and families. Learn how your community can create one of these maps as a tool for social justice, active living, empowerment and joy!

Registration: $50

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Nov. 9, 2019: Yes We Can! Engaging with Policies for Positive Change in Colorado’s Manufactured Home Communities

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 03:45:47 +0000

Nov. 9, 2019: Yes We Can! Engaging with Policies for Positive Change in Colorado’s Manufactured Home Communities Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/23/2019 - 21:45

Manufactured home communities face many challenges, and each community is different. From problems with basic infrastructure and water billing, to rent increases, unreasonable park rules, and unfair treatment - many areas of potential conflict between residents and park owners exist. Resident health and well-being can suffer. How can disputes be resolved? How can positive change be made?

Join us on Nov. 9, 2019 for lunch and a full afternoon of speakers, Q&A, brainstorming, and breakout groups as we explore past success and possibilities for future action. Learn, share, connect, and leave with motivation and resources to stay engaged.

Information and registration

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Nov. 1, 2019: Pollinator Summit

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 21:32:51 +0000

Nov. 1, 2019: Pollinator Summit Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 10/20/2019 - 15:32

The Community Engagement, Design and Research Center (CEDaR) is a member of the planning committee for the fourth annual Colorado Pollinator Summit, “Protecting Colorado’s Biodiversity." The summit, which will be held at the Sustainability, Energy & Environment Center (SEEC) on the CU �Ǹ�Թ� east campus, features plenary talks and panels on urban neighborhoods, landscaping for biodiversity, and holistic farming in Colorado. Kate Greenberg, Colorado commissioner of agriculture, will give opening remarks. The afternoon will include a participatory format and short inspiring talks to spur breakthrough thinking and action.

Friday, November 1, 2019 at 8 am-4:30 pm

Register now—past summits have sold out in advance. Registration includes lunch and refreshments. Discount rates available for students.

The event was planned by CEDaR, along with the Denver Botanic Gardens, the city of �Ǹ�Թ�, the Butterfly Pavilion and other organizations.

Don't miss the fourth annual Colorado Pollinator Summit, “Protecting Colorado’s Biodiversity," which features plenary talks and panels on urban neighborhoods, landscaping for biodiversity, and holistic farming in Colorado. The annual event, planned by CEDaR, the Denver Botanic Gardens and other organizations, often sells out.

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