From the archive: Cable Longreads - Could co-design help transform Bristol’s housing estates?

The Bristol Cable

This Cable longread – on co-design, a participatory approach to designing solutions – was first published in October 2022, and followed up on proposals that Bristol City Council had been considering around demolishing and rebuilding some of its estates.

The council has so far not pursued these plans. But in light of the Barton House tower block evacuation in November 2023, the condition of Bristol’s social housing and the ways in which public bodies communicate with residents have remained big issues in the city.

The We Can Make project profiled in this piece works with local residents in Knowle West to create new social housing in large gardens and other underused spaces on estates. While it has only worked on a small scale so far, the scheme has set an example in terms of how people can be involved at every step of changes to their area, rather than just through tick-box consultations.

We Can Make has attracted interest both from central government and from other councils looking to replicate it as part of efforts to tackle spiralling housing waiting lists. Back in Bristol – where 20,000 households are now waiting for social housing – it was announced in February that the scheme will now be expanded across the south of the city.

This longread podcast formed part of the Cable’s year-long Future of Cities journalism series, which ended in autumn 2023. The project looked in depth at how Bristol and other similar cities are trying to tackle some of our most difficult problems, around housing, transport, the environment and sustainability.

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