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<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong><br />

Design Activism: A Catalyst for Communities of Practice<br />

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau<br />

Design and Creative Practice Research Folios<br />

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape


Content<br />

300-word summary<br />

300-word summary<br />

3<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> is a creative practice-<br />

Initiated in 2015, this ongoing research project has<br />

led research that sought to stimulate community<br />

unfolded in three phases:<br />

Research Overview<br />

4<br />

action and bring about community-led change in<br />

the neighbourhood of <strong>Fenham</strong>, Newcastle upon<br />

Phase 1 (2015), developed alongside<br />

Research Context<br />

6<br />

Tyne. The project is critically underscored by a<br />

sustainable transport charity Sustrans, comprised<br />

characterisation of design activism as a process<br />

a series of temporal and experimental design<br />

Research Process<br />

10<br />

and a practice: the process aims to promote<br />

interventions drawn from a design activist approach<br />

experimentation and test alternative urban<br />

that emerges from an ethnographic curiosity, a rich<br />

Conclusion:<br />

30<br />

experiences, while the practice, embedded in<br />

immersion in the everyday that allows an alternative<br />

The Rippling Effects of Design Activism<br />

everyday life, seeks to catalyse and nurture other<br />

appreciation of the familiar environment.<br />

‘communities of practice’ in the neighbourhood.<br />

Phase 2 (2016) sees the transition of<br />

Dissemination<br />

34<br />

It is concerned with the largely under-researched<br />

local residents into a ‘community of practitioners/<br />

long-term transformative effect of design activism<br />

makers’ leading the transformation of a nondescript<br />

Appendices<br />

37<br />

on everyday urban environments and socio-spatial<br />

grass area into a <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> and the creation of a<br />

dynamics. Through the research, a group of local<br />

formalised community group, ‘Friends of <strong>Fenham</strong><br />

A - Refereed Supporting Publication<br />

39<br />

residents of <strong>Fenham</strong> became key actors in the<br />

<strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>’, including 5–10 key actors who<br />

B - Publications / Conference Presentations<br />

40<br />

transformation of a disused urban space into a<br />

manage and maintain the park, and have secured<br />

C - Citations<br />

41<br />

<strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>.<br />

over £40,000 from multiple grants.<br />

D - Funding sources during REF period<br />

42<br />

Phase 3 (2019 to date) widens the scope<br />

E - Exhibition Poster<br />

43<br />

of the project with an extension to the initial park<br />

(currently under construction).<br />

Over this elongated period, the research<br />

reveals design activism as necessarily intertwined<br />

with other everyday practices – such as gardening,<br />

celebrating, playing – that coalesce around a shared<br />

sense of citizenship. It also advances the role of<br />

design activism in forging communities of practice:<br />

mutually supportive and self-sustaining groups<br />

emerging out of the personal relations sustained<br />

and organised around a practice of place-making.<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong><br />

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau<br />

3


Research Overview<br />

The research set out to explore design<br />

activism as a means to stimulate life in the public<br />

realm and shed light on the social formations and<br />

collective practices catalysed through the activist<br />

impulse. Through a series of open-ended design<br />

workshops, street trials and events that brought<br />

about the creation of a community-led <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>,<br />

