Architecture Making Community (2015 - 2019)

Architecture Making Community is a research platform applying participatory design practices to pedagogy through, live projects and 1:1 making.

Architecture Making Community is based at Falmouth University where Frances Crow held the post of senior lecturer in architecture from 2014 to 2019. In 2015 she set up Architecture Making Community as a research platform that provides a context for architectural staff to work on individual and collective projects with practitioners from other disciplines.

Architecture Making Community work on live projects, with local communities to find solutions to real issues. Through making at both 1:1 and large scale models, we work collaboratively to build real structures that challenge the way we live and work in our regional context.

Architecture Making Community applies research methods to pedagogy, enabling architecture students to engage with local communities and for local communities to benefit from creative proposals to contemporary issues. Frances has been directly involved in the setting up and running of a number of live projects from participatory design to 1:1 making with colleagues Tom Ebdon and Janie Hinton.

Connected Communities – Participatory Design

Connected Communities is a 2-day pubic workshop, that uses participatory design practices to look at ways of connecting disparate communities within towns, and considers possible futures for their town centres. The inaugural Connected Communities workshop was developed for Penryn by Architecture Making Community in partnership with Penryn Town Team. It has since been used as a tool for engagement as part of the Inland Festival 2016, Redruth and with the All Saints Church, Highertown 10:10 project.

1:1 Making – Heuristic Learning

Following on from students involvement with the bell tower raising as part of Liminal’s Transient Parish, Frances Crow as part of Architecture Making Community worked to develop a project structure to allow 1st year architecture students to design and build a full scale semi-permanent fire-pit shelter for Little Eden at the Eden Project. This project structure is now an integral part of the Falmouth University architecture degree and contributes to pedagogic research into how heuristic learning can provide a strong foundation for students of architecture.