Seeding Opportunity: How reappropriation of public space can catalyse sustainable behaviours

Three years ago, in the former mill town of Todmorden, UK, a community group called Incredible Edible Todmorden (IET) was founded in response to the lack of Governmental engagement around the issues of environment, community and local economy. Using the universal language of food and re-appropriated public spaces as their medium IET are creating a strong participative culture within their community and in-turn building tacit sustainable behaviours.
In this paper designers from the Pi Studio housed at Goldsmiths, University of London speak of their engagement with IET in exploring how design can help facilitate the redirection of cultures, and moreover, why these cultures are so essential for our collective prosperity around the world. The paper also talks of the power of a positive material culture and its ability to convey often complex ideas in accessible ways.
Our findings have supported the idea that a critical form of design thinking, one that is reflective and that engages directly with communities (both with its people and its spaces) can collaboratively imagine and help redirect cultures. Its purpose is to create a “network of opportunity” for people to participate and engage with new and prosperous futures, forming the heart of community spaces.