the project sought to:<br />

• Understand the realities of people and gain<br />

insights of existing settings from an insider<br />

perspective (Mallo et al., 2016a) through a<br />

design activist process of experimentation<br />

situated within the ordinary preoccupations of<br />

everyday life.<br />

• Explore an open-ended and inspirational<br />

approach, using designed prompts and<br />

temporary interventions, which enabled the<br />

establishment of a new, shared language<br />

between participants. Such an approach helped<br />

activate dialogue and opened up aspirations,<br />

thus challenging closed briefs and agendas prior<br />

to engaging with community groups (Vigar and<br />

Varna, 2019).<br />

• Debunk the myth around the activist designer<br />

and shift the emphasis from designer to<br />

‘practices’, thus moving away from a central<br />

position of design activism and placing it<br />

in a constellation of practices – gardening,<br />

celebrating and playing (Mallo et al., 2020a).<br />

• Deploy a theoretical framework drawn<br />

from social practice theory to expand the<br />

conceptualisation of design activism as<br />

‘constituted in practice’ through performance<br />

or action. In particular, we adapt Elizabeth<br />

Shove, Mika Pantzar and Matt Watson’s (2012)<br />

characterisation of social practice as constituted<br />

by iterative actions integrating three elements,<br />

namely ‘materials’ (physical entities, artefacts,<br />

urban spaces), ‘competence’ (skills, knowhow<br />

of both communities and designers) and<br />

‘meanings’ (motivations, affects). The theoretical<br />

underpinning of the project is elaborated in<br />

the refereed supporting publication: ‘Design<br />

Activism: Catalysing Communities of Practice’<br />

(Mallo et al., 2020a) - full text in Appendix A.<br />

The creative practice enquiry is articulated around a<br />

two-fold question:<br />

• RQ 1: How does socially engaged design<br />

practice catalyse democratic place-making and<br />

stimulate public life in the urban realm?<br />

• RQ 2: How does design activism contribute<br />

to the long-term sustainability of co-produced<br />

design projects? How does design activism<br />

permeate socio-spatial spheres, contribute to<br />

and sustain community-led projects?<br />

References:<br />

Mallo D, Parsons R and Tardiveau A. (2016a) ‘Participatory<br />

design methods in the co-production practice of urban space’.<br />

In: Challenges and Best Practice in Co-Production. Sheffield:<br />

University of Sheffield<br />

Mallo D, Tardiveau A and Parsons R. (2020a) ‘Design Activism:<br />

Catalysing Communities of Practice’. Architectural Research<br />

Quarterly, vol.24, no.2, 100–116.<br />

Vigar,G. and Varna,G., F, (2019) Connecting places, placing<br />

connections: towards a participatory ordinary urbanism. In<br />

Doherty,I and Shaw,J., (eds.), Transport Matters, Bristol: Policy<br />

Press<br />

Shove, E., Pantzar, M. and Watson, M. (2012) The dynamics<br />

of social practice: Everyday life and how it changes. Sage<br />

Publications.<br />

A process of experimentation situated within the ordinary preoccupations of everyday life.<br />

Temporary intervention collage by Kieran McSherry, October 2015<br />

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Research Context<br />

In recent years, design activism has<br />

come to the fore with numerous collectives<br />

whose actions have distinct emphases and foci.<br />

In the context of this research, design activism<br />

builds on temporary narratives of intensification,<br />

speculation or demonstration. Our research aligns<br />

with practices including Rebar (San Francisco),<br />

known for initiating a yearly global design action<br />

with the aim of transforming parking spaces into<br />

temporary parks; Santiago Cirugeda (Seville),<br />

whose ‘urban prescriptions’ (recetas urbanas)<br />

projects identify gaps in urban regulations to<br />

create spaces for emancipation and subversion<br />

without breaking the law; in turn, aaa’s work (atelier<br />

d’architecture autogérée, founded by Petrescu &<br />

Petcou, Paris) is seminal in experimenting with<br />

temporary appropriations of urban space to intensify<br />

community and ecology; while the emerging<br />

collective YA+K’s (Paris) work explores the notion of<br />

‘urban bricolage’ in the tradition of citizen-led or DIY<br />

urbanism.<br />

While these activist practices point at the<br />

temporal, spatial and experimental nature of design<br />

activism, our research expands on the practice and<br />

its conceptualisation and focuses on the long-term<br />

effect of design activism. It investigates how design<br />

activism influences socio-spatial dynamics and can<br />

lead to enduring social formations described as<br />

‘communities of practice’, putting the emphasis on<br />

social relations that revolve around processes of<br />

making, learning and negotiating (Wenger, 1999).<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> Hall Drive: temporary narratives of intensification. Intervention, April 2015<br />

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As such, the research employs an<br />

