Architecture is learning: civic, tacit and unpredictable learning.
What might socially engaged architectural practices bring to the education community? Learning takes place when even the most traditional of design or procurement processes is opened up; informing architectural practice and enriching the public realm.
Public Architecture Pedagogies hinge around
- testing the myriad educational values of involving the public in spatial design processes
- a belief in the net gain to society of increased critical design appreciation and a wider-spread ability to contribute to good design
&
- fundamentally, a recognition that resultant design proposals are more successful if those same client users are invited to invest their expertise, understandings and desires in the processes
… integrated reciprocal propositions.
Z51 Theatre Studio, Huesca, Spain. An Arts Council International Fellowship.
A collaborative project about cultivating shared ownership through the design and construction processes, with the theatre groups of Z51. The disused office space where they rehearsed & performed was transformed into a working theatre studio.
“Before I joined ‘The Task Force’ I hated writing but now, when my mum thinks I’m asleep, I turn my lamp on, write stories and make plans”
Ella, 7, a child participant in a landscape design & construction project which began by asking ‘Can a design process inspire reluctant writers?'
integratEd workshop School Projects; Luton, Wycombe, Bedford & Farnham.
Revealing creative concepts to pupils and staff while providing design services for the built fabric and spatial use of schools.
Parada Massa / Fortune Fictions (part of Playable City, Recife, Brazil) took place in Recife’s bus stops. Whilst waiting for buses, commuters were told playful ‘fortunes’, driven by and reflecting the city’s open data (such as traffic density, weather and pollution levels) connecting citizens with the condition of their city, whilst creating a magical, often humorous moment in their day.
‘The Recycled Playground’, Yewlands, Sheffield
Briefing, design and construction workshops through play in a series of neighbourhood parks, examined possibilities of reclaimed material & the value of collective ideas to change a place.
The Fieldway Triangle, Amersham
A cut-off community on the edge of town came together around a desire for a playspace. Through unexpected events, that incorporated design consultation by stealth, an area of forgotten woodland became associated with shared new positive memories.
