Co.LAB #3.0 Memories from a regenerative future
This lab note is part of a series by Holly Doron and Jo Orchard-Webb sharing the process of our High Street experiment with Co.LAB, a collaborative laboratory embedded within the School of Architecture & Design at Birmingham City University. 15 students from four design disciplines, guided by Matthew Jones and Hannah Vowles, are reimagining regenerative futures for Dudley High Street.
The gifts for the High Street were created, and celebrated in our virtual lab. Now, the 15 student time rebels were ready to embark on their journey to 2030.
Preparations for travelling into a regenerative future
The students packed their bags full of the ideas and themes they explored while creating their gift, before fuelling up with ‘How might we…?’ questions:
- “How might we design a High Street that compensates for past iterations that don’t consider the diversity of people?”
- “How might we restore the High Street to a social space rather than a commercial hotspot?”
- “How might we mitigate the consequences of the urban environment on local biodiversity?”
- “How might we create an environment where the public are able to be individuals and not limited to being a consumer?”
- “How might we encourage a sense of community?”
- “How might we create a circular economy to reduce waste on the High Street and be more sustainable?”
- “How might we make the journey to the High Street and around it more engaging?”
- “How might we use green spaces like parks and communal spaces to encourage activity on the High Street?”
- “How might we create a safe social environment for people?”
- “How might we make the High Street a place of enjoyment?”
- “How might we make the High Street more accessible and easy to use?”
- “How might we encourage the users of the High Street to be a part of informing the progress?”
- “How might we form a place of local distinctiveness and identity?”
Used to working with prescriptive design briefs, the students reflected upon what it means to deal with ambiguity and with a group of different disciplines, sparking new ideas that they wouldn’t have otherwise had. This process is the focus of Co.LAB, a module of discovery through design in which students’ projects are shaped by the questions they ask and their research process. The students felt there are both opportunities and challenges with this openness (what we might call emergence). How to help them to be comfortable with that and recognise that is part of the process of design.
To aid them in their travels, the students equipped themselves with the imagination sundial and recalibrated their design thinking from sustainable to regenerative, with guidance from Daniel Wahl:
The launch into the future was powered by narrative; building empathy through storytelling:
Drawing on inspiration from Resilience’s ‘How to Build Narrative Power and Co-Create a Just Future’, the students imagined they were in the year 2030, looking back on 2020 and remembering Dudley’s response to the crises of the pandemic, spatial injustice and the climate challenge.
“Remember when our high street was derelict? There was no street activity and many of the shops were vacant. Although there was a lot of space, it was very empty and wasted. There was a lot of frustration between the locals, many seemed unhappy as a result of a poor sense of place and lack of interaction. Even to have chat with others was very short, the only seating was by the parked cars on the street — which was not a great view!
Remember when we realised we had to start changing this? Collaborations started to happen to start taking steps to transform our High Street. As a community, we became very involved to influence the changes that were made, specific to what we wanted and what we felt we needed. We started to share/exchange our resources between us — tools, food, knowledge… we supported local businesses, encouraged our local creatives to make marks and interventions on the High Street. We all became involved in making the High Street, Our Street.”
With this, the students ventured off in four teams to 2030.
Memories from the Future
The student Time Rebels returned with Memories from the future; to share stories of what they found and stepping stones of how to get there. We will be publishing Lab Notes that are a (rough) transcript of what each group shared with their fellow Time Rebels.
