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Co-designing neighbourhood mobilities
Design researcher Geke van Dijk’s experience in co-designing mobility schemes has mostly focused on Amsterdam, a city known for its progressive approach to active travel and public realm. Here, she looks at what her studio’s ‘Streetlab’ method could mean for UK cities.
Cities are facing multiple pressing challenges around the design and use of public space: How to encourage more sustainable mobility by reducing air pollution, CO₂ emissions and fossil fuel use; how to encourage healthier lifestyles, promoting more sustainable and healthier ways of moving and more social interaction in the city; how to use limited public space, providing a sustainable, healthy, social and safe living environment; how to heat and rain-proof the city, and find the best ways to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Public space in cities is limited and often quite crowded. Cars (both driving and parked) have long been a priority, but this is slowly reversing. More priority is gradually given to sustainable mobility and greenery, with more space for walking, meeting and playing. This involves a large-scale and complex transition, including a series of strategic choices for gradual adaptation over time. A city is not a ‘blank canvas’ where you can just start over with a clean slate. To make the changes feasible, projects must fit within existing maintenance and replacement schedules.
Moving beyond traditional consultation
This complex transition process requires open, exploratory, and constructive conversations between many different stakeholders. Policymakers and officials benefit from getting input from residents and local businesses on these issues for developing new policies and initiating projects. This joint involvement informs both the direction and speed of change. Choices can be jointly made, provided they fit within set policy frameworks.
An effective course of action is to move beyond traditional consultation, where a local council presents an already detailed blueprint and local stakeholders can only object. From both sides, it is important not to get into such traditional ‘us vs them’ conversations, but rather to engage in an open exploration of opportunities and possibilities. The Streetlab approach described in the ‘Key principles’ boxout creates space for a collaborative and future-oriented way of thinking about more sustainable mobility and the design of public space.
Improving bike parking facilities in the City of London
Since 2016, design research agency Stby has facilitated 15 different Streetlab projects for the City of Amsterdam. Recently, it has also facilitated a Streetlab co-design process for the Golden Lane Estate in London. The estate is a major housing development in the City of London, and home to more than 700 people, many of whom are cyclists. Over the past decades, green modes of transport such as cycling have grown in London, and after the pandemic there has been an added increase. Finding a good place to safely park a bicycle on the estate has become more problematic, as the existing facilities that were built in the 1950s are not designed for the current demand.
From both sides, it is important not to get into such traditional ‘us vs them’ conversations, but rather to engage in an open exploration of opportunities and possibilities.
A group of resident volunteers secured community funding for improving bicycle parking facilities on the estate. To make sure that the views of as many residents as possible were taken into consideration, a series of open and co-creative Streetlab sessions were held in the community centres on the estate. Stby prepared, facilitated and documented these sessions in several ways, to make them optimally accessible and to collect a wide range of voices from residents.
The consultations aimed to learn from as many residents and workers on the estate as possible. The invitations to the sessions were widely advertised via posters around the estate and emails to an extensive mailing list. Across the three sessions, more than 60 people attended – many regular cyclists, but also occasional and aspirational cyclists and non-cyclists. They all shared their thoughts and preferences.
The principles of the Streetlab methodology were employed during the sessions. A large print with a map of the estate was placed on the table, together with some props (e.g. cards representing types of cyclists and types of bicycle parking options) that triggered people to talk about their cycling experience and their needs for bicycle parking. Towards the end of the conversation, three ‘golden coins’ were handed out to participants so they could indicate their top preferences for locations and parking options on the map. This format created an equal opportunity for people with different parking needs to express their hopes and fears and to engage in a two-way conversation with other residents. The atmosphere of the sessions was collaborative and welcoming.
The results from the co-creative consultation process were a series of recommendations on the bike parking needs and preferences of people around the estate, combined with specific indications of where on the estate opportunities existed for better outdoor and indoor bike parking solutions. Based on their deep local knowledge, participants were able to point out many underused and unused spaces on the estate that could be refurbished to create new or improved bike parking facilities. The results were reported back to the community in an illustrated report. Since then, a detailed plan has been developed that is now awaiting planning permission from the City of London.
Towards more sustainable and healthier public spaces
By using the co-creative and open Streetlab approach, policymakers and local communities can be jointly engaged in step-by-step transitions to make the use of public space more humane, cleaner and safer. These complex transitions cannot be implemented by rolling out previously determined detailed blueprints. They require gradual and iterative steps within overall strategic frameworks. The main dilemmas are not minor trivial design issues, but complex considerations that are part of a broader transition towards sustainable and healthy use of public space in the city.
The results of successive Streetlabs in Amsterdam over the years have clearly showed a growing momentum for some major changes, such as building large underground bicycle parking garages and a gradual reduction of car parking spaces in neighbourhoods, which increased confidence within the municipality about the implementation. Many of these changes are currently underway.
Key principles of the Streetlab approach
CO-CREATIVE GROUP SESSIONS
A key element of Streetlabs is co-creative group sessions with residents, local businesses and visitors in a particular neighbourhood. This has proved to be a successful way to engage in open conversation with a mix of local stakeholders. There can be up to 30 participants per Streetlab session, who interact in small groups at different tables. Each table has a discussion leader. The conversations at the tables are open, but well prepared and structured. People can say anything, as long as it is relevant to the topic and respectful of the other participants. The moderator ensures that everyone gets a chance to speak and that the comments made are well documented.
VISUALISATION OF IMAGINED FUTURES
The role of the team from Stby in these projects is not only that of researchers, but also of designers. We use our creativity in preparing materials to stimulate, focus and also document the conversation during the Streetlab. In the report phase, after a thorough analysis of the collected data, we also use our creative abilities to create ‘inspiration images’ that indicate in a visual way what suggestions, ideas and visions emerged in the Streetlab. In doing so, we indicate the solution directions that we know have support within the community.
SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM RESULTS
The results of each project are a mix of immediately implementable local adjustments and longer-term further development and realisation of improvements for the wider city. Some improvements are relatively easy and quick to implement because they fall within the mandate and budget of a particular department. Small-scale local improvements in specific streets and neighbourhoods can often be implemented within a short period of time after the completion of a Streetlab project, which as an immediate result is very pleasing to all involved. Other, more large-scale solutions may intervene at the system level of the city, and often cannot be initiated from a single project. Implementing these improvements requires cooperation between different departments, and that usually takes more time.
Geke van Dijk is Director of Stby in London and Amsterdam, and specialises in design research for meaningful change across industry and public sector.
