How Co-design of Public Space Contributes to Strengthening Resilience: Lessons from Two Chilean Cases

The implementation of adaptation measures and the improvement of urban resilience is a growing concern recently. While urban projects are encouraged to become resilient, there is an interest in the design processes that produce them. In the Latin-American context, co-design is gradually taking a central role in space production, recognizing the need for involving multiple stakeholders to achieve more integrated and inclusive designs. However, in the case of Chile, institutions are rather rigid, over-regulated, and tend to operate in silos. We investigate how the co-design of public spaces can contribute to urban resilience through a case study of two Chilean design processes. The study applies the evolutionary resilience framework (ERF) to assess urban co-design processes (Davoudi et al., Plan Pract Res 28:307–322, 2013). Barriers and enablers reported by the interviewees shed light on how the co-design processes evolved and contributed to, or hindered resilience. Co-design is seen as a preparation-building process towards climate resilience that can be furthered through persisting, adapting, or transforming collaboration and design process factors. This study operationalizes the ERF framework and proposes a flowchart to identify factors influencing urban resilience. Although the Latin-American context may differ from other places, this study provides insights to co-design processes elsewhere.