West Ham Park

We delivered an extensive brief-writing engagement programme to understand the priorities of local communities for a piece of vacant land on the edge of West Ham Park, previously used as a plant nursery. Half of the site was allocated for housing, while our role was to develop a community brief for the other half. West Ham Park is a well-used and much-loved space with a diverse audience. To ensure broad and inclusive engagement, we hosted a series of pop-ups, school workshops (including one for SEN students), exhibitions, one-to-one conversations, and a young designers programme for 16–18-year-olds. We also embedded ourselves in existing park activities to reach as many people as possible. Throughout, we checked against local demographics to ensure feedback was representative. Over four months, we engaged with more than 1,000 people and created a community brief that was endorsed through both an exhibition and an online survey.