Engaging communities in design decision-making

post by Katerina Alexiou

The EDP team was recently in Birmingham delivering a workshop on engaging communities in design decision-making. The workshop aimed to explore what community engagement in design means and why it is important, but also share best practice tips and resources to support those working on design projects in historic places of worship. We were fortunate to have a rich mix of participants on the day, community members as well as professionals who support such projects: architects, development officers, members of dioceses and funders.

In the first part of the workshop, we had invited speakers from two projects who successfully and creatively engaged with their communities, to re-imagine and re-develop their buildings. Rev Jane Lees and Andrew Smith, from St Luke’s Church in Oxford, talked about the experience of their Big Project, completed in 2014, which saw their church transformed into a space that effectively serves worshiping needs alongside offering a variety of activities and services for the wider local community. Clare de Bathe, from Chichester Community Development Trust told the story of how the development of the Graylingwell Chapel started, and how the community engagement process was organised to ensure that the plans take into consideration the needs and aspirations of the local community. The two presentations gave an interesting perspective on the different starting points and different end points in terms of design decisions that projects can have, but also revealed many commonalities in terms of methods and approach to community engagement. Both made some important points about keeping engagement going throughout the life of a project and being open to the input of people in the community.

We also shared some of our own observations and research findings and facilitated a workshop session on developing an engagement strategy, as well as a number of taster sessions introducing resources and tools to help with different aspects of the process, from how to use digital media in your design project, to how to structure your thinking and how to collect evidence from community engagement activities.

The film created on the day, is an exploration of what community engagement means from the perspectives of the participants, and also gives a feel of the event and its impact.
Click here to view the film on our youtube channel.
 
The event was also an opportunity to share a set of new resources. The resources are meant primarily for groups looking after historic places of worship, but can indeed be useful for any group thinking to embark in a design project, as well as design professionals. More resources are under development. We invite everyone to have a look, try out the materials and tools offered, pick and choose, adapt or expand them and share them in their networks. Our only request is to come back and talk to us about your experiences! Check out http://www.empoweringdesign.net/edp-resources.html

A version of this blog was published in the Design@Open blog, available here.