Designing the Urban Commons: The Booth Community
Area chosen for our proposal
Food & drinks
Libraries
Bike repair shop
Museum & art galleries
Schools
Existing businesses, activities and institutions
Phone booth
Our design has been inspired by the available space left from disused
phone booths in London. Our proposal suggests to revive these empty public spaces and create a network of new booths with different
functions to facilitate collaboration, production of resources for and
by the community and connect around common places and passions.
We have chosen an area of east london (Hoxton) as an example of
how the process of commoning could take place.
An online platform, key to this proposal, would enable commoners to
get involved, find out more about diverse activities taking place, work
together and sustain the network. The function and location of the
booths would be decided by commoners depending on the activities
surrounding it and the community’s needs to make sure a network
is created with local businesses, parks and institutions. The online
platform would help people meet, share interests and skills, and help
one another.
The opening of the booths and the activities taking place, as well as
the maintenance would rely on the commoners, who could volunteer, book slots or organize events through this platform. Each booth
would be maintained and powered by renewable energies.
The proposal would need a financial input to build the booths, which
could be co-created through participatory workshops with local
schools such as Hackney Community College.
Existing phone booths
1 m2 available
The proposal with its small flexible and adjustable scale ensures an
easy and durable use. Examples of booths could be a « seed garden
shed », linked to local parks, a bike repair annex linked to a repair
shop, a library booth or an art&culture booth linked to schools, local
libraries or galleries. The needs and passions of commoners will dictate where they are located and what happens in them, which could
evolve over time, ensuring their full responsibility and ownership.
Register
-anybody can register
and become part of the
Booth community
-as a member you can
volunteer in a booth to
open it, sustain it, use it
and welcome locals
Collaborations
Art&Culture booths
- library : books donated and exchanged by commoners and local libraries
- museum : collaborations of artists to create in situ installations, or participatory artwork with schools or
during workshops
-partnerships with local businesses or institutions to participate in activities and
workshops
-financial or material
donations that could
benefit the Booth
community
Forum
The Booth Community
Online collaborative platform
-find help to repair or
make something
-inform the community of an activity taking place in a booth
-share skills
-notify the community
of an issue in a booth
to resolve it together
Green booth : to grow seeds, have compost cases to be used by commoners, annexes to communal parks
Bike repair booth: tools to repair bikes and pump up tyres
Workshops
-organise workshops,
and activities linked to
the function of a booth
Repair booth : tools to repair objects, furniture, organise DIY workshops...
Play&Learn booth: space to co-create, learn and organize playful activities with children, arts&craft sessions...
Booking
-book a booth and inform
the community of an activity taking place in a
booth which anybody can
join
-any booth in use is accessible to communers
Diagram of the online platform used by commoners to connect, engage, use and maintain the
Booth Community
Available space in the public realm
Museum booth
Library booth
Seed garden
Bike repair
DIY booth
Play & learn booth
Proposal of activities in the available spaces linked with the
existing local, social, economical and cultural area
Proposal of the network created with the Booth Community and existing businesses, activities and institutions. The locations of the booths have been chosen to help areas with very few activities to improve local life, relationships, work and collaborations
Existing and proposed view a Garden booth on City Road
Léa Hobson & Lucie Le Bouder