Cultivating Community Through Planning & Design

Summary 

This seminar will explore the challenges, opportunities, and best practices in building places that facilitate a sense of community and belonging. By discussing the relationship between community housing design and social connectedness, the seminar will deep dive into historical and current economic, technological, and urban planning trends that contribute to the recent concerning rise in loneliness, social isolation, civic disengagement, and public mistrust. This seminar will explore the patterns and practices that build local communities and profile the Community First Village – a master planned tiny-home community for the chronically homeless in Austin, Texas – as a best practice example of how planners and designers can bridge economic and social barriers to facilitate better community-oriented places.  

This seminar series is co-organized by CHUD (Center for Housing & Urban Development), GeoSAT (Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology), and TAMIDS-DAL (Design and Analytics Lab for Urban Artificial Intelligence @ Texas A&M Institute of Data Science).

Speaker’s information

Justin Golbabai, AICP, CNU-A, CFM is an Associate Professor of the Practice and Co-Coordinator of the Bachelor of Science in Urban & Regional Planning Program at Texas A&M University and founding principal of Common Home Planning & Design. Prior to these endeavors, Justin served as Planning Administrator for the City of College Station, TX, and Neighborhood Partnering Program Manager for the City of Austin, TX. Justin’s work partnering with neighborhoods earned national awards in sustainability and innovation from the American Planning Association, the American Public Works Association, and the Alliance for Innovation. Despite these awards and winning “Punniest of Show” in the 2010 O’Henry Wold Pun-Off Championships, Justin considers his greatest accomplishment marrying the most amazing woman in the world and raising their four children.

Time: 10:00-10:30 a.m. US Central Time (Thursday, February 23, 2023)

Zoom Meeting ID: 732 641 0814 Passcode: 575829

Direct Link: https://tamu.zoom.us/j/7326410814?pwd=cGZKY045dmVkdzVRLy9MYWhocWorQT09

Faculty Host: Xinyue Ye, Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, TAMU

Posted by: Jiaxin Du