Open House Festival

Accelerate Debates: Designing With? or Designing For?

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W Smithfield, Barbican, EC1A 9DS

Community engagement is promised in every regeneration project, but how often do locals truly shape their spaces? Do professionals know best, or should power be shared? Join us at The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great for the Accelerate Debate, where bold thinkers explore the ethics, risks and rewards of co-design.

Getting there

Tube

Barbican, Farringdon, St. Paul's

Train

City Thameslink, Farringdon

Bus

100, 153, 17, 172, 242, 25, 45, 46, 521, 56, 63, 76

Additional travel info

Inside Congestion Charge & ULEZ. No on-site parking; use Smithfield Car Park. Blue Badge bays nearby.

Access

Facilities

Accessibility notes

Step-free via West Door from Tudor Gatehouse. Accessible toilet; hearing loop. Medieval floors can be uneven.

What you can expect

Seated panel talk with amplified sound, followed by open audience Q&A. Indoors in the medieval nave; can get busy.

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Activities

Sat 20 Sep

Talk

17:30–19:00

Accelerate Debate: Designing With? or Designing For?

How to book

Please create a free visitor account to book your festival tickets.

About

Accelerate Debates: Designing With? or Designing For?

Community engagement are buzzwords flaunted by every regeneration project eager to win over their local authority, but how often do communities truly get to shape the spaces they live in?

Architects and planners organise workshops and consultations with local residents but more often than not the power imbalance remains the same. Decisions are still made behind closed doors, often by people who will never live with the outcomes.

Then again maybe this work is best left to professionals? Surely years of studying and a stack of degrees mean that those in charge of a development know better than those living in one?

But what happens when professionals genuinely share control?

Join us for the next Accelerate Debate, an Open House Festival special at The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, where a line-up of bold thinkers will dig into the ethics, risks and rewards of sharing the power of design.

Online presence

open-city.org.uk/events/designingwithorfor

Nearby

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