Estate Masterplan With Buttress
Since 2019 PLACED has been working with Buttress, as part of a design team delivering a programme of estate regeneration for a housing association in Manchester.
PLACED worked as part of the wider design team, to make sure that community voices were heard and responded to throughout a three-year estate regeneration programme. We engaged local communities in the emerging vision for their estate through a combination of pop-up engagement activities, stakeholder design workshops and educational workshops.
What we did
Initial engagement has focused on the overarching masterplan, including what the high street should look at feel like, the purpose of the community hub, and the design of green spaces and the public realm.
Early engagement was delivered in person and included: pop-up events from the PLACED camper van; drop-in sessions at community facilities and workshops including for primary schools to understand children’s aspirations for the future of their area.
Covid-19 saw a shift to digital and remote engagement, with a range of tools to ensure we could continue to speak with as many people as possible.
- We established an online engagement platform to act as digital project hub, including an Interactive Map and an Ideas Wall.
- Online workshops were delivered to explore resident’s aspirations for the future of the estate and their homes in more detail.
- In response to low levels of digital access, we developed visual activity packs which were distributed across the estate. These invited people to use stickers, text and drawings to share their views, allowing people to get involved in an engaging and creative way from the safety of their home.
The PLACED team brought creativity and enthusiasm, considerable experience and deep understanding. They have added extraordinary value, the result of which is a brief and an emerging design response informed by the community’s concerns, hopes, fears and ideas.”
– Ben Tabiner, Associate, Buttress
