Preference 12. Participatory and shared aesthetic values
While community engagement in the design process does not necessarily lead to beautiful outcomes, engaging communities can stimulate a design process able to respond creatively to local preferences.
Communities want a say in how beauty is defined and delivered. Inclusive processes that reflect local voices and cultural values are preferred.
The Malings in Newcastle upon Tyne is a case in point. The architects built a cardboard model to present the scheme and its many revisions, using the model to foster a co-production approach by assembling it during visits to the community, including in the local pub. This process led to five fingers of flats arranged perpendicular to the Ouseburn River and an aesthetic that echoed the area’s industrial character. The process helped to ease fears that the development would alter or gentrify the neighbourhood.
Entirely top-down or expert-only judgements are not trusted.
The process is in stark contrast to that used at Woolwich Central, a mega-development of flats with retail beneath in south-east London. There, only token consultation was used, with residents describing the proposals as “pig-ugly” and “like the most oppressive soviet-bloc architecture”. Their views were ignored, in part because the developers had agreed to pay for new council offices as part of the deal. Soon after completion the building won the Carbuncle Cup, a prize given annually in the UK for the ugliest building.