Dewey Thorbeck: Shaping Futures Through Land Use and Design

The world is changing rapidly. Along with the pandemic, climate patterns are becoming more severe and unpredictable due to global warming. Population growth is fueling major land use and economic issues, including food, water, energy, and housing insecurity. To address these problems, we must connect human, animal, and environmental health through design.

Growing up at the edge of the prairie in a rural, northwestern Minnesota town, I always loved to sketch. After studying architecture and working briefly at a firm, I won the Rome Prize in Architecture and headed to the American Academy in Rome. During my two years in Italy, I discovered rural hill towns, like Orvieto, which are so different from rural towns in the United States. In Italy, rural populations live together as a community on top of a hill; farmers load up their donkeys and descend into the valleys to work every day. In the U.S., each small farming family lives by themselves on the outskirts of town; they then travel into town to make connections.

This discovery greatly influenced my design thinking and career as I organized my own architectural firm and started teaching at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture. When I realized that rural areas were largely ignored in academic urban design and planning programs, I founded the Center for Rural Design to establish a design discipline to focus on future rural land uses.

During my 20 years as the CRD’s director, I became very aware of the significant divide between rural and urban populations. We learned that many people who live in rural settings believe that city residents do not respect them. We also learned that neither rural nor urban communities need or want assistance provided by national and state governments, which usually flows from the top-down.

I discovered that design as a problem-solving process was the most effective way to work with rural and urban residents to shape future land uses. Communities of all densities and educational backgrounds throughout the state were quick to embrace the design process. Design can cross borders, make connections, and help any population find ways to access science and technology to help shape its future.

Through design thinking and regional cooperation, communities found ways to produce goods and services that contribute greatly to economic development, environmental improvement, and quality of life. However, the design process must recognize the unique characteristics of each place, including its seasonal changes; its cultural, environmental, and social histories; and its practices for growing food, creating energy, and raising animals. The process must also identify opportunities for disadvantaged people, including Indigenous communities.

Incidentally, citizen committees that volunteered to work with us were much more productive when a woman was in charge. We also found that introducing ourselves as designers was more effective than saying we were architects, which would lead community members to think we worked only on buildings rather than on big-picture, integrated land uses.

Rather than imposing land uses on citizens, governments should likewise work alongside communities to develop land use policies through creative design thinking. Urban agriculture, water resources, solar and wind energy, and low-cost housing should be considered as important land uses in their planning for urban and rural futures.

Rural-to-urban transition areas require the lens of spatial arrangement from both communities’ perspectives to shape, manage, and preserve the ecosystems upon which people depend. When land can no longer serve its original use, it can be shifted to more integrated and intensely utilized functions that support community regeneration. This transition area is a great opportunity for young adults to become entrepreneurs. In the future, as in the past, entrepreneurship will be paramount in shaping the economy, resolving social and racial inequities, and preserving the natural environment.

Currently, I am working on a project with the university to help three different-sized rural communities in northwest Minnesota find individual and collective opportunities for social, economic, and environmental development for regional and community regeneration. By thinking beyond buildings, architects can lead design processes that give current and future generations the ability to shape their own land uses.

The views and conclusions from this author are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine or of The American Institute of Architects.

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