On today’s Architectette podcast we welcome Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman. Katrina is an urban anthropologist that specializes in human behavior in public spaces. In 2019, she was selected as one of the BBC's 100 Influential Women Around the World and currently works as a data fellow for the City of Philadelphia within the Smart Cities Department doing research on data equity and privacy. She is dedicated to the improvement of public space, with extensive experience teaching and researching the topics we speak about.

We talk about:

- What is urban anthropology and how did it grow from the work of Jane Jacobs and Holly Whyte?

- Surprising things you find in the city and what stories those items tell.

- How cities identify and address problems to improve life for residents.

- We discuss urban design improvements and lessons learned from the South Street Headhouse Square District, Barcelona, and Çatalhöyük.

- Katrina shines a light on the bias of cities and how these biases impact layout, function, and policy.

- We talk about strategies to invoke the spirit of urban anthropology in your professional and personal life.

- I ask Katrina her opinion regarding the rising trend of suburban "Fake Downtowns", public space, and decentralization.

Links:

Katrina's Website (articles, talks, and more!): http://thinkurban.org/

Follow Katrina: https://www.instagram.com/think_katrina/

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs: https://bookshop.org/a/91133/9780679741954

More about William H. Whyte: https://www.pps.org/article/wwhyte

More about Ada Colau's work in Barcelona: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/23/two-way-street-how-barcelona-is-democratising-public-space

Çatalhöyük Urban Design: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1405/

Feminist City, Leslie Kern: https://bookshop.org/a/91133/9781788739825

"Fake Downtowns" Article: https://cheddar.com/media/why-fake-downtowns-are-the-new-malls

Architectette Podcast Website: www.architectette.com

Connect with the pod on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12735000/), Instagram (@architectette), and TikTok (@architectette)

Music by AlexGrohl from Pixabay.

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