The Crime and Disorder Act of 1998 and the emergence of the concept of antisocial behaviour has meant that distracting groups of young people from behaving in a threatening manner has become a big priority for many local councils. This often takes the form of hastily installed ready-made constructions for young people to congregate in: so-called ‘youth shelters’, which are generally made from metal tubing and have no walls or lighting.
In the West Midlands MADE (Midlands Architecture and the Designed Environment) wanted to change this approach. MADE is the regional architecture centre for the West Midlands. It fosters and promotes excellence in the designed environment by raising people’s aspirations and increasing their ownership of the buildings around them. The processes and outcomes of public engagement are central to MADE which uses them to raise the design agenda, influence professional practice and increase design excellence.
‘Groups of young people being “a nuisance” are often identified as a priority. In communities where there are few or no youth facilities, it is perhaps not surprising that young people sometimes drift in to antisocial behaviour,’ says Rosemary Wildblood, director of strategy and organisation at West Mercia Constabulary.
MADE was funded by the Government Office for the West Midlands (GOWM) to convene a group of experts from the fields of youth, community, crime prevention and urban design who agreed that giving young people some shelter was a positive idea for potentially reducing antisocial behaviour in a number of West Midlands communities. But they agreed that young people needed to be engaged in each project.
‘Young people are full of creativity and energy, but as a society we often fail them by not providing safe places where they can meet and express themselves without coming into conflict with other members of their community. That’s why the Youth Space initiative and the active participation of young people in the creation of youth shelters is so valuable,’ says Wildblood.
Six regional community safety partnerships wanted MADE to help them run engagement workshops and use design tools and ideas to tackle the different crime and antisocial behaviour issues they faced.
At Coleshill in North Warwickshire the project was a means of addressing increased issues of antisocial behaviour and street crime during the evenings and weekends. More than 15 young people, mostly boys who enjoyed skateboarding, worked with artist Alisha Miller and architect Sabine Gollner in collaboration with Mueller Kneer Associates.
The Wolverhampton site at Penn Island roundabout had the highest level of street crime in the town centre. There 15-20 young people worked with artist Gwen Heeney and Solander da Cruz Architects.
Old Yardley Village Park in Birmingham’s Stechford was an area where antisocial behaviour issues arose as affluent properties butted up against a high degree of social deprivation. Police and the Parks Manager were already trying to address antisocial behaviour and the shelter design project was a key part of this campaign. A group of 15 teenage boys and girls worked with artist Carolyn Morton and architect Patricia Gomez.
Other projects ran at:
- Hunderton, Hereford where artist Dr Sally Payen collaborated with Silva Productions and architect Brian Witheridge of Landmark Consultants.
- Romsley, Bromsgrove, where It’s About Time Productions collaborated with Sabine Gollner and Mueller Kneer Associates.
- Warndon, Worcester where artist Dr Sally Payen collaborated with Glazzard Architects.
‘MADE’s impetus was more about ‘designing in’ creativity to public space than ‘designing out’ crime’ says Julia Ellis, director of MADE.
Creative teams of artists, architects and young people were formed in the six locations and started by identifying what problems they felt a youth shelter could help address.
For example, the young people at Warndon said they were concerned about exclusion areas and their often difficult relationship with surrounding communities. Through the collaborative and creative approach, they have designed a youth space that visually expresses this previously abstract and negative experience.
Warndon, Worcester
Warndon’s £43,100 new youth shelter was installed in April 2005 and has provided much needed services for 13-17 year-olds in the area. Before it was built, the area regularly experienced problems with antisocial behaviour from young people and it had regularly featured on police tasking strategies.
Seven design workshops involved unruly local young people whom youth workers had previously found very difficult to engage.
Initial mapping workshops asked the young people to identify places where they felt unsafe and places where conflicts happen.
Further workshops got the young people using graffiti, clay and large-scale collage to explore ideas of space and movement around the site and the shelter.
A photography workshop got the young people to take pictures of each other and it proved such a high-energy exercise that these pictures of the kids moving around have been blown up and used as colourful silhouettes to decorate the final shelter.
Vanessa Brothwell, project architect says, ‘This design is a small result of a massive effective process. This should be the way that all buildings are designed. We should be asking the people who are going to be using the building exactly what they want, how they will use the building and what the area is like.’
Jessie Nicholls, project participant says, ‘We designed a youth space and we had a number of workshops deciding the best place for the youth spaces and what we could do to make it accessible.’
The shelter has been designed to provide a base for several groups of young people at one time and the external platform is to be used as an overflow area. The openings in the structure have been carefully placed to enable visibility to all parts of the shelter while retaining the privacy the young people requested. The structure has been designed with the facility to be adapted and extended if required.
‘When it came to putting it up they physically guarded it so that nobody could come and trash it. It’s not been damaged at all,’ says Angie Rich, youth worker.
The young people involved are now rarely brought to the attention of the police and the local authority feels that the provision of the youth space will draw the focus of young people away from antisocial behaviour hot spots. There has already been a reduction of complaints and in the fear of crime from local residents.
Coleshill, Warwickshire
For £20,200 and after extensive collaborative design workshops and consultation with the wider community, Coleshill Youth Skelter was installed in October 2005.
The Skelter is situated in parkland behind the police station in Coleshill and it proved the catalyst for regeneration of that area. There’s now also a skate park on site. 15 young people participated in four design and development workshops with artist Alisha Miller and architect Sabine Gollner in collaboration with Mueller Kneer Associates. They
- Collected examples of contemporary designs they liked
- Sketched their ideas for solutions
- Made models of what the shelter would look like
Dominic Ward, one of the project participants says, ‘The workshops let me express myself and show that I can actually be part of my community.’
Alisha Miller, project artist says, ‘They were into it first session and by the second session they were making amazing models and using really accomplished tools and different skills so I think they surprised themselves.’
The result is a space whose shape and finish came from them. ‘Skelter is clearly inspired by their passion for skateboarding,’ says Sabine Gollner. ‘The young designers experimented with forms and shapes, thus creating an innovative, contemporary design.’
One of the young people involved was Scott Turner. He says, ‘This was people being creative, doing what they want for the community and the community is a place where we all live so we should all have a say on what goes in and what goes on in it.’
Turner thinks it’s been a success because they feel like the space is now theirs: ‘Young people would feel offended if a shelter was just placed there, there would be no respect. Everybody has a right to feel comfortable in their place that they use everyday.’
Because they take pride in this construction they are stopping other people causing damage to it.
Sabine Gollner, project architect says, ‘Working in collaboration with a group of people will always changes your designs and influence it differently.
Impacts
Throughout the process of creating the six youth shelters the young people were on the one hand the clients, briefing the professionals in the workshops but, on the other hand, by participating in the design workshops they also became members of the design team.
‘Creative behaviour is never predictable and not always “safe” but it can produce safer, better-designed places. MADE would also argue that an increased sense of personal “safety” is derived from the increased self- esteem and the new value sets that come with and from all types of creative engagement,’ says Ellis.
Marianne Mueller, from Mueller Kneer Associates, one of the architect firms involved in the collaborative design projects says, ‘Good design can inspire and have a positive impact beyond the boundaries of the single building. On another note, “design” can also create barriers, physically or mentally. In fact, design is sometimes used deliberately to create barriers, to keep certain people out, to exclude them. So what is important is to explore issues of design and inclusivity in this discussion.
‘Buildings do not only serve but hopefully also inspire and focus. They have the power to create communities as they become places where new communities can be rooted. This is why I think it is not only essential to employ “good design” but it is also vital for design to keep on pushing the boundaries, to experiment with use and inhabitation, as well as more formal or material aspects. It is important to design beyond the limits of what a community already knows or expects, to open minds and not leave people behind.’
‘Anecdotally and in some cases statistically, areas have noted reductions in reported crime and antisocial behaviour,’ says the director of MADE, Julia Ellis.
At the Warndon project the local authority believes the project has improved relationships between young people and the remaining neighbourhood. These young people are now rarely brought to the attention of the police and the local authority is reassured that the provision of youth space will draw the focus of the young people away from the antisocial behaviour hot spots.
In Coleshill the youth shelter project was the spark for further regeneration and investment in youth facilities, including a skatepark designed and installed after a group of young people formed a Colleshill Skatepark Association.
At Stechford the community still feels the benefits of the collaborative design project thanks to the sense of pride the young people feel in their contribution. The process has strengthened relationships between the community, the school, the young people and the police force. In general, more people are now aware of the park in Stechford, where further improvements are being made.
This method of engaging young people in designing their own services has been so successful that it has spread across the UK. In London’s Clerkenwell young people and Islington council worked with local architecture practice Fluid to create two youth shelters.