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. 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 was advertised on the Theatre Bristol website as well as the Royal Society of Arts’ Arts & Ecology site and was won by local designer Ade Armstrong. His design, when completed, will be featured here.
A Permanent Speakers’ Corner for Stoneydown Park
A team of students from Central St Martins College of Art & Design, part of the University of the Arts London, has won a competition to design a Speakers’ Corner for Stoneydown Park in Walthamstow, the first permanent Speakers’ Corner in London since the original in Hyde Park almost 150 years ago.
The winning design, entitled Stepping Stones and designed by Hayley Clack, Stephanie Romig and Yoo Kyeong, is multifunctional, creating not only a Speakers’ Corner but also seating and tables, some of which feature board games such as chess. The design acknowledges the work of William Morris who lived much of his life nearby on Forest Road.
It was chosen from a very strong field of four designs by teams of CSM students each responding to a detailed brief in a different but no less impressive way. The presentations can be viewed here:
- Community Platform
- The ‘William Morris’ Speakers’ Corner
- Community Amphitheatre
- Stepping Stones to Communication
The Speakers’ Corner Prototype
SCT has worked with Central St Martins College of Art & Design 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
