By Myra Stuart

Examples of how local communities are the experts abounded at our latest Design Training workshop, while a Buddha in a belfry showed us the importance of considering the multiple levels of what community can be and the ways in which communication can be paramount.
 
New to The Glass-House, I was part of the Empowering Design Practices team helping four groups explore the possibilities for developing their very different churches over two days in Sheffield. Our Design Training for people who run community buildings aims to give them design tools and confidence to lead refurbishment and reordering projects. We offer a space to explore their ideas and the ways they might involve their wider communities.
 
This time we welcomed four hard working and inspired groups from:

Blackley Baptist Church and the Blackley Centre

Trinity Rawdon

Rotherham Minster

St Michael’s, Byker 

Challenges for the groups ranged from how to protect sacred spaces whilst enabling multi use, to how to rework a building that is in many ways an empty shell when the budget is tight.

The completed projects we visited during the course helped our participating groups explore questions of both design and community involvement, balancing keeping space for worship with providing much needed community spaces, creating income streams, and using the building through the week rather than letting it stand empty. One space we visited, The Sheffield Buddhist Centre, is the focus of one of our Design Stories. We also visited St Mary’s Church, that is a thriving conference centre, and at The Victoria Centre, debated the pros and cons of entering a church through a café.

Returning on day two, the groups were introduced to spatial drawing and modelling skills, and were encouraged to use these as the experts of their own spaces. Having been trained in architectural techniques when returning to education at 30, I was struck by how useful picking up these basics can be in being able to visualise different possibilities for a space. Also the truth, that with a bit of support, it’s something we can all learn. We discussed community engagement, returning to the idea that communities are multifaceted and there will usually be a number of different layers and groups to engage in any project.

As the models rose from the cardboard bases, we were struck with the very different buildings the church groups were working with and their challenges and opportunities, some unique and some common across the sector. From laughing about the shared experiences of lack of storage and complex heating requirements, the models showed the churches’ different histories, architectural styles and qualities. Some with the more traditional long leaded glass windows, another an enormous mill-like structure capable of accommodating 600.
 
Groups visibly encountered their spaces in a new way through constructing the models. They explored through their churches, outbuildings and halls, the spaces where interventions might make a difference. One group considered the possibility of glass doors across the back of their building, to open up to spaces where local young people congregate and to welcome them in. This connected their social outlook and mission to ways they might develop the building’s architecture. It reminded me once again that communities are the experts of their situations, and of the many facets of community that need to be considered when engaging the community in the design of their built environment.  ​

by Grace Crannis

Unlocking community gems in the heart of London. 

The latest Study Tour event organised by the Empowering Design Practices (EDP) research project on the 22nd August, was an inspirational opportunity to explore the potential for community-led design to enhance and reimagine historic places of worship. Through site visits to three unique places in Bow, East London, the focus was on how these buildings can become more vibrant, open and sustainable community resources that respect and enhance their existing heritage.
 
As a new team member at The Glass-House, the prospect of joining as a participant was a great opportunity for me to meet my future colleagues and experience the project from ‘the other side’. Entering almost entirely unaware of the modern position of churches in East London, I left the tour with a real sense of the vital role they can define for themselves, continuing to be relevant and well used spaces by local people within increasingly non-Christian communities. 

Reinventing a church as a multi-faith or secular enterprise that generates much needed income, without alienating the churchgoing population, is by no means a simple process. The day provided a fantastic opportunity for the attendees to hear about the rewards, and most importantly learn from the challenges faced by such an undertaking, before embarking on their own modernisation projects.
 
Kicking off the day at Bromley-by-Bow Centre, the participants and EDP team all met each other, and were given an overview and a guided tour by our wonderful hosts Rachel and Sara. The site itself reads like a book of architectural styles, with a post-war church space and a subsequent series of extensions, the first of which, the Healthy Living Centre, opening in 1997 and was the first of its kind in the UK.

It was fantastic to see such a lively and engaging centre that is clearly well loved and used by local people, artists, social enterprises, local businesses, and park goers. The routes through the site had been considered to great effect, and deliberate lack of signage to encourage interaction with staff members was a unique and effective idea. One participant bought up the issue of vandalism and anti-social behaviour, but we learned that incidents are very rare, and it is more important that visitors feel relaxed and welcome, with open spaces that are central to the centre’s ethos. 
 
Moving on after lunch, the challenges faced by St Paul’s Bow Common, as explained to us by Vicar Mother Bernadette Hegarty, were entirely different. A beautiful, reverential space completed in 1960, the practicalities of inhabiting the brutalist landmark are immediately apparent. The lack of insulation and expensive running costs mean the church is noisy and cold, and subsequent vicars have had to adapt and improvise over the years to make the building useable for the congregation but also the people who maintain the building. With services hidden seamlessly in within the walls, they are now very difficult to upgrade. It was useful to contrast the other stops on the tour with a church like St Paul’s: a poignant reminder of the challenges of modernising buildings that were once considered cutting edge, but are no longer fit for today’s needs.
 
The last stop on our tour of Bow, St Paul’s Old Ford was a really beautiful example of a site that had been made to work through the sheer determination and dedication of all involved. The sensitively integrated, suspended ‘pod’ spaces are a testament to the architects Matthew Lloyd, and help generate much needed income by providing rentable spaces and accessible community facilities. Our host and guide, venue manager Karen Diss, was keen to share her invaluable insight into the process, and impress upon us not only the financial and logistical difficulties encountered with projects like this, but also the great joy when they succeed.