Future Bayswater project outcomes and reflections

Project Background

Each student undertook an individual study in response to one of Future Bayswater’s six focus areas, Community, Transport, Economics, Design Quality, Environment and Housing Diversity. Through the review of scholarly literature and best practice case studies, students outlined the key criteria for their focus area and developed a weighted multi-criteria assessment matrix. The students undertook individual analysis using both a spatial SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) mapping and the developed multi-criteria analysis. Students then integrated their findings to present a more holistic analysis of Bayswater.

(Image: Creagh 2018)

(Image: Creagh 2018)

The students concluded:

• The redevelopment of the train station provides significant economic opportunity for the area. Transport is critical to the other key focus areas of Future Bayswater.
• There were perceived problems with safety, current public transportation availability, business vitality, and streetscape quality. Identifying this provided an opportunity to re-imagine Bayswater building on significant strengths.
• Bayswater is well connected to the natural environment, with multiple parks and public open spaces available for the community. Regionally significant and important recreation sites are located within the suburb. Students noted clearing of native vegetation due to an increase in residential and industrial development.
• Opportunity existed for Bayswater to diversify housing type and increase density over time, with a consideration of opportunities to age in place.

Community Engagement

This project presented a structured opportunity for students to engage in a community grounded plan-making exercise. Future Bayswater provided a live project site and project. The studio was run at the Future Bayswater community hub on the main street; this allowed the students to have weekly conversations with members of the community and Future Bayswater committee. In addition to the weekly interactions, the students participated in two community engagement events hosted by Future Bayswater.

(Image: Creagh 2018)

The first community engagement event followed the student’s site analysis. For this, each group of students developed an installation for the Future Bayswater community event in communication with the committee and event organisers – totalling seven interactive installations. These installations were further supported by an ‘activity passport’, initiated and designed by two of the students, which encouraged community members to visit each installation, in order to get their passport stamped and then enter the competition to win a small prize.

The second community engagement event was the presentation of the student group’s final plan proposals. This was undertaken in the evening at the Future Bayswater hub, students presented their process, findings and proposals and answered questions from the community audience.

FUBA community event day

Activity Passport

The activity passport located each of the student installations on a map of the event area. Visitors collected a sticker for each installation they visited. The neighbouring pharmacy generously donated a gift basket for a prize draw for completed passports.

(Image: Farley 2018)

Baysopoly:

Baysopoly was used to establish and identify community members favourite areas of Bayswater and why. This method allowed community member to suggest improvements to different areas of Bayswater.

(Image: Farley 2018)

(Image: Creagh 2018)

Corn Hole Throw:

This installation encouraged the fun and community spirit which the student group felt need to be included in the future of Bayswater. The intent is to encourage play with children and have conversations around children’s need within the Future Bayswater plan.

(Image: Farley 2018)

Food for Thought:

This installation was based on the idea of exchange. Community members would plant and keep a vegetable or herb seedling in a takeaway cup, in exchange of ideas of ‘what they like about Bayswater’ and ‘what they would like to see change’.

(Image: Farley 2018)

(Image: Farley 2018)

Choo-Choose Bayswater:

The installation captured what community members think is the potential of the new major train station and what the expansions of the public transport infrastructure could catalyse in the area.

(Image: Creagh 2018)

(Image: Farley 2018)

Bike parking conversation point:

To provide a specified space for people to park their bicycles and facilitate discussion regarding the bicycle network and accommodating bikes in the Bayswater area.

(Image: Farley 2018)

(Image: Farley 2018)

Pin-Point Map:

The aim of this installation was to provide the community with an opportunity to voice opinions about community, environment, local economy, accessibility and diversity – and to spatialize these discussions by connecting their thoughts to a location on a map of Bayswater.

(Image: Farley 2018)

(Image: Farley 2018)

Painted Hands:

Though this hands-on voting system people identified which aspect of Bayswater they liked or enjoyed the most and indicated their selection by leaving their coloured hand print on the wall.

