INTO THE DARK
Design Think Tank 2023/24 - London School of Architecture
Students: Alfonso Campoy, Corben Lai, Dominic O’Dea, James Langham, Nicholas Blacker and Molly Robinson.
Into the Dark was a Design Think Tank presented by co-taught with Carly Dickson and James Zatka-Haas and in collaboration with Hackney Council. The students objective was to improve disabled communities’ claims on the night, asking the question ‘Who Owns the Night?’ and who does not. Engaging with the infrastructural conditions of nocturnal London, the brief engaged with themes of conviviality, safety, and culture.
The students aim was to shift the focus of traditional accessible design from physical access to the quality of space. The testing ground was Broadway Market, Hackney where students advocated greater agency in users through a more comprehensive co-design approach throughout the RIBA Stages.
Through a series of co-design methodologies, the design outcomes materialised as a series of unique spaces which related to participants desires, forming a West / East connection dubbed the ‘Residents’ Route’, which would improve the comfort, abundance and spontaneity of disabled residents’ choices. The route starts at a new accessible housing development, along a rejuvenated outdoor green area and finishes at the one-of-a-kind Disabled Co-operative nightclub, AKA The Dis.Co.
