Seats at the table
Re-Fabricate + The DisOrdinary Architecture Project
CO-DESIGNING EQUITY IN THE PUBLIC REALM
© Luke O'Donovan
A project delivered after having been successful for a bid for the London Festival of Architecture’s Co-Designing Equity in the Public Realm competition with our brilliant collaborators The Dis/Ordinary Architecture Project!
The project has been commissioned by The London Festival of Architecture, Culture Mile, The City of London Corporation, and Foundation For Future London.
Following an open competition our team was selected to run the project for our proposal Seats at the Table.
THE PROJECT
Seats at the Table was a six-month programme by Re-Fabricate and The DisOrdinary Architecture Project challenging conventional public realm design by exploring alternative ways of working to create accessible public spaces.
The project looked at activating public spaces in the City of London’s Smithfield Area, culminating in a series of installations and events programme hosted in Postman’s Park.
The programme consisted of six workstreams exploring inclusive and sustainable principles to create accessible public spaces, including:
SEATS CO-DESIGN
A series of workshops with both mainstream and SEND students to design ‘seats at the table’. The workshops took an explorative design approach to creating playful chair designs, focused on embracing and highlighting different access needs.
CO-EXPLORATION
Collaborations with disabled artists and built environment professionals to choose the most accessible site from three locations near the Smithfield area in the City of London, in order to install the ‘seats at the table’ alongside inclusive provocations to engage the public to experience places of rest, audio descriptions, and sensory interventions.
THE BUILT
Alongside University College London’s B-made workshop, the student designs were collated into six bespoke made chairs. Together with The Remakery, a co- operative workshop, we designed and built the central table. For all installations we aimed to source materials from environmentally conscious sources, including reclaimed timber, recycled plastics and timber from fallen trees.
ARTISTS INTERVENTION
Alongside the Seats at the Table installation, different disabled artists created
a series of site interventions exploring creative ways to make the park more
accessible.
THE EVENTS PROGRAMME
The installations played host to a series of workshops on sustainability and
accessible inclusion throughout the London Festival of Architecture 2023.
DISASSEMBLY AND REUSE
Participating schools homed their chairs and remaining materials found second homes with community groups around London.
LEGACY
The project acted as the starting point for Many More Parts than M! A compendium of creative access ideas, stories and projects compiled by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project in collaboration with Re-Fabricate and a series of disabled artists and designers.
© Luke O'Donovan
© Luke O'Donovan
Celebrating and supporting difference in the public realm
Project Name: Seats at the Table - Co-designing Equity in the Public Realm
Collaborators: The DisOrdinary Architecture Project
Date: October 2021 to July 2022
Audience: General Public, Disabled Artists, Young people from SEN and mainstream East London schools, Built Environment students
Commissioning Organisations: The London Festival of Architecture, Culture Mile, The City of London Corporation, and Foundation For Future London