Design must foster sense of belonging, summit hears
There is a dizzying number of skyscrapers, condo towers and public spaces coming down the pipeline in rapidly growing cities like Surrey.
And increasingly, there is a realization that residents and workers need to somehow feel a stronger sense of belonging, rather than detachment, when they eventually fill and use these new urban amenities.
“It’s not enough to invest in physical buildings. We have to look at the human side of things as well,” said Darryl Condon, managing principal at Vancouver-based HCMA Architecture + Design. “It’s evolved from when you develop something and hand it over to the operator.”
Valentina Branada, senior service designer with In With Forward, a social services organization in Vancouver, said traditional methods of determining community needs for the design process included holding focus groups and running surveys. However, these often don’t capture key aspects of what people need.
“Instead, you need to go out to people and take social science into their mix ... hang out with them in their place and on their time table,” said Branada. “You have to understand their reality in order to design spaces.”
For example, Branada said that at one social-housing complex it took staying until late at night to see “one of the most vibrant and interactive moments was where long-serving security staff were like psychologists, listening to people.”
“The guards got to know people. When we ask ‘what are people’s needs, how can they flourish and what barriers there are for them,’ we need to see it from this point,” she said.
In another example of gleaning useful information before designing or building a project, Branada described offering “free spring cleaning ” in order to “meet people where they are. So you have PhD (researchers) sweeping and mopping so they can hear people’s stories.”
Condon said there has been an era of buildings designed by “starchitects” who bring celebrity and cutting-edge shapes to their projects, but in areas of intense development, some architects will need to be “less interested in form and more interested in the purpose and impact of design.”
Condon and Branada were speaking Thursday on a panel about de- signing for social inclusion at the Surrey Social Innovation Summit, which brought together nearly 50 local and national experts to discuss new ways for tackling some of the most pressing issues facing Canadian cities.
Another panelist, Am Johal, director of Simon Fraser University’s Vancity office of community engagement, talked about the importance of investing in arts and culture to “reflect back to people what they look like.”
“The rapid nature of development can lead to cutting corners, but it’s important not to do that,” he said.
You need to go out to people and take social science into their mix ... hang out with them in their place and on their timetable.