Changing practices

Increasingly architectural practices are choosing to employ a more diverse range of staff, to include professionals such as economists, artists, creative practitioners and town planners, often in non-hierarchical or cooperative practice structures. This breadth of expertise brings additional methods to enable a better understanding of points of intervention and leverage (for example in policy, funding or development plans), and an opportunity to critically reflect on how architects are embedded in certain structures and ways of working.

By unlocking funding opportunities in the charity, arts, heritage or educational sectors, practices can initiate projects,⁷ and choose to work with groups who may not usually have access to architectural services. In this way it is possible to generate new sources of income that are not market-reliant, enabling attention to be given to issues and concerns that may not be the subject of commercially focused projects.

Considering the ethical framework

Research should be conducted with honesty, integrity and respect for those with whom you work, or who may be affected by your activities. Being open about what you are doing and why – and checking throughout the process that those involved are still comfortable with taking part – is central to this. Formalised risk assessments and ethics procedures⁸ are a useful way to ensure that these principles are being adhered to, and these can be shared publicly to allow for scrutiny and feedback.

Understanding and representing project context

Central to socially motivated research is a careful and close understanding of the people and places with which you are working as well as their context-for-action. Critiques of consultation and participation in architecture, planning and urbanism suggest that it is crucial to work with and from communities, rather than relying on simplistic or preconceived notions of identity or what matters to people. Through working collectively to understand how a space is used, to map stakeholders, and to understand what the concerns and opportunities are, you can develop a brief that is embedded in a place.

It is important for a practice to go to the people they are working with, both in terms of selecting places in which they are comfortable and using language that is not littered with jargon. Attention should be paid to who is invited to take part in activities, and who feels confident to contribute in a particular context. In diverse communities it is likely that this will vary, so often using a number of different methods enables a broader range of people to engage more fully.⁹ It should not be assumed that a community exists as a coherent entity because of proximity¹⁰ or is necessarily defined by the boundary of a neighbourhood. Research methods such as storytelling, taking group walks or joining in with local events can allow for a more open and complex representation of a place.

Cottrell & Vermeulen explain that they work in neighbourhoods close to their practice in order to build long-term relationships and to build an understanding of local policies and urban strategies that influence their framework for producing a project. They aim to develop architecture that is particular to the communities, relationships and needs of a place. Through bringing together teaching and practice, they set out an approach that is driven by exploration and experimentation. Particularly through their work at schools, this involves groups coming together to speculate and imagine alternative futures, by collaging, modelling, making short films and talking together.¹¹

In writing about her approach to house design, Jane Burnside speaks about how demographic changes such as the increase in single-person households and blended families should impact on brief development, challenging assumptions about lifestyle and relationships. Through asking clients to gather images that represent their desires and needs she seeks to explore the relationship of the design of their home to their sense of identity and the way they conduct their everyday lives. She emphasises listening over speaking and positions herself as a therapist rather than a theorist, building knowledge with the client that articulates how the programme should be expressed. These kind of processes take time and care, but if successful can lead to the development of strong relationships and the production of rich and engaging feasibility and development work.

Building networks and relationships

Closely allied to understanding the context of a project is the need to build networks and connections beyond the client or user group. Working with existing groups and organisations ‘on the ground’ allows a practice to gain specialist local knowledge and make relationships which would otherwise take significant time to build. There is sometimes an inclination to start from scratch, but often others have done valuable work already, and raking over old ground can lead to consultation fatigue and wasted energies. Through critically reviewing reports, surveys and information that is ‘already out there’ you can identify gaps or opportunities (using your time more efficiently) while bringing your own analysis of the issues raised to the table. In building on what others have done you can build respect, and work in more nuanced ways to produce ideas that are relevant to the situation in which you are working.

