Spaces for Play
Emily Speed
Location: Waterside Development, Cottam, Preston
Year: 2016-2019
Emily Speed’s project for The Expanded City considered issues of physicality and the body in relation to urban development, via a focus upon play spaces. Through conversations with city planners, architects and developers, workshops with local young people and a charette with UCLan architecture students, she explored existing approaches to leisure provision, and possibilities for more informal and expansive approaches to play within our everyday environments.
Partners: Preston City Council, City Deal, Story Homes
Funders: Arts Council of England, Preston City Council, City Deal
Model Village
Speed’s research culminated in the project ‘Model Village?’ in June 2018, during which she worked with members of the public, including local residents and school pupils of all ages to construct a temporary model village on the site of a housing development.
Participants were asked ‘What would your dream place to live or play in look like?’ and had the opportunity to use coloured clay to build their ideal home, and make a mark on the village by creating, extending, squashing or customising its buildings, trees, parks and streets.
