This episode's guest is Ritva Vilppola. Originally from Aotearoa-New Zealand, Ritva now lives in The Netherlands, via Australia, and they discuss the intersection of architecture, design, and communities in different contexts: urban design, parks, resilience planning.
To learn more about their practice you can email Ritva or contact them via LinkedIn:
ritva.m.vilppola@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/ritvamaria-vilppola
You can also hear more about Ritva's current work on the cross-section of community development and labour organising at the upcoming IACD 2026 Conference in Glasgow!
Ritva and Russell discuss a range of intellectual influences, documents and texts related to socio-spatial scales:
Jason Hickel, David Harvey, Samuel Stein, Jane Jacobs
https://architecture-lobby.org/event/visit-organizing-the-lobby-at-the-2025-venice-biennale/
Community Work at Maleny Neighbourhood Centre
o Disaster resilience: https://getreadymaleny.com.au/ and my fellowship project: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Organised_Editing/Activities/Maleny_Maps
o Housing: https://issuu.com/hinterlandtimes/docs/ht_paper_oct_2022_emag/8 and https://gcnews.com.au/housing-stress-test/
o Community Forums: https://gcnews.com.au/strength-in-forums/ and https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6955728676592246786/
o Active Transport: https://www.sunshinecoastnews.com.au/2022/09/23/maleny-e-bikes/
Urban Design for Health and Wellbeing
o https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6825988344275722240/
________________________________
Follow the podcast on Bluesky at: bsky.app/profile/cdpodcast.bsky.social
Support the podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/TheCDPodcast
Produced by Russell Todd (email: russell@russelltodd.cymru)
My book Community Development, Social Action and Social Planning: A Practical Guide (co-written with Alan Twelvetrees) is available to order from Policy Press:
https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/community-development-social-action-and-social-planning-6e
