Valuing Community-Led Design

The ideas and practice of community-led design, participatory design or co-design have a long-standing tradition, especially in the context of urban design, planning and architecture. Community-led design goes beyond the one-dimensional process of consultation, helping involve people in decision-making throughout the design process, from visioning to implementation. There are many benefits from this approach, from improving civic participation and ensuring more democratic outcomes, to creating a strong sense of community and strengthening people's attachment to their place and to each other, to producing more sustainable solutions. However, 50 years after the first community-led design initiatives, and although professionals and organisations involved have reached a stage of maturity, community-led design is far from being mainstream in design and planning practice. An essential part of this problem is that the benefits of the approach are not thoroughly understood, measured or disseminated. The project aims to grapple with this problem, by exploring how a better case for community-led design can be made. This involves collecting and sharing evidence of good practice, collaboratively exploring measures of value and impact, and importantly, identifying ways for articulating and disseminating the benefits of community-led design. Grappling with this problem is of particular relevance at this particular time, with the emerging Localism agenda and the National Planning Policy Framework, which foresee an increased need for early and meaningful engagement and collaboration with communities.

The project will deliver network and workshop events bringing together a variety of stakeholders in order to map the existing landscape of community-led design practice, connect good practice and identify its value. Stakeholders will include individuals from public bodies (policy makers, local authority representatives), third sector organisations mediating community-led design, independent organisations offering support and advice on design and creative economy, local communities, design and creative professionals and researchers. Alongside these events we will develop and implement a social networking platform (based on the Open University's Open Design Studio technology) in order to gather individual stories and experiences from participation in community-led design from all over the UK (including photos, videos and text). This will allow further collection, analysis, articulation and dissemination of evidence on the benefits of community-led design, leading to the creation of a clear research agenda for the future.

Who will benefit from the research:
The research activities and outputs of the project are expected to benefit individuals and organisations representing multiple sectors and a wide range of roles. The planned events will aim to bring together academics with a number of stakeholders, including:
- professionals working in regeneration (urban planners, architects, artists)
- third sector organisations mediating, supporting and advocating community-led design
- community/voluntary organisations and civic societies
- local authority representatives (involved in planning, regeneration, housing, policy)
- independent organisations dedicated to promoting design

These stakeholders will benefit from sharing best practice, understanding of opportunities and barriers of community-led design, gaining access to evidence of impact, and participating in the formulation of a conceptual framework for evaluating their design and engagement activities.

Apart from the project partners who will be directly engaged in the research and impact activities, we will draw on a larger existing network of organisations like the British Council, Design Council, NESTA, Locality, Northern Architecture, and Homes and Communities Agency, as well as seek to develop new links. These will be both beneficiaries of the research, as they will gain knowledge and support for achieving their mission statements around promoting good design and supporting community groups involved in regeneration, but will also themselves contribute to reaching and connecting to a wider network of stakeholders.

Wider engagement and dissemination will also be achieved through the use of the project website and the proposed bespoke social network site (ODS). The social network platform has the potential to reach a large number of people from the wider public (community groups and individuals from places around the country) and give them the opportunity to influence and benefit from the project outcomes.

How will they benefit from the research:
In the short term, the project will help stimulate connections between research and practice communities, and create research ideas for future pursuits and collaborations.
Despite its limited scale and lifespan, the project also has the long term potential to develop networks and processes that can enhance community participation and connectedness, support sustainable regeneration and promote better quality of life.

The project benefits come from the engagement with two major issues, the first is understanding, critically reviewing and developing a framework for evaluating the impact of community-led design and the second is collecting, sharing and disseminating evidence about the obstacles and benefits of community-led design practice. Knowledge derived from the engagement with this issues, can:

- Lead to the development of practical toolkits for organisations involved in regeneration (first and third sector organisations as well as individual practitioners)
- Enhance the reach and impact ability of communities and community based organisations
- Inform policy making with regards to regeneration processes and projects
- Empower people to participate in forming their own environment
- Support best design practice and lead to the creation of better quality of life