BCP Future Lab was an eight month project looking at the town centre regeneration of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. I devised and led this project and it has reasonances with earlier works such as STAR Radio and The Museum of The Moment. 

This was a process led work that turned the design process on its head- starting with public consultation and using the results to inspire design principles and outcomes. The focus of the work was to empathise with peoples experience of their town centres and respond to their struggles and aspirations. Crucially establishing what people value in the town centre experience.

Through analysis of what I learned- or creative sense- making, I built connections and established principles for town centre recovery. I used what I learned to then develop specific design projects for each place.

Caroline Jackson was a key collaborator on this project. Caroline is an event expert and researcher looking at eventful places. Our research ran in parallel and coalesced around the principles which we both used to inform our approach (published in the book Future Stories)

Five key principles for town centre regeneration were defined in response to over 500 face to face meetings with residents and a number of workshops in libraries and for school pupils and students.

The principles were then used to inspire site specific designs across each of the town centre.

The book, Future Stories, was written to re-frame town centre experience in order to prioritise social prosperity, create resilient and inclusive community and amplify local character. It responded to wish that people expressed for town centres to be playable, cultural, curious, interesting and eventful.

BCP Future Lab was a project with Feria Urbanism funded by the R3 Group.