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.  

by Dr Katerina Alexiou

One of the instruments the EDP project had anticipated using to explore certain research questions and generate ideas for future steps was that of the design studio. A design studio is typically a space for collaborative enquiry where participants go through a learning journey together by engaging in creative design activities.
 
In May we held our first design studio to explore Live Projects. Live Projects are educational initiatives in which university students work on real practical projects for a designated period of time as part of their study. By the time of our design studio, the EDP project had already supported five different Live Projects with historic places of worship in collaboration with the University of Sheffield School of Architecture and University College London (UCL) and so this was a good stage to pause for reflection. We also wanted to open up the conversation with other initiatives from other universities and provide a creative space to share and discuss Live Project experiences from various perspectives (academics, community members, students and practitioners), and take stock of the future of this type of activity.
 
There is already a lot of literature around the value of Live Projects for students, establishing, for example, how they help them gain practical experience and build important skills in project management, communication and team working. Live projects also have a social value and as our project’s emphasis is on community-led design, we were also interested to focus on the collaborative working process and particularly to explore the impact Live Projects have on participating communities.
 
The design studio took place at St Luke’s Community Centre in London and brought together some leading Live Project initiatives in architecture across the UK, from the University of Sheffield, the University of West of England, Cardiff University, University of Nottingham, London Metropolitan University and UCL. We also had community representatives from Bow Church in London, Cemetery Road Baptist Church in Sheffield, Brandon Trust in Bristol, and Grange Pavilion in Cardiff, as well as students who worked with them, and other communities not present in the room, such as ISRAAC Somali Community Association in Sheffield, St Peter’s Church in Chester, St Peter’s Church Congleton and a built project in South Africa.
 
In the first part of the day, each live project group was paired with another to share their experiences and discuss key features of their projects, but also key challenges they encountered and things that were important to their success. The task of each grouping was to use various crafts materials provided to create a shared representation of those key aspects. 

The discussions and the activity helped unearth the different contexts and commonalities and variations between projects, in terms of people involved, skills and resources mobilised, and processes and materials used. For example there were notable variations in terms of size, duration and intensity of projects, with some lasting over a few weeks, others spread over a year or a number of years. The type of projects varied as well, from single student projects, to group projects ranging from 4 to 30 students. There were also different ways in which universities and students engaged with community groups, some to define project briefs or to deliver activities on the ground, with different accompanying mechanisms of support and roles played by different actors in the process.
 
The session concluded with a plenary discussion on the benefits of live projects for communities, which brought out some important points about the significance and value of live projects. Here are some key points:

• The energy and enthusiasm of students is an asset. Live projects bring in inspiration and can help communities/clients consider a wider spectrum of opportunities and ideas for a place.
• Live projects provide a space for enquiry and reflection and can help articulate the needs and specialness of a particular context.
  
• The live project activity can help build momentum, and be a catalyst for change.
• The value of live projects rests more in the process rather than the product (the outcomes). They promote mutual learning and help build infrastructures and a community's capacity and confidence to deliver projects.

 
The second part of the day focused on future opportunities. This time participants reflected from their unique position as students, community representatives or academics, to identify ideas for activities or resources that can promote or improve live projects in the future. These ranged from good practice guidelines on how to develop collaborative briefs for live projects, to ideas for the development of new tools and resources (such as an app for aiding communication), to more strategic objectives such as setting up a live projects network and promoting further collaboration across institutions and sectors.
 
The EDP project has set an objective to further explore the mechanisms and potential of live projects as vehicles of empowerment, so we hope to follow up some of these actions within the realm of EDP. In the short term, we are supporting two more Live Projects this year in collaboration with our partners at the Sheffield School of Architecture. For now, I will close the blog with a huge thanks to everyone who took part in the design studio for being so generous with their time and knowledge. 

