Triangle Community Group Project

Since 2006, the Triangle Community Group has independently and energetically pursued many small projects with the aim of enhancing the local environment, and building an increased sense of community, sometimes in collaboration with other active groups. 

The Project

This On Our Doorsteps project aims to ascertain and produce initial strategies and designs for improving the 'Triangle' of streets and houses in Brighton for which the Triangle Community Group has taken responsibility.  The Triangle Community Group represents residents and businesses living and/or working in the area between Lewes Road, Upper Lewes Road and Union Road. There are almost 1000 households overall.

The collaboration between Triangle, members of the Office for Spatial Research and Architecture students will be a learning experience for all three parties.  Triangle will benefit from seeing how the design process and design outcomes can help in achieving their aims, Office members will experience ways of developing collaborative design techniques and getting their academic expertise out of the academic silo, and Architecture students can learn more about their impact on the communities they live in while at the University, and about the skills necessary to successfully engage in collaborative design by working on this ‘live’ project.

This development project is only the first step towards achieving essential physical changes to streets and houses, necessary for the desired social change.  Initial scoping will uncover measures for tangible improvements that should command consensus in the community and uncover any barriers to those improvements.  It can also instigate small cosmetic changes (e.g. flower planters in some streets) that can kick-start a more ambitious upgrading.  Only a larger project, however, would be sufficiently funded to develop one or more detailed promotion strategies and design solutions capable of commanding the serious consideration of the Council and other potential stakeholders.

The shared learning, knowledge and community experience will have a beneficial impact on everyone involved: community members, academics and students. The needs of the community identified in this scoping phase will find some preliminary answers that could be developed further, through future collaboration.  Both preliminary and developed results could have a considerable influence on planning strategies about the Triangle area and other areas like it.

Project Partners

Triangle Community Group and Office for Spatial Research