So much of what is made is never seen.
I am sat at the front on the top deck of a nearly empty bus, best seats in the house. It’s taking me the long way round from Chesterfield to Sheffield but it is a sunny day, my google calendar is taking a day off and so I don’t mind.
I’m floating through the ex-colliery towns and from my vantage point I can see over walls, fences and trees that would ordinarily keep secrets. Gardens and scrapyards, light industrial slide in and out of view, I can see rooftops, lampposts and carparks. Wild flowers, adventurous Oaks and grasses are busting through the concrete everywhere. It occurs to me how few people will see these spaces and so I am soaking it in. There are many parks and playgrounds, albeit in need of some TLC, but with large green spaces. Robust benches are spaced evenly long the line of the sun bleached tarmac paths that cut across the grass, railings chase around the edge. At somepoint, somewhere, someone has had to decide how these things will look and feel, how they will perform. This is not the city, it is not London, or even Sheffield! If you can believe it. Maintenance budgets are low or not existent and so these pieces of town - benches, lamp posts, bus stops all need to work hard to stay looking fresh.
We have been working on a few civic infrastructure projects lately which is why I’m ruminating. They are an enticing challenge from a design perspective. They need to be robust, safe, follow regulation there are strict budgets. Often you feel that all these parameters can restrict the outcome to the most unimaginative but there is still room to play. For a particular project in Barking and Dagenham we’ve focused on making alterations to the existing railings instead of creating brand new ones. Not only is this a resourceful use of material but it encourages a sense of reimagining. There is nothing wrong with the existing railings, they just need some maintenance. The railings are of the place, by repairing and altering a number of the existing we are listening to local residents who feel there has been too much rapid change as they see their estates become quickly surrounded by new innocuous high-rises. Designing for public space requires you to take yourself out of the process. It is unglamorous. But these things will be used and abused so every detail is really a joy to consider.
We spent a few days in Copenhagen for 3daysofdesign, outside of the official programme it was hard not to feel the sting of austerity while out and about using the city. Clean, perfect streets, quality infrastructure and cycle lanes. All the Scandi stereotypes. Ultimately, something about it didn’t sit well. Haters will say it’s Stockholm syndrome but I missed the grubby bins and bus stops - signs of life or protest or boredom. Can we design public spaces that allow for the various ways people choose to use them without them becoming lifeless?
My bus is crawling down the double parked streets. From my seat on the public bus I can see so much public space.
‘14 Years Of Hurt’ - designed by Fraser Muggeridge for Jeremy Deller.