Walworth Community Space
Communal governance design
Introduction
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We collaborated with the People’s Pub Partnership and the Walworth Community Living Room to create a framework that communicates the value of community pubs.
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The client, People’s Pub Partnership, approached us to help create a meaningful framework to save community-driven pubs. Chain and franchise-based pub models have taken over the pub culture scene, and our mission was to create a pub framework that would allow pub culture within communities to thrive.
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The team used research through design methodology to co-design prototypes and artefacts that allowed us to discover the most meaningful way of creating a viable framework for a community-run pub.
Optional, feel free to skip
Create a framework for a community-driven pub
Visiting the Ideal Pub
Mark, our project partner, spoke with great knowledge and passion about pubs during our introductory session. The next day we went on a pub crawl with him to understand how locals rate pub experiences.
We learned about different types of business models and their effects on pub ownership. We also learned about how a community pub works and its inner mechanisms.
Secondary Research
Our team needed to read up about pubs.
We collected and collated all our data in Miro boards, where the entire team could contribute.
Not having a lot of experience with pub culture, we needed to inform ourselves about the users who frequented the establishments.
Primary Research
We knew it wasn’t enough to read and visit pubs, and that we needed to design with a micro-focus on the Walworth community. We employed various research methodologies to this end.
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Probes allowed us to materialise our ideas and encourage dialogue with pub users. The exercise involved participants personalising acrylic beer coasters using stickers we provided. The idea allowed the participants to show their ideas through their actions as well as their words.
Insights
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Users usually tried to follow some sort of pattern-based creation process for the coasters. Most people did the activity individually, however, one group chose to do it together.
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The probes encouraged dialogue among the people involved in the activity.
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The learnings from the activity served as a foundation for the concept of co-creating a pub sign with the community.
A Pub Without Walls
The probes we conducted made sure that the modular furniture we tested went through extensive testing.
Some issues that we corrected were through design-led research, where we experimented with several concepts on beta testers and received feedback.
Insights
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During our exercise, a group of kids took over the cardboard sheets and started making his table. This act practically begged us to explore the concept of modular furniture.
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We understood what event hosting looked like. We understood the unwritten social contract around such events regardless of the material implications.
Discovering Walworth Pubs
We spoke with Walworth residents about what they considered a good pub. We wanted information with a larger dataset, and thus we made a map of Walworth Borough.
The map served as an artefact for us to start conversations with people about their preferences and attitudes towards pubs.
Transcription of the user interviews and then processing the information with an affinity diagram
AEIOU Research
We used the AEIOU research methodology to trace pub user movement.
To eliminate bias and also get a broader perspective, we decided to apply the methodology to 14 pubs near Walworth borough.
The team met with Richard to discuss hosting an event to help the pub engage with the community.
The Idea
A modular, mobile cart was decided to be our physical artefact. It was designed to collect data, store furniture and provide a resting place for drinks.
A Community Pub Cart
And thus, we began designing the pub cart.
The team realised their own vision for the cart and then got together to share our ideas and the rationale behind them.
Creating The Pub Cart
The cart and furniture were made using the insights of our probes during the pub market research.
The team identified the necessities and put them together in a functional cart structure.
Realising the concept
The fully decorated and loaded pub cart surrounded by four pub chairs that were foldable and could be stacked neatly inside the cart itself.
Oh, so pretty.
Exhibition Event
Our team, collaborating with the Walworth Council, hosted an exhibition in the Walworth Living Room. It aimed at inviting locals to experience a community-run pub.
Approximately 50 people turned up for the event, and the audience included a mix of parents, children, students, and working professionals.
Impact
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The Walworth Community Board liked the event.
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Our professors at LCC approved of our realisation of the project. The event was a success, and we were asked to continue working with the community on future events.
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The pub cart was showcased at the Walworth Annual Fair as an artefact to draw people's attention to the community-governance model of pub ownership.
Takeaways
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Our team communicated seamlessly with the Walworth Council to arrange the event and explained their expectations while giving us a free leash on the design side of the project. It was very refreshing and everyone in the team took notice of the freedom that had been allowed.
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Design-led research featured heavily in this project. We understood that it wasn’t enough to have the theoretical knowledge, we had to do prototypes, both successful and failures, to get feedback. The project showcased the importance of acting on the plan efficiently.