‘Seats at the Table’: accessible project to be delivered in City of London for London Festival of Architecture this June

• New project exploring accessibility in public spaces ‘Seats at the Table’ will be delivered in the City of London for LFA2023.
• The project involves a series of ‘street furniture’ installations and a programme of talks, workshops and games, including a talk by David Gisson, author of The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access, on 6 June.
• The table design aims to develop actual equitable spaces rather than focus on accessibility add-ons to existing designs, and for the variety of individual chairs designed by schoolchildren to enjoyfully express our differences.
• ‘Seats at the Table’ is a key highlight of the LFA2023 programme and opens with a launch event on Friday 2 June at 18:00.

29 May 2023. ‘Seats at the Table’ by Re-Fabricate and The DisOrdinary Architecture Project will see a series of temporary installations, accompanied by a programme of events, installed at Postman’s Park in the City of London as part of London Festival of Architecture (LFA) in June 2023. The project was the winning design of ‘Co-designing Equity in the Public Realm’, a competition run by LFA, City of London Corporation, Culture Mile and Foundation for Future London.

The main installation is composed of a free-standing table surrounded by chairs, designed by school children through six workshops run by the project team. Accompanying this will be several additional accessibility improvements, designed by disabled artists and architects which have been created with help from Arts Council England funding.

Accessibility

To contrast against add-on accessibility elements to urban spaces already designed for “normal” people, the design sees neuro- and bio-diversity as a creative generator for design. Having a seat at the table means to share experiences and generate diverse conversation, ultimately leading to a world where accessibility and equity for all is an important and thorough consideration in any public space or built environment, so that all people can move freely through spaces and places without barriers or obstructions.

Workshops

To ensure that the installations cater for a wide range of people The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Re-Fabricate have implemented a co-design methodology. The team undertook collaborative workshops with disabled and non-disabled artists and architects, six Special Educational Needs (SEN) and mainstream schools in East London, as well as makers from The Bartlett, UCL Here East.

The workshops asked young people to think about how one would design a chair for someone with particular accessibility needs, including their own. Participants depicted their thoughts on use, materiality and access through sketches, model making and presentations; the ideas were distilled by the students themselves and then built by fabrication experts from the UCL B-Made workshops.

Sustainability

From site to design, accessibility and sustainability have both been the central factors shaping ‘Seats at a Table’. This included the selection of the final site – Postman’s Park – as the most accessible of three alternatives, and where interesting creative access improvements could be added.

The table, seats and additional installations use reclaimed materials as much as possible (and will be recycled at the end of the Festival). Creative access elements include pre-arrival information in a variety of formats, together with some provocations about making equal spaces; resting spaces for people with chronic pain and related conditions; aural, tactile and visual sensory additions to parts of the park; and an audio-described soundscape and BSL video to enhance engagement with the Park’s Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice.

Programme

‘Seats at the Table’ will offer a meeting point for people to come together and take part in a series of free events organised by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Re-Fabricate. These will take place throughout June and will give a chance for people of all abilities, ages, backgrounds and professions to discuss the topic ‘In Common’, including ideas around accessibility and sustainability.

Together the installation and programme of events aim to challenge conventional public realm design and create a public space that moves towards being ‘truly accessible’. It is hoped that this project will act as a stepping stone for future projects to build upon and develop, through the creation of an associated ‘compendium of creative access’ funded by Arts Council England.

The installations will open on Friday 2^nd June, which will also mark the start of the supporting programme, with a process of disassembly and reuse at the end of the month.

Re-Fabricate and The DisOrdinary Architecture Project said:

“For both Re-Fabricate and The DisOrdinary Architecture Project, this has been very much about engaging with others throughout the process. We have created workshops with disabled and non-disabled artists and architects to select an accessibile site; workshops with disabled and non-dsabled school children to design the chairs; and enabled disabled artists to design creative access improvements for Postman’s Park, our location during the London Festival of Architecture. This has been a complex but also fantastic collaborative process that really tries to integrate access and inclusion with sustainability. The final part of the process will be disassembly, making sure that materials are reused.”

Shravan Joshi, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee, said:

“On behalf of the City Corporation, I’m delighted to see the Seats at the Table project ready to launch at what promises to be an exciting year for the London Festival of Architecture.

“Our vision for the City as a seven-day-a-week visitor destination depends heavily on inclusivity and that is why it is at the heart of our planning policy.

“We are using our planning powers to support projects, like Seats at the Table, to create new and inclusive public spaces and make radical changes to the Square Mile’s streets, with wider pavements and first-class infrastructure that everyone can use.”

Maria Adebowale-Schwarte, CEO, Foundation for Future London said:

“The Foundation for Future London is pleased to support the participatory elements of the ‘Seats at the Table’, where  workshops and consultations  with disabled and non-disabled artists and architects and East London SEN and mainstream schools and makers from The Bartlett, UCL Here East were delivered. As an inclusive funder and placemaker, this project speaks to our commitment to championing accessibility, making public art works accessible to disabled people and others. We are looking forward to taking part in the activities this June at the Postman’s Park public gardens.”

The programme of events is as follows:

• Launch Event: 2 June. Public launch of the Seats at the Table installation with speeches from the team and guests.
• ‘The Architecture of Disability’ Talk: 6 June. Public talk from David Gissen, author of The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access.
• Open Day: 11 June. A series of workshops open to the public exploring themes of circular economy and accessibility inthe built environment. The workshops will include discussions, drawing, model making (with card and such like) and board games. Two artists and architects from the DisOrdinary Architecture Project will lead interactive workshops related to their creative site improvements.
• DisOrdinary Architecture Workshops: 23 June. Two DisOrdinary Architecture artists and architects will lead interactive workshops related to their creative site improvements.
• Closing Event: 30th July. Public talk and panel discussion wrapping up the project.

For more information and to book, see londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/seats-at-the-table.