post by Vera Hale

On a rainy 16th of January 2019, EDP set up for a study tour that was hosted by the church of St Matthews and St James in Mossley Hill, Liverpool. The church is a grade II listed hilltop church on Rose Lane, that has undergone substantial refurbishment and renovation over the last few years, even winning an award for their re-ordering project. The hosted study tour at St Matthews and St James focused on the experience from the steering group during the engagement and the design process. Our main host for the day was David Bishop.

The main reason Mossley Hill Church wanted to reorder their place of worship was that they were looking at their long term future. Their key motivation was to stay open and increase their reach in the neighbourhood, but it was clear that they needed to start generating an income to pay for the maintenance of the building’s fabric. This led to their 2011 Vision Project, looking at the economic, environmental and social sustainable future of the building, with two areas of focus: the congregation and the wider community.

It took till 2016 (five years) before building works could start. During this period, as David described it, they did ‘1001 presentations’ for the congregation, faculty and the wider community, to help engage and involve all the possible stakeholders in the design and development process. This increased awareness, and generated funding and support along the way. It was hard to work with sub groups in the Vision Project as volunteers’ time was inconsistent, therefore the steering group of eight covered most of the workload. Consistency and communication within the steering group was key, as was David’s leadership.

They faced and dealt with various difficulties during this period. They needed to go through multiple iterations at pre-planning stage to satisfy planners and Historic England requirements. Removing the pews was the biggest problem. Lots of people were against this idea during the process, however at planning only five written objections were submitted. The pews were not original and only installed after the war, when the church suffered significant bombing damage and had to be rebuilt. The pews were eventually upcycled by a local carpenter and made into two or three seater benches that were sold to raise funds and now have a new life in the homes of many of the congregants. The rest of the timber from the pews was made into tables, a cross and other furniture for the church’s new interior.

As the church was not eligible for HLF funding they approached the development as a phased built to spread costs. They didn’t want to start until 100% of the funding was secured even though Faculty is granted when 90% of the finance is in place. Due to a legacy and the sale of the old rectory on a neighbouring plot they managed to get funding in place to do the main refurbishment; renewing the nursery space to Ofsted outstanding level, creating a new kitchen and cafe area and reconfiguring the ceremonial west entrance to house toilets, a pantry and AV hub. In future they want to glaze the West entrance doors and reconfigure the drive and outside of the church.

They shared a few tips regarding funding as it is one of the main issues for many of the participants on our study tours. Getting funding early, to conduct a feasibility study, is important to understand what requirements and goals for the project and further funding. But of course fundraising is a job in itself. Another important aspect is understanding when it the right time to approach HLF or other grant bodies and understanding the different conditions, timing and themes each scheme covers. Another tip from David and Brian was to try to get the best with the finance available, spending as much as possible to make things last and be fit for purpose. For example they chose high quality seating, tested and selected by the congregants during multiple engagement activities, so they would be easy to stack, hard wearing, comfortable and would not tip backwards.

The church was able to house existing users in their adjacent nursery during the build phase, which lead to a new dynamic that benefited the church. People saw what was happening to the building, and developed a feeling of kinship and alignment to the changes. Due to the temporary arrangement of space the church also had to change some of their worshipping rituals, which brought an increase in congregation. The traditional service, became a mixed service with the children being part of the worship instead of going to the ancillary space at the back of the nave. The change and the shortening of the family service has seen an increase in attending children and their families from 25 children to 90 on Sundays.

The church takes pride in the fact that during and after the build no one left the congregation - even those that had objected to Faculty stayed and realised what the Vision Project was trying to achieve. The whole building process benefited the church by opening up to the community. As David stated at the end of the tour, the key to the consultation process is taking people with you.

Through the duration of the Empowering Design Project we have collaborated with Live Works in Sheffield. They are part of the University of Sheffield’s ‘Civic University’ strategy and are embedded in the Sheffield School of Architecture. Each start of term Live Works facilitates a six week program called ‘Live Projects’, where postgraduate students work with community clients to assist them with their design project.

In October 2018, we asked one of our Design Training attendees, St Michael’s, also known as Byker Church in Newcastle, if they wanted to be part of the live projects program. Empowering Design Practices took on the nominal costs for partaking in program, and members of the team went to Sheffield to speak to all the live project students on Engagement in Design. We also had several face-to-face and skype meetings with the group that was assigned to St Michael’s church to provide support and advice about design engagement activities.

Below is a blog by the students that worked with St Michael’s talking about their experience. You can also read about their work on the Live Projects website.

For more about EDP's work with Live Projects see here.

