The PROUD project ‘Beyond the Castle’ had the opening of its interactive co-design exhibition on 15th November in the Storey Creative industries Centre. This marks a key point in the development of the project where all stakeholders come together and respond creatively to the ideas generated so far and really start to co-design.
To set the scene for this we had presentations form Julian Inman, Senior Planner (Regeneration) and almost more importantly presentations from local residents, volunteers and the designers employed to create and facilitate the co-design process.
This lead to the unveiling of the interactive exhibition itself. This had two key sections, one displays the many hundreds of ideas the 600 people who have already been part of the process have contributed so far. We felt it important that we included every idea and comment here, ranging from the cautionary (e.g. the council will never deliver) to the eccentric (e.g. a cable car to link the hill the Castle is on to Williamson park (on the other side of the city).
We were also conscious that the models, notes, leaves, even wax tablets that these ideas were written on would be somewhat overwhelming for people in an exhibition form. To help structure all this information we recruited the 15 people who were most active in the process to help us analyse and structure the information.
The result was 2 sets of analysis of the ideas contributed, one concentrating on values, the other with a more factual basis. This forms the interactive second component of the exhibition. Here we invite participants to select two issues that interest them, one form the emotional ‘don’t forget pyramid’ the other form the thematic analysis wall). They attach stickers with these issues printed on them to a small box and using the craft materials provided develop a solution to the issues that they have identified. Here we are looking for specific solutions rather than general suggestions.
The ideas boxes form a growing ideas tower. We think this is where the real co-design in the project is evidenced, this (still growing) tower of ideas shows some really original thinking and creative ideas that have surprised our designers. I`m deliberately teasing here by not disclosing these yet, you will just have to come to the exhibition it is running in the afternoons until 6:00 on Tuesday 30th, hope to see you there.
If you cant make it we will be documenting and publishing the outcomes of the whole process fairly soon after we have completed our detailed analysis.
Leon Cruickshank
Gemma Coupe