Care as Specification: centring lived experience in every decision
The morning bus is late. The north wind cuts sideways. A nurse, finishing night shift, tucks their hands deeper into their sleeves. Justice here is a heated shelter, a clear sign, a bench at the right height, and the knowledge that someone planned for this nurse.
Optimism and architecture: lessons from the 2025 Aga Khan Award Winners
Architecture is not neutral. It either enforces systems of control or helps dismantle them. The 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture proves that design can be survival in flood-prone Bangladesh, belonging in rural China, memory in historic Esna, joy in Palestine, and dignity in Iran. These projects refuse spectacle and instead offer social infrastructure, rootedness, participation, and justice. In today’s climate of displacement and inequality, they are not just buildings, they are political interventions. At Lemon Papaya, we draw on their lessons to ask: how can every wall, threshold, and gathering space move us closer to liberation?
Why Spatial Justice?
If justice asks who gets what, spatial justice asks where. Drawing on foundational texts (Lefebvre, Soja, Fainstein), this primer explains the politics of place and why Lemon Papaya’s work is urgent now.
What is Spatial Justice? (and why it matters)
If justice is about who gets what and why, spatial justice asks where. Where the bus stops, where shade lands, where a ramp is, where a door locks, where the noise is sent. This primer is a pocket guide to seeing the politics of place, and what we can do about it.
Design as Liberation: making belonging the default condition
The plaza wakes at dawn: vendors prepare their stalls, an elder tests a curb with her cane, a child chalks a hopscotch galaxy. Liberation, here, is not a slogan. It is the quiet redesign of who gets ease, time, and welcome. This is how we practice it in the everyday.