Kounkuey Design Initiative

Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), a participatory design firm based in Los Angeles, Stockholm, Sweden, Nairobi, Kenya, and Coachella, California, commissioned MinxFilms to produce a series of 8 short films highlighting the breadth of KDI's work around the world. The film featured here is one example from that collaboration — a portrait of KDI's work created to accompany the organization being honored with the 2022 National Design Award for Landscape Architecture by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

MinxFilms worked with residents, engineers, urban planners, staff, educators, activists, volunteers, and youth in two primary locations: Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, otherwise known as a slum, and North Shore and Mecca, two communities based on the Salton Sea in the Coachella Valley, California.

Working alongside residents in an approach called Participatory Design, KDI transforms neglected land into vibrant public spaces that support health, safety, and community life — through four main categories of work: design + build, plan + program, research + test, and advocate + educate. These interventions address climate resilience, economic development, healthy communities, sustainable landscapes, arts + culture, civic engagement, youth, and networks in underserved areas around the globe.

The goal of the films was to capture the human impact of these interventions — documenting not only the physical transformation of place but also the stories, dignity, and equity-centered design processes behind them.

The entire film series was screened at "Movies in Wonderland", a touring pop-up film festival about architecture and urbanism, in public spaces in Maputo, Mozambique, sponsored by Superwien Architektur and PlaceCity Floridsdorf. Institutional partnerships have included the Architekturzentrum Wien, MuseumsQuartier/q21, and the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut.