The Unpacked; enchancing green space design through participatory methodology

Abstract

This thesis investigates how participatory design can enhance green space design to create inclusive and sustainable public green spaces in socially and economically challenged areas. While green spaces are often developed through top-down processes, this research examines how co-design with residents can translate lived experience into operational design directions and spatial strategies. The study is based on a case in Angered, where residents engaged in sensory walks, biodiversity observations, and co-design workshops. Observations revealed gathering around shaded areas, low species diversity, accessibility gaps, and underused lawns. Workshop discussions highlighted desires for cultural representation, opportunities for ecological stewardship, and safer, more inclusive spaces. These insights were synthesised with theoretical foundations- participation, social sustainability, and biophilic design-into six Design Directions: fostering cultural expression, enhancing sensory diversity, strengthening biodiversity and stewardship enabling flexible gathering integrating nature as a shared resource and creating connected micro-spaces. The design proposal applied these directions through interventions such as a modular hexagonal seating, pergolas, a language board, sensory and meditation cells, native planting, and a community garden. The hexagonal modular system became the core spatial strategy, embodying flexibility, inclusivity, and ecological integration. The findings confirm site-specific conditions - cultural and linguistic diversity, socioeconomic challenges and low ecological variety - while pointing to broader lessons for participatory design: translating community knowledge into spatial outcomes, reframing biophilia as a social as well as ecological practice, and demonstrating how small interventions can reinforce wider goals of inclusion and resilience. The study concludes that participatory design when systematically connected to theory and translated into design directions, can generate green spaces that are socially inclusive, ecologically resilient, and adaptable to other urban contexts.