Research Room 2: Asset-based Co-design

About this session

In this session, we’ll look across three research projects Media, Community and the Creative Citizen, Unearth Hidden Assets and Comparative Asset Mapping. All focused on bringing asset-based approaches into the context of design and placemaking.

Asset-based development uses the strengths that a community has, and the resources and skills already available to them as a vehicle for development. Co-design is a practice where people collaborate and connect their knowledge, skills and resources in order to carry out a design task.

All three of these projects brought these two practices together. They explored and developed approaches and methods to help individuals, groups, and communities unearth and mobilise their assets (skills, networks, physical spaces, tools and resources, funding etc) to support their co-design initiatives.

Areas of Exploration

Themes we will talk about in this session include:

• The role and power of asset mapping in supporting co-design
• Asset-mapping as a tool for building individual and group confidence
• Exploring different ways to map assets
• Unearthing, developing and applying asset-mapping methods through collaborative action research

You might like to look at some of the research outputs listed below before you join the session, as each offers a good overview of the projects. However, this is entirely optional. Do also feel free to just turn up and find out more.

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About Research Rooms

The Research Rooms series is a collaboration between national charity The Glass-House Community Led Design and The Open University's Design Group. These events share learning, resources and anecdotes from the many research projects we have done together.

Research Rooms are informal online spaces for discussion with members of the research team from academia, practice and communities. Those attending can learn about the projects, their outputs and outcomes and the influence they have had on those involved. There will also be space to share your own experience and explorations of the project themes.

More about Media, Community and the Creative Citizen

Media, Community and the Creative Citizen project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through their Connected Communities Programme, explored the value of creative citizenship. The research was organised in three complementary strands: hyperlocal publishing, community-led design and creative networks.

The Open University and The Glass-House collaborated with the Royal College of Art and Nesta on the strand focusing on enhancing creative engagement in community-led design. In this strand we explored how media can support and add value to community-led design projects. These are where local people come together to redesign spaces and services in their neighbourhood, such as opening up an old building as a community hub, creating a neighbourhood plan or providing new activities.

Creative Citizens website

Seeing Things Differently: A resource pack that tells the story of our collaboration with Goldsmiths Community Centre and includes tools to help you run your own asset mapping workshop, organise a community walkshop and create an ‘event recipe’ for your community event.

More about Unearth Hidden Assets

Unearth Hidden Assets was led by Brunel University in collaboration with HealthWORKS Newcastle, Keele University, Kindle Partnerships, New Vic Theatre, Open University, Shinfield Rise Community Flat (Collaboration), The Churches’ Regional Commission (North East), The Glass-House Community Led Design, Tidworth Mums, University of Leicester, Wiltshire District Council and consultant Alison Gilchrist. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through their Connected Communities Programme.

The Glass-House and Open University partnership worked with Wiltshire District Council, The Army Welfare Service and local action group, Tidworth Mums. Our Tidworth Mums: a case for soft play project used asset-mapping to visualise current assets and creative play engagement to build a network of play supporters to help build the case for soft play in Tidworth.

Unearth Hidden Assets series publication

Tidworth Mums: A Case for Soft Play Resource Pack designed to help communities who are interested in the provision of play and play spaces in their neighbourhood.

More about Comparative Asset Mapping

This project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Connected Communities programme, looked across several research projects (including those above) to explore and review different asset mapping approaches and methods. The project aimed to explore how academics, the public sector, civil society and grass-roots movements can work to address needs and cultivate capacities in communities of place and interest.

The project was a collaboration between The Open University, The Glass-House, Royal College of Art, University of Keele, University of Leicester, Brunel University and the New Vic Theatre.

The project team carried out a series of activities in both the UK and Greece to asset mapping approaches in a range of contexts, and to make them available to the communities in which they worked.

Asset Mapping: Comparative Approaches website.

A Hive of Actions film capturing asset-mapping activities led by the research team in Athens, Greece.