About this Session
In this Research Room, we’ll be looking back on the project Prototyping Utopias, which brought together local organisations and communities in Bow, East London to explore the potential of a collaborative economy of visions and skills in creating Bow as a future utopia.
‘Utopian thinking’, as the construction of ideal worlds, or ideal futures, is intrinsically tied to ‘design thinking’, imagining and shaping futures through the construction of versions or prototypes of these realities. Through the project, we explored a highly contested relationship: how a process of prototyping U-topias through participatory creative practices is linked with Eu-topias, the shaping of better places. Central to this exploration was the notion of collaborative economy, the sharing of skills, assets and ideas to prototype utopias.
Areas of Exploration
Themes we will explore in this session include:
- The interplay between dreaming and prototyping in shaping places
- Using creative activities as a gateway to design and placemaking
- Activating diverse voices in placemaking through creative activities
- Activating place-based collaborative economies through creative activities
You might like to have a look at our Prototyping Utopias film or the project final report before you join the session. However, this is entirely optional. Do also feel free to just turn up and find out more.
Click on this link to register for your free place.
About Research Rooms
The Research Rooms series is a collaboration between national charity The Glass-House Community Led Design and The Open University’s Design Group. These events share learning, resources and anecdotes from the many research projects we have done together. In some sessions, we also invite others to co-host and share findings from their own projects, creating space for them to reach new audiences.
Research Rooms are informal online spaces for discussion with members of the research team from academia, practice and communities. Those attending can learn about the projects, their outputs and outcomes and the influence they have had on those involved. There is also space to share your own experience and explorations of the project themes.
More about the Prototyping Utopias Project
Prototyping Utopias was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), as part of their 2016 Connected Communities Research Festival inspired by the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia. The Prototyping Utopias project was led by The Open University and The Glass-House Community Led Design, working in collaboration with Bow Arts, Bow Church, Bromley by Bow Centre and Poplar HARCA.
This short project delivered two open day events in Bow on the 30th of April and the 21st of May 2016. The first is focused on ‘dreaming’ and the second on ‘prototyping’. Outputs from the activities were shared at a major public exhibition, the Utopia Fair at Somerset House in central London, between 24th and 26th June 2016.
Explore more:
- More information about this project can be found on the project website.
- The Prototyping Utopias project report gives a summary of the project activities, learning and reflections.
- This film by Emma Crouch captures the activities, dreams and reflections of those who took part in the activities.