Social Justice, Wellbeing and Renewal
Questions of social justice, wellbeing and renewal are particularly tied to the use and development of the built environment, at macro and at micro-scales. Researchers in this theme are particularly committed to ongoing direct engagement (often also involving students) with diverse social groups in the built environment. Groups included range from the school children visiting nature reserves in Newcastle to estate residents of Gateshead in the work ofArmelle Tardiveau and Daniel Mallo, who research and explore innovative modes of community engagement and activism in design projects, most recently with the Pallet Pavilion at the British Science Festival 2013 in Newcastle, and forthcoming with Geoff Vigar (GURU) Towards a sustainable urban environment: a participatory project at Cobalt Business Park. Carlos Calderon’s funded collaborative projects with Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) and Newcastle City Council work closely with residents to understand and model domestic fuel use in order to reduce fuel poverty.
There is a recognition that research that seeks change and social inclusion needs also to understand and work with those who use and constitute the spaces they inhabit, whether projects are proposing technical solutions, building or seeking to bring visibility and aspiration to contexts where there has been little attention. This work necessarily challenges preconceptions and brings nuances to findings, but at the same time it demands underpinnings in ethical thought and histories that have engaged with these problems. A common project in this area has been the development of a network exploring Architecture’s Unconscious (Kati Blom, Nathaniel Coleman, Katie Lloyd Thomas, Sam Austin and others) which had a first meeting in July 2013 and aims to transform and enliven the practices of planning, landscape, urban design and architecture, their criticism and discourses so that experiential qualities in the environment are given a role at every level of these discourses.
People: Kati Blom, Carlos Calderon, Nathaniel Coleman, Peter Kellett, Armelle Tardiveau and Daniel Mallo.
Projects:
