"Dream, Build, Play" with John Kamp

Tuesday, 15 March 2022 - 12:00pm

John Kamp is an urban and landscape designer, facilitator, and licensed landscape contractor. Through his design practice, Prairieform, he has over 10 years of experience in the design and installation of irrigation-free landscapes, the writing and illustrating of design guidelines—including the Small Lot Design Guidelines for the City of Los Angeles—work in urban tree canopy restoration, and improving neighborhood walkability. He is an experienced facilitator who leads workshops through Place It!, has conducted trainings on water conservation and irrigation-free landscaping, and worked extensively with immigrant youth in the San Francisco Bay Area. This session will be based on his recent publication with James Rojas: Dream, Build, Play: Hands-On Community Engagement for Enduring Spaces and Places.

For twenty years, John Kamp and James Rojas have been looking to art, creative expression, and storytelling to shake up the classic community meeting. In Dream Play Build, they share their insights into building common ground and inviting active participation among diverse groups. Their approach, “Place It!,” draws on three methods: the interactive model-building workshop, the pop-up, and site exploration using our senses. Using our hands to build and create is central to what makes us human, helping spark ideas without relying on words to communicate. Deceptively playful, this method is remarkably effective at teasing out community dreams and desires from hands-on activities. Dream Play Build offers wisdom distilled from workshops held around the world, and a deep dive into the transformational approach.