RECONNECT
Collaborating with communities to create architecture which is informed by the people who will call it home. ​
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We have always believed that the creation of architecture is a collaborative and social act, enrichened and informed by the community and context surrounding where we practice.
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From the outset our design processes should include thoughtful, creative and meaningful engagement opportunities for the local communities in which we work in order to create spaces which inspire a feeling of ownership and leave a lasting positive legacy.
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Through empowering real connectivity the results we see are two-fold. We learn from those we engage with; we listen, we go on journeys, we hear about lived experiences, we walk through the past but we also imagine the future. We explore boundaries and barriers, frustrations and worries, but also aspirations. And through this experience of listening and learning we co-design.
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And on the other side of that coin, we are able to create spaces, homes, public realm, schools, city centres and universities, which have a positive impact on the people who call them home. Equitable, safe spaces which nurture a sense of local identity, encourage active, social and meaningful lives, promote good health and wellbeing.
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Through this engagement, this listening and learning, through real engagement which breaks barriers and encourages participation from all corners of our society, we reconnect with our communities and in turn our communities reconnect with their built environment.
OUR CULTURAL HEART, HUDDERSFIELD
Our Cultural Heart is the flagship project of the Huddersfield Blueprint, a ten-year plan that will revitalise six key areas of Huddersfield, to create a thriving modern-day town centre.
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The ambitious £210m regeneration vision will transform Huddersfield’s Queensgate retail area into a vibrant, dynamic and inclusive cultural destination. Our Cultural Heart positively addresses the changing landscape facing town centres by introducing community-focused cultural uses that will bring richness and vitality.
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Kirklees Council has made an incredible commitment to delivering high levels of social value and has asked the project team to do the same. Education, local procurement, arts workshops, mentoring, job creation, exhibitions and family events have ensured that engagement with the local community has been meaningful, measurable and goes well beyond the social value impact of a built structure on completion.
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Listen to Joanne Bartholomew, Director for Development at Kirklees Council, talking about the approach they, and others on the project team, including FCBStudios, are taking to engage, gain trust, communicate and give back to the local community.
"Social value needs to leave a tangible imprint on people that they might not recognise as social value, but they understand that something has changed."
"The fact is that you will invest in something now, the benefits of which might not be seen for 10 to 15 years. So we have to ensure wherever possible that we extract the maximum amount of impact for the person today."
"Social value for any project that we do has to be about that give back, that change that's beyond the building."
ROTHERHITHE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Part of an ambitious school building programme by the London Borough of Southwark, the new building for Rotherhithe Primary School replaces the former single-storey, 1970s two form-entry school with a two-storey three-form entry on the same urban site.
FCBStudios and Fabrik Landscape Architects were invited to work closely with the council and the school leadership to create a school set within its own landscape that would offer a safe, vibrant and stimulating environment for the children to learn and play in.
The existing school had a strong, culture based around values of being courageous, ambitious and resilient, celebrating diversity within the community. Part of the agenda for the new building was to ensure that this culture would still flourish, and to provide a space which belonged to the wider local community, a beacon which they could access, feel connected to and proud of.
Executive Head Teacher, Galiema Amien-Cloete, talks about the role that educational settings play in bringing a community together.
"It's the space where everybody comes together to learn, comes together to share their diversity or their experiences and to share and raise an awareness for their cultural backgrounds and beliefs.."
"Most of our children come from high-rises... I wanted to offer them the space that they need to be themselves, to express themselves."
"I wanted the community living on this side to have a beacon, something that stands out. So that they can identify that this is where we live, near that beautiful brick building."
SOUTHBANK UNDERCROFT SKATE SPACE
The Undercroft of the Southbank Centre is the world’s longest continually used skate spot with international significance.
Defined by the mushroom-shaped concrete columns and the banked concrete paving and stairs, it was first adopted by skateboarders in 1973. It has since fostered a culturally significant community with a sense of belonging.
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Faced with proposals to fill in the Undercroft in 2013, the skating community established a grassroots campaign, Long Live Southbank (LLSB) to safeguard the historic site which attracted a huge following and led to unprecedented support for the preservation of the space.
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Following the spaces preservation, the community led campaign in partnership with Southbank Centre reopened a part the Undercroft whose temporary closure in 2004 had become permanent.
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Having come to an agreement with Southbank Centre, Long Live Southbank worked together with FCBStudios to submit proposals that referenced the original design of the Undercroft from the 1960s and opened the space up to daylight to make it more welcoming and safe for the community.
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Its restoration reinstated iconic elements, including the much loved Small Banks and Wooden Ledges which are iconic in skateboarding history, and reopened over 400sqm of new space for skating, BMXing and graffiti.
LLSB worked tirelessly to raise funds and communicate to the wider community and stakeholders what was at risk, and what evolved was a successful piece of co-design between the organisation, FCBStudios and Southbank Centre.
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Longstanding member and campaigner of LLSB, Stuart Maclure, talks about the power of activism, and the opportunities that co-creation can bring.
"Looking back I was like, wow, what a crazy time and what a crazy project and what an inspiring group of people. And what a beautiful story of activism and
co-design."
It's a place where, on a deeper level, people feel connected to something and part of the community, and certainly for young people, there is a sense of identity formation. "
"I think that's what was so exciting and also so interesting, that we were this ragtag bunch working with some of the best designers and engineers in the world on one of the most central, most iconic spaces in London. And that is not very common."
CAMLEY STREET, CAMDEN
The Camley Street regeneration project forms part of Camden Council’s ‘Community Investment Programme’ - an ambitious 15-year plan to invest over £2.3 billion in schools, homes and community facilities in the borough.
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The vision for Camley Street is to create a new truly mixed-use community providing 350 homes (including genuinely affordable homes), 20,000 sqm of mixed-use employment space with a focus on Life Sciences and diverse affordable employment space for use by anyone from creative makers to light industrial users creating and retaining jobs, training and skills for local residents.
Our new masterplan vision will deliver an improved public realm, with accessible green spaces and places for play integrated with the existing neighbourhoods and communities.
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Creating a truly cohesive community which reflects the needs and wishes of those that will call it home calls for continuous engagement, building relationships and partnerships with local organisations, and proving that you are listening to and acting on the outcomes of those conversations.
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Listen to Rozita Leetham, Consultation and Engagement Officer at London Borough of Camden, sharing her experience of working alongside the local community.
"We need to constantly be working together as clients and as architects and with all the different actors to give more and more control back to the community. And if that's a long process or a difficult process we have to be okay with that."
"Asking people the right questions and working with people on the right issues is how we can ensure that they can truly affect change."
"Right from the beginning you need to be continuously engaging and giving back so that people will trust you. they see the results of what you're working on and they know that you're listening to them."
FCBStudios' founding principle is that the creation of architecture is a collaborative and social act, enriched and informed by the community and context surrounding where we practice.
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Find out more about how we embed social value into the work we do on the FCBStudios website.