A practice that activates situated collective intelligence: processes tailored to each territory, attentive to the environmental and emotional nuances that let a group truly think and decide together.
It is not summoned: it is activated. And it only activates when someone designs the environment where it can emerge.
If you facilitate, support or build collective processes, this is written for you
The joint capacity of a group to identify complex challenges and conceive solutions that no one could produce alone.
Does not bring
The civic designer does not turn up with a closed answer under their arm.
Brings
Designs how the actors relate, where, with which dynamics and at which frequency.
Takes care of
Conviviality, inclusion and emotional well-being are not extras: they are the process.
No method applies the same way everywhere: place, timing and actors reshape the design.
Processes rooted in a specific territorial context, with its own timing and its own actors.
Empathy, active listening and trust as working material, not as good intentions.
Making the process accessible and inviting for diverse people and communities.
In-person and digital articulated as one single coherent experience.
Learn the method in practice →Course · Udemy“The civic designer does not bring the solution: they activate the environment where local actors generate it together.”
Domenico Di Siena
Three focused hours of video across 29 short lessons, ready-to-use tools, lifetime access and a certificate of completion.
Course · Udemy · English edition
Civic Design: Tools for Participation
New English edition · 29 lessons · 8 sections · AI-assisted production · Certificate
You will work through the four phases of the Circular Process —Situate, Socialize, Co-design, Implement— three actions in each, and master the core toolkit: the Collective Intelligence Canvas, the Co-Design Canvas and the Civic Realm Matrix.
3 h 7
On-demand video
29
Lessons · 8 sections
2026
First English edition
∞
Lifetime access + certificate
The Circular Process
Four phases, three actions in each. Not a ladder but a loop: every turn builds on what the previous one taught you.
Fase 01
Fase 02
Fase 03
Fase 04
This is a different course from the Spanish one, not a translation: 29 short lessons built as a field manual, produced with AI assistance from the author’s original material. The methods, frameworks and intellectual property are Domenico Di Siena’s. The Spanish edition is longer and slower — 12 h 45 with guests and extended case work — and lives at disenocivico.com.
With the crowdfunding campaign successfully closed, the book is now in its final production phase.
Domenico Di Siena · 2026 edition
Civic Design
Collective Intelligence for Public and Social Innovation
Crowdfunding completed
«The course gave me a framework to name what I was already doing intuitively in neighbourhood projects.»
María R.
Architect · Madrid
«The distinction between Spaces for Encounter and events changed the way I plan processes.»
Pablo S.
Cultural mediator · Barcelona
«This is not theory: I now use the Collective Intelligence Canvas in every new project, from day one.»
Lucía M.
Municipal officer · Valencia
I help institutions, public administrations, organisations and European consortia design the infrastructures —physical and digital— where encounter turns into public and social innovation.
20+
Years of practice
20+
Countries
1000+
People trained since 2015 across Europe and Latin America
Editorial platform
Public Mesh — democracy as lived infrastructure
Democratic innovation
Democratic Society — participation beyond participation-washing
Co-founder
CivicWise — international civic innovation network
Case study in the book
Dreamhamar — civic design of a public square, Norway
For life. You pay once and it stays in your Udemy account, future updates included. No subscription.
Three hours of on-demand video across 29 lessons and 8 sections, with 26 downloadable resources: canvases, matrices and templates ready to use.
No, and it is worth being clear about it. They are two different courses that share a method. The English edition is 3 h 7 across 29 short lessons, built as a field manual. The Spanish edition is 12 h 45 across 14 long lessons, with guest speakers and extended case work. Same frameworks, different material and different pace.
No. The course is built for architects, public servants, designers, researchers and social innovators who work with communities, whatever their starting point.
Yes. Udemy issues a certificate of completion once you finish the course, which you can add to LinkedIn or use for professional development records.
Partly, and it says so on the course page. The English edition was produced with AI assistance from my original Spanish material. Every method, framework and idea in it is mine; the AI helped me put it into English at a pace I could not have managed otherwise.
Yes. Udemy issues a receipt you can expense, and Udemy Business subscriptions also cover the course. For institutional training or in-house sessions, write to me directly.
Udemy has a 30-day refund policy, no questions asked. I would rather lose a sale than keep a frustrated student.