P6.2: Engagement: The Collaborative Design Process

Creating successful places can only occur if all stakeholders have an active part to play in shaping, understanding and accepting the scope and scale of development proposals. Evolving and testing alternative scenarios will need to actively involve a variety of stakeholders including:

• Members of the development team – including the scheme promoters together with Local Authority officers across a number of separate departments;
• Key stakeholders related to the scope and scale of the proposals;
• The general public (potentially through a community forum, or through wider public participation approaches); and
• Appropriate Council members to reinforce corporate accountability (potentially through a Members Forum).

The importance of stakeholder (including the local community) engagement from the earliest stage of project development cannot be understated. It should not be seen as an add-on at the end of the process. Local people can help reinforce the message that developments are places for people. They are also a prime source of good ideas and are much more likely to be supportive of new development if they have been involved in shaping it.   There are various tools to assist in engaging with key stakeholders and consideration should be given to undertaking the following types of activities:

• Enquiry by Design which enables a range of stakeholders to come together to work up a design solution together through an intensive period of issues understanding and options testing;
• Planning for Real ® is an approach formulated and promoted by the Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation to include the community in planning.

Successful, collaborative design processes are sometimes let down if they are not captured in words and images. Ultimately the final project outputs will need to tell the story of how the design solution was reached. It must be readily understood by all, including those that have not been involved in the process.