OUR ROLE
Located on the edge of Newcastle’s famous Byker Wall, St Michael’s Church had laid empty for over a decade and hence services have been held in the nearby former bakery unit. Its rundown state forced the church community to erect a tent inside the building for shelter, where they have been temporarily worshipping. They have now been awarded a £147,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with most of the money aimed at fixing the leaking roof. Our role was to help the church community to receive further funding for the church’s regeneration, to allow for its long-term utilisation, hoping to make it a self-sufficient building.

DESIGN PROCESS
Our design process was iterative throughout the course of the six weeks. We developed the motto: “Designed with you…for you”. This describes the aim of our project, which was to work collaboratively with all parties involved. Given the community-focused ethos of our proposal, it was essential that every major move, from early brief development through design proposals was a direct result of interacting with the church community. This posed a significant challenge associated with costs. In order for us to achieve a community-led design approach, we needed to visit Newcastle multiple times, and needed additional funding from Empowering Design Practices, who kindly facilitated our request. As a result, we managed to visit the site 5 times over the 6 weeks duration of the project. Without the support of EDP, could not have achieved to interact weekly with the congregation and vicar. These were however crucial in gaining community feedback and helping to shape our design development.

ENGAGEMENT PROCESS
The workshops involved design brief testing, a design workshop, a design and craft workshop and a final, interactive community presentation, using virtual reality. We regularly consulted with EDP before these workshops which helped us to prepare specific engagement approaches, such as listening to ‘side-talk’ and truly, yet sensitively observing the community. In between the workshops, we progressed the design following the feedback from the community and client. The community engagement process created a collaborative design approach which became particularly inspiring.
Below, you may read a brief summary of each of these visits:

1st Visit : BRIEF DEVELOPMENT familiarising ourselves with the site / developing our brief

• Our first site visit was about meeting the clients and understanding the unique qualities of the Byker scheme and recognising the hidden potential of the church.
• We developed our brief informed by this visit.

2nd Visit: TESTING THE BRIEF Testing the brief we developed

• During our second visit, we attended a Sunday worship and a community meal to test our brief and understand the congregation’s needs.
• This informed us that our proposal at the time was too focused on the community aspects and did not prioritise the Christian ethos enough. As a result, we restructured our brief to respond to the feedback.

3rd Visit: design – focused workshop

• In the third visit, we discussed design options with the client.
• We organised community-led design activities, allowing the girls’ group, who are regular church users, to think about the future program of the church. This craft-making workshop used the physical model as the basis for creating conversations around the church's future through the kids' eyes.

4th Visit: design meeting + craft workshop

• Our fourth visit took place during the Youth Club, which the church regularly hosts each Wednesday. The workshop was with younger children, where they painted on acrylic panels. These mimic stained glass, and were going to form our proposed partition elements in the church, providing the children of Byker with a sense of ownership for the future of the church
• We also presented three design proposals to the client and received detailed feedback concerning spatial aesthetics and relationships.

5th Visit: Interactive presentation

• We held an interactive presentation during our final visit, using VR to help the community truly understand and experience our design proposal. The presentation was met with a lot of enthusiasm and attention, especially from children.
• The way our project ideas have evolved over the 5 workshops is a direct reflection of the community’s influence.
• Met with the church architect to discuss the current project, which will become a tool to secure future funding for realising the church’s vision.

DESIGN OUTCOME
Our design is the materialisation of a collaborative design process between us, the client and the church users. Given the church’s grade II listed status, it was vital for our design to be non-intrusive and reversible. According to our client, Rev. Phil Medley, our proposal was creative, yet “truly attainable”, as we managed to “really listen to what the community had to say”.  

Although we are very proud of the physical outcome of our Live Project, we truly believe that the success of the project lies in its ability of changing the Byker community’s perception of the church. Upon our first arrival, we were introduced to a church with multiple problems, whose community struggled with envisaging its true potential. We believe that our Live Project provides the community with a sense of optimism about the church’s future through offering realistic and affordable design interventions. Ultimately, we hope that our proposal will actually make a change in the Byker community, and help the church receive future funding.

GENERAL REFLECTION
The opportunity to work with a live client was invaluable as it allowed us students, to take initiative to create a positive change. The experience also provided an opportunity to explore aspects that are not always encountered in practice such as community engagement and participation. The Vicar was most kind and consistently provided detailed feedback concerning the spatial aesthetics and relationships throughout the six-week period. By the end of the six weeks, we felt that the design gave the Vicar a sense of achievability. Additionally, working with EDP supported our work immensely due to their research within the field and advice with how to progress most effectively with the community. Overall, the live project was a truly rewarding and memorable experience.

Blog post by Fanni Csepeli, Nikola Yanev and Alexandra Earland