Participatory Design in Architecture
Process for Engaging Citizens in Design of Community Architecture
Dec 7, 2008
Participatory design is not a new phenomenon and is well established in community development. The Co-Design Group has pioneered a process for use by organizations and communities. After almost 30 years of field testing, it is a proven process for enriching design responses to the built environment.
Co-Design has demonstrated that ordinary people are quite capable of understanding planning concepts, articulating their needs, and helping to design the environments in which they reside and work.
Co-Design Participatory Process at Work
Participants at a Co-Design workshop come from all walks of life; the more diverse a group, the more likely workshop outut will accurately reflect the organization's needs. In a one-day workshop to consider renovations to a recreational and lodge facility for seniors in a provincial park, that means involving everyone who will use the lodge: the custodian who shovels the walkways in winter, a user who has mobility problems, volunteers who support special needs users, interpretive guides and the most senior manager responsible for the provincial park.
The workshop begins by visualizing a future day in the life of the lodge. Although designed some 20 years prior specifically for people in wheelchairs, the lodge’s facilities are no longer up-to-date. Stan asks the participants to demonstrate on site how improvements might be designed.
“If you were in a wheelchair or using a walker, if you were blind or deaf, in what ways would you be inconvenienced by this building? What qualities of the site would enhance your activities?” Participants set out on a site walk to better understand the lodge’s potential and liabilities.
In a second stage of the workshop, they gather around Co-Design members to respond to Stan’s questions. Each group is led by a Co-Design artist/architect who begins to sketch the opportunities suggested by participants. One participant is trying to imagine what it must be like for a blind person to walk the outdoor paths, using a cane to navigate. There are many changes in grade yet no directional clues for the unwary blind walker. The artist quickly draws an example of a pathway incorporating changes in paving texture, by way of grade-level indicators.
By the end of the workshop, there are dozens of drawings, each one associated with a story or image for the site’s future use. The participants gather to consider their ideas and the artists’ handiwork. People rate the images that they believe are the best fit for the lodge’s redevelopment, taking into account fiscal realities and the needs of seniors who will use the facility. Typically the process achieves over 90 percent consensus from participants about future development.
Value of Involving Users Meaningfully Early in Design
The Co-Design process leads to a broad consensus, allowing planners and architects to proceed without having to worry about plans being rejected by the user group. There are clear criteria for evaluating the eventual performance of their plans. The process also enables participants to identify shared values. Differences dissolve, bringing out the best in everyone.
The design establishment trains architects and planners to be the experts when it comes to designing buildings and spaces for public use. Other than supplying information and paying taxes to support construction, there is often no place for the average citizen in design. Participatory processes like Co-Design workshops cut through differences in status and rank to draw on people’s strengths. By the end of a workshop, there is a sense of ownership among the user group for making change happen.
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