inspirational and open-ended approach that<br />

harnesses social capital and brings to the fore the<br />

role of citizens in the place-making process. The<br />

exploratory approach is underpinned and adapted<br />

from previous research by the authors in the field<br />

of socially engaged design practice – past projects<br />

include:<br />

Action Research in Gateshead, 2010-2011<br />

Funded by the European research network<br />

SPINDUS, this project examined the role of<br />

temporary interventions in revealing socio-spatial<br />

struggles in the semi-private outdoor space of<br />

a deprived social housing estate. The research<br />

mobilises the concept of ‘habitus’ as a means to<br />

unpack personal and collective dispositions as well<br />

as challenge the socio-spatial status quo embedded<br />

in a contested open space (Tardiveau and Mallo,<br />

2014). By deploying site-specific temporary<br />

settings, the project aims to understand the social<br />

dimensions of a disused space.<br />

Urban Action, Gateshead. Interventions, 2010-2011<br />

‘From non-place to place in post-suburbia’, an<br />

exploration of city-edge office parks as loci for<br />

nature-based micro-interventions, 2014-2020<br />

This study attends to possibilities inherent in<br />

micro-level, bottom-up interventions in the context of<br />

city-edge office parks. The exploratory approach is<br />

inspired by sensory ethnography as well as socially<br />

driven design practice; in particular, it calls for openended,<br />

provocative engagement. The research is<br />

infused with an inspirational, imaginative sensibility<br />

in order to intensify and open up opportunities for<br />

conversation, reflection and engagement. Tapping<br />

into the rich biodiversity of the office park setting of<br />

the case study, the authors adopted an approach<br />

that reframes the problematic of ‘placelessness’<br />

and brings to the fore the lack of interaction of park<br />

denizens with the natural environment (Mallo et al.,<br />

2020b).<br />

Top: “A wild walk”, plant identification activity with office park<br />

workers. Bottom: “What if...” provocative scenarios: a flower<br />

meadow or parking space? Engagement, 2014<br />

References:<br />

Urban Action, Gateshead. Interventions, 2010-2011<br />

Mallo, D., Schoneboom, A., Tardiveau, A., and Vigar, G. (2020b)<br />

From non-place to place in post-suburbia: city-edge office<br />

parks as loci for nature-based micro-interventions. Journal of<br />

Environmental Planning and Management. 63(13): 2446-2463.<br />

Tardiveau, A. and Mallo, D. (2014) Unpacking and challenging<br />

habitus: an approach to temporary urbanism as a socially<br />

engaged practice. Journal of Urban Design 19(4): 456-472.<br />

Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of practice: Learning,<br />

meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<br />

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Research Process<br />

The research focused on <strong>Fenham</strong> Hall<br />

Drive, a car-dominated street, where parking<br />

on pavements occurs and where public space<br />

is scarce. Along the street stand two key civic<br />

institutions for local residents and neighbouring<br />

communities: the local library and the community<br />

pool, perceived as civic hubs. The area is a socially<br />

mixed area with pockets of low-income council<br />

households with a high rate of dependence on state<br />

benefits. The project unfolded in three phases over<br />

a period of five years (2015 to date).<br />

Phase 1:<br />

Revisiting <strong>Fenham</strong> Hall Drive (2015)<br />

Embedded in the everyday realities of the<br />

life of the street, the research adopted an openended<br />

approach to gain insights into the use and<br />

perception of the existing settings and to create a<br />

new shared urban experience in common for all<br />

participants and community actors. Multi-layered<br />

methods using a variety of design prompts in<br />

temporary interventions augmented the experience<br />

of the area, thus provoking an opportunity for a new<br />

reading of a familiar environment (Tardiveau and<br />

Mallo, 2014).The creative practice methods were<br />

structured around three thematic areas: unpacking<br />

affects, meanings and desires through sensory<br />

mapping methods; disrupting urban narratives<br />

through spontaneous temporary intervention<br />

methods; and enabling a new urban experience<br />

through methods of temporary intervention.<br />

An extended account of phase 1 can be found<br />

in the refereed supporting publication: ‘Design<br />

Activism: Catalysing Communities of Practice’ (Mallo<br />

et al., 2020a) - full text in Appendix A.<br />

Revisiting <strong>Fenham</strong> Hall Drive. Intervention, March 2015<br />

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“There are lots of old people in <strong>Fenham</strong>, could do<br />

with somewhere to sit and watch the world go by”.<br />

Local resident walking dog<br />

“A place to hang out, a sunny<br />

spot”. Elderly resident<br />

“It’s until you see things like this<br />

(bench) that you realise how dreary<br />

the environment is”.<br />

Mother sitting on bench.<br />

Sensory maping as means of unpacking affects, meanings and desires. March 2015<br />