By Vera Hale

On 24th May the Empowering Design Practices Research project was delighted to host a drop-in workshop at Tate Exchange in the Tate Modern London. Led by EDP's core delivery team (the Open University's Design Group and The Glass-House Community Led Design) the participatory workshop on ‘Places for Connection’ formed part of a week-long residency by the Who are we? Project, a three year collaborative project at Tate Exchange between the Open University and Counterpoint Arts, in association with Stance Podcast and University of York.

The Who are we? project is a cross platform event that explores migration, belonging and citizenship. The programme at Tate Exchange was based on co-creation and exchange between artists, cultural organisations, academics, activists and audiences, and the second instalment of their three year presence at Tate Exchange explored the production of people and place, through a wide range of connected sub-themes: housing, displacement, hostile environments, memory, language, data, food, and environmental and racial justice.

For our workshop we reflected on the notion of hostile environments from the perspective of Empowering Design Practices. Over the last four years we have interacted with over fifty places of worship, and found many political, historical, social and cultural conditions that may negatively affect people’s perceptions of those places and their function as welcoming places. Despite these factors however, the reality remains that many places of worship today act as significant anchors in communities, not least by housing a wide variety of services and activities, from foodbanks, night shelters and health centres, to crèches, libraries and theatres. Drawing on this experience for our participatory workshop at the Tate Exchange, we wanted to invite people to reflect more broadly on the places that make them feel part of a community. 

Artist Matthew Le Breton conceived and made an amazing set of connection pieces that formed the creative canvas of the workshop. The pieces that he created helped participants to share their stories and visualise their places of connection, using drawing, modelling and a variety of other craft materials. The individual connection pieces slotted together to form an installation that represented a collective body of Places for Connection.

The workshop was a joyous occasion. Many of the participants stayed for the duration of the two and a half hour workshop, making and talking to one another, building new connections of their own. The installation grew steadily over the afternoon and became a colourful embodiment of the afternoon’s event. Matthew’s connection tiles were a real success in getting people to Share, Make and Connect the places where they feel a sense of welcome and belonging. 

Natural environments, parks and open spaces were  places that featured quite prominently in people’s creations, as well as community centres. Many of the spaces people described as places of connection were focused around socialising and interactive activities, such as  dancing, coffee shops, festivals, food, swimming, music and singing.

The main feedback from participants was that it was “fun” and  “a great experience” to share their stories and "how they engage with places and people around you". The activity helped people engage constructively with the Who are We? themes of memory and identity. One of the participants reflected that it was an interesting space to have the chance to reflect on what truly makes them connect, and that even though she had a great life in London with children, work and friends, the only true place for connection for her was her family holiday spot in her native country. Another participant who was involved in one of the other activities on the Tate Exchange floor, related how his work helps empower people through opera singing. His own place of connection, however, was not a physical space, but an intangible shared space, the space of performance.

Tate Exchange is an annual programme of public engagement by the Tate Modern. It is a space that brings international artists together with other organisations to collaborate, explore and present new perspectives on current affairs through art, and creates a platform for people from different backgrounds to come together to showcase, view, debate and participate in activities that are artist led. For our project it was an opportunity to use the museum as a connector to people who would otherwise not have known about our research project and explore with members of the public, the spaces they value in their communities.

We look forward to exhibiting and expanding our Places for Connection installation at future events.

Vera Hale is the Research Associate on the Empowering Design Practices project.

With thanks to Jonny Bosworth for the photographs.

By Colin McNeish

On 9 March in Glasgow I had the pleasure of taking part in the excellent workshop arranged in partnership with Empowering Design Practices and the Church Buildings Renewal Trust (CBRT) - joining communities in the renewal of church buildings by engaging early in the design process.
 
Delegates came from groups engaged in Community Buy Outs and Church groups exploring projects to extend the use and flexibility of their respective properties, spaces that play a key role within their communities and contribute significantly to the local architectural townscape.  Without either there would be a cultural gap in our towns and villages. There were also a number of professionals from the CBRT network in attendance.

