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Fenham Pocket Park Design activism in the co-production of urban space Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau

Design and Creative Practice Research Folios School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

Project Details This research project focuses on intensifying participatory design as means to stimulate public life in the urban realm. Whilst articulating approaches that overcome the limitations of mainstream stakeholder-led forms of consultation, we explore open-ended and inspirational participatory engagement with particular attention to the role of design as activism. This process of experimentation, situated within the everyday, ordinary life, engages community actors in a socio-spatial co-production process whose impact go beyond the delivery of the project. Situated in the west end of Newcastle Upon Tyne, our case study highlights the transformation of an unused urban space into a lively pocket park.

Practice

Urban Design Activism

Designer

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau

Title

Fenham Pocket Park: design activism in the co-production of urban space

Dates

2015 - 2019

Output type

Pocket Park

Function

Public Space

Location

Fenham Hall Drive, Newcastle upon Tyne

Co-producers/Participants

Sustrans, Friends of Fenham Pocket Park; local ward councillors, Fenham Association of Residents, Fenham Pool, Fenham Library, Public Health England, Newcastle City Council.

Collaborators

Geoff Vigar

Research Assistants

Bryony Simcox, Rorie Parsons

Research Funding

ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Co-Production Fund

Budget

ÂŁ9,930

Construction Funding

Department of Communities and Local Government and Local Ward Fund

Budget

ÂŁ17,858

Fenham Pocket Park Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau

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Introduction This research contributes to the emergent academic debate that underscores critical approaches to participatory design practice. It seeks to understand how design actions permeate socio-spatial spheres, mediate power asymmetries and ultimately contribute to empowerment and co-production. The case study captures the contribution of multi-fold design methods, ranging from participatory to design activism , as vehicle for promotion and intensification of democratic practices and values.

Fenham Hall Drive – urban context

Aims and Objectives The project explores how socially engaged design practice works towards the longterm sustainability of socio-spatial processes elicited through participatory and design activism methods. The project unpacked everyday realities of people by gaining insights of existing settings from an insider perspective; explored an open-ended and inspirational approach that avoids setting closed briefs and agendas; unearthed skills and assets in the community in a process where citizens become committed stakeholders.

Sensory mapping

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Design and Creative Practice Research Folios School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

Fenham Pocket Park Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau

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Temporary intervention model

Moveable benches

Temporary intervention October 2015 Street observation - April 2015

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Design and Creative Practice Research Folios School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

Fenham Pocket Park Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau

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Questions Acknowledging recent scholarship that portrays urban design activism as temporary narrative of intensification, disruption or demonstration, the research seeks to explore: • How design activism promotes and intensifies democratic practices, as well as permeates socio-spatial spheres • How design actions contribute towards the long-term sustainability of co-produced projects and ultimately foster new communities of practice.

The making of Fenham Pocket Park

Context Set in Newcastle upon Tyne in the neighbourhood of Fenham – a socially mixed area with pockets of low-income council households with a dependence on state benefits - the project addresses a car-dominated street, Fenham Hall Drive, where public space is very limited.

Fenham Pocket Park Opening - May 2016

Methods A combination of participatory methods ranging from sensory mapping to the creation of temporary public spaces guided the exploration. This multi-fold approach employs a variety of design prompts in temporary settings that support, augment or disrupt the experience of the area thus provoking an opportunity for a new reading of a familiar environment. Drawing on participants’ feeling of place, we engaged in a form of situated practice reducing the distance between collective experience, reflection and projection.

One year celebration May 2017 8

Design and Creative Practice Research Folios School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

Fenham Pocket Park Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau

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Dissemination

Bibliography

Exhibition ‘Community, Design, Practice’.

Exhibition featuring ‘Fenham Pocket Park – Stories, Practices and Processes’. Newcastle University, Boiler House. April 2019 Conferences Sustainable mobility, delightful neighbourhood?

Creating and evaluating inspirational participation in street design Paper presented at Cycle City Active City Conference - 25 June 2015 Geoff Vigar , Daniel Mallo, Armelle Tardiveau Participatory design methods in the co-production practice of urban space Paper presented at the conference: Challenges and Best Practice in Co-Production, University of Sheffield - 18 May 2016 Daniel Mallo, Rorie Parsons, Armelle Tardiveau The Craft of Participatory Design: Inspirational Methods in the Co-Production of Urban Space Paper presented at the conference: Culture in Urban Space Urban Form, Cultural Landscapes, Life in the City. Copenhagen, Denmark - 22-26 August 2016 Daniel Mallo, Rorie Parsons, Armelle Tardiveau Beyond the here and now: design activism for permanence and resilience Chair of session at the International Conference: Making Space for Socio-Spatial and Socio-Ecological Justice in Research and Action Strategies. Lesvos (Greece), 2-6 July 2017.

Conference organised by: KU Leuven’s INDIGO research project on “Innovating spatial development planning by Differentiating land ownership and Governance” funded by the Flemish innovation agency IWT (2015-2018).

Daniel Mallo

Vigar,G., Varna,G., F, (2019 forthcoming) Connecting places, placing connections: towards a participatory ordinary urbanism, in Doherty,I, Shaw,J., (eds.), Transport Matters, Policy Press, Bristol.

Webb, D., Mallo, D., Tardiveau, A., Emmerson, C., Pardoe, M. and Talbot, M. (forthcoming) ‘Place-based activism in the Big Society: reflections from two civic university collaborations’ in Steer, M., Davoudi, S., Todd, L. and Shucksmith, M. (eds) Social Renewal: practical responses to neoliberal austerity. Target publisher: Bristol University Press: Policy Press Mallo, D. and Tardiveau, A. (2019) Fenham Pocket Park. Stories, Practices and Processes.

Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University ISBN 978-0-7017-0268-7 Project featured on the ESRC website as exemplary impact case study evidencing how the research transformed the lives of those in the area and the work continues to grow and develop as the community take ownership of the park and continue to develop possibilities. See: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/impact-case-studies/ participation-research-kick-starts-newcastle-mini-park/ Article by the Chronicle, the local newspaper on residents being awarded funding from DCLG. https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/news-story/fenham-hall-drive-pocket-park-givenfunding-green-light Articles by Newcastle City Council, Sustrans and Chronicle, the local newspaper, on the opening of the Pocket Park (May 2016). http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/fenham-pocket-park-opensthanks-11376171 https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/news-story/fenham-pocket-park-opens https://www.sustrans.org.uk/news/oasis-calm-newcastles-west-end Article by Newcastle City Council on the Christmas celebration, community event, organised by the Friends of Fenham Pocket Park (Dec 2016) https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/news-story/lord-mayor-newcastle-switches-fenhampocket-park-christmas-lights

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Design and Creative Practice Research Folios School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Content Š Project Authors