Consultation

Consultation and engagement are not just a tick box item but at the heart of how we approach a new project. We always start with meetings on site,  stimulating and listening to people's conversations as they walk about the space. Noticing how people respond to the space now and their aspirations for its future. We often invite play workers in to engage children in the space which usually brings out the adults to talk as well. Sometimes we use temporary interventions in the space to open people's eyes to the possibilities for change.  Many people find plans difficult to visualise so these interventions can help them see the potential for change. We always ensure we use a variety of ways to engage people in the design and feedback process from being available on site in the evenings and weekends, going door to door to gain peoples view, creating blogs, design workshops as well as more formal meetings.  We encourage groups to set up a design panel to create a forum for over-seeing the design process.

Gascoigne Estate

At Gascoigne Estate the consultation was wrapped around an Apple Day where we claimed back the car park  for pedestrians for the day using straw bales and big bamboo planters.  Stalls offered apple themed food,  freshly squeezed apple juice and a cafe was created on a usually problematic area of deck. Suddenly the space felt much more spacious and full of possibilities for socialising.  Plans and sketches were printed onto large plastic banners and hung along the front of the tower block so people had time to look at them over several weeks and leave their comments. Artists Janet Hodgson and Michaela Ross generated community discussion around the potential for change  of the underground carpark at the site. They constructed an installation at the entrance to the currently-unused,underground car park and invited residents and visitors to chose images which were then projected to create a 3-D collage. When participants had chosen their images, they were invited to become a part of the installation.  

Hackney Play Pathfinder

For some Play Pathfinder projects we created temporary installations in the spaces with the children.  Using cardboard and scrap materials this allowed the children to really think about the qualities of the space they would like not just a list of equipment. After one event a parent commented that perhaps we should just provide a shed full of cardboard as the children were so engaged in the design and building process.