After some inspiring stories from EDP team members Sophia and Vera about successful case studies, including a summary of the unique history of our venue at Adelaide Place Baptist Church, we were introduced to approaches of engaging people in design and demystifying the process.  The workshop which followed in the afternoon proved of great value to the groups as they explored in their own contexts the implications of putting into practice the principles outlined in the morning session.

One of these activities engaged delegates in memory mapping the details of their buildings, identifying the qualities of the positive and negative aspects that need to be addressed to improve the spaces and their use.  They used practical tools of drawing and explored the effects of changing the ambience of spaces with light and colour and creating intimate spaces for personal reflection in contrast to the environment required for corporate worship.  This included the use of focal points, artwork and music and user participation. Even small differences in how participants approached the activities were interesting. The engineer in the group would use a brown pen to draw the building as literally as he could, whereas the artist in the group used colour and sketching to express what might enhance the space.

The differences between the groups representing a place of worship and the professional ‘buddies’ allocated to their respective tables was interesting. The groups focused on the liturgy, the various uses of the space and the interplay of different generations being involved together, whereas the professionals focused on the physical aspects of creating exciting and sympathetic spaces and the fabric required to promote a better experience. Common themes emerged, including flexibility and the extended use of the building throughout the weekly programme, which can help preserve the long-term sustainability of the buildings and ultimately the communities that they serve. The groups representing a place of worship also shared some discussion points that had emerged within their congregations to explore further. For example, when exploring opinions regarding the removal of pews from the sanctuary in favour of loose seating, the adults at one church recognised the advantages of flexibility, while their children surprised them by saying they liked the pews because they felt the security of being together as a family in their own pew!

The feedback from delegates was very positive as people were engaging together from different viewpoints and using new tools that made them more aware of their environment from a new perspective to inform the design of their immediate projects. The workshop proved of value to us at CBRT because it provided new tools that we can use in our annual conference as we interact with many other church and community groups seeking to extend the use of their places of worship for the future. Finding new ways of under-writing the capital and revenue costs of running successful community facilities that serve congregations and the wider community can also be explored if people are inspired about the possibilities. It promotes the involvement of local and national agencies in supporting local communities when many central funding sources are being withdrawn or made accessible in different ways.  For example, many churches are now being used to provide health, fitness, and even post office services, as well as partnering with nurseries and schools providing different but suitable venues for performance, music and art functions. 
 
This is the core vision of the Church Building Renewal Trust as we try to bring together precedented successful projects with struggling non-empowered communities to inspire them to the full potential of their assets in the form of their buildings and properties. New ways of funding can then be explored and as a committee we found the day encouraged us to think about using the tools and methods being developed in the research programme of the Empowering Design Practices project. We greatly appreciated the input and collaboration with the project and hope it proves to be an ongoing partnership that can be of mutual benefit in practical ways as we all move forward together.
 
Colin McNeish FRIAS is Chairman of the Church Buildings Renewal Trust

By Lizzy Levy

The ‘Mission Impossible’ was: to get away to London for a design training course, to leave three teenagers about to go back to school, sixth form and art foundation, plus one dog and a husband. Technically, this should have been doable. But this was no easy task, and in the office work was piling in as I’d just come back from a much needed annual break. All our groups were coming back into Church and there were requests coming thick and fast with Heritage Day too. I boarded a train to London on Monday 11th September rather frazzled and stressed!

The trip was immensely enlightening and I feel truly blessed to have been offered this opportunity. Not only did the course open our eyes to the amazing architectural possibilities, it enabled us to broaden our perspective on ‘looking outwards’, considering the greater needs of ‘community’. Two of the churches we visited were servicing the needs of the wider community and their approach was radically different. These places were ‘open’ churches, where the public could access the spaces at almost any time. 

