How we reimagined community consultation and created the Museum of Us
At Fieldwork Facility we work in the intersection of communication, innovation and place. We absolutely love unusual design challenges, so when New London Architecture (NLA) asked us to collaborate on reimagining community consultation we jumped at the opportunity.
The Old Kent Road is undergoing huge changes, the Mayor of London has designated Old Kent Road as an Opportunity Area in the London Plan. This plan provides the planning and regeneration strategy for all new developments in the Old Kent Road including new homes, jobs, open spaces and infrastructure, perhaps most notably the extension of the Bakerloo Line which if given the go-ahead could create three new stations… these are big changes that will see the population of the area grow hugely in the near future.
There is a stigma that comes with ‘community consultation’, to be frank they are typically incredibly light touch… more a method for ticking boxes rather than enabling local people to see what’s really at stake, for example, a ‘consultation’ might ask ‘would you like more green spaces in any future developments?’ — what resident or local business would say no to that?
The regeneration team at Southwark Council knows this all to well and invited the NLA to lead an engagement project as an impartial partner. Southwark wanted a project that could enable conversations on the long-term plans for the area... Essentially our challenge was to reimagine community consultation as a meaningful platform for the community it serves.
Participation not consultation
From the outset our approach was not to re-skin consultation. In fact I believe what we delivered isn’t a ‘consultation’… Consultations are Q and A’s whereas we attempted to design opportunities for dialogue. Our objective was to bring together members of the community (residents, industry, community groups and local action groups) in a shared space… Southwark Council had earmarked a vacant shop they owned on Old Kent Road, we turned this shop into a positive and democratic space that could enable engagement and dialogue around plans for the area. The Museum of Us was a platform for local people to share their ideas and opinions on what is truly important in their community… we designed to encourage and facilitate participation.
Knowing fully how tokenistic ‘consultations’ can be, we placed a lot of emphasis on thinking about how to encourage under-represented groups to visit the project space… we anticipated that an exhibition about future developments could be easily written off as ‘not for them’… so our approach had to be hardwired for inclusion and participation.
The DNA of Us
Early on we made the call that whatever the outcome it had to be living rather than presented as a final outcome. To tee up our emphasis on participation we needed to really celebrate community as being intrinsic to place… The story of a place is the story of its people. We carefully framed the project as not being about ‘me’, ‘them’ or ‘you’… instead the project was titled the Museum of Us.
The project’s identity manifested as a simple sticker that was used to make communications feel like a celebration of inclusivity, this simple device would reverberate throughout the entire project.
Awareness
To get the word out about the space opening we created a campaign. We believed that if under-represented people can literally see themselves, or at least people like themselves in the campaign then they would be more likely to engage with the project . So we commissioned a fantastic photographer (Suki Dhanda) to shoot natural, confident and proud portraits of people around the Old Kent Road area. We used these portraits in an awareness campaign that was flypostered and flyered throughout the area.
The intention behind the identity was to signal an invitation to participate… that everybody’s voice is welcome and should be celebrated. We used the campaign to amplify this, the aim of the campaign was to unequivocally say ‘us’ to all people around Old Kent Road.
Next, we made a maildrop, so that every address in the area received a flyer announcing the opening of the Museum of Us. We also leaned on some of the council's resources by utilising the digital ad spaces they owned.
231 Old Kent Road
The epicentre of the project was a refurbished shop on Old Kent Road. We transformed this shop into our positive and democratic space that could enable engagement and conversations. Throughout the space we created opportunities for local people to share their ideas and opinions on what is truly important in their community.
A revolving series of provocations invited responses. Museum of Us stickers brought the identity to life and made participation incredibly easy (and fun). Elsewhere more thoughtful contributions could be written down and added to the Museum. Over the weeks the Museum’s collection came alive with visitor contributions alongside ours and the NLA’s research.
In terms of the exhibition design, we designed display panels that felt like used-up sticker sheets (with perforations perfectly matching the size of the stickers)… when you entered the space a giant portrait wall of the campaign’s portraits welcomed people on arrival — throughout the space was designed so that it felt like an amalgamation of people and ideas.
The NLA had produced an open call asking the community to submit content for the exhibition which together we built out into three parts of the exhibition: Past Us, Present Us and Future Us.
Projects like these often come with skepticism over how a council spends its money. In our research we discovered a fantastic array of really diverse industries in the Old Kent Road area. We decided wherever we could we would use local manufacturers for the exhibition. I’m proud to say that we kept 67.5% of our production expenditure (for the exhibition’s build and print) within the local economy.
We did this by sourcing amazing local manufacturers like Weber Industries, Purpose Powdercoating, and CopyTech Print and adapting our ideas so that they could be made locally. This approach was also used in events where NLA sourced drinks and catering from the community too. We were also mindful about our impact on the environment, the exhibition display stands were designed to live beyond the Museum of Us exhibition and be a permanent feature of the shop space to be reused by future projects.
Beyond the project space
To further our reach we made a mini-travelling exhibit which was placed in barbershops and salons — places where local people already assembled and discussed local issues
Events
Whilst we had been developing the exhibition and campaign, the NLA had been organising a series of lovely cross-pollinating events and workshops. Weber Industries who manufactured the display panels made a couple of workshops in the space (their founder Gavin Weber featured in the campaign too). Suki was invited back to run a smartphone photography workshop… other events included a youth event and tours of local industry and Old Kent Roads history of pubs.
At the launch event Shelene, a local resident (who was featured in the campaign) gave a speech:
“When I was invited to be a part of the Museum of Us project I wanted to be involved because I am proud of my area where I have lived for such a long time. I’ve seen many changes happen but never felt the changes involved my opinion or ideas even though the changes may have had a negative impact on how I experienced my area.
So I wanted to use this opportunity to shine a light on how people should and can be involved in how decisions made can be impacted by our voice.”
“The path that has led me to be more aware of how to become involved with the goings on in and around my area wasn’t born overnight but stemmed from organisations such as Pempeople. Prior to this I was oblivious to how I wanted to be involved in changes affecting my area or setting up a local project for the benefit of locals so community forums like this will create a beneficial platform that I hope locals will feel encouraged to utilise.
And I do hope that the council and other organisations involved in the changes will listen and take on board people’s comments and feedback so that together we can form a super Southwark”. Source
Next steps
The Museum of Us ran for just under a month with a fantastic turnout and great feedback. When the exhibition opened we quickly heard that Southwark was looking to extend the Museum of Us.
During the exhibition we crowdsourced ideas for what the space (231 Old Kent Road) could be used for after the exhibition and the council is currently finding ways to push some of these ideas forward, as well as digesting and figuring out how to act on what they have heard from the community. It’s also incredibly encouraging to learn that other councils have since been visiting 231 to learn about the project.
In this project we asked ‘how might we reimagine community consultation?’, It was a hugely rewarding project to work on and really played to our strengths. If you have an unusual challenge on your horizon please do get in touch to discuss what design can do.
Fieldwork Facility
Fieldwork Facility is a design studio for uncharted territories. We work in the intersection of communication, innovation and place.
Our work spans designing campaigns, brands and experiences, we also invent products and we innovate services.
Our work is concerned with ushering in a better future. With our clients and collaborators we use communication and technology to create projects that invite a better future closer.
