Valuing Community-Led Design

社区主导设计、参与式设计或共同设计的理念和实践有着悠久的传统，特别是在城市设计、规划和建筑方面。社区主导的设计超越了单一的咨询过程，帮助人们在整个设计过程中参与决策，从愿景到实施。这种方法有很多好处，从改善公民参与和确保更多的民主结果，到创造一种强烈的社区意识，加强人们对自己的地方和彼此的依恋，到产生更可持续的解决方案。然而，在第一个社区主导设计倡议出现50年后，虽然参与的专业人士和机构已经达到成熟的阶段，但社区主导设计在设计和规划实践中远未成为主流。这个问题的一个重要部分是，没有彻底了解、衡量或传播这种方法的好处。该项目旨在通过探索如何更好地进行社区主导的设计来解决这个问题。这包括收集和分享良好实践的证据，合作探索价值和影响的衡量标准，重要的是，确定阐明和传播社区主导设计的好处的方法。随着地方主义议程和国家规划政策框架的出现，解决这个问题在这个特殊时期具有特殊的意义，它们预见到越来越需要与社区进行早期和有意义的接触和合作。该项目将提供网络和研讨会活动，将各种利益相关者聚集在一起，以绘制社区主导的设计实践的现有景观，连接良好的实践并确定其价值。利益相关者将包括来自公共机构的个人（政策制定者、地方政府代表）、调解社区主导设计的第三部门组织、为设计和创意经济提供支持和建议的独立组织、地方社区、设计和创意专业人士和研究人员。除了这些活动，我们还将开发和实施一个社交网络平台（基于开放大学的开放设计工作室技术），以便收集来自英国各地参与社区主导设计的个人故事和经验（包括照片，视频和文本）。这将允许进一步收集、分析、阐述和传播社区主导设计的好处的证据，从而为未来制定明确的研究议程。

The ideas and practice of community-led design, participatory design or co-design have a long-standing tradition, especially in the context of urban design, planning and architecture. Community-led design goes beyond the one-dimensional process of consultation, helping involve people in decision-making throughout the design process, from visioning to implementation. There are many benefits from this approach, from improving civic participation and ensuring more democratic outcomes, to creating a strong sense of community and strengthening people's attachment to their place and to each other, to producing more sustainable solutions. However, 50 years after the first community-led design initiatives, and although professionals and organisations involved have reached a stage of maturity, community-led design is far from being mainstream in design and planning practice. An essential part of this problem is that the benefits of the approach are not thoroughly understood, measured or disseminated. The project aims to grapple with this problem, by exploring how a better case for community-led design can be made. This involves collecting and sharing evidence of good practice, collaboratively exploring measures of value and impact, and importantly, identifying ways for articulating and disseminating the benefits of community-led design. Grappling with this problem is of particular relevance at this particular time, with the emerging Localism agenda and the National Planning Policy Framework, which foresee an increased need for early and meaningful engagement and collaboration with communities. The project will deliver network and workshop events bringing together a variety of stakeholders in order to map the existing landscape of community-led design practice, connect good practice and identify its value. Stakeholders will include individuals from public bodies (policy makers, local authority representatives), third sector organisations mediating community-led design, independent organisations offering support and advice on design and creative economy, local communities, design and creative professionals and researchers. Alongside these events we will develop and implement a social networking platform (based on the Open University's Open Design Studio technology) in order to gather individual stories and experiences from participation in community-led design from all over the UK (including photos, videos and text). This will allow further collection, analysis, articulation and dissemination of evidence on the benefits of community-led design, leading to the creation of a clear research agenda for the future.