We recognise that if we are going to engage a wide range of community groups in projects we need to offer training and workshop sessions that build the skills required for people to really be involved.
CABE Spaceshaper YP ↓ Show Project
We are part of the development team for CABE’s Young Spaceshaper alongside beam, the Architecture Centre in Wakefield, as well as the Bristol and Kent Architecture Centres.
Young Spaceshaper captures the views of young people who use a public space through a facilitated workshop followed by a discussion of the results, current design quality and how the space works for different people.
Young Spaceshaper encourages young people to demand more from their local spaces and works alongside the established adult Spaceshaper tool.
http://www.cabe.org.uk/public-space/young-spaceshaper
The Glass House Young Spacemaker ↓ Show Project
make:good writes and delivers The Young Spacemaker course on behalf of The Glass-House, community led design. The course is for groups of young people aged 14-17 who have an idea for a space in their neighbourhood they would like to improve and want to explore how they could make a change. On this course young people build the skills, confidence and creativity they will need to take their project forward and develop an action plan for their next steps.
This course ran in Chester at Trafford Hall in 2008 and ran in Bristol and London in October 2009. Submit enquiries via The Glass-House website and keep checking back for news of future course locations.
www.theglasshouse.org.uk
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust: Skills for Choice Enrichment Programme ↓ Show Project
make:good wrote and delivered a ten week introductory design course to a group of 40 young people aged 16-17 who were enrolled on a Skills for Choice Programme at Lewisham College.
On the course the young people were tasked to design a gatehouse for the entrance to the Stephen Lawrence Centre and were provided with opportunities to try out different methods of developing concepts, building models and making drawings which culminated in them presenting their ideas to representatives from The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.
This course will be running agin from November 2008 – July 2010.
www.stephenlawrence.org.uk
MySpace, MyCity, MyWorld ↓ Show Project
make:good delivered three full day workshops for the My Space, My City, My World conference drawing from themes around the built environment. My Space, My City, My World is a summer school for year 9 and 10 students at the Stephen Lawrence Centre, Deptford, designed to encourage creativity and confidence through the exploration of personal space, urban life and global issues. Thirty students attended the 3 day conference in 2008 and 2009.
What the clients say:
‘Catherine and make:good are the first workshops I look to put in the delivery plan and build on because they are flexible, responsive, and innately creative; their workshops and imaginative, inspiring and delightful.’
Rick Hall, Director of Programmes for Ignite!
www.ignitefutures.org.uk
Architecture for Everyone ↓ Show Project
make:good was part of the core team theat delivered the Architecture for Everyone workshops in 2009 to encourage young people from Britain’s inner cities to consider turning their talent into the a career in architecture and urban planning. Workshops took place in London, Birmingham, Liverpool & Glasgow in April 2009.
Architecture for Everyone is a partnership between the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and architectural firm RMJM.
make:good is currently involved in the design of the programme for 2010.
www.architectureforeveryone.org.uk
When we say participation we really mean it and we use model making, film making, temporary structures and drawing to facilitate end users having influence over final designs.
Clapham Youth Centre Consultation ↓ Show Project
make:good was invited by Clapham Youth Centre to run a three day brief writing process with young people aged 9-13.
The centre was originally built as a church hall and consisted of one large space which was used for badminton, table tennis, art projects, music projects and general socialising. This range of uses resulted in regular conflicts between the young people who wanted to use the space for different things and the centre management were keen to fund raise to renovate and improve the space.
make:good ran a set of workshops which asked the young people to think about their ideal space and all the activities it would need to house. We then worked with scale models and temporary structures at 1:1 to see the impact of creating seperate spaces. During the workshops the young people were encouraged to discuss and debate ideas and search out areas of commonality.
The outcomes from the workshops were pulled together into a detailed briefing document which was passed on to the future design team.
Woodpecker Youth Centre ↓ Show Project
*make:*good was invited by Woodpecker Youth Centre to run a design brain storming session with young people aged 10 -15. The young people were from two youth clubs who currently used the space and the youth workers were keen to bring them together and generate a shared experience through engaging in the design process.
The young people were asked to give the *make:*good team a tour of their space and identify the parts of the space they liked and disliked and crucially why. They were then asked to carry out a series of brainstorming, 1:1 diagram making and model making activities to generate a broad range of ideas which could then be used to prompt future discussions.
REPA Permanent Den ↓ Show Project
make:good was invited to work with young people aged 8 – 16 to design a permanent structure for the play association grounds. The play association wanted to create a quiet space and shelter in the grounds which the young people would feel a strong sense of ownership over.
Over a two day period the young people worked with scale models to test out ideas and then negotiated with each other to develop one final design. The drop in nature of the sessions allowed forty children to participate in the process and generated a great sense of community.
What the clients say:
‘The young people learnt loads from building models of their ideas and were suitably challenged to think about what the implications of their proposal would be. This project tested their creative skills but also their communication and negotiation skills as they were encouraged to transform their individual ideas into one collective idea. All of the young people felt part of the team and hope we get to build it!’
Sarah Thickbroom, Director of REPA
make:places
We think the public realm should be a place children can play, young people are welcome and neighbours can chat so we develop projects which pursue this aim.
Homerton Pavement Playground ↓ Show Project
make:good developed a proposal to transform Homerton High Street into a pavement playground which invites people to reclaim the East end streets for play.
A line of brass would be inserted into the pavement and bend and turn to create specific invitations to: skip, play hopscotch, play jacks and play connect four. At the specific sites brass lettering would suggest the types of games and play that could take place here. These traditional east end games would create a site specific permanent interventions which would provide a legacy of fun and playfulness.
www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk
Brooke Hill Outdoor Classroom ↓ Show Project
make:good developed a proposal to transform an open field next to a primary school into an outdoor classroom. The field had been donated to the primary school by The Woodland Trust and they wanted to use it as an outdoor learning resource whilst maintaining it as an important set of habitats for wildlife.
A series of pavilions were proposed to provide shelter from the sun or rain so that the field can provide a year round learning landscape. These pavilions were used to frame views and vistas identifield by youn people as being important or having historical significance. The pavilions would be connected by a raised path so that the children can walk in the field without disturbing the habitats in the long grass and pools of water. The masterplan had one key path but the detailed proposal developed a network of paths to allow maximum access to the space.
One of the pavilions would be used as a bird hide and the facade treatment was developed with the children and used a series of holes to depict a swallow.
Belvue School Playground Recipe Book ↓ Show Project
make:good was asked to develop activities to animate and encourage the creative use of the school grounds in a special needs school. A series of unlikely events were set up with the school council and these developed a set of new games and activities which were initiated and developed by the young people. These new activities were collected in a school playground recipe book which was distributed to each member of staff and to the school council.
What the clients say:
‘make:good initiated a playground project with our students which involved planning sessions with teaching staff, collecting resources and communicating with students who had a broad range of learning needs in order to develop a playground recipe book. Catherine led the project and was very organised with a positive and realistic approach resulting in a very professional record of the work which is highly regarded in the school.’
Maire Gartland – Specialist Art Teacher
CABE - What would you do with this space? ↓ Show Project
make:good was commissioned by CABE to write five detailed case studies of projects which had engaged young people in the design process and included spaces specifically for young people. make:good interviewed clients, end users, designers and project managers to put together a detailed picture of the project process and outcomes.
See the case studies on the CABE website.
www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/cowley-teenage-space
www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/evergreen-adventure-playground
www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/spacemakers
www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/freemantle-pavilion
www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/faelledparken
New Start Column ↓ Show Project
Catherine Greig was a monthly columnist for New Start Regeneration Magazine from June 2007 to December 2008 focusing on participation techniques in built environment projects and the importance of improving the communal areas on social housing estates.
Titles include:
‘What’s wrong with the benches?’
‘Is that a positive sign I see?’
‘Grow your own – local allotments’
‘Why is it always cream? – plain boring design’
Catherine also wrote a guide for engaging young people in building permanent structures in schools and plagrounds.
www.newstartmag.co.uk
Are we designing young people out of public space? ↓ Show Project
Catherine represented make:good at The Glass-House debate series entitled ‘Are we designing young people out of public space.’