(Image: Farley 2018)

(Image: Farley 2018)

Final Partner Presentation

At this Future Baywater hosted public event the students presented their semester’s work to the Future Bayswater committee and community members and then responded to questions from the audience.

(Image: Creagh 2018)

(Image: Creagh 2018)

What did the students learn from this activity to inform the story of place and aspirations of the community?

The first round of community engagement enabled the students to gather nuanced information about the local context and provided a deeper understanding of the community’s aspirations for Bayswater. The information gathered challenged the preconceived views and assumption of the students, which informed the development of highly responsive proposals. Through this experience, students developed an appreciation of local knowledge — and became more confident in community engagement and participatory planning. Students reflected that the playful interactions that they developed for engagement, within the relaxed community setting, helped reduce the power difference between the community and students-as-professionals.

Studio Outputs: Final Projects

Project one

Project name: Bayswater Regeneration Proposal

Ben Houweling, Lucy Huggins, Morgan Hutton, Tim Hodge and Solomiia Kurochkina

A multi-layered strategic plan that aims to strengthen community ties, address connection and accessibility, develop a vibrant local economy through a sustained integrated approach.

What is great about this student project?

Deep and rich thinking has led to a good plan. The students have succinctly expressed the process site analysis and collecting community feedback, and show how it has influenced a considered and integrated plan for the area.

Project Two

Project name: Bayswater Tomorrow

Alan Maher, Ruby Pettit, Patrick Priyandi and Lucy Lefory

A multi-layered strategic plan which integrates a number of design and planning strategies aimed at improving what the group has identified as Green Design, Connected Place, Vibrant Place and Connected people.

What is great about this student project?

This is a well-established vision which has integrated the four key principles, whilst responding to the Future Bayswater requirements.

Project Three

Project name: Bayswater Revitalisation

Clementine Ashby, Ashleigh Bryce, Victoria Goode, Liam Johnson and Jessica Taukiri

A multi-layered strategic plan developed to create livelier, environmentally friendly, socially engaging streets, promoting Bayswater’s sense of style to visitors and residents.

What is great about this student project?

Three main themes are clear and well communicated in this proposal. Considered articulation of the what, how and why of the proposals.

Project Four

Project name: Building A Better Baysie.

Pernille Olsen, Declan Creighan, Daniel Mulch, Rebecca Dustan, Marius Minnaar and Declan Wade

A multi-layered strategic plan which enables the community to develop a place where people have connection, pride, and can create meaning from their surrounds. The Building A Better Baysie plan aims to develop an exciting and liveable place for future generations.

What is great about this student project?

A clear, engaging and inviting vision. Ideas are well integrated and the process well justified.

Project Five

Project name: Bayswater Reconnection

Cardia Mariani, Emily Greenwood, Emily Hayward, Isabel Fry and Keegan Elsner

A multi-layered strategic plan aimed at creating a safe and well connected Bayswater: a suburb that provides for all residents and community members and where it is easy to get around.

What is great about this student project?

The required actions to achieve the aims are clearly articulated through the ‘target’ diagram showing a tight focus for the first ten years and moving outwards.

Project Legacy – Student Capabilities Assessment

Theoretical underpinnings of place and placemaking

At the start of the studio, many students were cautious when interacting with people from the community and partner organisations. At the conclusion of the studio, the students were much more confident and had a better appreciation about what can be achieved from talking to and working with communities. Also, they had a better understanding of how short-term temporary installations or activation can make contributions to longer-term projects.

The students had a much better understanding of the potential of community-based and community-led groups within planning processes and shaping place. And, had developed a more nuanced understanding about some of the constraints community organisations and local planners might operate within.

Placemaking Skillsets development

(Image: Creagh 2018)

The pre-studio sunflower was not completed due to a delay in the approval of ethics. Below is a sample of student reflection quotes, which illustrate the learning outcomes of the studio and the post-studio average scores for each theme of the assessment matrix. Twelve students completed the survey at the completion of the project, out of a possible 31.