John Sampson of URBED stresses the ethical importance of participatory processes that continue over a long period, with a number of iterations of design work being repeatedly ‘taken back’ into the community for critique and further development. He considers design research a useful way to formulate a particular approach – responding to a need or opportunity – that can then be marketed as a service. In order to ensure the approach is the right one for the job, URBED works collaboratively with other practices and with specialist educational and campaigning organisations. This approach leads to the production of many different kinds of output, from publications, to talks and events, each appropriate to their audience and aims. Working in this way can strengthen the resilience of a project by networking and allying it with people with different skills, capacities and resources. Improving your connections in this way can help you practise developing future collaborations, and broaden your potential client base.

Developing skills and proficiencies

Socially motivated architectural research can support clients and communities to develop skills and proficiencies necessary to change things they are concerned about be it a neighbourhood, a park, a street or a building. This could include things as varied as understanding planning processes or legal rights, how to commission artists, understanding social history, the political context of local regeneration policies, or how to write a funding bid. Through meetings and conversation you develop an understanding of the skills that already exist in a community, which skills are needed to achieve shared goals and how people can come together to learn effectively from one another. The aim is to empower communities to be able to create change, and to build sustainability and future opportunities. Research methods that enable this include the development of workshops, hosting talks and training, and doing things together – such as building, or taking part in everyday activities.

This kind of research necessarily changes your relationship with the people with whom you are working. Some control must be relinquished, but this should not relegate you to neutral facilitator. Instead, it is important to consider yourself an active participant with certain knowledge and proficiencies, who is also present to learn and be altered by the process. Peer learning has a strong social dimension, and can help you form new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Learning enables a more effective critique of existing situations and, as a greater number of people are empowered, far more sophisticated and nuanced engagement with issues and concerns.

The benefits for your practice of doing this successfully are clear: the legacy of a project goes beyond the physical aspects of a scheme, and as an active participant you are developing skills and proficiencies beyond those that may be taught in architectural schools, or as part of CPD programmes. It could also be argued that it is only through learning together that meaningful and transformative change will occur. In the 1980s, feminist design cooperative Matrix (including Anne Thorne of Anne Thorne Architects, featured in this book) were pioneering in raising issues from procurement to building techniques, and they supported learning through the production of publications and technical advice, particularly in relation to women and their experiences of using and making the built environment. Their impact as a practice is expressed through raising awareness and developing a better understanding of important social and political issues in the architectural community.

Co-design and proposing alternatives

Co-design emphasises the whole of a design process, from inception through to realisation and use – opportunities for creative involvement should be offered throughout. Design is an iterative process, and designing with others requires that the decision-making is something that all participants can understand and actively engage with. Through helping the client and user groups to understand aspects such as statutory obligations, material selection, budgeting and construction techniques, practices can become effective in their involvement in a project and understand restrictions that bear upon the design and construction teams. Visualisations that are incomplete or more tentative can allow space for people to add their layer or response.

Testing things in the place for which they are conceived through building temporary structures or intervening ‘on site’ can enable this process to be rigorous and accessible to a broad group. In this way people can get involved for a short period of time and still make a useful contribution to your research – responding in ways that are framed by their experiences and how space is used, rather than a limited number of design options or their preconceptions of what might be expected of them. By rigorously recording and reflecting on the questions and ways of working that come from these processes (ideally with those who took part) this work can inform future practice. Art and architecture practices such as Public Works¹² and Studio Polpo often work in such ways, emphasising architecture as something processual that changes relations, above its manifestation as artefact.

Critiquing received notions and reflecting on your role ¹³

Through conducting post-occupancy evaluations,¹⁴ exhibitions and case studies, it is possible to question received notions about what makes a project a success. This could be done through participant and non-participant observation, interviews and mapping. By gathering and combining quantitative and qualitative information, a picture can be formed of how a place responds to change over time, and what the opportunities are for modifying the design or refining future proposals. These methods can bring together potentially hidden (or absent) voices and opinions, through foregrounding experiences and knowledge of those using a building or place. It is important that these critiques are shared visibly, to allow for debate and conversation; often this is about making something that was considered to be an economic or social issue into a political one, where people and concerns are heard publicly.