Stoke Park

THE TEAM: Serkan Deniz, Helin Guvenc,  Ella Heltai-Dahlke, Rajan Kasi, Richard Nash, Riddhi Padhiar, Amber Vaughan Perrett

Research Aim: After three National Heritage Lottery Funding refusals, the Parks and Estates Department of Bristol City Council wanted to take a different approach to developing Stoke Park’s Anti-Aircraft Battery area. The department tasked the UWE Master of Architecture students with community engagement activities to gauge public perception of the site’s historical significance.

The Facilitator: Bristol City Council’s Parks and Estates Team

Process: We undertook a series of engagement activities, including:
A walk with foreign exchange students to understand initial impressions of the site, using a camera obscura to change views and perceptions of the space

Conversing with site visitors to collate information on how regularly people visit, positives and negatives of the area, stories of change in the site over time, existing historical knowledge of the public, and what they would find most engaging to learn more about it.

Collaborating with a UWE History Student to collect archival stories of the historical site

Carrying out a workshop at the Lockleaze Community Hub during an open coffee morning, in which we took a map of the site and asked individuals for their thoughts, any stories and what they would like to see improve the site.

Coordinating a Stakeholder meeting with the Street Goat Organisation to understand their needs if we put an event on, what they have observed from the public in terms of knowledge, site interest, and changes in attitudes. As members of their team have visited multiple times a week for the last 5+ years, this was a particularly important engagement

A light show trial run

Taking the UWE Built environment foundation students on a field trip to gauge their first impressions and ‘blue sky’ possibilities for the site

Deliverables: The proposal continuously evolved through these engagements, finally landing on an event highlighting the site's history through an interactive zoetrope and short film that focused on the contrast in historical and modern-day stories. This was a low-budget zoetrope design