The Joy Experiments - Dundurn

Changing Cities Changes The World

“This book engages in new ways of thinking about designing cities and a future that might have a plausible relationship with the rest of life and the next generation.” – Bruce Mau, CEO and co-founder at Massive Change Network. 

Reimagining Mid-Sized Cities to 
Heal Our Divided Society

Our divided society is quickly reaching crisis level. We are no longer able to sustain social and economic prosperity nor ensure democracy. Fuelling this crisis is a growing sense of social isolation caused by the divisive nature of social media and the decline of infrastructure that used to bring communities together.

But there is hope for rebuilding our collaborative society, and it is found in our mid-sized urban areas. These towns and cities offer a scale that can tangibly change the quality of our lives and an intimacy that allows us to influence what our communities can become. Changing cities can change the world!

In The Joy Experiments, real estate developer Scott Higgins and creative mind Paul Kalbfleisch use their own mid-sized city-building experiences to present a new way for citizens to engage with their city, and an urban planning strategy that prioritizes infrastructure for the human spirit.

The JOY Experiments offers a new city building narrative that reminds us that cities have always been the habitat of the human spirit – that source of invention, resilience, and compassion – the social traits we are in such dire need of today.

The authors believe that by challenging ourselves to ask, “How does our city play?” we can positively alter how we behave as a community and flipping the traditional Live, Work, Play city building model to a more rewarding Play, Live, Work prioritization.
 

Foreword by Daily tous les jours

Mouna Andraos

Melissa Mongiat

Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat are co-founders of the award-winning art and design studio Daily tous les jours, which encourages citizens to play an active role in the transformation of their cities, with the public spaces we share everyday as their canvas. Mouna is an adjunct professor in design and computation arts at Concordia University and is also on the board of directors at the Société des arts technologies. Melissa holds a master’s degree in creative practice for narrative environments from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, U.K., where she also co-founded Like People Do, a research consultancy on responsive environments.

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