Bromley by Bow warmly welcomed us showing us their centre that had no CCTV and encouraged the public to enjoy their spaces, whether to visit the health centre, church, gardens, cafe or workshops etc. The quote from their website banner (www.bbbc.org.uk) states:
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“I urge you to take your colleagues down to the Bromley by Bow Centre and let them see what has emerged from nothing. It is one of the most impressive displays of social entrepreneurship anywhere in Europe.”
- Lord Brian Mawhinney

St Paul’s Old Ford (www.stpauloldford.com) was also really radical in the fact that they had a pod type space constructed within the church sanctuary called “The Ark”. This serviced the needs of the community including a gym on the top floor designed for those with disabilities. Their motto states: “Seeking to serve God by transforming lives and helping community flourish”.

The course was run by the Empowering Design Practices project and the facilitators were really helpful and encouraging. Their approach made everyone feel valued and no question or opinion was dismissed. I think this approach mirrored the ethos of the churches we had encountered on our study visit, who had listened to the needs of their congregations and wider community when (re)designing their buildings. 

Most importantly, our church community, in all its wonderful diversity, will be encouraged to get involved via expressing their own ideas for our future. We look forward to sharing our experiences and the work we did on the course including mind mapping and a scale model of Cemetery Road Baptist Church. We encourage our community to look out for further details coming soon explaining how they can help!

Mark 4: 30-32
Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.”

Lizzy Levy is Church Administrator at Cemetery Road Baptist Church, an ethnically diverse and vibrant place of worship in the Sharrow area of Sheffield. The church is a Grade II listed building with a distinctive two-spire facade and forms part of a large complex of faith and community spaces owned and run by the church. Five members of Cemetery Road Baptist Church attended the Design Training course held by the Empowering Design Practices project in London from 12-13 September 2017 to help build their design skills, knowledge and confidence and explore ideas for improving their building. 

A version of this post was originally shared in their Church newsletter.

By Sara Crofts and Liz Ellis

Walking slowly along the River Lea, gazing at abstract paintings by Mark Rothko, admiring the craftsmanship of the lofty stone vaults at Hexham Abbey... Just a few of the experiences of some of the heritage assets and sites providing reflection and peace every day across the United Kingdom. Heritage leaders often focus on the story-telling potential of a historic building or the particular landscape or the specific objects displayed. What is less often discussed is how significant heritage and cultural engagement is for us all in supporting - and extending - our experiences of ourselves and each other.

Faith leaders are familiar with individuals and families seeking out the church, temple, mosque or synagogue to celebrate new life and love - and also to grieve and mourn. Faith sites offer spaces for non-believers to be made welcome, to be curious and to rest as well as to pray. Gallery and museum staff  are perhaps currently less well recognised as providers of  opportunities to explore complex, and potentially difficult, feelings and experiences through events and activities.

Whether exploring the legacy of conflict and imperialism through artefacts at Tate Britain or inviting discussion of faith and equality at Cartwright Hall, gallery and museum staff and volunteers actively use collections to support connections between ourselves and the contemporary world around us. Similarly, visitors of all ages to RSPB Minsmere in Suffolk have shared with Heritage Lottery Fund how important this beautiful site is in providing a sense of calm or maybe contentment or even happiness during difficult periods of ill health and supporting life changes through disability, unemployment or other challenging experiences.

Recognising the differences in all of these sites of course is important, but we suggest it is also vital to recognise the value of human relationships and connections which all these places enable and have in common. Welcoming people to a nature reserve or a faith site requires skills and resources and acknowledges that how we greet each other and how we make the ‘stranger’ feel at ease is core to our experience of being human.

Most of us have had experiences of entering a building or a social context where we don’t know anybody; what happens next often then decides how long we stay and how we feel when we leave. Increasingly, those who look after faith sites are seizing opportunities to extend the welcome to new visitors curious to learn about the abbey, mosque, temple etc. We think that there is much that can be learned from those who have a similar role in secular spaces.

