Designing With, Not For: How Community-Led Design Shapes Our Buildings
What does it mean for housing to truly reflect its community? At Venice Community Housing, it starts by bringing residents, neighbors, and local partners into the process from day one.
Our community-led design approach is about more than aesthetics, it’s about relationships, trust, and shared ownership. Through workshops, listening sessions, surveys, and site activations, community members help guide how a space looks, feels, and functions. As our Community Engagement Manager Jonathan Hunter puts it, “One of the things I value most about this work is seeing ideas come directly from the community and then become real. It changes how people connect to a place.”
Public art is a powerful way this approach comes to life. This past weekend, we celebrated the “unveiling” of a new mural at one of our buildings, created in partnership with Color the Water and artists River Garza and Glen Wilson. The mural is more than a visual statement; it’s a space for storytelling, culture, and connection. As Jonathan explains, “It’s not just about building housing, it’s about building something the community sees itself in.”
Jonathan is also coordinating opportunities for residents and youth program participants to work with the artists in the coming weeks. These sessions will allow participants to engage hands-on, learn new skills, and contribute directly to the artwork, a living example of community-led design in action.
Community-led design ensures that those most often excluded from traditional development processes are not just included, they are helping lead the way. “For us, it means shifting who gets to have a voice,” Jonathan says. “We’re creating space for people who have historically been left out of these decisions to lead them.”
Through this approach, our buildings and public spaces do more than house people, they reflect the identity, vision, and creativity of the communities that call them home.
