Supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and their forward-thinking Ideas & Pioneers Fund, this project launched in Autumn 2017 in partnership with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD).
Led by Pye Nyunt, LBBD’s Insight Hub and Insights and Innovation team were working with data to predict homelessness and drive their service provision. Alongside the LBBD Community Solutions services team headed up by Mark Fowler, this gave us the opportunity to blend our approaches to better serve the Borough’s residents
As the project draws to a close, we sat down with Pye and his colleagues Michael Sinclair and Tim Pearse to reflect on the work. Sharing the initial impetus behind the partnership, Pye emphasised that at “Barking and Dagenham, our transformation program is all about making sure that we leave no resident behind… That means bringing residents closer to the design process and ensuring that the council is more participatory, more engaging, and to never assume that we as the local government have always designed the best thing.”
Filling in the gaps: adding stories to the numbers
At AzuKo, the partnership was anchored in the shared belief that placing human experiences at the core of design work, combined with a willingness to reflect, learn and grow leads to effective full picture understanding and responsive, sustainable solutions.
Pye agreed, explaining that “our focus [at LBBD] over the past couple of years has been on the quantitative side of things”.