Designing With Communities
A Participatory Studio in Hammarkullen
Project Type
Collaborative Design Studio
Location
Hammarkullen, Gothenburg, Sweden
Focus
Participatory Design | Community Interaction | Spatial Exploration
PROJECT OVERVIEW
This project was developed as part of a collaborative design studio exploring community-centered spatial interventions in Hammarkullen, Gothenburg.
The work focuses on participatory methods, using physical models and workshop-based discussions to understand how spaces can support everyday social interactions.
Rather than proposing a fixed design, the project investigates how spatial possibilities can emerge through collective exploration
Role & Contribution
Collaborative studio project focused on participatory design.
My role combined workshop-driven process, system mapping, and spatial design.
I developed modular model systems to guide workshops and explore scenarios, contributed to system analysis and stakeholder mapping, and was involved in the design of the Cultural Interpretation Centre, translating insights into spatial proposals.
Workshop facilitation was led by Swedish-speaking team members, while I focused on structuring and materializing the design process and outcomes.
*Images from workshops are included to document the project process.
Mapping the System
The project began with mapping relationships between stakeholders, activities, and spatial elements within the site.This helped reveal how different actors, movements, and resources are interconnected, and where opportunities for intervention might emerge.Rather than isolating individual spaces, the approach considers the site as part of a larger system of interactions.
Workshop-Based Exploration
To navigate multiple ideas, a simple decision framework was introduced to evaluate which elements should be prioritized, reconsidered, or removed. This helped structure discussions and move the process from open exploration toward more focused directions. The framework supported collective decision-making while maintaining clarity in the design process.
The project was developed through hands-on workshops, using physical models as a primary tool for exploration.
Modular elements allowed rapid testing of spatial arrangements, enabling ideas to be discussed, adjusted, and reconfigured in real time.
This approach supported an open-ended process where design decisions emerged through interaction rather than being predefined.
Testing Spatial Possibilities
The models were used to explore how people might move, gather, and interact within the space.
By working at a tangible scale, the process focused on relationships between elements, proximity, visibility, and flow, rather than fixed forms.
This allowed multiple spatial scenarios to be tested and refined before narrowing down possible directions.
Engaging with Context
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*Images from workshops are included to document the project process.
The project was grounded in direct engagement with the site and its everyday dynamics.
Observing and experiencing the space helped inform how design interventions could respond to real patterns of use, movement, and social interaction.
This ensured that the process remained connected to lived experience rather than abstract assumptions.
Translating Insights into Space
Insights gathered from stakeholder inputs, workshops, and spatial testing were translated into a series of spatial directions.Rather than a single fixed proposal, the project explores multiple ways in which activities, interactions, and cultural expressions can take place within the space.These directions demonstrate how the system can take form through adaptable and context-responsive interventions.
Final Proposal : A Flexible Cultural Infrastructure
The project culminates in a flexible spatial system translating community engagement into a built intervention.
Organized as adaptable units, the proposal supports exhibitions, workshops, and informal gatherings, allowing continuous transformation based on user needs.
Reflections
This project challenged me to navigate between design, strategy, and real-world engagement. While developed as a group studio, my primary contribution focused on shaping the workshop framework, model-making, and translating ideas into spatial directions.
A key challenge was working across language barriers, as most participants were more comfortable communicating in Swedish. This limited my direct interaction during workshops, but also pushed me to think through design as a tool for communication, using models, drawings, and spatial proposals to convey ideas.
The project reinforced my interest in working at the intersection of system thinking and spatial design. Rather than producing a fixed outcome, I explored how architecture can remain adaptable, responsive, and grounded in community dynamics.