Unpacking affects, meanings and desires:<br />

sensory mapping:<br />

Adapted from ‘cultural probes’ (Gaver et<br />

al., 1999), these designed prompts or tasks aim at<br />

enabling inspirational responses. Specifically, our<br />

method sought to map social and material assets,<br />

capturing the feelings and stories of the site.<br />

We created a physical scale model of the street,<br />

on which a provocative prompt stated: ‘Imagine<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> Hall Drive as the best street in Britain…’,<br />

and located it on site. The model was equipped<br />

with ‘mysterious and elusive’ materials varying in<br />

textures and colours (such as tin foil, pipe cleaners,<br />

washing-up sponges and cotton wool) that were left<br />

freely as prompts for discussion or for interpretation<br />

to facilitate the sharing of perceptions, ideas and<br />

desires for the place. This sensory mapping aimed<br />

to awake existing senses and evoke an imaginary<br />

feel for the street.<br />

Spontaneous occupation of a pavement area: disrupting existing urban narratives. March 2015<br />

Disrupting urban narratives: spontaneous temporary<br />

intervention<br />

Two purpose-built mobile benches were<br />

installed along a car-dominated pavement over<br />

the course of three days. The temporary setting<br />

afforded opportunities for social interaction and<br />

activation of public space. This form of ‘provocation’<br />

was ‘not [only intended] to understand the [urban<br />

environment], but to expose both the possibilities<br />

and constraints on future design directions’<br />

(Blomberg and Karasti, 2013). This occupation<br />

of urban space, mainly pavement areas where<br />

unregulated car parking takes place, allowed for a<br />

disruptive tactic that revealed socio-spatial struggles<br />

(the permanent need among pedestrians for car-free<br />

public space) and raised awareness of alternative<br />

futures.<br />

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Enabling a new urban experience: temporary<br />

intervention<br />

Together with local residents who had<br />

engaged in previous events, we collectively<br />

envisaged a temporary intervention focusing on<br />

themes previously discussed, including positive<br />

lingering, playing and greening. Local residents<br />

conceptually conceived the design of the temporary<br />

intervention as a series of stripes that could be<br />

‘rolled’ out beyond the boundaries of the designated<br />

space. These stripes materialised as alternating<br />

bands of timber and artificial grass punctuated<br />

with furniture modules open to interpretation. The<br />

intervention, which lasted four days, transformed a<br />

grass area in between the library and the pool, an<br />

unused open space that cut through a drive leading<br />

to an allotment area located at the back of the<br />

two civic buildings. During that time, we observed<br />

that the modules, of various heights and lengths,<br />

accommodated a diversity of uses including sitting,<br />

lying in the sun, jumping or playing, as well as<br />

enabling comfortable seat heights for different age<br />

groups.<br />

Top: temporary intervention floor plan.<br />

Left and bottom: enabling a new urban experience through a temporary intervention. October 2015<br />

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“To give people that experience is so important. How can you<br />

change your viewpoint about something, by commenting on a<br />

map and a Post-it? It is not the same as sitting on a bench and<br />

believing that it can happen”.<br />

Sustrans volunteer<br />

Temporary intervention. October 2015<br />

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Phase 2:<br />

The Making of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> (2016)<br />

After almost nine months of engagement<br />

with situated design interventions, a group of<br />

local residents took on the challenge of taking<br />

the vision forward and applied for a Department<br />

for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)<br />

grant, and were successfully awarded £15,000 for<br />

the construction of a <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. The group was<br />

constituted later as ‘The Friends of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong><br />

<strong>Park</strong>’ and have become carriers of a place-making<br />

practice.<br />

The brief for <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> aimed to<br />

address the different visions that had been shared<br />

during the exploratory interventions to create a place<br />

for relaxing, playing and enhancing the presence<br />

of nature in the area. The design concept of stripes<br />

as a structuring element for the ground was taken<br />

forward: the Friends felt it allowed the statement<br />

of a clear intention in terms of potentially enlarging<br />

the park at a later stage onto the remaining unused<br />

grassed area by the library.<br />

An external contractor undertook the<br />

groundworks, and both skilled and non-skilled<br />

participants contributed to the construction of<br />

planters and benches. Residents, ward councillors,<br />

engagement officers, as well as park and allotment<br />

council officers – all in their different capacities<br />

became involved in the making of the park. Children<br />

from the local school planted flowers, fruit trees<br />

and bushes with an amateur horticulturalist from<br />

the Friends who introduced them to basic growing<br />

principles. An extended account of phase 2 can be<br />

found in the refereed supporting publication: ‘Design<br />

Activism: Catalysing Communities of Practice’ (Mallo<br />

et al., 2020a) - full text in Appendix A.<br />

Top: making of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>.<br />

Left: <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> Site Plan. Bottom: <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> planters. May 2016<br />

