The consultation meetings were convened by community staff and social workers in a lakeside guesthouse, a familiar setting where residents of different generations gathered. Before our intervention, the meetings usually followed a fixed “notification–discussion–decision” format. As local officials told us, this format often felt monotonous: residents spoke one by one, and the overall atmosphere remained subdued.

In discussions with community staff about their recent agendas and the concerns of different resident groups, we co-designed a set of participatory tools for the process. For instance, one large A0 whiteboards was prepared, with a simplified community map drawn across them. At the start of the meeting, residents placed their names and notes onto the map, indicating both their place in the neighborhood and their initial concerns. For specific agenda items—such as street waste, nighttime lighting, or the use of idle community spaces—we designed “thinking cards” with small prompts that served as trigger tools to stimulate reflection and conversation. Residents then worked in groups, using these tools to express their ideas rather than relying solely on oral discussion.

During these sessions, we observed that older participants, often silent in earlier meetings, were more willing to write down their worries or memories of past alleyway life, while younger participants proposed ways to connect current issues with longer-term goals. One elderly resident, for example, wrote about the old archway and community events once held there. This memory later resurfaced in fundraising discussions, as residents expressed a desire to contribute resources to restoring the archway.

At the end of the meeting, community staff collected the cards, categorized them by theme, and translated them into actionable items Some were resolved through direct coordination, such as forming a weekend river-cleaning group. Others required collective fundraising, including the initiative to repair the old archway.

The original consultation meetings: residents sitting in rows, waiting for the social worker to call on them one by one.

Left: Residents placing stickers with their households on the prepared whiteboard map, while also noting the needs and issues around those locations.
Right: On one card asking about possible uses for an idle space, a resident suggested planting tall, long-blooming flowers such as Rosa banksiae.

Left: A resident sketching her vision of the community’s future to social worker.
Right: A 70-year-old resident written the memories of  the community in his childhood: “When I was a child, in the 1960s, this alley was crowded with people every three days for the market. It was especially lively on New Year’s Eve and the first day of the lunar year, when crowds came to the temple to burn incense. Everyone wanted to light the first stick for blessings of peace and prosperity.”

Two weeks later, during a new consultation meeting, residents initiated a fundraising effort, contributing to the community’s shared account, the first round raised RMB 10,410.

After clearing construction debris from the streets and riverbank, social workers and resident representatives purchased flowers from the community account and planted them together on the riverbank.

At the entrance of a riverside alley, under a large tree where residents pass on their way to shops or homes, we collaborated with community staff to transform two blank walls into a “community growth wall”. The care concept was informed by the idea of care as articulated by Tronto—“a species of activity that includes everything we do to maintain, continue, and repair our world so that we can live in it as well as possible.”

When we left in October 2024, the wall was still in its early stages. Three months later, on returning, we found that residents had appropriated and extended the space. Chairs had been placed under the tree, and old farming tools arranged nearby for decoration. One side of the wall displayed recent requests and their status updates, while the other side documented “major events”: festive gatherings, results of street-cleaning campaigns, and even personal reflections from residents. The growth wall had evolved into both a daily infrastructure for participation and a traceable archive of community action.

The wall was designed to make individual needs visible without collapsing them into a single consensus. Each small wish or request could be taken up and addressed in turn. Even modest improvements, when accumulated, encouraged residents to feel supported and more willing to participate in collective life. At the same time, the wall worked narratively: each note recorded a need, which was then picked up by community workers, local officials, or sometimes other residents. As responses and outcomes were added, the wall became a visible record of relationships being maintained and developed over time.

In practice, the mechanism was simple. It functioned as a feedback system embedded in the everyday environment. Each note written by residents was followed by a visible response. These feedbakcs were marked with colors: grey for noticed and pending, yellow for in progress, green for completed. Officials, social worker, or even other residents, reviewed the wall regularly, updating statuses and coordinating responses. Quick fixes—such as small repairs—were handled directly, while more complex issues were brought into the periodic consultation meetings (the Lakeside Conversations) for broader deliberation.

The design deliberately avoided aesthetic sophistication. Materials were kept basic: plain papers, pens, and a simple grid for placing notes. The intent was to ensure that residents needed no design or artistic skills to participate.

The alley entrance with a tree where residents pass by daily on their way in and out. (Before the intervention)

The initial design plan for the growth wall, including the distinction between “event” notes (problems and wishes) and “feedback cards,” the mechanisms for linking them, and the forms of display.

An issue raised in August 2024 that had remained unresolved: a fallen tree along the riverbank posed safety concerns for walkers. The eventual decision was to repurpose part of the trunk as seating and build a small bridge over the obstructing section, turning it into a landscape feature. Funds were collected, and the project was under design and construction at the time of our visit.

Initial Operational Status of the Wall (After Two Month)​

Both interventions—the Lakeside Conversations and the Community Growth Wall—continued to operate after the design team withdrew. Their persistence was largely due to the fact that local social workers and community staff had taken the lead in organizing and maintaining the activities, with the design team providing methods and frameworks rather than direct execution.

These actions were accompanied by the emergence of local community leaders. Eight residents, including older figures like “Uncle Wang,” became recognized as coordinators who could mobilize neighbors for clean-ups, fundraising, and festive events. Such roles gradually shifted responsibility from external facilitation to resident-led initiative.

At the institutional level, county authorities took note of these developments. By early 2025, the experiments were highlighted in local media and recognized by government offices as exemplary cases of participatory governance. In September 2025, the county allocated a new budget of 1.3 million RMB to expand similar social innovation practices to 16 additional sites across Pujiang.

Over the months, we observed several tangible effects. In the alley where the growth wall was located, residents began to self-organize weekly street and riverbank clean-ups. Groups also formed around seasonal cultural activities: for example, residents collectively raised funds and organized a Lantern Festival and Laba Festival dinner, using the wall as a space to coordinate contributions and record outcomes. In addition, over 200 residents contributed money and labor to renovate sections of Dragon Lane, building flower boxes, adding greenery, and painting murals.

Residents self-organizing to clean the streets and riverbank every two weeks.

A new archway built at the alley entrance, modeled after the old one recalled by long-term residents. The photo was taken during the Qixi Festival celebration.

In this project, our role was less about proposing solutions and more about creating conditions for others to act. The initiatives were led and carried out by local social workers and community staff, while we introduced service design and participatory tools that could support their work. This shift to an empowering role meant that ideas and actions emerged from those already embedded in the community, making them easier to implement and more widely accepted.

Working in this way also revealed the strength of local knowledge and connections. Residents and community staff understood the rhythms, tensions, and opportunities of their environment in ways we could not. By stepping back and positioning ourselves as guides, we saw how quickly local actors could adapt methods to their own contexts.

Perhaps most importantly, the interventions continued after our departure. The consultation meetings and growth wall did not remain as “projects,” but became part of the community’s everyday routines. This continuity after exit is a reminder that the value of design does not lie in visible authorship, but in helping build infrastructures that allow others to sustain and evolve collective practices.

In the end, I want to show a note from the growth wall announcing a collective New Year’s Eve dinner, echoing a wish first written by an elder during the initial participatory consultation meeting:

Dragon Alley Residents’ Meeting Agenda:
1. The first Dragon Alley New Year’s Eve Dinner will be held on January 7, 2025, starting at 6:00 p.m., with 25 tables in total.
2. All preparation and procurement will be organized and managed by residents themselves.
3. Thirty-two volunteers have signed up to help organize the dinner. The goal is to make it lively and festive, welcoming the Spring Festival of 2025.

Descendants of the Dragon,
January 1, 2025, 7:00 p.m.