Kenneth Balfelt

A visual artist and urban developer Kenneth is passionate about citizen involvement in the development and design of public spaces. Both the starting and end points of his projects are the specific context, respect for the individuals he encounters and their dignity, role and ressources. He is critical of citizen involvement processes that are reduced to one-off workshops. His approach emphasizes intensive user involvement in design, social, organisational and ethical issues and attention to how this is received, understood and used by the recipients. For example, in a park in Copenhagen (Folkets Park), Kenneth and his team listened carefully to very diverse park users (mothers with children, the homeless, young men using the park as a hangout spot, etc.), shared the various views with everyone involved and balanced different user interests in redesign and organisation of the park.