Designing Speakers’ Corner

How can design interventions foster the use of public space for public debate? What might a twenty-first century speakers’ corner look like? How should the design process ensure that local people can contribute? The paper considers these questions through describing the collaboration between Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design (CSM), and Speakers’ Corner Trust (SCT). Between October 2008 and June 2011, MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments (MACPfNE) staff and students: developed their conceptual thinking on creating / reclaiming spaces for citizenship ; applied these ideas to the design of a generic speakers’ corner, tested in Litchfield, and at the Global Forum for Freedom of Expression in Oslo; developed a co-design approach to speakers’ corner whereby communities co-create their own version; tested this methodology in the process and implementation of a neighbourhood speakers’ corner in North London, and a pilot project for a speakers’ corner in every school. The case study projects suggest that the questions are inherently linked. Speakers’ corners interventions can affect the way public space is used and understood as a space for debate, if the process of their design and definition are done collaboratively from the start with local people. Case study projects also indicate the wider potential of the co-design methodology developed in the design of public spaces.