Participatory Design

Open Road Park

2010-03-15T14:15:00.001-04:00

Click to enlarge this timeline and see Open Road Park
in development. See it grow from a contaminated
bus garage in 1986 to a public youth led park.

designing parks with moveable paper models

2010-02-06T14:17:00.002-05:00

Park Design with 3D paper models

Students made models of the
school building, trees, play equipment and
play areas.

They negotiated over designs while moving

the 3D paper models.

Building Parks with kids

2010-01-10T11:26:00.004-05:00

Participatory Design 10 week syllabus

2010-01-09T00:53:00.000-05:00

This work is licensed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Participatory Design by Paula Hewitt

10 Session Park Design Program

Students should have a pencil/pen for each session.
Outdoor sessions will meet and dismiss from the schoolyard. Students should dress warmly and be prepared to be outdoors for the full class period.
A trip to a park designed by students is planned in (add date and location)

This outline describes research class activities. The afterschool Design Team will carry out the same activities in greater depth, and will organize, use, and document the work of the research classes.

Before sessions with students begin, the program director and the landscape architect should meet on-site with the custodian and principal. This team reviews a packet of park designs and generates a list of what the students can and cannot include in their designs for the park. This team creates a simple map of entrances, exits, delivery pathways, available areas for the new design, and any specific concerns of the principal and custodian. The landscape architect measures the site and creates a base map.

Week 1:
Morning: Whole school assembly. Slideshow of parks, playgrounds, gardens and public spaces. The slideshow relates these design ideas to the design principles and PD process outline.
Each class:
Meet & learn about Design Team: Students, Teachers, Parents, School administration and staff, Program Director/Manager, PD consultant, Landscape Architect. 10 min.
Go outside, use park, observe schoolday use & surrounding neighborhood..
Afterschool: Play on playground, observe afterschool use & surrounding neighborhood.

Week 2:
Each class (Indoors):
1. Students each receive a Design Sketchbook and a Participatory Design Guide. 5 min.
2. Brief review: list of design principles, and PD process outline from PD guide. 5 min
3. Hands on: Play Model Game (25 minutes)
4. Discuss questions for a brief playground survey, for the school/community. 5 min.
Survey is written, printed, and distributed in this first week, and returned the next week.
Afterschool: In small groups: discuss PD process, timeline, budget, play Model Game, discuss 3D model, prepare and distribute survey.

Week 3:
Each class: (outdoors) Meet classes and dismiss classes from schoolyard
1. Brief review: list of design principles, and PD process outline from PD guide. 5 min
2. Class breaks into 2 groups.
Activity A: Half the class plays, the other half observes the way they are using the site. Adult leaders in each group relate what the students observe to design principles. They make notes in their sketchbooks about what people are doing and where. They note age, gender. 20 min.
Activity B: The half of the class that played before now measure the site perimeter. The group that observed before now plays. Each group measures one side. Students record measurements in their sketchbooks. 20 min.
Afterschool: Play outdoors, observe play, observe and chalk shadows, measure site. Review and discuss survey results, design principles, budget, timeline, and PD process.
Ongoing: Survey results, as they come in each week, are posted in each classroom.

Field Trip
A trip to a completed playground.
The whole team visits a playground designed by a student/adult team (add location and date)

Week 4:
1. Each student receives a simple map of the playground, with perimeter measurements created by students the previous week. 5 min.
2. Small groups: students review in their sketchbooks and show on the basemap:
A) where play and other activities happen now on the map and conditions of the site. Students show this in 2 different colors, for positive/negative activities and conditions.
B) street names, cardinal directions, entrances and exits, delivery and emergency vehicle pathways, and handicapped entrances.
3. A chalk drawing on the board confirms the information in B, above. Students correct any errors on their own group’s base map.

Week 5:
Each class (indoors).
1. In small groups: Students receive base maps of the site, drawn to scale (by the landscape architect or surveyor), with the measurements that have been gathered by students. They receive templates that represent play areas from the survey results. (One set of templates, one map for each group). The survey results are written on the board and discussed. Students receive a copy of survey results to put in their design sketchbooks.
2. Students become familiar with the map and the templates, and what each represents.
3. After organizing templates by color, groups begin to place templates on the map. If groups have generated a design by the end of the session, a digital photo is taken of it.
4. The principal and custodian come in for the last 10 minutes of the session. Several groups present their maps and the principal & custodian give comments on them.
Afterschool: Work on 3D model, collages, bulletin boards, posters (in small groups)

Week 6:
1. In the same small groups as the previous week, students generate designs. Students review survey results from their design sketchbooks, make sure designs meet survey results. (In this week the landscape architect generates 2 alternatives from the digital photos of student design ideas.)
Afterschool: Work on 3D model, collages, bulletin boards, posters, Interview Precinct liaison, parents, community representatives

Week 7:
1. In the same small groups, students review the 2 design alternatives created from their ideas. They generate the one on the model they prefer, and make adjustments to it. The principal and custodian join the class for the last 10 minutes and comment on designs.
2. Students each receive play equipment catalog, and suggested ideas/restrictions (plastic, etc)
Teachers spend time between our PD sessions reviewing catalogs with students, to prep for the play equipment design session.
Afterschool: review design alternatives, complete 3D model, review catalog.

