Our participatory practices include:
Cité internationale des arts
We worked in the residency of the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris September to December 2025.
The project studied the lived experience in the Parisian grands ensembles: postwar housing complexes built primarily during Les Trente Glorieuses (1945–1975) as symbols of progress and housing for all, later burdened by neglect and stigma.
Because these neighbourhoods occupy a sensitive place in public discourse, we adopted drawing as our primary method. Many residents prefer not to be photographed, and drawing—slow, public, and conversational—invites curiosity and exchange. Rather than fleeting images, it demands time and presence, treating these postwar complexes as monuments in their own right.
From September to December 2025 we visited over 20 grands ensembles around the Paris metropolitan area. Seeking sustained engagement with a single site, we chose Sarcelles, a northern suburb thirty minutes from central Paris on the RER D. Built between 1954 and 1976, Sarcelles is one of France’s most emblematic grands ensembles.
The project’s culmination was a series of drawing workshops where we worked with local residents—imigrant women and young men—to help them tell their own stories through drawing. The project was conducted in collaboration with local organizations Accueil & Culture and Compagnons Bâtisseurs with Iranian dramaturg Elahe Nouri collaborating with us in the workshops. The work was exhibited at Cité Internationale des Arts in December 2025. The project was funded by the Finnish Culture Fund and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
The project studied the lived experience in the Parisian grands ensembles: postwar housing complexes built primarily during Les Trente Glorieuses (1945–1975) as symbols of progress and housing for all, later burdened by neglect and stigma.
Because these neighbourhoods occupy a sensitive place in public discourse, we adopted drawing as our primary method. Many residents prefer not to be photographed, and drawing—slow, public, and conversational—invites curiosity and exchange. Rather than fleeting images, it demands time and presence, treating these postwar complexes as monuments in their own right.
From September to December 2025 we visited over 20 grands ensembles around the Paris metropolitan area. Seeking sustained engagement with a single site, we chose Sarcelles, a northern suburb thirty minutes from central Paris on the RER D. Built between 1954 and 1976, Sarcelles is one of France’s most emblematic grands ensembles.
The project’s culmination was a series of drawing workshops where we worked with local residents—imigrant women and young men—to help them tell their own stories through drawing. The project was conducted in collaboration with local organizations Accueil & Culture and Compagnons Bâtisseurs with Iranian dramaturg Elahe Nouri collaborating with us in the workshops. The work was exhibited at Cité Internationale des Arts in December 2025. The project was funded by the Finnish Culture Fund and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
First piloted in the FCINY residency in New York, the climate game is an ongoing participatory method that we use to collect and share insights about community resilience in our contemporary cities facing the effects of climate change.
The residency culminated in a workshop, where we shared insights from our exploration of community-based practices in New York City’s climate adaptation. Participants were invited to envision ways to reshape their surroundings, drawing inspiration from community-led initiatives such as community-based organizations, community gardens, and landmarks like Cooper Square, home to New York’s first community land trust.
We mapped local knowledge of extreme weather events in a workshop titled “Let’s Talk About Weather”. The workshop was part of the Mellunmäki neighborhood celebration in May 2025 organized in collaboration with Mellunmäki-liike, Kalliolan Setlementti and ME-talo.
Design practice Raivio&Bumann commissioned us to facilitate a participatory workshop for children and young people as part of their placemaking project in Meri-Rastila, East Helsinki. We invited the local youth to imagine their dream neighborhood through collages.
The participants explored the cityscape with a focus on play, socializing with friends, and self-expression. Through the anecdotes shared during the workshop, we gained valuable insights into how the youth perceive their neighborhood.
We discovered that places for play can be found in the most unexpected spots: at the locally famous climbing tree, in the breeze from an AC unit on the side of the local mall, or at the cliffs where friends gather to meet up.
Raivio&Bumann gathered and synthesized the findings from the workshop, using them as valuable insights to inform city planning in the area. The workshop was part of the Meri-Rastila block party, and the finished collages were exhibited at the local cultural center, Merirasti.
We hosted a workshop as part of the Meri-Rastila Block Party 2025, where locals were invited to write post cards from their favorite places in the neighborhood. In the postcards residents shared their memories of these places and put into words what the significance of their everyday environment.
The workshop was part of the Geography of Memories project funded by Alfred Kordelin Foundation and City of Helsinki.
Inspired by the work of the French situationist movement we hosted a workshop utilising psychogeographic methods. The residents of Meri-Rastila were invited to draw memory maps that showcased the neighborhood not through exact cartography, but though the memories and meanings that places hold in peoples’ lives.
The workshop was part of the Geography of Memories project funded by Alfred Kordelin Foundation and City of Helsinki.
In the spring of 2024, we collaborated with landscape architect Kaisla Rahkola on an architectural competition for a new multipurpose building in East Helsinki’s Meri-Rastila neighborhood. The project aimed to integrate a school, daycare center, and youth center while balancing new construction with the thoughtful reuse of existing structures.
With support from FEMMA Planning, we held workshops with residents and school staff to assess the strengths and challenges of the current buildings. These sessions helped envision how the new complex could best serve its users.