Creating an Inclusive Architectural Intervention as a research Space to Explore Community Wellbeing

Abstract: This paper outlines a two-year active design research project coordinated in collaboration with Public Health Northern Ireland and set in the city of Derry/Londonderry to explore how inclusive design methodologies can produce interventions to improve community wellbeing. The research focuses on the waterfront of the River Foyle and how an inclusive architectural intervention challenged the areas’ negative associations. In the last decade, the waterfront has become synonymous with mental health crisis and suicide. This has led to the phrase “I'm ready for the Foyle” becoming embedded within the communities’ language as a colloquial term for stress. This project seeks to extend inclusive design within the community, creating wellbeing spaces around the bridges and banks of the river, with outcomes focused on drawing people to the area as a place of celebration and life affirming activities. The project has helped to develop Inclusive Design as a means of engaging a whole city in the redesign of public spaces for improved wellbeing

Foyle Bubbles: How can design reduce suicide attempts using everyday social and civic spaces?

The River Foyle and its environments, banks and bridges in Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland have become associated with poor mental health and emotional wellbeing. ‘Our Future Foyle’ is a collaborative research initiative looking at how health and wellbeing can be designed into the riverfront in the city as a means of suicide prevention. This paper discusses one aspect and output of the research and design process: ‘Foyle Bubbles’ In order to carry out research and engage with the community as a whole the team have been carrying out a series of architectural interventions during city scale events. Using various co-design methods, the project has sought people from across the community, in an area which is known for its past conflict. The research showed the need for shared space along the riverfront. People within the community felt that 'one side of the river gets more than the other side'. This pointed to the need for movable spaces that could respond to the needs of different areas of the waterfront without having to be located in one area. Such spaces could be occupied by a variety of organisations and individuals to create a network and reinforce that community congestion. ‘Foyle Bubbles’ are a series of satellite spaces designed to house arts, commercial, educational and well-being activities around the riverfront; these will act as suicide deterrents and increase footfall and so achieve natural surveillance of the site. These portable pods offer the opportunity for enterprise and community engagement through social and civic functions. This pilot and subsequent measurable data provide the necessary evidence for larger procurement and roll out across the local community and service users with the hope of creating a connected, engaged and positive community on the river with the needs of people in crisis at its heart

Foyle Reeds: How can design reduce suicide attempts at a specific place whilst at the same time improving the experience for all?

The impact of a suicide in a public environment has a profound negative effect on those living nearby. This paper outlines a project aiming to tackle this by bringing together researchers, designers and the local community to reduce suicidal behaviour and improve well-being across a section of the Foyle riverfront in Derry Londonderry through suicide prevention interventions. This paper discusses ‘Foyle Reeds’, one element of the project, an art installation and suicide prevention barrier for one of the bridges, designed to protect and engage with the community whilst avoiding any sense of imprisonment. The team created a research space at a number of large city wide events connecting with over 5,000 people through research activities such as voting on key themes and outcomes, comment cards about activities people would like to see around the river and vox-pop interviews about focused topics. The team have conducted in-depth workshops with over 100 individuals, held site visits and observations with key stakeholders from the local statutory and community groups and engaged with people over social media through surveys, reaching over 10,000 people. In-depth interviews with suicideologists and people who have attempted suicide were carried out in parallel. Individuals highlighted several key concerns about the bridge, including the suicide stigma, the wind and the height. A multidisciplinary team of students used these insights to create a range of designs. The concepts were tested using stakeholder workshops and led to the creation of the ‘Foyle Reed’ bridge concept, inspired by the ‘common reeds’ which surround the riverfront. By day, the bridge becomes part of a sculptural trail and provides an element of shelter and safety for pedestrians. At dusk the bridge displays interactive lighting. As the project moves towards the procurement phase, the measurement of impact on the community, and the environment is under way

Developing the Double Diamond Process for Implementation

This paper details overarching methodological insights resulting from several Inclusive Design projects in healthcare spanning ten years. A number of lessons have emerged, both practical and methodological, and are applicable to future design work in healthcare and the implementation of innovation. The Double Diamond methodology was used in all projects, increasingly run in parallel / mixed with an agile approach and PDSA cycles, where rapid iterations of the methodology are run in series. The final phase of the Double Diamond concerns delivery. The exact form that ‘delivery’ takes is unique to each project and partnership, but merits careful examination. Implementation of innovation is notoriously difficult in healthcare (Morris et al, 2011). Typically this is seen as post-‘design’, and necessarily requires the commitment of any healthcare project partner. Whilst some of the best innovations win design awards, many award winning designs are not adopted into front line use. There may be more to be done in design terms. The practices of co-research, co-creation and co-design are well used. Co-implementation efforts should start well before the end of the ‘Discover’ phase. These efforts may involve the identification of implementation stakeholders (standard practice in much co-design), but also funding bodies, the development of business cases and the adoption of commercial constraints in the design. Adoption of innovation in healthcare takes time, and is fraught with many complicating factors. Many lauded design outputs are not in use, pointing to poor implementation strategies. The above benefits of the Double Diamond must be applied to implementation in order to help adoption. This not only means involving the relevant stakeholders and identifying the relevant funds for implementation earlier in the process, but crucially designing the output with an implementation strategy in mind. This practice of ‘co-implementation’ will improve future adoption of innovations

Case study: sustainable cities and communities (SDG11). Making safe, sustainable and resilient cities through improved mental health

The growth of cities is set to pose one of the biggest challenges in sustainable development over the coming decades. Whilst basic physical infrastructure and services need improvement to accommodate the influx of new people, cities are nothing without their citizens. The social cost of urbanisation can be enormous, with mental health and suicide all considerably higher in urban contexts. Design interventions should therefore encourage social benefits that promote safe, resilient cities with improved wellbeing for citizens. This chapter outlines Our Future Foyle, an action research project in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Through design research a number of co-designed interventions have been created for a safe, resilient and inclusive city space responding to the mental health challenge along the city’s river whilst addressing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11. Through an inclusive process of community engagement and design, three key design interventions are outlined: innovative sensory installations along the riverfront, the largest proposed art installation in the country and a series of portable pop-up spaces for community and cultural uses. The project has shown that inclusive design can be a useful method for involving the entire community in identifying key challenges and priorities and developing innovative context-specific solutions that address key targets of SDG11, amongst others. However, there remain challenges as designs move from concepts to governance and policy levels