In “User‑Generated Urbanism & the Adaptive Metropolis,” Bela explores how cities can be shaped by distributed authorship. From Park(ing) Day—a global platform that reclaims curbside space for public use—to co-housing communities designed through collective decision-making, he investigates how frameworks can encourage user-generated transformation. In an era shaped by centralized, decentralized, and distributed networks, a key design tension emerges: to what extent should frameworks be prescriptive, and to what extent should they remain open-ended to accommodate emergent, user-driven contributions?  This talk examines that balance, asking what kinds of systems best support participation without prescribing outcomes—where city-making becomes a co-authored, evolving process.

John Bela is a leader in people‑first urban design, blending art, environmental science, and landscape architecture. His innovations—from Park(ing) Day to parklets—have reimagined how cities use public space.