So we’re suggesting that now is the time to share resources and community capabilities. We propose that that the sacred space of buildings associated with faith and the contemplative, reflective opportunities of many other heritage sites offer fruitful connections in the years ahead. The current focus on the importance of wellbeing and the role that heritage can play here, provides contemporary relevance for all of us involved in the next steps in community building, whether starting within faith or cultural contexts.

These shared opportunities bring benefits to a wider range of people and can bring communities together who have been previously distanced, whilst keeping the sites vivid, relevant and informed by contemporary needs and human experience.

Sara Crofts is Head of Historic Environment at Heritage Lottery Fund and Liz Ellis is Policy Advisor Communities and Diversity. Heritage Lottery Fund is a partner in the Empowering Design Practices project.

post by Katerina Alexiou

This was a truly bustling and industrious summer for EDP. The last two posts in this blog reflected on the Design Training delivered in Manchester and two themed workshops focused on the role and potential of faith buildings to serve their communities. My last activity before going away for the summer was a workshop at the Ely Cathedral Conference Centre, which brought together 22 participants from 8 different churches, mainly located in rural areas, who are currently developing plans to repair and update their buildings to increase their use.
 
The workshop aimed to help participants reflect on their assets, challenges and opportunities, share experiences, learn from completed projects and get a taste of some of the activities used in EDP to support people to think about the design of their place and their project.
 
We had run a similar workshop right at the beginning of our research, with 8 different places of worship who travelled to London Lumen from different parts of England for this exchange. This workshop, however, was focused on the particular geographical area around Ely, and the churches were introduced to us through Geoffrey Hunter who acts as Church Buildings Consultant for this Diocese. We also invited participants from the Great Bavington United Reformed Church (in Northumberland), who shared common characteristics and challenges with churches in the Diocese of Ely, despite coming from a completely different geographic area.
 
The assets, challenges and opportunities exercise
The first part of the workshop is an intensive exercise which helps groups identify challenges that stand in their way and immerse themselves in the roots of those challenges, but also gradually moves to a position where they start unearthing assets and coming up with ideas or ways in which their assets can help them overcome those challenges. Key to this exchange is having another group act as critical friends, helping their peers to externalise and clarify their thoughts and visions, often providing advice, creative input and inspiration. The exercise has two rounds, and people rotate around the tables, so that every group has an opportunity to explore their project, as well as act as a critical friend to another.

​Some of the key challenges that the participants identified were understandably related to their location, such as not being visible, not having good access routes, being a long distance away, having a sparse local population. Some churches felt there was an element of competition with other churches who may be in a similar position in the area. Consequently, due to having a small congregation and small local population, participants found funding, and even the prospect of applying for it, extremely difficult.
 
Despite those challenges, all groups considered their small, but dedicated congregations as their key asset: a small number of people who invest their skills and determination to help achieve their mission.  Participants were also aware of the importance and potential of their buildings as historic places to be a focal point in their community. Key opportunities identified were establishing collaboration with local schools and other institutions active in the area and taking advantage of their local surroundings, footpaths, heritage trails etc. 

​Inspirational material and taster workshops
The assets, challenges and opportunities exercise was followed by an inspiration presentation where we shared some examples of projects and interventions that we have come to learn about through our site visits to completed refurbishment or reordering cases. This led to a final session of taster workshops, where participants had the opportunity to explore different themes: demystifying design, mapping assets, harnessing conflicts and fundraising.

This was a really intense workshop, and at the end of the day I felt tired but grateful to the participants who were describing their experience of the day as "inspirational", "useful", "encouraging" and "empowering".
 
We have taken the challenges, assets and opportunities workshop to quite a few places so far: apart from Lumen and Ely, also to churches in Chester and Congleton, to Bow Church and to the Israac Somali Cultural and Community Association in Sheffield.
 
As well as being a vehicle for groups to reflect on what they have and what needs to be done, the feedback we have received suggests that the exercise really helps people to feel that they are not alone in their struggle to make things better for their building, their congregation and their community.

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