A+DS : Design Aid for Small Towns

Architecture + Design Scotland is a unique umbrella organization that provides design assistance to communities across the country.  In getting to know more about their work, I was invited to participate in a workshop to help develop design thinking for Whitburn, a small, 250-year-old community trying to pick itself up after its coal industry collapsed nearly two decades ago. Substitute timber for coal and the town could be in Oregon – a village with a proud heritage largely at the mercy of larger economic and political forces. I spent a day with the workshop team on walking tours, working with locals and speaking with regional technocrats. Many of the processes would be familiar to US designers – an informal meeting to ask a lot of questions, get locals to mark-up maps with problem areas and potential redevelopment sites, and share ideas for the future. (I was able to help connect some of their bicycle transportation planners with Portland’s stable of experts). Nearly two generations of “makers” have largely disappeared and a number of strategies involved developing more hands-on projects to recapture some of the trade skills that were part of the town’s heritage. Oregon could use structured design teams like this. A+DS seems particularly adept at involving children in design projects. In Whitburn, one interesting activity asked schoolchildren to write postcards to their future selves and describe what they hoped their town would be like in 10 or 25 years. Most kids envisioned more sports fields, but a few went deeper and wanted fewer fast-food chains and cleaner, safer streets. As they say, through the eyes of a child…. I’ll be meeting again with the designers as their recommendations jell over the next month.