Transforming hostile architecture through clothing and storytelling
Team: Jumleena Bhagawati, Yanxu Chen, Weiting Chi, Cyrus Han, Kimberley Rodrigues, Jennoir Simpson, Harry Solomons
Responsibilities: co-leading research, prototyping, documentation
An iterative design process led to the creation of a co-creation workshop in which participants decorate local hostile architecture with discarded clothing. By including a storytelling component to the workshop, the project encourages residents to soften their environment by imbuing the space with personal memories, reinforcing the personal link between people and their local areas.
Brief
Design a way to turn public space into feminist space
Module
Micro UX
Timeline
7 weeks
Date Completed
8 June 2023
Process
Examining London’s spaces
We began with an interrogation of existing public space design in London, analysing it through the feminist space design lenses of Leslie Kern and Dolores Hayden. Through AEIOU observation and Situationist derive practices, we compiled analyses of the failings of existing space.
User research
Through a combination of directed storytelling, storymapping, and physicalisation workshops, we started developing methods of community space redevelopment.
Analysis and prototyping
We used low-fi and sketched prototyping to create several ideas, including supplying interactive and modular furniture to hostile public spaces, before moving towards clothing as a method of space transformation.
Outcome
Storytelling workshops
Our final outcome invited participants to spaces with hostile architecture and to bring discarded and personal items of clothing. Participants then shared a story about their supplied clothing, before using it to dress and soften the space.
Dressed furniture
The output of our workshops became decorated and movable pieces of furniture that could be transplanted to nearby locations that lack accessible and inclusive seating options, physicalising the participants’ stories into a longer lasting form.
Harry Solomons 