Camley Street CIP

Based in London, Camley Street CIP is part of the Camden Community Investment Programme, a pioneering initiative from Camden Council to maintain Camden as a place for everyone, throughout redevelopment. Within the CIP, the Live Project team was appointed to work as an extension of the interdisciplinary design team, which comprises the council, the project architects and engagement officers. 

Large London regeneration schemes often have negative connotations of gentrification and the outwards migration of existing residents. To avoid this narrative, Camden Council are actively engaging with local residents and stakeholders at the earliest stages. Our role, as a Live Projects group, was to work on a ‘pre-engagement strategy’; generating participation and creating relationships for future engagement. We aimed to prototype activities and tools that could be used beyond our six week involvement and build excitement and support for an inclusive Camley Street future. The final outputs are two engagement toolkits which present prototype methods and tools for engagement. The primary aim of such tools is to consider how to reach the under-represented demographic groups.

The first toolkit focuses on digital engagement and includes the new branding and logo, an instagram account and a digital mapping tool. The brand we have created aims to evoke a strong sense of place; the graphic identity references structures and colours from Camley Street and the surrounding neighbourhoods of Agar Grove, Maiden Lane and Elm Village. The Instagram page will be used as an outreach mechanism to target younger audiences and promote competitions and events. And finally, the digital mapping tool will record and map engagement in the Camley Street community, culminating in a comprehensive online directory, which project members can refer to and add to throughout the duration of the project.

The second toolkit focuses on physical engagement, containing design tools such as engagement postcards, a design and precedent handbook and a physical model. Engagement postcards will enable the client to get swift feedback on design ideas, and promote engagement with members of the community who might not be online. The precedent catalogue illustrates site potential in a visually exciting way, and can be used as a tool to get community feedback. A physical engagement model will be used to gauge public opinion on existing spaces in the area through the use of pins and opinion cards. A laminated map will accompany the model so members of the public can draw and write ideas over it. 

The development of a range of both digital and physical tools should enable the client to reach under-represented demographic groups in the community, and promote a culture of participation as the project moves forwards.

Credits

Student Team: 

Ben Warren, Danyun Sun, David Carr, Henry McBrien, Laith Samin, Lawrence Loc Man Wong, Louis Carrow, Mimi Barr, Nariza Hopley, Rebecca Acheampong, Shidi Li, Shuge Du, Varun Yoganarasimhan, Yuxin Zhu, Ziyu Ha

Mentor:

Nicola Antaki