MACPfNE students co-designed prototype Speaker’s Corners with community groups in Lichfield and Walthamstow and installed a version at the Forum for the Freedom of Expression in Oslo, June 2009. The course is collaborating with The Speaker’s Corner Trust to develop a design strategy and Speaker’s Corners prototypes for communities throughout the UK.
Through their desk, site and social research the students developed the key elements of a modular kit that embodies the notion of assembly, debate and exchange. They ran workshops with local community groups and collaborated with Lichfield College and schools in Walthamstow to develop, test and evaluate the prototypes. The project has been so successful that The London Borough of Walthamstow has commissioned a permanent Speaker’s Corner for Stoneydown Park. This is currently being run as a competition open to all courses in the School of Graphic and Industrial Design at CSM. The team has also written a scholarly article on public space and public sphere that is published on the Speaker’s Corner website.
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