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Top: <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> floorplan. Bottom: planting activity<br />

with school children (May 2016)<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. May 2016<br />

Top: planting session with school children. Bottom: opening of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. May 2016<br />

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Opening of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. May 2016<br />

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Phase 3:<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> Extension (2019 to date)<br />

This ongoing phase converges towards the<br />

extension of the <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>, but more importantly<br />

stresses the Friends’ role as a community of<br />

practitioners whose main remit consists of promoting<br />

the use of the park and ensuring maintenance. Their<br />

experience of working collectively over the last three<br />

years led them to apply for new funding in 2019 to<br />

extend the <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. The bid was successful and<br />

the group was awarded £12,000 from the Ministry<br />

of Housing Communities and Local Government<br />

(MHCLG).<br />

This opportunity marked a significant shift<br />

for the Friends’ mission to improve the public<br />

realm around the <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>, as well as increase<br />

community reach. Building on Phase 1, they<br />

planned this new phase to become, not just a park<br />

extension, but rather a blank canvas on which to<br />

deploy events and design engagement sessions<br />

with the local community with a view to widen<br />

participation; a much-needed approach post-COVID<br />

pandemic.<br />

References:<br />

Tardiveau, A. & Mallo, D. (2014) Unpacking and challenging<br />

habitus: an approach to temporary urbanism as a socially<br />

engaged practice. Journal of Urban Design 19(4): 456–472.<br />

Mallo D, Tardiveau A and Parsons R. (2020a) ‘Design Activism:<br />

Catalysing Communities of Practice’. Architectural Research<br />

Quarterly, vol.24, no.2, 100–116.<br />

Gaver, B., Dunne, T. & Pacenti, E. (1999) Cultural probes.<br />

Interactions, January-February 6(1), 21–29.<br />

Blomberg, J. & Karasti, H. (2013) Ethnography: positioning<br />

ethnography within participatory design projects. In: Simonsen,<br />

J. & Robertson, T. (eds) Routledge International Handbook of<br />

Participatory Design. New York: Routledge, pp. 86–116.<br />

Top: remote project meeting during the pandemic.<br />

Bottom: a canvas for engagement and events. Sketch 2020.<br />

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Top: ehancing pedestrian flow at a time of pandemic. Sketch 2020.<br />

Bottom: external contractor undertaking groundworks. 2020.<br />

<strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> extension. 2020<br />

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<strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> extension. 2020<br />

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Conclusion: The Rippling Effects of Design Activism<br />

It is only through the immersion in the<br />

everyday that design activism can be responsive to<br />

the ordinary, the mundane affecting people’s lives,<br />

as well as revealing existing social practices in an<br />

area. Through the creative practice process, we shed<br />

light on the potential of design activism in forging<br />

communities of practice: mutually supportive and<br />

self-sustaining groups emerging out of the personal<br />

relations sustained and organised around a practice.<br />

The iterative and performative character of design<br />

activism has allowed socialisation and engagement;<br />

also, familiarity and trust has developed through<br />

learning and sharing.<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>, in this regard, neither<br />

emerged out of a predefined plan nor happened as<br />

an unforeseen outcome; indeed, it came into being<br />

through shifts and ripple effects elicited by design<br />

activism in the sphere of social practices. As such,<br />

we contend that the significance of design activism,<br />

as a sustained and iterative process, lies primarily in<br />

the creation of settings that give rise to communities<br />

of practitioners, in our case arising around a shared<br />

sense of citizenship.<br />

Top: making, learning and negotiating - regular meeting of Friends of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. March 2018.<br />

Bottom: regular weeding and planting event. July 2018.<br />

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School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape<br />

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau


Top: Christmas event organised by the Friends of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. December 2016<br />

Top and bottom: Regular weeding and planting event. July 2018.<br />

32 Design and Creative Practice Research Folios<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong><br />

33<br />

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape<br />

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau


Dissemination<br />

Web: Design Research Port<strong>folio</strong>s<br />

A version of this port<strong>folio</strong> has been available<br />

since 2020 at https://www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/research/<br />

case-studies/creativepractice/<br />

Exhibition: Community, Design, Practice<br />

Boiler House + School of Architecture, Planning and<br />

Landscape, Newcastle University,<br />

29 March - 26 April 2019<br />

Carried out by a research team from<br />

Newcastle University’s School of Architecture,<br />

Planning and Landscape led by Daniel Mallo and<br />

Armelle Tardiveau, this exhibition gathered the<br />

creative practice material and revealed the design<br />

process that led to the making of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong><br />

