Co-Lab is a collaborative faculty initiative in the College of Design @ NC State University that uses mapping as a critical and participatory research tool. Co-Lab’s current publications explore both the theory and application of mapping as a critical research tool, participatory mapping as a dialectical engagement device, and the value of mapping and visualization in fields outside of design, architecture and urban planning. Embedded in this initiative is a new theory of critical placemaking that builds upon the rich heritage of participatory design, placemaking and critical cartography. The value of placemaking underpins a perspective that promotes citizen/community agency and dialectical engagement in design decisions.
Our studios and seminars use techniques of mapping—analyzing and making meaning of raw data—as a comparative analytic tool and as a way to uncover hidden meanings between data and reality.
We use critical cartography and participatory mapping to engage communities in dialogue and discourse about the past, present and future of the build environment.
Through writing we discuss the many ways that mapping and visualization enhance critical research, while also acting as rhetorical devices that shape the way that we understand and act upon it.
PEOPLE, POWER, AND DISTRICT POLITICS IN NORTH CAROLINA “The point of gerrymandering isn’t to draw yourself a collection of overwhelmingly safe seats. Rather, it’s to
VANISHING FARMS: NORTH CAROLINA’S AGRICULTURAL MYTH The popular image of North Carolina is one of rural life, citizens making a living working the land. We
A CITY DIVIDED BY WAR What was the result of the Civil War? Slavery was abolished but was it the end of the racial tensions that
DIY Cartography Final Essay Due May 7th by 5pm For our seminar’s final deliverable we would like each of you to craft a 500-1000 word, 3-part
April 06 -April 27 | 3 weeks | Research Methodologies: Observational and Participatory Research | Mapping Methodology: Observational Maps In this third series of maps will use
FROZEN IN TIME: MEMORIALIZING THE CIVIL WAR & RALEIGH: A MONUMENTAL CITY CENTER What is it that we remember about the Civil War? This series of four