Urbanism
Environment
Design

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Following the successful St Raphael Estate Resident Design Training in 2019, in September 2020 URBED helped to deliver another 'Homes & Neighbourhoods by Design' session with The Glass-House CLD. Due to Covid restrictions at the time, partipicants were unable to come together in a physical space. This was our first experience of a series of completely digital resident training workshops, working alongside members of the Community Design Group on Broadwater Farm Estate in North London.

Utilizing a combination of Zoom and Miro boards, the sessions introduced participants to the principles of urban design and the 'language' of architecture through a series of presentations, an interactive video tour of the neighbourhood and a series of group tasks. The purpose of these workshops is not to come up with any design solutions, but to offer participants an exploratory environment in which to learn more about the design process together, and to explore how design might be used to unlock the potential of their area.

• The first activity included mapping characteristics of Broadwater Farm: identifying and debating public and private spaces, routes and access, and fronts and backs of buildings, which was not always clear!
• During the second session, participants grouped architectural drawings into sets in order to help familiarise themselves with plans, sections and elevations.
• The third session introduced an element of virtual design, with participants contributing ideas for the use of undercroft car parks within the Broadwater Farm estate, and playing around with images on Miro Boards to create 'concept collages'. 

You can read more about how the virtual workshops were run and what we learnt in this series of blog posts by The Glasshouse:

1. Neighbourhoods by Design Digital: facilitating a digital design workshop

2. Neighbourhoods by Design Digital: the back end – tools and practical tips for online creative workshops

3. Neighbourhoods by Design Digital: capturing and sharing learning from online workshops

4. Neighbourhoods by Design Digital: reflecting on a digital design workshop