<strong>Park</strong>, funded by ESRC IAA. More specifically,<br />

it showcased designed prompts as well as the<br />

temporary furniture deployed as part of the<br />

research. The commitment of the Friends of<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> was documented with large<br />

social portraits by photographer Damien Wootten.<br />

The exhibition was an opportunity to<br />

celebrate the work and bring together all those<br />

involved in the project including local stakeholders,<br />

community actors, ward councillors and <strong>Fenham</strong><br />

residents. Visitors stated their interest in<br />

understanding the process that led to the <strong>Pocket</strong><br />

<strong>Park</strong> as an urban space shaped by local residents.<br />

ISBN 978-0-7017-0268-7<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>: Stories, Practices and Processes<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong><br />

Stories, Practices and Processes<br />

Exhibition Catalogue<br />

A publication entitled <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>:<br />

Stories, Practices and Processes accompanied<br />

the exhibition. It captures the making of <strong>Fenham</strong><br />

<strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>: a community-led project located in<br />

the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne that saw<br />

the transformation of an unused urban space<br />

into a lively park. The research highlights the<br />

transformative power of socially engaged design<br />

practice, an approach process that enhances the<br />

role of community members in bringing about<br />

change to their everyday life urban environment.<br />

Available at: https://en.calameo.com/<br />

read/006096643d954a55eef70?page=1<br />

Top and bottom: exhibition “Community, Design, Practice” documenting the process of making <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. March 2019<br />

34 Design and Creative Practice Research Folios<br />

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School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape<br />

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau


Appendices<br />

A – Refereed Supporting Publication<br />

B – Publications / Conference Presentations<br />

C – Citations<br />

D – Funding sources during REF period<br />

E – Exhibition Poster<br />

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School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape<br />

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau


A – Refereed Supporting Publication<br />

Mallo D, Tardiveau A, Parsons R. (2020a) ‘Design Activism: Catalysing Communities of Practice’.<br />

Architectural Research Quarterly, vol.24, no.2, 100–116.<br />

Abstract<br />

Over the last decade, we have witnessed<br />

renewed interest in design as a socially engaged<br />

practice. Much of the debates around ‘social design’<br />

point towards myriad approaches and disciplinary<br />

fields interwoven with grass-roots initiatives and<br />

social movements. Among these, design activism<br />

has gained traction as critical spatial practice<br />

that operates on the fringes of commercial and<br />

institutional spheres.<br />

The temporal, spatial and experimental<br />

nature of design activism is well delineated in<br />

scholarship but its long-term effect on everyday<br />

urban environments remains elusive. Moreover,<br />

the influence of design activism on socio-spatial<br />

dynamics is indeed largely under researched.<br />

By mobilising social practice theory, this paper<br />

proposes a novel theorisation of design activism that<br />

sheds light on the social formations and collective<br />

practices catalysed through the activist impulse.<br />

This ontological shift embraces an understanding<br />

of the socio-material world through practice. Such<br />

characterisation of design activism underscores<br />

collective moments of integration of the constitutive<br />

elements of practice, encapsulated by Shove,<br />

Pantzar and Watson as ‘material, competence and<br />

meaning’.<br />

The authors’ own empirical research,<br />

funded by the Economic and Social Research<br />

Council (ESRC) in the UK, reveals design activism<br />

as necessarily intertwined with other everyday<br />

practices – gardening, celebrating, playing – that<br />

coalesce around a shared sense of citizenship. It<br />

also advances the role of design activism in forging<br />

communities of practice: mutually supportive and<br />

self-sustaining groups emerging out of the personal<br />

relations sustained and organised around a practice<br />

of place making.<br />

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B – Publications and Conference Presentations<br />

