In its early days, Ash Sakula put out the “Back Soon” signs and took a sabbatical that took us on a long, winding path around the world. The experience left us driven to look for ways in which our architecture could give license to behaviours in contemporary civic life which overcome the normal British reserve and fear of commitment. We see each project as an opportunity to create empathy between people and understand the role that spatial clues and suggestive design can play a major role in making that happen. As a result, we are continually finding diverse means of encouraging warmth and connectivity in public space.
In our work of designing places, we wish to enable unthreatening interactions with strangers, as well as respecting the anonymity that urban dwellers may prefer. We embed cues into our environments that give people the immediacy of connecting in the ‘here and now’ within a common territory. We create moments in which people can stop in the sun and exchange casual comments, moments that create so-called ‘weak links’ which together cohere into an inclusive social network.
At the Canning Town Caravanserai, a four-year project run on site by Ash Sakula in East London, we curated an open-air living room for residents and visitors to Canning Town. Conversations held in this open space fed a bottom-up culture which included people of all generations, ethnicities and socio-economic groups. It felt like London at its best, hosting incomers and building bridges. It succeeded in creating a community centre without walls where people came together around activities which were not dependant on rules written by one social group or clique.
We were recently invited to help run a workshop at the Intercultural Cities Network which looked at the future of meanwhile spaces in the city. While we were there, discussion centred on the ways in which techniques of hosting and co-creation of urban space could break down prejudice, strengthen communities, kickstart local economies and uphold policies of good, inclusive placemaking.
The concept of affordance is important in our work. We make space for shared activities like gardening, chatting, playing or eating outside as devices that create legitimate reasons for people to spend time in a space. Giving people a sense of shared entitlement over common ground allows good things like friendship, camaraderie and neighbourliness to flourish - the antidote to loneliness and anonymity.We create moments in which people can stop in the sun and exchange casual comments, moments that create so-called ‘weak links’ which together cohere into an inclusive social network.
