Rose La Touche from Camden Council updates blog readers on the progress of a project that has been working to tackle some of the problems faced by those living in overcrowded housing.
Since my last blog, the Overcrowding Project has been on a very exciting journey.
I’ve visited families with the MA Industrial Design students from Central Saint Martins and they are currently developing tools to help families and officers to support them whilst waiting to move to a larger property. The purpose of the project was to explore and define issues experienced by overcrowded households and to develop resources to help deal with those challenges.
One of these resources is an interactive booklet. The prototype was tested, with excellent feedback and we will be working on the final design, hopefully to start printing in mid-September.
One resident said that she felt the students had taken time to empathise with her situation and developed something to help her to cope with the physical and emotional issues. This is the ethos of the project.
As well as taking these tools to overcrowded families in Camden, we are also working in partnership with Camden’s Youth Support Service to support teenagers living in overcrowded homes.
The design project has been led by Professor Adam Thorpe who is Principal Investigator of the Public Collaboration Lab, an action research partnership between Camden Council and University of the Arts London, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The research involves design research staff and students working with council officers and residents to tackle local challenges.
For more information, please contact me at rose.latouche@camden.gov.uk. If you would like to contact Adam Thorpe, please email him at a.thorpe@csm.arts.ac.uk
Rose La Touche is a partnership officer in housing management at Camden Council.