C – Citations<br />

Paper_ Mallo D, Tardiveau A, Parsons R. (2020a)<br />

‘Design Activism: Catalysing Communities of<br />

Practice’. Architectural Research Quarterly, vol.24,<br />

no.2, 100–116.<br />

Conference paper_ Mallo, D. (2017) ‘Beyond the<br />

here and now: design activism for permanence and<br />

resilience’. In: International Conference: Making<br />

Space for Socio-Spatial and Socio-Ecological<br />

Justice in Research and Action Strategies. Lesvos,<br />

[IM1] 2019:<br />

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local<br />

Government Press Office, Email Request for Image<br />

Use, 14 February 2019.<br />

[IM5] 2016:<br />

Sustrans News, ‘An oasis of calm in Newcastle’s<br />

West End’, Sustrans News, 10 June 2016, https://<br />

www.sustrans.org.uk/news/oasis-calm-newcastleswest-end<br />

[accessed 25 January 2019].<br />

Book chapter_ Webb D., Mallo, D., Tardiveau,<br />

A., Emmerson, C., Pardoe, M. and Talbot, M.<br />

Greece.<br />

Conference paper_ Mallo, D., Parsons, R. and<br />

[IM2] 2019:<br />

Cambridge City Council, Email Request for Image<br />

Social Media:<br />

(2020) The containment of democratic innovation:<br />

reflections from two university collaborations. In:<br />

Steer, M., Davoudi, S., Todd, L. and Shucksmith,<br />

M., ed. Social Renewal: Practical Responses to<br />

Neoliberal Austerity. Bristol: Policy Press<br />

Conference paper_ Mallo, D., Tardiveau, A. and<br />

Parsons, R. (2019) ‘Design Activism: A Catalyst of<br />

Communities of Practice in the making of Urban<br />

Space’. In: 16th Annual International Conference of<br />

the Architectural Humanities Research Association,<br />

Dundee<br />

Tardiveau, A. (2016a) ‘Participatory design methods<br />

in the co-production practice of urban space’. In:<br />

Challenges and Best Practice in Co-Production.<br />

Sheffield: University of Sheffield.<br />

Conference paper_ Mallo, D., Parsons, R. and<br />

Tardiveau, A. (2016b) ‘The Craft of Participatory<br />

Design: Inspirational Methods in the Co-Production<br />

of Urban Space’. In: Culture in Urban Space<br />

Urban Form, Cultural Landscapes, Life in the City.<br />

Copenhagen.<br />

Conference paper_ Vigar, G., Mallo, D. and<br />

Use, 8 February 2019.<br />

[IM3] 2017:<br />

Project featured on ESRC website as exemplary<br />

impact case study , ‘Participation research kickstarts<br />

Newcastle mini-park’, ESRC Impact Case<br />

Studies, November 2017, <br />

[accessed 10 December 2020]<br />

“Research on community engagement and socially engaged<br />

design was used to involve Newcastle residents in thinking<br />

[IM6] 2016:<br />

Newcastle City Council: “The Lord Mayor of<br />

Newcastle, Cllr Stephenson is switching–on the<br />

Christmas Lights at <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> with Carol<br />

singing and a display of paper lanterns from young<br />

people at English Martyrs Primary School and<br />

Sacred Heart School [video].”<br />

12 December 2016 — Viewed 1,500 times, liked<br />

45 times, shared eight times and commented on 13<br />

times.<br />

https://en-gb.facebook.com/NewcastleCityCouncil/<br />

[accessed 25 January 2019]<br />

Research report_ Mallo, D. and Tardiveau, A.<br />

(2019). <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. Stories, Practices and<br />

Processes. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Newcastle<br />

University. ISBN: 978-0-7017-0268-7<br />

[Available at: https://en.calameo.com/<br />

read/006096643d954a55eef70?page=1] [accessed<br />

10 December 2020]<br />

Tardiveau, A. (2015) ‘Sustainable mobility,<br />

delightful neighbourhood? Creating and evaluating<br />

inspirational participation in street design’. In: Cycle<br />

City Active City Conference. Newcastle upon Tyne.<br />

News Media:<br />

beyond preconceived ideas and to transform their perception<br />

of the area. Daniel Mallo, Armelle Tardiveau and colleagues<br />

at Newcastle University arranged a series of design<br />

workshops and street trials to help people imagine how they<br />

could improve <strong>Fenham</strong> Hall Drive, a street in the Newcastle<br />

ward of <strong>Fenham</strong>.”<br />

[IM7] 2016:<br />

Charley Williams, ‘Lord Mayor of Newcastle<br />

Switches on <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> Christmas Lights’,<br />

