Noel Hill Award – In The Making

In The Making is a collective group of designers who, faced with the lack of part 1 jobs during the pandemic, initiated their own projects. Our experience transformed a depressing job hunt to a year full of hands-on learning, friendship, community building and the most professional dive-in. We discovered a disconnect between our theoretical learning and practise regarding ethical community engagement. ‘‘What is co-design?’’ and ‘‘how can it be practised ethically?’’ quickly became our focus, with the desire to explore these questions through hands-on, messy and creative learning. We are excited to have the opportunity to share with you our journey since receiving the Noel Hill award.

The Big Noise project was the beginning of our inquiry into the potential for co-design and self-build to lead to more resilient communities with a stronger connection to place. We began in Spring 2021 with interviews and a publication of advice from experts practising co-design across architecture, service design and art. This culminated in a 3 week live build of an open reclaimed wooden structure that offered resting and playing opportunities. We designed and built alongside the 8-12 year old musicians at Big Noise's summer school. The build resulted in a renewed outdoor space which the younger people felt an ownership of. With plenty of sunshine and ice cream this was an experience both we and the Big Noise musicians both reflect fondly on.

Our aim for the funding we received from AIA was to return to site and invest more into the relationships we’d built. However, by the summer of 2022, Big Noise moved to a new building. In an evaluative feedback session we learned that the outdoor space had become an important therapeutic space given that the structure provided places to hide, space to move and be loud. Additionally, the space had become respected by the surrounding residents, who historically had thrown litter over the wall. The staff were confident in its robustness even in Glasgow's typically dramatic weather and the project set in motion a more interdisciplinary approach to summer schools. The building is held by Govanhill Housing Association and is waiting refurbishments for a new tenant, who we hope will make use of the build.

Following our studies at the Mackintosh Schools of Architecture (MSA) we reflected on what we had learnt from our self-initiated project. We wanted to share some critical reflections with our community of students. We feel that approaches to community engagement need to develop across practice, education and research simultaneously reinforcing each other to make real change in the industry. Noticing the gaps in our education, we set out to understand how ethical community engagement could be taught as part of the architectural curriculum.

This resulted in In The Making hosting the first ever MSA Friday lecture in a workshop format. We used this to explore the difficulties and benefits of trying to responsibly involve communities in student work; what architecture students can offer the city that they’re part of and how they can relinquish self determined ‘design control’ through valuing other ways of working and different forms of knowledge. The feedback from students and tutors was hugely positive and both hope to incorporate workshops into future lectures, inspiring a change in the ways practitioners typically share their work to students.

Following this, we led a two-day hybrid workshop with participants from GSA Forres Campus, the University of Lapland and MSA to co-design a Sheiling that would be built in Forres by students. With a focus on non-human agency and care, the project aims to build a collaborative international network of place-based practitioners with a particular interest in the cultural heritage of food.

The workshops encouraged 20+ students to embrace a design process based on relationship-building across disciplines and genuine collaboration. We challenged the students to embrace creative exploration over resolved design outcomes and they were energised by this flexible and empowering multi-disciplinary approach. However, there were difficulties encountered when offering non-traditional learning experiences in a traditional institution. Classic constraints of time, budget and scope, as well as restrictive thinking. Restrictive in terms of ego, fear of failure and unwillingness to relinquish control. The project will be continued in November 2023.

Currently, we are reflecting on what we wish to develop and pursue next. With each project we are getting closer to understanding our interests, motivations and practice. We plan to continue to ‘throw ourselves into the deep-end’, trusting it will shape us for the better. We believe we have something valuable to offer, questions to ask and ideas to test. We’re excited to tap further into the vibrant multidisciplinary communities that exist within Glasgow, connecting and learning from those who are practising radical ways of working and ethically engaging with underrepresented groups.

We would very much like to thank AIA for the Noel Hill Award. Winning has been hugely valuable and has given us confidence and energy to keep pursuing our research and evolving practice.

Written by: Previous Noel Hill Winners