Architecture Foundation flyer

A public engagement project about the future in Whitechapel.

Commissioned by the Architecture Foundation, we produced two questionnaires as an investigation into the environment between Whitechapel Market and Watney Street in the ethnically diverse community of east London. The first questionnaire was carefully constructed to draw the public into an imaginative engagement with their built environment. Questions approached the subject tangentially, such as "How do you imagine this area will look in 100 years time? What will be gone, what will still be here?" and "Do you watch EastEnders? Does the square look like the East End? Is the square nicer than here?"

The second part of the project was a deeper investigation into the nature of the site with a travelogue/questionnaire on audio cassette. Members of the public walked through the site wearing a personal stereo with given instructions and questions. The questions were imaginatively constructed to encourage the user to think about their built environment in a more liberated way. A second personal stereo with clip mic recorded their answers so that data was built up over two days.

The aim of the work was to use artistic methods to engage members of the public in a consideration of their local environment and to prompt imaginative, positive responses about the ways in which urban planners and architects could have an impact on a deprived area.

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