You can watch the fifteenth Parlour LAB here!
We approached this topic with the thesis that, for too long, the requirements of cars and ideas of ‘standardised bodies’ have shaped our buildings, neighbourhoods and cities. How well do we as designers really consider human diversity and experience in shaping our buildings, cities, towns and regions? Our two Parlour LAB 15 speakers - Dr Lisa Stafford and Dr Annie Matan - aim to disrupt the dominant ways of thinking about urban design, town planning and architecture and help us answer these questions.
Lisa shared with us the reminder that we are designing for people with diverse bodies and minds. Mobility helps us participate in society - when neighbourhoods are hostile, design is built to exclude! Annie provoked a design response by asking, what story is your street telling? The discussion with our passionate and engaged audience was wide-ranging: we need to change our measure of success (e.g. from car travel times to whether the most vulnerable members of our society are easily able to use the space), we need to design with all the senses, we need to think about the symbolic cues in the environment (e.g. are there pause points for people to take a rest or chat to one another? or does the environment tell you not to spend too long here?), we need to make time for engagement (and paying people for their expertise!) and spending time in place, we need to co-write briefs with people holding different skillsets to develop shared and inclusive visions, and we need to develop more effective tools to evaluate and measure what we care about.
The key takeaways from today were:
measure what matters
be careful about how you measure
change the metrics of success
complain to your local government if the walking/wheeling/pushing/riding conditions are not up to scratch!
design streets and neighbourhood spaces for connections with nature and people
walking/wheeling/pushing/riding should and could take place in a fun and joyful environment
remember that people using streets and neighbourhood spaces have body and mind diversity, this should be celebrated!
