 One of the new shelters designed as part of the Hertsmere Community Spaces Project developed by the Green Heart Partnership with designers Superblue.
This shelter will be constructed in The Moatfield in Bushey, Hertsmere this autumn 2009. | The Green Heart Partnership has developed three innovative and eye-catching shelters, known as the Hertsmere Community Spaces, specifically for three very different green spaces in Hertsmere to be installed this autumn.
The Hertsmere Community Spaces project is the result of a thorough and inclusive design process that has not only won over residents, but has engaged with a range of young people from the borough and has included a range of stakeholders on the design team including the police.
The Green Heart Partnership was commissioned by Hertsmere Borough Council to develop the project and manage the design and community engagement process. GHP worked with multi-disciplinary design team Superblue to design the shelters, focusing the designs on how people would use them, rather than what they would look like.
The structures have been a triumph of inclusive design, proving that a detailed design process that invites input from a wide range of the community and local and regional stakeholders, is possible and productive. The inclusive design process has taken the community along the journey of all aspects that need to be considered when developing multiple-user facilities with a limited budget to reach imaginative and viable design results.
GHP had in place an interdisciplinary team of officers from Hertsmere Borough Council’s Parks, Health and Safety, Planning and Culture Departments, Aldenham Parish Council and especially the Police including both the Antisocial Behaviour Caseworker from Hertsmere Community Safety Unit and a range of Police Community Support Officers from each area. This project team was established at the outset and ensured that all aspects of the shelters’ usage and impact on the community were fully considered before reaching the final design stage, as well as generating ownership by the different departments responsible for the shelters’ maintenance and legacy.
Working in tandem with the interdisciplinary project team, the Hertsmere Community Spaces project developed a vibrant marketing campaign with an independent website, postcards, posters and stickers distributed around the three sites. These advertised the project and three engagement activities over the summer that invited local people to discuss their ideas with the designers and officers from the council. Draft designs were then presented to the public and a series of public meetings were held at each site before designs were finally signed off at the end of September. This thorough and phased consultation process has resulted in three innovative designs, specific to each park’s environment and the people who use them.
The expectation is that these unique and exciting structures will become showcases for other local authorities wanting to employ their resources for young people’s spaces in a creative and integrated way, which avoids alienating other sections of the community, and provides attractive and landmark shelters for all.
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