Parents Association meeting: sometime this month.
Students present to community two final designs developed by the landscape architect/principal/student/community design team. In addition to the design presentation, stewardship and community/parent involvement in the completed playground is discussed.

Week 8:
By this week, the afterschool group will have completed a finished 3D model, with moveable templates of play areas.
1. Review 3D model in each class.
2. Play equipment design session. Classes and Afterschool work with playground equipment designer to design playground equipment on CAD computer program. Show location on 3D model.

Week 9:
Outdoors: Classes review public comments from PTA meeting, make final adjustments to design and select the final plan.
Afterschool and classes create chalk outlines of playground design and play on it!

Week 10 (Tue Dec 4) catch up week in case previous sessions need more time
Construction of the playground will begin (add season/year) The new park should be completed by (add season/year).

Skateboarding Physical Education

2008-04-21T13:41:00.026-04:00

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Billy Rohan, Open Road Skate Program Director, designed a physical education class and public skate programs with East Side Community HS. Darissel Rodriguez coordinated youth leadership in public events

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Simple 3D paper model of play equipment. The model is made by using 4 different images, 1 from each side. Scale is 1" = 10'.

Click to enlarge.

2008-02-15T10:48:00.003-05:00

Fabiola Santos designs play equipment with Open Road, using custom-made scale templates, a base map, and photographs of her new pre-school location. The theme of the design is a jungle: a wooden school bus loft climber will be traveling through jungle landscapes. Murals on the wall will pick up the jungle theme, where monkeys can swing from vines and jungle suns may set over the traveling bus. Children will be able to build and change moveable wood and soft foam play pieces in their own jungle. Natural light will be reflected into the play space by windows surrounded by mylar wallpaper screenprinted a soothing green blue.

Open Road Rooftop Project 2007-2008

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Student Designs from Central Park East HS Nov 16

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Central Park East I, Middle School, and High School

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Design 1 Design 2
You can click on these photos to make them larger.

On November 16 we met with all 3 principals from Central Park East 1 Primary school, Central Park East Middle School, and Central Park East High School. The principals reviewed the designs we developed with the student teams.

The designs were developed through an 8 session participatory design process:

Session 8: Nov 13, with students
1) Bring 3 alternatives printed on base maps. These 3 alternatives were developed by the architect from the digital photos of student designs in the previous sessions.
2) Place base maps on tables with templates. Ask students to work in groups of friends making changes to alternatives.
3) Photograph alternatives and film students explaining their designs. (film the designs, their hands showing designs, and their voices)
4) Bring these alternatives to the Nov 16 session with architect and principals

Nov 16 Session with architect, pd consultant (prior to meeting with principals)
1) Lay out 3 alternatives from photos and written student work and input from principals. Discuss controversial areas, or areas that have sidetracked people from coming to conceptual consensus. (ramp, murals being painted over for ramp construction, swings, location of outdoor classroom, trees, size of areas for play equipment/swings). Plan to discuss these last, and discuss areas of conceptual agreement first.

Nov 16 Session with all 3 principals (PreK/primary, middle, high school)
1) Bring 3 conceptual plans. Discuss goal of reaching consensus, if possible, at this stage in the process. Avoid focusing on details, or disagreements and look at where you conceptually agree right now. We can make changes later, once you all have conceptual agreement on some basics. Look at the 3 conceptual plans. Which alternative is closest, and allows the activities you hope to see? which is going in the right direction (knowing you won't love any of these right now). Are there any things you absolutely hate at this point?

2) Each principal chooses the design they prefer. They all prefer the same design and they make changes to this design, all together. These are shown in the photo, above, Design 1.

3) We discuss the need for a budget based on the conceptual design they all now agree on. With this budget in front of them they can choose between, for instance, sprinklers and a rubberized track.

Discussion on sprinklers and swings:
Think about how sprinklers and swings might bring in parents with young children, how fitness areas might bring in young adults, and how this can help your playground. How having a variety of ages can make the playground more peaceful, with less vandalism, better care, with the playground kept in better shape. This'll improve things for your students during the school day.

List of concepts to go over with student team members
consensus
conceptual plan
alternative

JHS 99 Complex Playground on 100th street and 1st Ave, Harlem

2005-10-17T15:42:00.001-04:00

Right now we are in the Fact Finding stage of the Participatory Design Process. The design team is finding out how people use the playground now, and for what activities. Please write and tell us how and when you use JHS 99's playground, in the photo on the left .
The design team is also working on the long, shady area north of the school along 100th street, shown in the photo on the top right, and the courtyard on 99th street.

The long shady area on 100th street is now a fenced in shady area with 5 large trees. The courtyard on 99th street is being used for a staging area for the reconstruction of the school auditorium. The large playground on FDR Drive is an empty asphalt area.

Open Road Park on 12th street & 1st avenue, Manhattan

2005-10-17T14:42:00.000-04:00

Participatory Design sites in NYC

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