NEConnected Blog, 20 December 2016, https://<br />

neconnected.co.uk/lord-mayor-newcastle-switchesfenham-pocket-park-christmas-lights/<br />

[accessed 25<br />

January 2019].<br />

Book chapter_ Vigar, G. and Varna, G., F, (2019)<br />

Connecting places, placing connections: towards a<br />

participatory ordinary urbanism, in Doherty, I. and<br />

Shaw, J. (eds.), Transport Matters, Bristol: Policy<br />

Press<br />

[IM4] 2016<br />

Article by the Chronicle, the local newspaper on<br />

residents being awarded funding from DCLG.<br />

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-eastnews/fenham-pocket-park-opens-thanks-11376171<br />

[IM8] 2019:<br />

Marion Talbot, Ward Councillor (testimony):<br />

“Quite a few wards have got in touch with us and<br />

asked how we did it so we could share what we did<br />

- the process, the practice, the organisations that<br />

were involved.”<br />

40 Design and Creative Practice Research Folios<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong><br />

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School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape<br />

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau


Citations (cont.)<br />

D – Funding Sources<br />

During REF Period<br />

E – Exhibition poster<br />

[IM9] 2020:<br />

UK Research and Innovation (@UKRI_News Twitter<br />

43,700 followers): “ICYMI: <strong>Park</strong>s have become a life<br />

line for many to get some outdoor space right now.<br />

Find out how parks have shown to have a positive<br />

effect on the environment and building community<br />

spirit in Newcastle @ESRC: http://orlo.uk/i2D9J<br />

#ArtsAndNaturebreak”<br />

“Specially built parks or ‘pocket parks’ have also<br />

shown to have a positive effect on the environment<br />

and building community spirit. An ESRC-funded<br />

project built a pocket park in <strong>Fenham</strong> in 2016, which<br />

increased the environmental value of the area with<br />

fruit trees to attract insects and bees.”<br />

https://twitter.com/UKRI_News/<br />

status/1266006513438646274 [accessed 10 June<br />

2020].<br />

Central Government and Local Authority<br />

funding:<br />

The research has helped to leverage funds for<br />

community benefit – from the initial application to<br />

build a <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> to the subsequent grants, the<br />

research was instrumental to secure funding.<br />

• £15,000 awarded from the Department for<br />

Communities and Local Government to build a<br />

<strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> (January 2016)<br />

• £2,058 were granted by <strong>Fenham</strong> Ward towards<br />

the construction of the park (January 2016)<br />

• £800 were granted by Blakelaw Ward towards<br />

the construction of the park (January 2016)<br />

• Friends of <strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> have fundraised<br />

an approximately £9,000 for on-going<br />

maintenance and seasonal community events<br />

(May 2016 to date). Grants were awarded by<br />

Communities Aid Foundation, PwC Volunteering<br />

Award, <strong>Fenham</strong> Ward, etc.<br />

• £12,500 awarded from the Ministry of Housing,<br />

Communities and Local Government to extend<br />

the <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> (January 2019)<br />

• £1,000 match funding by Public Health to extend<br />

the <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong> (January 2019)<br />

Research funding:<br />

• ESRC IAA (Co-Production Fund – Autumn<br />

2014) BH142131: £9,930 Project title: DIY<br />

Streets (<strong>Fenham</strong>): creating and evaluating<br />

inspirational participation. PI Armelle Tardiveau<br />

[with Daniel Mallo and Geoff Vigar]<br />

• School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape,<br />

Newcastle University, Engagement Committee:<br />

£2,946.25<br />

• School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape,<br />

Newcastle University, ARC (Architecture<br />

Research Collaborative) : £500<br />

Exhibition<br />

Community, Design, Practice<br />

Boiler House + School of Architecture, Planning and<br />

Landscape, Newcastle University,<br />

29 March - 26 April 2019<br />

Community<br />

Design<br />

Practice<br />

Featuring work by:<br />

Daniel Mallo<br />

Armelle Tardiveau<br />

Abigail Schoneboom<br />

Damien Wootten<br />

42 Design and Creative Practice Research Folios<br />

<strong>Fenham</strong> <strong>Pocket</strong> <strong>Park</strong><br />

43<br />

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape<br />

Daniel Mallo & Armelle Tardiveau


Design and Creative Practice Research Folios<br />

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape<br />

Content © Project Authors<br />

44 Design and Creative Practice Research Folios<br />

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

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