Cognitive and Analytical

Critical thinking                                                 3.9

Understanding Complexity                             3.9

Creative Thinking                                              3.4

Affective

Reflective skills and Self-Awareness             3.5

Empathy and Deep Listening                         3.7

Humility                                                              4

Practical

Community Engagement                                3.7

Verbal Communication                                   3.58

Teamwork & Collaboration                           3.7

Spatial Context Understanding                    4

Quantitative Literacy                                     3.4     

 Student Quotes

‘I would say my creative and critical thinking and understanding have improved the most through immersion in the community.’

‘The processes we used to engage with the community will guide me in my future community engagement.’

‘My biggest aha moment was the concept of leadership and it’s healthy manifestations’

‘Successful examples of placemaking and actual interaction with members of the community led to enhanced skills of Head & Heart’.

‘skills improved – communication, leadership, and confidence in my own ability’

Project Legacy – community

Impact within communities where the project is situated

(Image: Farley 2018)

Because the student installations were incorporated into the Future Bayswater community event, the students acted as an interface through which the community members could express their ideas, hopes and values around the future of their place. Community members were delighted by the student’s installations and by the conversations these facilitated. The community input was captured and recorded in a way that can be used in further projects by Future Bayswater.

Future Bayswater said: “We had over 700 visitors to the event. On behalf of Future Bayswater, I wish to express our sincere and utter thanks and congratulations to you and the students. The student installations were outstanding. We truly believe that the student installations were the highlight of the event, and underpinned its vibrancy and success.”

They noted the student’s particular success in “Interacting with the people of Bayswater, collecting real data and actively creating a “place” that pulled the public in.”

Impact within Procurer and Practitioner Organisations

(Image: Creagh 2018)

The students were involved in two public-facing events. The Future Bayswater community day was the most significant engagement and wouldn’t have had the impact and shape it did have without the seven student activities. Future Bayswater found the energy generated by the student engagement valuable to the success of the event.

The students put together a series of seven installations which community members participated in and received a stamp in a passport book as they went around the event. The installations provided a different type of opportunity to built the relationship between the group and the broader community, which they find valuable.

The output of the community engagement was targeted information from the community group, which Future Bayswater will use in the future.

Project Legacy – Reflecting on the studio process

Studio Location and Community Engagement

One of the successes of the studio was meeting in the community group’s shared space every week. The students shared the space with a pop-up café. This enabled the students to experience the way commercial and community initiatives can operate in the same space on the same day, which for future planners is very helpful.

The teaching team did not give the students direct instruction about the kind of installation to present for the community event. The students liaised directly with the community group and developed each installation themselves based on their understanding of the organisation and the event itself. Providing a tight budget for the installation also worked well in encouraging the students to be creative rather than relying on off-the-shelf items.

Students reflected that the event day, spent in conversation with community members about Bayswater was a powerful experience for them. Students developed and managed their own projects, groups, and interactions with the public. In this experience they found a voice and tuned their ears to community needs and values, building on the classroom learning acquired during their previous studies.

Teaching and Leadership Approach

Leadership was distributed as much as possible within the running of the studio. The community group’s representative managed parts of the class, the tutors (Callum Prior and Tim Greenhill were selected for their professional experience) managed other parts of the class, and as much as possible the students managed things. For example, the students set up and packed down the space weekly, themselves selecting the structure of the learning space.

Co-teaching with a place maker was a strength of this studio. Callum Prior was able to provide three vital lectures about his experience in place making, illustrating and narrating what he has done himself within spaces and projects. Callum’s stories about dressing up in rabbit suits because that’s what the community needed at that time, and his examples from painting things, to grabbing pots from the council depot, provided a human, personable perspective. Callum’s experience of working within a local council, and all the work building relationships within this, really helped the students gain an understanding that it is not just top-down planning the produces change. We see that shift in understanding evidenced in the student’s final assignments.