WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL CAPE TOWN 2014
Co Design Workshops
Wards
45
What?
Upgrade of NY 10 Park
When and where?
20 February 2014, at the Gugulethu Sports Complex
Why?
The NY 10 Park is an open, public space that should be accessible, clean and safe for residents of all ages.
The redevelopment of the space is an active project funded by an Urban Settlements Development Grant.
A landscape architectural firm, Gibbs Saint Pôl, was appointed as consultants on this project. The ward
councillor requested that World Design Capital (WDC) get involved and collaborate with Gibbs Saint Pôl to
achieve a better design outcome with respect to user-centricity.
Who?
The public participation meeting involved 18 local community members, two consultants from Gibbs Saint
Pôl, and a number of officials from the City of Cape Town including representatives from the City Parks
Department. The ward councillor was also briefly present, and encouraged community input.
Click here for photos taken at the session.
What emerged?
From Public Participation to mini Co-creation Workshop: Historically, public participation has tended to
follow a top-down style in which near-finished proposals are presented to the community for feedback,
often in formats that are abstract or difficult to understand. The WDC process reverses that: plans are drawn
up only after having been informed by the output of community engagement. In this case, a sketch masterplan had already been drawn up by the project consultants, meaning that a full-day co-creation workshop
was not the ideal option. However, as part of the consultants’ mandate, two public participation meetings
were to be held, and it was agreed that this mini co-creation workshop would be the first. The WDC team
assisted City Parks in their efforts to reach a wider range of stakeholders, and facilitated the meeting.
As a result of WDC 2014 involvement, what could have been a “standard” public participation meeting,
evolved into a two-hour co-design workshop. After a brief illustrated presentation from Gibbs Saint Pôl, the
workshop delegates split into groups to workshop, in their chosen language, three key aspects:
 backward-looking stories of the park and histories associated with it
 current status - problems experienced in the park. What we can change and do better?
 vision - what we want to see
The groups were given 40 minutes to express themselves creatively and could choose from a selection of 2D
and 3D materials to make collages and build models. Each group then selected a speaker who presented
their group’s vision to the other participants.
What next?
The consultants gathered an array of outputs to help them understand community concerns and wishes,
and to allow them to modify and develop their design accordingly before the next public meeting.