The Right to the City

Book cover Design
Graphic Design

The hardback cover for Henri Lefebvre's 'The Right to the City' embodies the book's theme of collective urban planning. It's created through workshops where diverse groups envision their ideal city. Using scanned scrap fabric and papers from Glasgow's streets, the cover becomes a patchwork reflecting the city's texture. Each workshop produces a unique variation, celebrating the diversity of urban perspectives.

Objective

Strategy

To visually represent the book's core concept of collective urban planning. The design should capture Lefebvre's vision of citizens reclaiming urban spaces, emphasizing themes of inclusivity, community, and the shaping of cityscapes by the people who inhabit them. The spread should evoke the dynamics of urban life—movement, growth, and collaboration—while remaining true to the intellectual and revolutionary spirit of the text.

The book's central theme revolves around people coming together to shape their city, and the project's strategy mirrored this concept. The goal was to bring people together in a physical space and let them collaboratively decide how to design their ideal city. Participants from diverse backgrounds were asked to discuss and determine how they would create their version of Glasgow within specific parameters. Their designs were then translated into a patchwork of items collected from around the city. Since each group had different perspectives, this diversity was reflected in the final output, resulting in a design with dynamic variations. This inclusive approach could be applied to other cities, creating an archive of ideal cities from around the world.

"The Right to the City" explores the concept of urban citizenship and advocates for inclusive urban development that prioritizes the needs and participation of all residents in shaping their cities.

Development

The design needed to be inherently collaborative, reflecting the core theme of the book. A workshop was organized to enhance this collaborative approach, where participants were tasked with designing their vision of the ideal city—the ideal version of Glasgow. Specific parameters and restrictions were set to guide the workshop and foster creativity within these boundaries.

Workshop

Participants, organized into groups of three with diverse backgrounds, were tasked with arranging post-it notes representing different city areas onto a 6x7 grid. The challenge was creating a cohesive composition without gaps, with a central river (River Clyde) flowing consistently through the grid. After the arrangement was confirmed, each Post-it was later replaced with a scrap piece of cloth or the collected paper to represent the particular cell. The following is the list of city parts that can be used to make the grid:

• River Clyde x5

• University x2

• Subway Station x2

• Residential Areas x3

• Commercial Areas x2

• Park x2

• Community/Public Spaces x2

• Library

• Industry

• Museum

• Office Space

• Religious Center