Catherine presented a typical make:good project where young people participate fully in the design process and then take part in the construction process and talked about the difficulties in persuading the paying clients that investing in creating spaces for young people is a valuable use of finances. Increasingly we have seen a fear of groups of young people who are in the public realm and the private investment used to fund improvements to public places has tended to leas to the types of environments that physically or emotionally exclude young people. It is this type of exclusion that make:good aims to tackle.
http://www.theglasshouse.org.uk/index.php?pg_id=58
Sometimes small changes can have a huge impact and we work with children and young people to design and build permanent dens and structures.
REPA Permanent Den ↓ Show Project
Following on from our successful design workshops make:good were asked to arrange the fabrication and construction of a permanent structure in the grounds of Rockingham Estate Play Association. make:good worked with the 40 young people attending the playground in small groups over a five day period. The den was flat packed and delivered to site so that the young people could easily and safely be involved in the construction process whilst still allowing for opportunities to take risks and develop new skills which was part of the play associations manifesto.
What the clients say:
‘Catherine and her team delivered a great experience for the young people at our play association. From building the models through to assembling the den the young people were fully included and they grew in confidence through the project. We run many activiy programmes but it was great to have a permanent output that the young people can actually use.
Thanks a million!.’
Sarah Thickbroom, Director of REPA
Gladstone Park Playground Den ↓ Show Project
make:good worked with all 90 year 3 students at Gladstone Park Primary School in both the design and construction stages of the project. An initial set of design workshops were and experiments were delivered to design the structure looking at themes of colour and form, light and shade and sound in Architecture.
The final design for the new playground structure was then flat packed and delivered to site before being installed in the playground by the young people.
What the clients say:
‘Following the project the young people were very proud of the resulting structure in the playground which will be theirs, a gallery for their work, a place for imaginative play as well as a reminder of all the fun they had along the way. Some young people formerly thought of as academically weak displayed great ability, inspiration and focus during the course of the project and subsequently came to be seen in a completely new light both by themselves and their classmates.’
Grainne Byrne, Agent, A New Direction
www.anewdirection.org.uk
We think that the buildings we spend out time in effect our well being and we work with end users to make sure that the end designs have the most positive impact possible.
ADI Centre Main Hall ↓ Show Project
make:good worked with Lambeth based youth programme Your Story to develop and design a permanent intervention at the Archbishop Davidson Institute (ADI). The ADI was a run down building which was underutilised by the local youth community who were in need of spaces to go and engage in positive activities.
The project developed a renovation programme for the main hall and kitchen spaces and the young people were involved in the painting works. The jewel of the project is the bespoke wallpaper designed by the young people which includes illustrations produced by them and professionally fabricated.
What the clients say:
‘Catherine and the make:good team have been amazingly supportive and realistic in their approach to this project. They brought in a major contractor as a project partner which allowed us to deliver much more for our money. We now have a main hall which I am not embarrassed to rent out and can generate an on going income for our youth programmes.’
Karen Martin, Director of ADI Centre Feb 2003 – July 2008
Waterloo Residents Hall ↓ Show Project
make:good worked with a local youth group, who rented the tenants and residents hall for their club meetings, to prepare designs to renovate the space. After a series of workshops with the youth group a design was presented to the T&RA committee and once the design was agreed the work could begin.
make:good arranged for a group of volunteers from a local business to prepare the space and put on the initial coat of white paint. The young people aged 11 – 16 then got their hands dirty and were involved in painting the walls and customising the bespoke furniture for the project. The youth group now have a great space to meet in but the tenants and residents also have a high quality space that they can rent out and use to generate revenue.
What the clients say:
‘We were nervous about this project because we didn’t want to end up with graffiti everywhere but the end result is quite sophisticated really.’
Sid Hill
Chair of Dodson & Amigo Tenants & Residents Association 2005
Hackney MIND Drop in Centre ↓ Show Project
make:good was commissioned by Hackney MIND to carry out a feasibility study for the IRIE MIND drop in centre. The existing centre provides a drop in service for people with a range of mental health problems.
The centre management team were keen to carry out a major overhaul of the centre so as to provide the best possible setting for their service users and make:good produced a series of costed options which were then discussed and debated with the centre management, staff and the service users.
↑ Back to Top of Page
