Designing Speakers’ Corners

What might a twenty-first century Speakers’ Corner look like and how should the design process ensure that local people can contribute? Can Speakers’ Corners be designed for people who live in sparsely populated areas or either don’t have access to town or city centres or would not choose to use one there?

Design Competition for a Mobile Speakers’ Corner

Creating permanent Speakers’ Corners is an exiting adventure. But for many, city centre sites may be inaccessible or intimidating. SCT has planned from the outset to create a mobile Speakers’ Corner which can be taken out into the community, urban or rural, to provide people with a platform in their own neighbourhood.

Now a unique partnership has made this ambition possible. SCT has developed a brief and, with the help of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, launched a competition to design a mobile Speakers’ Corner which the Old Vic will then construct. The competition is being advertised on the Theatre Bristol website as well as the Royal Society of Arts’ Arts & Ecology site. If you would like to submit a design, the Mobile Brief provides guidance but for terms and conditions you should refer to the above websites. The closing date for submissions is Friday 26 March 2010.

The Speakers’ Corner Prototype

 SCT has worked with Central St Martins College of Art & Design, part of the University of the Arts London, on the design of a prototype Speakers’ Corner which was successfully trialled at the Global Forum for Freedom of Expression in Oslo in June 2009. The story of its development, in a collaboration with students of Lichfield College, is told here. 

Central St Martins College trials its protytpe Speakers' Corner in Lichfield