How might we...

In 1921, the former Mayor of Poplar (now Tower Hamlets), spent six weeks in prison for directly defying the London County Council. His offence: defending the equal taxation rights of his constituents in East London - at the time (and still today), the most deprived and unjustly taxed in the city. His name was George Lansbury.

Lansbury's name lives on through his granddaughter Angela and through the neighbourhood that bears it.

(Photo: LSE Library)

(Photo: British History Online)

“Could you imagine a politician today going to jail for something they believe in?”

— Poplar resident

We're part of an ongoing conversation with those who live in and around Poplar for our A sense of place project.

Chrisp Street Market (the symbolic centre) stands at the precipice of regeneration, and at the forefront of what Lansbury fought so dearly to counter - a lack of concern for the most vulnerable. It's an apt forum for the London Festival of Architecture's 2017 theme, 'memory'.

As part of the festival, we hosted a range of individuals from researchers and architects to local residents and volunteer groups at Kafe 1788. Together we explored how to reduce the rate of eviction among residents of social housing, and how to build resiliency. The outputs from these co-design workshops were then added to an exhibition of our work in the Poplar Pavilion, designed and built by Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow, Alex Julyan. 

(Elicea Andrews Photography - additional event photos)

Responding to stories of those we've spoken with - their hopes and fears - we used activities driven by empathy to lead discussions about belonging and community. What does placemaking look like when everyone is included?

Groups addressed three questions:

• How might we support residents to better understand their tenancy rights?

• How might we more clearly communicate the pressing concerns and challenges of residents to social landlords?

• How might we include the most vulnerable in placemaking activities?

In brainstorming answers to these questions, it soon became evident that building trust and respect between tenants and landlords is paramount, whether through 'gastrodiplomacy', 'local champions', 'persistent contact', 'face-to-face', 'personal advisors' or even a 'listening service'.

The groups also placed importance on existing skills, strengths and capacity of residents, where such assets can be shared and how to support residents create their own trusted networks.

'Space' and 'place' were embedded in every conversation.

At AzuKo, we believe that the process of coming together to express and share ideas is a worthwhile experience for all those involved. Feedback from our event showed just that. 

Participants told us:

• Empathy is a necessary starting point for design

• Insights driven by residents create meaningful solutions

• There is value in learning from others' experience

• Role play is a great tool to see the world from another's viewpoint

• Participation, collaboration and diversity are key

LFA 2017 was a small sample of what happens when,

“you see the likeness of people in other places to yourself in your place. It lights invariably the need for care toward other people, other creatures, in other places as you would ask them for care toward your place and you.”

— Wendell Berry

It was another small step towards the ends that George Lansbury fought for nearly a century ago - dignity in design.

Find out more about our project, A sense of place.

Author: N. Ardaiz

A very warm thank you to everyone who made our LFA 2017 event a success, including Alex Julyan (Wellcome Trust), Ao Leal video production, Elicea Andrews Photography, Justin Brown (native north architects), Kafe 1788, Kineara, Ruth Baker and Francesca Tafi (Ryder).

Let's co-design for LFA2017

Join us on 24 June, as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2017.

We'll be presenting insights from our work in Poplar, East London regarding a sense of place. We'll also be hosting two rapid prototyping workshops to bring together diverse stakeholders (residents, local authority, designers, innovators...) to reimagine placemaking solutions.

LFA is Europe's largest annual architecture festival and takes place throughout June. We wanted to make sure participatory design featured!

This year the theme of the festival is 'memory'. It is fundamental to placemaking; something that communities cherish in the face of change and a tool for architects and developers as they achieve change. We believe the community should be at the heart of this change.

Tickets are on sale via Eventbrite... get yours before they go!

On the ground in East London

One of the first things we do at AzuKo when working with groups, is to challenge our collective understanding of ourselves.

In research and design, the biggest challenge is always to bring assumptions and biases to the forefront as quickly as possible, and to make sure that those are present in the discussion about what is to be tested, what is to be made and how it will be made. This has been our approach when engaging with a student-led group at Langdon Park School in East London, as part of our A sense of place project.

One example of this is an exercise based on the sketch below. We ask, "please say anything about this picture that you see. What's apparent? Who are they? What are they doing? Where are they? What do you notice about their interaction? There are no wrong answers..."

Go ahead, try it for yourself before reading on.

(Sketch: unknown)

Perhaps you said that this is a family or community gathered in a circle discussing something. They are inside a room. There are children, and a dog. Perhaps you've made a cultural observation about the man being the only one sitting on a chair - does this represent a hierarchy? 

Those are all correct... from your point of view.

However, when the same question is asked to a group like the San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, there is one key difference and it's a simple one - these people are sitting outside. That dark area, which appears to be the shaded corner of the room, is actually a tree and that cube that you assumed was a window is actually a box perched on the top of the woman's head.

Both interpretations are correct, because ultimately it's just a sketch. 

We asked the students why this is important to bear in mind when designing in the public's interest. They responded,

“... to make something that is useful for others, we need to understand that others see the world differently to us - that socially and culturally relevant designs start from a place of ignorance and humility.”

(Photo: N. Ardaiz)

(Photo: N. Ardaiz)

After just three months of working with these students, we've spoken with parents about challenges in the community, discovered and discussed a range of needs and strengths in the neighbourhood, developed empathy maps of potential beneficiaries, challenged why we do what we do and the process of finding meaning through talking to others, we've identified partners and undertaken in-depth interviews with potential end users.

We're now exploring relationships and conversations with local service providers, housing associations, tenants, data scientists and even maker communities such as Thingking, to address the cuts to public housing and social services, as well as the vulnerability of private tenants in the UK. Key insights from our research, include:

• Help is often sought when it's too late - in crisis

• Councils are difficult to engage

• Social prescribers are becoming ubiquitous

• Tenancy failure (evictions etc.) are expensive for housing associations

• Social services are fragmented

• The private rental market is not the public rental market

• Every renter is at risk of eviction

Visit our project page for more insights.

Author: N. Ardaiz