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 Safer Spaces in Early Development Thinking Harford Street, Stepney Often RSL’s and developers do not consider public art and community involvement until the initial building phase is already complete. Free Form, based on over 35 years experience, is strongly in favour of including a creative team in the initial phases of development planning in order to identify opportunities for involvement. Once the building is completed, then the opportunities for art and involvement have largely been missed. The resulting artwork then often feels like an ‘add-on’, and the community have not been involved with the development during the construction phase. This has a knock-on effect in terms of the levels of community ‘buy-in’ for the development, which can lead to misuse of the open spaces, and even vandalism of the artworks. Creative thinking at the early development stage can radically alter the nature of a development, e.g. Free Form’s work on the Oracle in Reading, and bring about an approach that creates more liveable places. The Harford Street Development is different. Harford Street is an exciting new development in Stepney. Developed by Bellway Homes and East Choice Housing, the mixed-use development consists of new homes, a community building and open spaces for public recreation, including a new accessible waterfront area on the Regent’s Canal. The developers, Bellway Homes and their RSL partner East Choice, commissioned Free Form’s community safety project team, Safer Spaces, to develop a public art and community involvement strategy during the initial design stages. Working in partnership with the developers, the design team, community partners and Ocean New Deal for Communities, the Safer Spaces team identified opportunities for public artworks to create distinct public places for new and existing communities on the estate. We also explored the potential for creative input from local artists, community groups and organisations who have a stake in the quality of the local environment. These opportunities were then developed into a strategy, which could then be used to raise support (and funding) for the implementation of these projects. The strategy links to wider environmental improvements being implemented by the Ocean New Deal for Communities on the neighbouring Ocean Estate. More than just a housing development, it has been recognised that this developed actively contributes to the delivery of the NDC’s key objectives: Education, Health, Safety, Employment and Housing. What is particularly remarkable about this report is the amount of support it has garnered, both from the client and community partners, as well as the Local Planning Authority and Greater London Authority. This report has enabled the developers to utilise the Safer Spaces team’s expertise to develop a strategy for making the new estate integrated into the existing community. Back
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Lessons: • For the developer and RSL, the public art and community involvement strategy added weight to the development proposals, improving the ‘business case’ for the development. • As a creative arts organisation, with a focus on community safety, we were able to contribute to the masterplans at an early stage, ensuring that community development and safety were considered and changes implemented. • Integrating arts and community involvement into new build estates, is an excellent way to make it part of the existing community. • Involving local young people in the design process can help reduce vandalism later. • Culturally sensitive detailed designs give an identity to the new development, preventing it from being a homogenous ‘identi-kit’ housing development. • Highlighting heritage elements, such as the Fire-fighters Memorial, can be used to educate the community about their own history, and the history of the site. |