Itinerary for ARCH exhibition week

Where should we aim for to hand over the work to the PCC? Saturday the 13th, either before 1pm or somewhere between 3 - 6pm?

What do you all think?

Design Workshop Day 2

After an eventful and productive first day we began setting up the tasks for further user participation through re-configring the car park. To do this we temporarily placed some of the cafes furniture upon the expansive asphalt drive way. The purpose of this task was to determine the reaction of the worshipping community to the alteration of traditional procedures.

We then participated as a group in the church service, assimilating ourselves into the rituals of the worshipping community. After this, we all had some tea and coffee on the car park and had some interesting conversations with old and young members of All Hallows Church.

Site participation tool, extending the cafe to the car park and engaging the worshipping community

Conclusion = Exhaustion

Some tired campers...bless their wee cotton socks

Design Workshop Day 1

Today saw the commencement of a two day intensive design workshop within All Hallows Church. The was design to focus our understanding of where the project was going and also to imbed us into the cultural and religious positioning of the church through active engagement of the building users and having a presence within the community / site / building

Community participation tool, posting flyers at specific locations

The day started with the community group descending upon three agreed areas of the ward to informally understand the communities knowledge of the whereabouts of All Hallows. This exercise proved interesting through its verbal application, although less successful (over two days) in its informal documentation as the results gathered were sparse and unhelpful, in saying this, it was insightful as it demonstrates that public members are aware of the urban environment although passive about interacting with it, therefore the exercise was beneficial in providing a better community understanding

Design development, focusing the design approach to specific areas for progression

Whilst the community exercise was undertaken the remainder of the group began recording the initial stage of the matrix (all of the current issues of the design). We then discussed this a collective and began distilling the information into areas of potential focus through voicing the clients interest along with our individual interests. This was assembled through asking four key questions :

1. What is of most important to the client?
2. What is of most importance to us?
3. What will be most beneficial for All Hallows?
4. What is the most achievable?

By doing this we then consolidated the information of the matrix into areas of importance based on the question posed, these being :

Question 1 - What is of most important to the client?

• Building users
• Funding
• Ethos
• Storage and the practical use of the space
• Visibility of activity

Question 2 - What is of most importance to us?

• Organisational networking
• Internal / external connectivity
• Signage

Question 3 - What will be most beneficial for All Hallows?

• Visual appearance
• Funding
• A sustainable business model (increasing the buildings activity)
• Internal / external connectivity

Question 4 - What is the most achievable?

• Increasing the buildings activity
• Signage (communication of the activity and visibility of activity)
• Alteration of the cafe area
• Sustainable food sourcing

This was then consolidated into THREE KEY THEMES :

1. New users of the building through social connectivity and networking
2. Communication of the buildings activity (signage, ethos, presence etc.)
3. Connectivity of spaces internally / externally and the practicality of building uses

After this, we assessed strategies for analysing developing these three themes looking at specific design tasks.

The physical team then interacted with the activity groups within All Hallows through asking a series of poignant questions which were to be answered in a jovial way, through writing upon the back of each team member. This proved very successful as the users responded to the participation tool with a sense of conviviality

Physical participation tool, getting the building users opinion

"...and they hopefully gazed upon what made...and it was good..."

Some more collages

productive wall / picnic wall

open air cinema / theatre space

wall as noticeboard / venturi theory of size of sign to visibility of information

productive wall / picnic wall

visual transplant

I'm pretty sure I could keep providing ways of softening the walls oppression for the rest of the night...but I'm going to stop there although it may be useful to suggest these forms of artistic interventions within the landscape to gauge the PCC's reaction to (some) creative and less economical solutions.

Collage of possibilities

planted wall

sports wall (chalk football net / basketball net?)

painted games wall (where's wally)

activity wall / alternative ways of scaling the wall - slides / mountaineering

community mural / inspirational message (active involvement)

Some quick collages for the possibilities of the rear wall of the church. A really quick and dirty graphic style but I think its rather appealing because it portrays a suggestive emotion over a reality and recognises that the ideas are only redolent.

Impromptu site meeting

Sacred Wing practicing within the main hall

During site and community centre research today I bumped into Steve whilst photographing the front facade and was invited to meet and converse with a choral group (sacred wing) who were practicing for the All Hallows Church Christmas Service. I had a chance to speak with the group prior to practice and some comments from the discussion were;

• none of the choral group were part of the worshipping community
• All Hallows was seen as a community hub where the faith element was down played
• there is not enough natural or artificial lighting to illuminate a musical score
• sunlight through the main window of the hall was used as a gauge for the passing seasons
• most members arrive via car-sharing therefore the car-park is a valuable resource for this activity group
• thought that the administrative areas of the building were cold and unfriendly

Artist meeting and participation

Rear of All Hallow's Church

We had the chance today to visit the site and understand its social, physical and environmental context in more detail.

Approach from the adjacent park Construction of mosque

Social activity outside the buildings boundary Visual restriction of the window guards

Sanctioning of social interaction Some 'typical' locals

After this we met with the resident artists of All Hallow's Church, Trish and Simon, to comprehend the work they have done for the church and to get a more encompassing view of the tensions within the building and their emotional reading of the spaces and the meanings they provide. We were grateful that Trish and Simon allowed us to converse with the participants of their dance group, providing us with an insight into some of their initial impressions and their emotional response to the spaces within the building, many of which commented on the buildings confused spatial meaning and sequencing, giving a sense that they believed the building itself did not initially seem welcoming but after consistent usage the building acquired new meanings through social and physical associations and participation.

Active participation from the group

We then had a discussion about what each sub-group should produce for Mondays internal meeting, focusing on;

1. the consolidation of all previous research
2. each individuals interpretation of the client brief
3. suggestions for project progression

Altering perceptions

Stadtlounge St.Gallen

Stadtlounge in St.Gallen was created by Carlos Martinez Architects and artist Pipilotti Rist as a piece of public art within the urban realm, it is a pedestrianised area of the city centre that was designed to represent a lounge within the street environment, thus making people interact differently with the object around them and perceiving their environment in a unique and unaccustomed manner.

Stadtlounge St.Gallen

Park(ing) Day and Tinwolf

I realise that they sound like a pair of catchy new superheroes but...no!

The Park(ing) Day event is undertaken on a worldwide platform, in the majority of major cities, the participant in the UK is not London but...Leeds.The purpose of the event is to temporarily increase the ratio of provided public space by reclaiming unused, underdeveloped and undesirable functions of the city and re-appropriating them with a desirable green park / space based on the idea of 'guerrilla gardening' of the city.

On a slight tangent from this, I have unearthed an community based organisation called Tinwolf, its ethos is to 're-invent the city through creating community solutions for a sustainable Leeds. It does seem a bit 'radical' (they have their own constitution) which may suit the desires of the church and they have an association with the University of Leeds and seem to attract student and community interest and play an active role in community engagement through the formation of activities and events. More knowledge is required. The blog for this organisation is here.

Community interaction / participation

Candy Chang could prove very interesting for study as she continuously attempts to alter the urban citizens impression of a spaces, looking for ways of encouraging social and community interaction through non verbal means. She also documents her interpretations of signage throughout cities and making the city more navigable for its inhabitants through unconventional mapping technique. I would recommend 'Hello Neighbours' for ideas of social information that resulted from on the ground involvement and engagement with the community.